My name is Naeem Abbas and I am 26 years old. I was born and raised in Pakistan with my 6 siblings, and was raised in the Muslim culture. Despite being part of a religious family, I remember that at home there were many problems between my father and my mother, and that my father's punishments were very harsh and violent. I feared my father since I was very little and I wanted to leave home thinking that it would be the end my problems. On several occasions I managed to escape to my uncles' house, who lived far away. I didn't have any intention of returning home because I was afraid of what might happen if I returned. I had a father, but I didn't feel wanted or loved, I was very hurt and I looked for comfort in many things. I spent a lot of time away from home with my friends, I started smoking secretly at the age of 10, I discovered that it was very easy for me to lie... and I started to live following my desires, until I became their slave.
Over the years, my father had to come to Spain to work in order to take care of us. When I turned 12, my mother, my brothers and I came to Spain as well. The relationship between my father and I did not improve, and it was very difficult for me to adjust to all the changes, a new language, new school, new friends... I lived at my parents' house until I was 15 years old, always with pain and sadness in my heart , in the midst of many discussions and much fear of my father's temper. The situation got so complicated at home that they decided to take me to a juvenile center. I thought that this was my chance and my way out, that I could finally live what I had always wanted. But I was wrong, I started to study but I didn't finish due to my marijuana addiction. I tried again the next year, and failed again. I got stuck.
I had desire to live and no purpose. I didn't see a way out...
I started hanging out with guys who were smoking dope and partying, and I continued to hang out with them until I was 18 and go out of juvenile. As the years passed it would seem as if things could not get any worse, but they did. I lost almost all contact with my family; I started a relationship with a girl and ended up breaking her heart... I reached my limit, I didn't have any strength, and I was depressed. I began to use drugs to find some type of comfort; I had no desire to live and no purpose. I didn't see a way out...
And there I met the Lord Jesus.
Until one day, when I was 21, a psychologist told me about a Christian center in Pamplona, Ciriza. I decided to go to Centro Vida Nueva, with nothing to lose, and nothing to offer either. My intention was to live there for a few months to change my surroundings and friends, and then resume my life. But God had better plans for me and he began to touch my heart. I discovered that Vida Nueva Center was a place where one could really lived as a family, where there was peace, joy and love. Despite all the problems I brought, my instability, my bad words, my dirty thoughts and my corrupted mind, I was welcomed and loved as one more, every detail of my life mattered and all my physical and emotional needs were met.
I was able to understand that God loved me and I was able to receive him into my heart as my Lord and my Savior. It was then that God began a whole cleansing and healing process in my life, teaching me to live the Gospel in small things. Today is the day that I can feel the presence of God every day with me; I feel his Holy Spirit giving me his confidence to believe that He has everything under control. It is God who gives me the strength every day to be able to live listening to the advice that I hated before, to be able to do the things that I am told, to be able to think well, to obey my (responsible) authorities.
Now I feel like a beloved son, I know that God is my father and that he is always with me; now I can enjoy his company, irreplaceable for me; now I can work, when before I was lazy; now I can help where there is need, and this is a privilege for me. It has also allowed me to have a precious dating relationship, with a good woman who lives the gospel and seeks to do God's will, with a joyful heart who serves others without receiving anything in return.
God has given me a new opportunity to live, he has given me hope
My heart if full of gratitude to each person that has invested in me since the first moment I arrived at the center: from the director and his family, to each person in charge, who has dedicated days and nights to love me, to give me advise, to teach me the right thing to do. to always tell me the truth. And I am deeply grateful to God for his work in me, for the precious family that he has surrounded me with at the Center and in which he has allowed me to start over when I had no hope for change, when I just wanted to die. God has given me a new opportunity to live, he has given me hope, joy and a purpose on this earth.
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