TESTIMONY OF REV. RICHARD LONGO
TEEN CHALLENGE NEW ENGLAND, 1315 Main St, Brockton Ma. U.S.A. 02301 DESAFIO JOVEM RIO MARIA, Rua Tres # 775, Rio Maria, Centro, Pará, Brazil.68530000
My name is Richard Longo, I am 55 years old, and my testimony is about how the grace of God and the power of Jesus Christ have changed my life. Alcohol, drugs and sin by Satan, had me bound for over thirty-five years, it started when I was a teenager and experimented with smoking and alcohol. My father died when I was sixteen and from then on my mother had no control over me. At the age of eighteen I bought my first Harley Davidson motorcycle and in a couple years joined a notorious motorcycle club, and run with them and others for twenty years. We did what ever it took to get money; we stole cars, sold large quantities of drugs and guns. In the process I got addicted to speed and cocaine, I had a $400.00 a day habit injecting drugs. I have had many overdoses and car accidents and it is truly a miracle I am still alive, I also have been in many secular rehabs. Over three years ago I was down and out in Memphis, Tn., After a three day crack cocaine binge, the drug dealer and prostitute I was hanging out with said they would get more drugs if they could use my company car, and of course they never came back. I always had knives and guns on me so I was about to kill myself when a voice said call your sister, so I did, and her answering machine picked up. I said I needed HELP, it was 2:00am, (she probably though I wanted money) and at 6:00am she called me backed and said if I wanted help, call her back in an hour, she was going to call her Pastor (She had been a Christian for ten years.) I called her back in 45 minutes and she said, fly home we have a place for you to go, so I got on the next plane home. I arrived in N.Y. on Saturday night and went to her church on Sunday. The Pastor told me the church was praying for me for many years and that If I wanted help the church would send me to Teen Challenge and they would pay for it. So on Monday I was in Teen Challenge, Brockton. When I walked through the doors I felt funny, I knew something was different, I did not know then but I do now, that was the Demons fleeing from me because of the Holy ground I was standing on, and that Jesus was lifting the burdens off my shoulders. I fought the system at Teen Challenge for the first four months, But then again the Grace of God filled me filled with the Holy Spirit and the rest is all history. I completed the discipleship program at fifteen months, walking with God, I Graduated the program at twenty-one months as a staff member and have been there ever since. I found out two and a half years ago I had HEP.C (a viral load count of over 7 million) and after one month of treatment my viral load was undetectable, thank you JESUS! And it is still that way today. In September of 2005 I took the test for my Ministerial License Credentials with the Assembly of God and in November my License was approved. I was married to my wife Marlete (she is Brazilian) in February 2006. I have had many people of God influenced my life, especially the Pastors at TCNE, and Rev. Rodney Harts Vision. I worked as the Program Supervisor and Mission Coordinator for the Brockton Campus.
God has been making my way as a Missionary and Ambassador for Christ and Teen Challenge by sending me on five mission trips in the last six years to Scotland and South and Central America. In April 2007, my wife and I moved to Rio Maria, Pará, Brazil and have started a Teen Challenge (Desafio Jovem) there as Missionaries from Teen Challenge New England. The Center is now up and running with students. We also have a Thrift store open for over a year now to help raise funds for the program. There is a great need here with problems of Alcohol, Cocaine, Crack, and Marijuana. I am now disciplining other young men, Preaching, Teaching and Evangelizing.
THEREFORE, I THANK GOD, JESUS, and THE HOLY SPIRIT for changing me completely around and I GIVE HIM ALL THE HONOR- GLORY and PRAISE. AMEN
www.djriomaria.org
www.tcnewengland.org
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