Who is Nanda Bezerra?

I am undeniably a Carioca (this is how we call a native or inhabitant of Rio de Janeiro), which you can easily tell by my swallowing of the R’s.

Rio de Janeiro is one of the most cheerful and beautiful cities I’ve ever been to. There I feel at home, but it’s been many years away…

I was dating my (now) husband when his family decided to move to the United States in 1995. I still can’t believe I had the courage to do that, but when they invited to come along, I did not think twice.

At the beginning, everything was a bed of roses. We lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, close to Miami and a few hours from Disney World — you can already imagine our excitement, can’t you?

When the initial euphoria had worn off, nostalgia kicked in and I started missing my family and friends. I felt lonely, and it was then that I realised that there was a void inside of me that nothing could fill.

At that time, I was already attending the UCKG HelpCentre in Miami with my mother-in-law — but only to please her. I’d heard so many people badmouth the Church that I ended up believing everything they said; however, I decided to see it for myself.

And it was there that I found what I was looking for. It was at the UCKG HelpCentre that I learnt about faith in the Living God. There I found something wonderful that filled the void I had inside, and I was never the same again!

It was then that a new life began. A new Fernanda was born! God transformed my life in such an incredible and marvellous way that now I live to serve Him. After my conversion, Junior (my dear husband) also converted. I was called to be an assistant in the church in Miami, and Junior followed shortly after.

On 14 June 1997, we got married in the church in Hialeah, Miami, and exactly 1 year later we were called to do the Work of God on the altar. It was a wonderful yet difficult moment for us, because my husband was running the family business and he was the only one who could speak English. Everyone depended on him.

How could we leave his family like that? How could we abandon them when they needed us so much? How would they go on without us? We had cars and we all lived in a very big house that they had just bought because of us… We left everything behind!

It was not easy. On the plane, as we took off from Miami, I saw my husband cry for the first time. I was heartbroken. I didn’t know what to say, so I embraced him.

We returned to Brazil, but stayed there for 3 months only. We were then transferred to London to do the Work of God.

It was all very different, but we were in faith. Today I see that, through the difficulties, God moulded and taught us.

In 2000, if I am not mistaken, we were transferred to Johannesburg, in South Africa. We stayed there for approximately 2 years. We fell in love with the African people.

In 2002, we returned to London. In October 2008, we moved to Namibia. And, finally, in March 2011, we returned to London.

Each message posted on this blog tells a little about me — about my faith, about the things that I’ve learnt and am still learning, about my flaws, my mistakes, and the things that I get right — with the sole purpose of helping you. I wish there were these many blogs to teach and talk about women stuff when I was an assistant.

Everything I post on my blog is to help you. Every day I ask God to reveal to me what else I can do to add to your life. So if you relate to anything written on this blog, believe me: it’s God speaking to you!

A big kiss to all of you.

In faith,

Nanda Bezerra