My name is Celina. I’m 27 years old. I’m from Zambia. My dad and mom divorced when I was just 3 years old, and I went to live with my grandma. My grandma loved God. When I turned 14 my grandma passed away. I was really hurt because she was the one I knew as my mother. After my grandma died, my Dad got married to our stepmother. She used to treat us like slaves. I would go to school hungry. I would come home after school and find no food. When there was food in the house, it was given to me with conditions. Even when I started working I was witched by her. There came a point when I could no longer walk. There was no one to take care of me. I began to clown like a baby whenever I wanted to do something like bathing. That is when I came to know the meaning of suffering. God finally healed me and I was forced to get married. I thought maybe then I could find peace.

I suffered a lot in the early years that nobody can understand. But I kept on comforting myself and praying to God that it would pass. Indeed, God made a way for me and I completed my education. After I finished my form 5 (Grade 11), I stayed home for 3 years. There was nothing to do. I started looking for a job. I found a job working as a waitress at Amanda Lodge. That’s where I met my husband. We came to know each other better until we got married in 2015.

I joined the Methodist church the year I married my husband. Today, I am a Sunday school teacher. I also sing on the praise team. I enjoy serving the Lord. Last year I heard about the zoom radio station and peer support. I was like, wow, this is very helpful. I must get a job there. I kept on praying to God, “Please, Lord, rocket me to this job. Indeed God answered my prayer. I came for interviews and that’s where they told me to start working. This made me more happy than ever. Since the day I started working on this project, I learned a lot and I am growing spiritually each and every day. I go for work, why? Whether I like it or not, I must think about reading the bible because I can’t work this job if I don’t have the word of God.

I learned how to be a peer support worker. I learned how to talk and respond to people, and to have faith in whatever I am doing, because God is able. I love helping the poor because I was once in the same situation, and I was helped. I also love encouraging people with the word of God. That is why I really want to be a peer support worker. This job benefits me a lot, and I know that if I continue working here, that in the future I will be a good example for other people. That is why I want to be a peer support worker.

What really made me seek the Lord, was what I had to go through. I was like, on this earth there’s no other solution for me. But the Lord almighty he is my solution, and indeed when I started praying and committing all my worries into his capable hands, everything started to go well. I was like, yes, I believe that God is the only comforter, the only pillar and helper. That is how I came to Christ.

“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 15:57 NIV