REGINA: That’s a lot of searching.
JOE: I think I hit all the major denominations in my area. I really liked the excitement, intensity, and fellowship I saw in a nearby Assembly of God church. So I started going there after Mass but that only lasted for about a year as I began to see through it. Also, my parents went on a pilgrimage (Medjugorje) and came back changed and much more devout. Seeing the change in them impacted me and set me on the right path. Becoming a catechist (8th grade) was another boost to my faith because of the commitment and the requirement to learn the faith much better so I could pass it on. I remain a catechist at my old Novus Ordo parish going on about 11 years now of doing it.
REGINA: Cynthia, you are a convert. Can you tell us your story?
CYNTHIA: Are you sure you have time? 😊
REGINA: Sure!
CYNTHIA: My grandmother converted from Catholicism when she was in her 20’s in Haiti. She raised her three daughters as Pentecostals. Eventually, my mom found a Baptist church. So I am a mixture of Baptist and Pentecostal.
As a child and young teen, I remained pretty faithful to my evangelical faith. I had moments of extreme piety where I would only listen to religious radio and shunned the wearing of pants. I wanted so much to go to heaven. In those days, I believed in the “rapture” and I would wake up suddenly in the night, scared that the rapture had come and I had been left behind. I would run to my grandmother’s room to check if she was there because I knew if anyone was going to be “saved”, she would be.
REGINA: Wow!
CYNTHIA: In my early 20’s, I entered into this horrible nightmare of a marriage. However, my faith remained consistent until one event that changed my whole life. In 1995, my brother was murdered at the age of 25. He had apparently been hanging around a bad crowd. I was shocked because as far as I knew he was loved by all. As an adult, he had fallen away from his faith, so my mom really worried that he might be in hell. One day, she had a dream that God told her that she need not worry and that my brother was in heaven. My mom was consoled. The dream had the opposite effect on me.
REGINA: What do you mean?
CYNTHIA: I thought to myself, “If my brother, who was apparently involved in some bad things, made it to heaven”, then why wouldn’t atheists or
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