{"id":86,"date":"2020-03-25T16:58:58","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T16:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/desafiojovem.workmove.pt\/en\/?post_type=history&p=86"},"modified":"2020-03-25T16:58:59","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T16:58:59","slug":"noelia-castro","status":"publish","type":"history","link":"https:\/\/desafiojovem.com\/en\/history\/noelia-castro\/","title":{"rendered":"No\u00e9lia Castro"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

My\nname is No\u00e9lia and at the age of 16 I already had tried several drugs and had\nleft my parents home several times to live with a boy that had used drugs for\nseveral years. I began to use drugs more and more, and soon, I was completely\naddicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nliving with the boy for three years, we went separate ways. I did not want to\naccept any help from my parents. I thought that if I got a job I would be able\nto survive alone, but shortly afterwards, I was out of work and living in the\nstreet. I then devoted myself to trafficking and prostitution to maintain my\naddiction. This is how ten years of continuous degradation, hunger, cold, and\nmuch abuse passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 25, I got seriously ill. I didn\u2019t go to the doctor right away\nand ended up at the hospital almost dying; I and stayed there for four months.\nI had several surgeries to my intestines and severe pneumonia, so they put me\nin an induced coma. The doctors said that there was nothing more they could do\nand wanted to turn off the machines, but one of the doctors didn\u2019t allow it. He\nstill had hope and as long as we didn\u2019t have to turn the machines off, the\nmachines were staying on! (God was already protecting me, without me knowing!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nI woke up from the coma, I, who always had thought I didn\u2019t need anyone,\ncouldn\u2019t even do my personal hygiene alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore,\nafter 10 years, I returned to my parents’ home. I kept myself sober for some\ntime, but that great void inside kept consuming me. The relapse was more than\nforeseeable. So I asked Patr\u00edcia Camp\u00f4a for help. This girl was completely\nchanged, and several times she tried to convince me to leave that life, to look\nat her example and to believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s\nhow I enter the Teen Challenge rehab program. The first days were very\ndifficult, but what bothered me the most was the fact that those people were\ngiving me so much love and care without even knowing me. It was something I was\nnot used to. They lived out the unconditional love of God and, over time, this\nlove started breaking my heart and transforming me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\naccept that God loves me was the best decision I have ever made. I realized\nthat I could trust this love, give into it and let it transform me from the\ninside out. One of my biggest struggles was not being able to forgive. But when\nI truly gave myself to God, I felt free! There are no words to express what it\nis like to be able to ask God to bless those who have done me so much wrong,\nand to feel bitterness and hatred disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\nhas worked in so many areas of my life; he has helped me know what it’s like to\nbe a family, what it’s like to be a woman, a housewife and a hard worker. The\nrehab time was a key factor to what I am today! I finished the program and I\nstayed working in the Institution’s laundry…when I entered the program, I\ndidn\u2019t even know how to iron a piece of clothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like\nevery woman, I dreamed of marrying and having children, despite thinking that\nit was impossible, after all the surgeries and complications I had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nthe miracles were not over yet. I ended up meeting a guy who had also done the\nTeen Challenge rehab program. He was an educated man and knew how to speak, so\nI thought he would never be interested in me. However, God thought the\nopposite. Eventually, he noticed me and the feelings were mutual and serious.\nWe married on July 11, 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\nwe are a happy couple, live a normal life and have two children, and another of\na previous marriage. We are alive, we have plans for the future and we are\nrespected, not for what we are but for what God has done in us.\n\nThank God for the day I met this great motherhood\nof hope called Teen Challenge, that introduced me to Jesus!\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":87,"template":"","class_list":["post-86","history","type-history","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desafiojovem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/history\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desafiojovem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/history"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desafiojovem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/history"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desafiojovem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desafiojovem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}