Life on the edge: Our Story

Life on the edge.

Alberto and I are a married couple, parents of a beautiful son, and disciples of Jesus Christ. Jesus changed our lives deeply and radically. And it’s only because of His grace that we could open this shop, to glorify Him and to spread the Good News—also through fashion items and music. We would love to tell you why Jesus is all important to us, and the story of how He became the center of our life after many years of wandering in darkness.

 February 2018

Before becoming disciples of Jesus, we were not married but lived together in a romantic relationship since the year 2013 (this is something the Bible calls fornication—a sin against God). We both come from a Catholic background, so we were aware of the existence of God, but we did not know Him. We both worked as artists. Alberto was a professional drummer working in the music business and following the worldly idea that becoming famous with lots of money and women would make him happy… And it all came true–fame, money, and women—except for the fact that he was still not happy, it was more like being in a rollercoaster of uncontrollable emotions which some might call happiness. And the price was depression, pain, anxiety, arrogance, pride, and alcohol abuse problems for many years. What’s more is the pain and hurt he caused many other people, from family to friends and beyond.

Famous musicians became idols in his eyes, so he tried to copy that lifestyle. He succeeded in some ways, but he was slowly destroying his life without even realizing it. He was trying to become “someone” to try to fill the void and heal the pain he was carrying in himself. We all have emptiness and pain which we carry with us from the moment we are born in this fallen world. The solution, however, cannot be found in the same place as where our problem begins: this fallen world. Alberto had to look beyond this world and turn his eyes toward God instead. 

I, Giulia, was also an artist and a dancer. I didn’t think I was a sinner. In my eyes, sinners were people who kill, cheat, drink, smoke, steal, and lie (even though I did some of these things). But I, too, was carrying different challenging and painful experiences from my childhood which made me seek help for this pain. This search led me through a mixture of new age and various other therapies that seemed only to give some temporary relief. All the while, my anxiety of not finding true peace continued to grow deep inside me.

All the things I explored to try to solve my crisis lead me to have a huge issue with control, manipulation, selfishness, witchcraft, envy, and the many lies I put into my head. I had tried to overcome all of this with different kinds of meditation, but it only became worse. And even in my body, I was having one symptom after another. It’s interesting that later I found out that the Bible encourages us to meditate on the Word of God. That means meditation is something active; to meditate on His Word and to put truths in your mind to resist the lies. The other kinds of meditation I practiced had the purpose of “emptying your mind.” But if your mind is empty and not well grounded in a solid biblical foundation, it’s really easy for any kind of lie to become the ruler of your life.

 

Moving to another country

It was quite a challenge to handle our relationship; there was no trust, no respect and no real love. But for some reason, we continued to stay together. It was almost as if something was giving us the faint hope that things might change. In 2018, we left our home country, Italy, and moved to Greece for a month, after which we went to South East Asia where we then remained for a bit more than a year.

 Bali (Indonesia)

Looking back, we see that that period was a time wherein we began to understand that there is something more to life. We also recognized that we wanted to change some of the behavior problems we had. We put so much effort into changing ourselves, but it just seemed so impossible to truly change.

After that, we moved back to Italy with the intention only to stay a couple of months, but things went a bit differently. My dad died just 2 months after we arrived, in quite a traumatic and painful way. Shortly afterward, the pandemic started. And suddenly our world and the life we were living seemed so strange and fake somehow. At that moment, we truly understood that there has to be more; this cannot be it.

In the summer of 2020, we moved to Portugal and for the first time, we heard people talking about Jesus; His return and that we have to choose between good and evil. That was quite staggering for me, and it deeply touched my heart. I especially began to feel so bad about having had many sexual relationships instead of waiting for the man of my life. I wanted to put things right, but I was also confused about how. The only place we thought we could find Jesus was the Catholic church, so we decided to attend mass again, hoping to find some answers there. In the meantime, Alberto proposed marriage to me, but we continued living the same sinful life as before. Even a priest told us that sexual intercourse was fine before marriage if our intention was to get married… we were very confused. 

 

God saved us!

Thank God, He intervened in a very supernatural way! It was November 2020 and Alberto was helping some guys who were building a house in the woods. While he was there, a big pole of eucalyptus fell on his head which caused him to fall on the ground and bleed. He thought he was going to die. He was on the top of a mountain with no car and only a few others around him; a perfect disaster. The others began to help him as best they could when at one point he felt something not human embracing him, and in that moment he thought to himself, “God exists, this is God!” And Alberto felt, God save him. He stood up, still bleeding, but able to walk. They brought him home and He told me what happened. 

We were thinking about what we should do—go to the hospital or not—when he heard, for the first time in his life, a clear voice saying, “Just wash your head and everything will be okay.” He looked at me and said, “Am I going crazy?” But somehow he had great peace within. So we did as the Voice said and everything was okay. God was speaking to him. Of course we cared for the wound and took it easy for some days, but except for a couple of hours of headache, he was fine! Wow! Alberto was convinced that God was real from that day on. He kept saying, “God is real! He came down to save my life”. He was super emotional, crying and praying and saying that he would only play music for God from that moment on. I was amazed… I had a different person in front of my eyes.

“Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

John 3:5 NKJV

From then on we started to seek more; to seek more who Jesus is. And after some months, we finally met God! Somebody preached the Gospel to us, and we believed. We repented from our sins; we decided to stop our way of living and turn to God, following His way. We put our faith in Jesus, and we got baptized in water for the forgiveness of our sins. Now we were clean and could receive the beautiful gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth that now dwells in us. We were born again! Hallelujah! We died to our old life of sin, struggles, hypocrisy, and lostness, and we became new creatures. Never in our lives did we experience such freedom. Does it mean we don’t make any mistakes now? No. We still make mistakes, but we are no longer slaves to sin. When we make mistakes, we repent and continue to walk this narrow road Jesus talks about, as we let ourselves be sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Traveling towards the Netherlands, with a brother in Christ

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Matthew 7:13-14 NKJV

Halleluia! Thank you, Jesus!

 

This is for everybody 

God was calling us, and we responded to the call and entered His Kingdom. The more we grow in our faith, the more we understand that this world is transitory, yet so full of temptation to make us blind to what truly matters. People think they are free, when really they are slaves to so many masters they don’t even realize. When all the while in the Kingdom of God, we can have a Father in Heaven who loves us and takes care of us.

Soon after, we got married, and then our first son was born. We are learning every day how to live this life and we are thankful to be surrounded by brothers and sisters in the faith with whom we can walk and grow together. We love to worship the Lord, to study His Word, and to praise Him in all we do.

This life is for everybody who will make the choice to follow Jesus and surrender their life to Him. God wants to have a relationship with us and is waiting for you to respond to His call. We hope our story inspired you and can help you somehow in your walk with or towards God. All the Glory to Him! 

Amen.

Alberto & Giulia

 

Special thanks to Joel for reviewing the article.