Yeison Arredondo

“My mom was very Catholic, so I grew up going to mass every Sunday. I would attend first communion and would confess my sins to the priest. When I was around 12, my uncle invited me to attend Pathfinders. It sounded like a lot of fun, so I went. I would go to Pathfinders some days and first communion other days.

In both of these places I was learning a lot about the Bible, but it was weird. The people at the Catholic Church were saying one thing, and then my cousins and those in the Adventist Church were teaching me something different. I specifically remember how they would each show me the commandments, but it was not the same. I was very confused, what was the truth?

Slowly though, God started revealing His truth to me through the Bible. I’ve learned that the Bible has more validity than men, and soon part of me started believing in the Sabbath. I did not go to Church on Saturdays because my parents didn’t go, but I stopped doing certain things that I used to do – like watching the morning cartoons.

One year I attended the Hispanic Camp Meeting with my uncle’s family. I don’t remember much about that Sabbath sermon, but the pastor made a call for baptism. My aunt looked at me and asked, ‘do you want to be baptized?’ I didn’t even think about it, I just said yes. But then I had to stop, ‘wait, is this okay? My parents aren’t here. What will they say?’

We called my house, and my mom wasn’t too happy – she wasn’t happy because she wanted to be there to witness my baptism! At the end though, my dad said that it was my decision, and I was baptized that day.

The following Sabbath my parents took me to church. ‘We cannot take you to American service though because we do not understand,’ they said. And so, we found the Lebanon Hispanic Church. By the end of that year, my mom, my dad, and my brother were baptized as well.

Since then, things just changed. I’ve seen God open doors in my life in ways I did not expect. He does it every day. Looking back, finding God wasn’t really in my mind. It wasn’t what I wanted, but it was what I needed. It was what my family needed.”

-       Yeison Arredondo, from the Lebanon Hispanic Church