Daniel shares his story about growing up with same-sex attraction and going through SDA education; living with his boyfriend in student housing as he heard God’s calling to true intimacy. Daniel shares his story and talks about how he found deliverance from substance use, hook-up culture, and shares tools that have fostered healing.

GYC Conference 2022: Break Forth

<p>Daniel shares his story about growing up with same-sex attraction and going through SDA education; living with his boyfriend in student housing as he heard God’s calling to true intimacy. Daniel shares his story and talks about how he found deliverance from substance use, hook-up culture, and shares tools that have fostered healing.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Restored Purity

Michael Carducci

Kezia Chisholm

She Loved the Sexual Things Testimony

I'm 1 of the founding members along with my colleague Ron Wolsey.

We started this ministry 12 years ago, and we've had the opportunity to work with some really amazing people.

Okay, and so Today is actually Kezia Chisholm's testimony, and what did you call it?

And she's gonna give her testimony as well as Restored Purity is the name of the conference.

So we're gonna talk about how God restores purity when we come from all types of walks of life, not just LGBT issues, because Revelation 18, 4 says that, come out of her, my people, and be not partakers of her sins.

And so when you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6, it talks about all the abominations that won't be in heaven.

And yes, homosexuality is 1 of them, but also pornography, addiction, masturbation, premarital sex, abortion, all kinds of issues that we really want to address and make sure that nobody is being singled out or focused on, that we're all in this together and we all are desperate to find ways that we can find victory so that we can all be ready for heaven.

All right, could we bow for a word of prayer as we begin?

Father in heaven, I thank you Lord for this opportunity to hear once again my friend's testimony.

I ask Lord that you would empower Kezia, that you would hide her behind the cross, and that Lord, that she would only see your face as she presents to us.

I pray Lord that what she shares will speak to the audience and that Lord that you will speak to them kindly, softly, lovingly, but also Lord in a healing way to help them realize that there's something beyond the choices that they may have made or even some of the choices that they are thinking about.

So I pray Lord that you be with Kezia, empower her I pray in Jesus name, amen.

Okay great because I don't feel like I'm loud, but great.

Thank you so much for coming to this first seminar, Seminar 1 with myself, Kezia Chisholm.

And so for this topic, my program is split into 2 portions.

So the first part is briefly just sharing on my testimony, and then secondly, going into tips to overcoming pornography, masturbation, sexual addiction, so things of that manner.

And like Mike said, we do have the question segment that we do have tomorrow.

So as I get into my program, there's seats up front.

All right, so what we'll do, we are going to just take a moment to pray, and then I will begin my segment.

Heavenly Father, Lord God, we praise you so much for an opportunity to be here.

We thank you that your Holy Spirit is present.

Lord, I pray for every single person's heart here.

And I just pray, Lord, that you may give them a new encounter with you.

May the story that you have given me show how mighty you are.

And may we just draw closer to you and love you even more.

All right, so later on, there's seats up front.

You could come up, And there's seats over here as well, if you're still looking.

OK, so for this program, afterwards, we're going to give you a handout.

And this will be the handout called Design for Victory.

So 1 of the things I kind of broke it into was a sanctuary.

And for me, it's really important to take into consideration how intentional our God is, so we'll get into that even more.

There's seats up front here if anyone wants, there's several seats here.

Okay, so as I'm beginning my testimony, 1 of the things that was really a big thing for me was recognizing how I did not grow up in a God-fearing home, per se.

I didn't grow up in your traditional Christian background.

My mom, even though she grew up Adventist, she didn't necessarily raise me as Adventist.

So when I was growing up, I knew that there was something really different with me considering coming from a biracial home.

My dad is Guyanese, and so he and I connected a lot in regards to our complexion, as well as hair texture, so things of that nature.

But with my mom, who is Filipina, clearly she looks like opposite of me.

1 of the things that I really got a lot of growing up was, am I adopted, right?

So that really played a lot with my self-esteem and me just really trying to figure out who am I, how can I be happy with myself when my mom, who the woman in my life, Her and I didn't necessarily look alike?

How do I connect with her, with someone who I felt that I really couldn't have a strong relationship with?

When I came to my grandparents, though I recognized that there was something different with them.

Anytime I would visit them, being that they were Adventists, I had recognized that whenever I would visit them on Fridays, especially Friday nights, they wouldn't have the TV on.

And so for me growing up, that was something really big.

And coming from that environment, I just realized that there was something different and something that they had.

However for myself when I was around the age of around 4 or 5 I ended up getting into my first sexual encounter.

So for me having this happen at school I didn't understand that if someone touches you inappropriately, you should say something, right?

So if you've been molested, in a sense, sometimes you don't say anything.

Considering that this situation happened at such a young age, I didn't know that, you know, I should have said something.

I didn't realize that this behavior would then take me into something much more further that I was unable to really control over the years.

Eventually, like I had mentioned in the beginning, I knew that there was something different with my upbringing, right, with my parents.

I realized that my mom and my dad, there was something really different in the sense that they would constantly argue a lot.

You know, if someone is coming from a divorced home, you would notice sometimes the issues, the trauma, the anger that was taking place at home.

When I would think about that in comparison to my grandparents, my grandparents weren't necessarily like that.

Okay, hopefully, there's still seats up here.

So by the time I was about the age of 12 or so, I realized that my grandparents, my parents ended up, yeah, my grandparents or rather, excuse me, my parents ended up divorcing.

So you can imagine for me being a only child and already struggling with the sexual identity.

I don't even remember how porn came into the picture, but I knew when my parents divorced that's when things really spiraled under control, out of control rather.

So this is where I had turned to pornography, to masturbation, to bisexuality, to being promiscuous, to anything to really numb what I was feeling.

Anything like smoking, drinking, partying, something to really numb the frustrations I was feeling during that time.

And so for me, like I had mentioned earlier, when it came to my parents, right, I was way more closer to my dad.

When it came to my mom now, considering the differences her and I had, I wasn't really that close to her.

So you can imagine at that time, I was just genuinely angry.

So all of that frustration, all of that anger was then poured out into unhealthy behavior, right?

I wasn't taught how to cope with the frustrations I was dealing with, how to communicate what was happening.

I didn't have healthy stress outlets and like I had mentioned God wasn't necessarily the center of our household at that time.

And so for me I was just realizing that there wasn't really a God I was trying to seek after even though because I'm sure some of you can attest to the fact that sometimes when we think about God, sometimes he has a way of intervening or kind of stepping into our lives when it was like least expected.

And so even when I was around, I mean some time after my parents had divorced, I did get baptized.

And that was just to appease some Bible workers because I thought, OK, I'll just be nice to them.

So being that at this time in New York, I just thought, OK, I was just going to be nice to the Bible workers and eventually get baptized.

Daniel Varela

True Intimacy Testimony

All right, so the name of our program is called Restored Purity.

Each and every 1 of our sessions is going to be a totally different testimony of different people coming out of some type of sexual identity issue and how they found Jesus Christ and how God restored and how He renews.

What we are lacking, I believe, not only in our church, but also in our world today, are testimonies that show that God's is still powerful today to restore and to renew each 1 of us.

Have you been blessed so far by Kezia this morning?

So you're gonna continue to get more blessings as the day goes on.

And then the last session tomorrow is going to be a Q&A.

There are pieces of paper and pencils in the back where you can actually write out your question.

If you go to the GYC website, You can also go to the seminars and go to Restored Purity and you can submit an anonymous question there as well.

Or you can text a question to me or you can also email a question and we'll compile those and have those available tomorrow as well.

If you would, if you do submit a question, would you put on it who you would like to answer that question?

So if it's Kezia or Daniel or Patty or Bruce and Alex, just let me know so that we can direct your question to them.

If you don't necessarily have somebody that you want to direct it to, that's fine.

You can just leave it blank and we'll make sure that somebody answers that for you.

We won't be taking any questions from the floor.

So only the questions that have been submitted will be addressed tomorrow in the session, all right?

That way it helps us to be more efficient with our time.

And again, before Daniel begins, I'd like to open with a word of prayer.

Father, we thank you for this opportunity to hear Daniel's story.

I thank you, Lord, for the friendship that I've had with Daniel for many years, as he was 14 years old when we met.

And Lord, my mind is blown when I see the powerful transformation that you've made in his life.

I thank you, Lord, for his story, and I pray that everyone here will be blessed as well.

Be with him, I pray, in Jesus' name, amen.

I know we just prayed, but I'm going to pray 1 more time as well, just because I'm a little nervous.

Father God, thank you so much for this time that I can just talk about what you're able to do and who you are.

I just pray for your Holy Spirit to lead me.

And I just pray that whatever message needs to be shared, whatever stories, I just pray that you put it on my heart.

I pray that you make everyone open to receiving whatever message you want them to hear and to apply it.

And I pray this in the name of Jesus, amen.

So like I said, my name is Daniel and I'm gonna just have a conversation with you guys Did you guys so you guys can know a little bit about me?

I went to Southern I've been a university and I actually studied social work.

I like people and I just since I was a kid.

I always knew something was a little different about me, just to get straight into it.

I like to say that I struggle with same-sex attraction.

Technically, people have a lot of different labels, but since I was a child, I always knew that that's just kind of something that I was dealing with.

I grew up in a Hispanic family, specifically military Adventist.

So if you can imagine, pretty conservative, pretty strict, high expectations, that sort of thing.

And in my household, my parents growing up weren't really the most devout Christians.

And I would see a lot of different spiritual warfare that I don't think, if they had been more devout, I personally think it would have been a little different.

And what I mean by that is sometimes I would see figures at home, I would have weird dreams, demonic experiences, and it just would like freak me out and everything.

And growing up, like I said, Hispanic family, specifically I'm Puerto Rican, and a lot of, I'm not saying this is for every Puerto Rican, so don't generalize, but in my household, specifically, there was a lot of homophobia in my household.

So a lot of the messages that I would hear about LGBTQ people were pretty degrading and comments like, they're nothing or they're gonna go straight to hell.

So I internalized those messages as a child and I would just start to feel like, oh, then that means I am like worthless.

And I would just kind of keep things to myself.

And my parents did do a good job at letting me know that they loved me, they were affectionate, but I was getting multiple messages.

So 1 message is like, oh, they love me, they care about me, but then they're saying all these things about LGBTQ plus people, and I'm struggling with this, and I know it's wrong, and I don't know what to do about it.

So to talk about a little bit more about my childhood, My parents and I, and I have a sister, we hit a point in our family dynamic where my parents were going to get a divorce, And at this time, excuse me, I'm feeling a little nervous, they were praying and asking God to restore their relationship.

And they sent my sister and I to Puerto Rico for a summer.

And my grandma, she's a Christian woman, Adventist, she was taking us to church.

And I was getting to know God a little bit more and experiencing like peace and experiencing the church dynamic, which I hadn't experienced before because we didn't really go to church that much.

And I was just starting to see just a different type of dynamic that I just hadn't before.

And there was a lot of nice people there.

And I just kind of felt like, oh, this is like different.

I don't remember like experiencing this back in the US.

And during that time, I felt like God was preparing me and my sister to experience him a little bit more.

And on our way to the United States from Puerto Rico, I remember being in the plane and just kind of thinking like, okay, like God, like what am I gonna do?

Like how am I gonna go back to church and experience you in that way?

Like God just kind of reassuring me like, Daniel, don't worry, like I'm gonna take care of you and everything's gonna be okay.

And it just sounds a little like abstract, but that's just kind of how my experience has been with God.

I kind of think more big picture type and just God just met me there.

So he gave me reassurance and when we went back home, I noticed that my parents had reconciled and that there was peace in the home.

And it sounds maybe a little vague, but there wasn't that much spiritual warfare happening, and I noticed that the environment had changed.

And when that happened, I just remember thinking, oh, okay, so God is real, like he's actually active, and he actually is able to do something.

So those were seeds that God used when I was a child to put in instill in me that he's actually available so Throughout this time and my parents I was in the closet.

You know, I always just was always myself I didn't what I didn't want to do was not be myself, but I wasn't gonna broadcast the whole same sex attraction thing because I knew better.

You know, my background, being in the church, I wasn't gonna argue with the Bible had to say about homosexuality, but there weren't any resources for me or anyone that I felt comfortable with talking to for support.

Again, I just hear very generally like, well, gay people are gonna go to hell, and they're nothing, it's very shameful.

So I just kept on hearing the same messages over and over again.

So during this time in my life, I went to school, high school, and just like any adolescence, I was struggling with other things.

But before that, when I was around 8 years old, I was exposed to pornography at a very, you know, pretty young age.

And I started to act out with pornography and masturbation as a way to feel better and cope.

And it just kind of brought me outside of the other stressors I was facing in life.

So I was doing that, and I was creating a habit.

And I would feel convicted even as a kid, like, oh, I shouldn't be doing this, because the Bible says, and this, that, and the third.

And I just kept on doing it, but I would pray and just ask God to guide me.

And I was just kind of going through the spiritual warfare because also I was starting to get interested in more dark things, like not just the pornography masturbation, but a little bit in like witchcraft and was interested in like astrology and that sort of thing.

And I just was just kind of curious, just kind of like, oh, this is interesting.

Let me see about my sign and this and that.

And I believe that that was giving the enemy a foothold even more in my life.

And I was just becoming more rebellious and just kind of cut off from my family.

Sure on the outside I seemed fine, But they didn't know that I was struggling with these other things that were, again, giving the devil a foothold.

And there was an experience that I had, I think I was like in sixth grade, And I went to public school most of my life until I went to high school.

Alex Biegel

Bruce Biegel

A Royal Wedding Testimony

Is there a clipboard near you with a pen?

Did somebody think it was a free gift with purchase?

We want you to sign up for our newsletter if that's your desire.

If you notice on the screen, we're going to have a Q&A tomorrow and we will only answer, we will only ask the questions that have been submitted in either text, email, or on that QR code which takes you to GYC web, to their website, all right?

In the back we have surveys for you to fill out, let us know how we're doing, Let us know if you have any suggestions in the future.

And as we go into our fourth and final interview, yeah, I'm really excited.

And Bruce is 1 of the associate speakers for Coming Out Ministries.

As a matter of fact, can I just tell 1 story on you?

So anyway, we were at GYC Phoenix, no Houston.

GYC Houston, and all of a sudden, this very attractive man comes up and he was like so excited to see us and and I know that I was there with Wayne and Ron and we were standing there and this guy comes up and he goes I've been watching your stuff and I've been looking at every and we're just looking at him we're thinking what you were gay?

Anyway it was just amazing we got to know Bruce we got to hear his story He became 1 of our associate speakers, has an amazing story that I'm sure you're going to be excited to hear.

What we think is just as relevant and just as important is also Alex's story about how they came into a relationship and the struggles that they went through before they got married and even the adjustment of after they got married.

So I think that you will have a really good interview today.

Let's have a word of prayer before we begin.

Father in heaven, we thank you for this time together.

And Lord, you said in Revelation 12, 11, that we overcome by the precious blood of the Lamb, but also Lord, by the word of our testimony.

How could our testimony, Lord, from sinful fallen human beings have the ability, Lord, to reduce and to remove the enemy?

And so we ask, Lord, for your spirit to guide and to be with Alex and Bruce as they tell their story authentically and transparently Lord and so thank you Lord for their story in Jesus name we pray amen alright so I'm gonna start the scrolling of the pictures, and so I just wanna let you know that this slide will only come up for 7 seconds.

So if you need the number, you have seconds, seconds when you see it, and then it'll scroll back again, all right?

All right, so basically, Thank you, Bruce and Alex, for letting me have the opportunity to do an interview.

And all we want to do is I want to represent you folks out there.

And so because I know Bruce and Alex's story a little bit, we did an interview with them on our Coming Together Live program last year.

So they've asked me to kind of assist to kind of reign them in or bring them around or if there's something that's missing that I can kind of remind them.

And so why don't we start at the beginning?

I would also like to just say a short prayer real quick before we begin.

Heavenly Father, Lord, I just thank you so much for this opportunity from 5 years ago when I went to GYC for the first time and I met the amazing people with Coming Out Ministries.

I was a scared, scared individual and I never thought I'd be sharing my testimony, which is really your testimony.

I pray Lord that you would be glorified because it truly is your story and I just thank you for what you've done in my life, my wife Alex's life, and just thank you.

So we invite and ask for your Holy Spirit to be here now and thank you already.

Well, you know, my life was normal until I was 3 years old.

You know, I was in a, I mean, it's only 3 years.

How normal could things be at that point?

But yeah, when I was 3, My parents ended up getting a divorce and really from that point going forward up until when I was 30, things were just kind of a whirlwind.

But after my parents got divorced when I was 3, I had a relationship with my biological father for a short period, maybe about 6 months to a year after that.

He got remarried very, very quickly and my stepmother did not really care for my sister or myself.

So I remember we would be going over to visit my father on the weekends and I just did not want to ever go over there because I just, I think it was just a lot to take in.

Series

Restored Purity

True Intimacy Testimony

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

GYC 2011 totalChurch

Total Church: Leadership

2h 16m

Ignite Your Local Church for Mission

Mission to the Community

46m

Mark Finley - The Shaking and the Sifting: A Biblical Approach

Christ and the Coming Crisis, Part 2

59m

Bob Folkenberg, Jr. - Evangeliving: The Great Commission in Action

How Beautiful ARE Your Feet?

57m

Plenary

Sabbath School Panel on Daniel 3

58m

Living Dangerously: God’s Call to Mission Service and How to Get Involved!

6. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit and a Missionaries’ Best Friend

52m

Leading People From Health To Him

Leading People From Health To Him, Part IV

55m

Living Free: Building a Better Brain, Body, and Habits – for Good!

5. Leaders Lighting The Way

1h

GYC 2012 Morning Devotional

Resurrecting the Church

52m

Distinct Advent Message- A2

The Everlasting Gospel: The Good News Amidst the Judgement, Babylon, and the Mark of the Beast- Part 2

1h 37m

Health Evangelism

From Health to Him- Part 2

2h 25m

The How and Why of God's Sanctioned Fasts

02 Count the Ways

55m

Sound Doctrine