Testimony of Conversion

My name is Gensy Severino Roberts. I am Dominican, a native of the Municipality of Consuelo, a small community in the East of the country in the province of San Pedro de Macoris. I am 37 years old. I am married to my wife Raida and we have two daughters, Sarah Camila, the oldest, who is 6 years old, and Valeria Aracelys, who was born recently. 

I grew up in a non-Christian home, but with a high concept of morality, which made me a young man not at all conscious of his sin. Until my teenage years when I became concerned about my eternal destiny as a result of constant exposure to Christian activities. At the age of fourteen I made a profession of faith. One day I heard that one of my more mischievous schoolmates had made a profession of faith. Although later in a short time this young man revealed that his conversion was not genuine, God used this to make me think about my eternity and my life after death. On Saturday morning that week I was thinking deeply about the reality of hell, and just that evening, a friend came to pick me up to take me to a Christian youth meeting at a church near my home where I had never been. I arrived just at preaching time, and there I made my profession of faith. 

At that time, in that congregation, some missionaries had a very active ministry among the youth, discipling, evangelizing and preparing leaders. God used this work to continually expose me to biblical teaching and local church life. 

Looking back, I recognize that I don’t know how much of the gospel I assimilated that night. however, that profession opened the way for work to be done in my life that led me to an ever deeper faith in Christ and his gospel. 

A Venezuelan missionary who attended my church at that time began to personally disciple two friends who had made profession of faith in a Christian camp a month later. This generated an interest in me to also receive this discipleship, so I told my friends that I also wanted to receive these studies. That missionary began to disciple me also. 

That discipleship was key for me. Through those conversations and studies I was confirmed in the faith, and I began to bear fruit of godliness. To many, there was no difference between the Christian Gensy and the previous Gensy, as I had lived a fairly quiet life in the eyes of society. However, I can testify to the great change that was worked within me. 

One aspect in which I changed radically was in my fear of hell. I really don’t even remember at what point it happened, nor how conscious I was of it at the time, but what I do remember is that my fear of death and damnation was in my heart at one time in my life, and then it disappeared without a trace, until today. 

Another internal aspect was the pain of sin. I went from indifference before God to a sensitive awareness of my own sin. What struck me was that these were not sins I was committing in front of the public, and for that I was ashamed. They were sins I was committing before God, and even though others gave very good testimony of me, I knew that I was offending God and that was enough to make me sad. 

Another change I saw in me was the delight in God through His Word. Before the conversion I was an assiduous reader of literary works. Therefore, it was not uncommon for me to pick up the Bible at some point and read it as well. However, I did it for entertainment, and sometimes out of curiosity. But, after my conversion, I did it with the desire and longing to know and enjoy God, something I had not even understood before. 

I culminate with what I believe was one of the most remarkable testimonies of God’s work in me, the change of direction in my life. Like all young people, I had personal goals and dreams, but incredibly, my personal goals were discarded in order to live for what God asked of me, to the point that to this day I do not see any other way of living.