An Open Seat Changed Pablo’s Life
My name is Pablo Salazar and my true life began just two years ago.
I was born in a traditional Ecuadorian family. My parents always motivated me to be better and to compete for what I wanted. I wanted to be important, so I set high standards and focused on achievement. Nothing would distract me from what I fixed my eyes on. I was an individualist, centered on myself.
Depression
At 24 years of age, my drive led me to pursue a Master’s degree in the United States. It was there that my constant pursuit of success caught up with me. Far from family, home and country, everything seemed to be going well, but then in one of my classes I had a panic attack. I fell into a profound depression that led me to consume antidepressants and antianxiety medications just to maintain normalcy. For the next eight years, I tried to give up these medicines, but whenever I lowered the dosage, one small challenge was enough to ruin my stability.
I began to realize that my need for control was a contributing factor to my problems. I assumed that I was the owner of my life, my dreams, my plans and my desires. Nothing was further from the truth.
Abandonment
When I returned to Quito in 2009, I was confronted with a reality that led to more emotional chaos. My parents separated after 30 years of marriage. My father abandoned the home and left my mother in a state of desolation. She, too, became very depressed.
Around the same time my sister got married, which left me alone at home with my mother. Amidst the pain and abandonment, I watched my mother suffer. She lost her self-esteem and thought she was the worst person in the world. She, too, began taking antidepressants and antianxiety medications. Both of us became slaves to these drugs.
After the first year of my parent’s separation, despite a heart full of disdain and resentment towards my father, I sought to reestablish some kind of relationship with him. It wasn’t easy, but we connected again. Now, in retrospect, I can say that it was God who first put on my heart to honor my father despite his mistakes.
Three years passed like that. I resigned myself to the belief that my parent’s marriage was over and this was the way things would always be. But unknown to me a change was underway.
Pablo Salazar and his girlfriend Ali. “I have been blessed to be in a relationship with a woman of God.”
An Encounter with God
In 2013, my father began attending the Norte Church in Quito, Ecuador. I knew that he was receiving counseling from the church. He said that through the ministry of the church he discovered a relationship with God and that God was working in his life and in his heart. As the holidays approached, my father met with me in a mall because he had something very important that he wanted to tell me. That was the first time that I saw the powerful work of God in my father’s life.
My father confessed that by God’s grace he could see with absolute clarity the damage that he caused my mother. He recognized that his behavior was wrong and selfish and that he wanted to reconcile with her and restore their marriage.
At first, I didn’t believe him and became defensive sensing the need to protect my mother. After four years, she had reached a certain degree of acceptance and peace in her life, I didn’t want to see her destabilized by this possibility.
Nevertheless, the sincerity of my father gave me some hope and I came to believe his motivation was genuine and not just momentary emotion tied to the upcoming Christmas holidays. So, I agreed to deliver a letter that he would write to my mother.
An Invitation
In the middle of this process, he invited me to come with him to the Norte Church. Not wanting him to be alone during Christmas, I accepted the invitation.
I attended one service and heard a sermon. I liked it and so I accepted the suggestion of my father to begin attending monthly meetings of the young professionals of the church. I naively thought that I could network with those in the group for professional contacts. But it was there that I began to receive the Word of God. Soon those monthly meetings became weekly and I began a journey of discipleship. In time, God touched my heart and brought me to the foot of the cross.
Pablo now serves as one of the worship band leaders for the Norte Church and leads a discipleship group for young adults.
Restoration
While my own process of growth with God was happening, another miracle occurred: my parents reconciled and restored their marriage after almost four years of separation! My father reunited with all the family and sought forgiveness for the pain he had caused all of us. The humility of a heart touched by God was a living testimony of a restored life. Today their marriage is thriving and they are attending Norte together each week.
In October 2014, I took a step of faith and was baptized. I also began to receive help from a Christian psychologist who helped liberate me from the slavery of medicines. It has been one year since I’ve left them behind.
God freed me from loneliness. Jesus took my hand and led me away from there. His powerful hand took mine and redeemed me. God made me understand that He is the center of my life and that Jesus is first before everything else. He filled my heart with humility and took away my pride.
I now serve the Lord by way of music and am an active member of the Worship Ministry of the Norte Church. I direct one of the bands. It is also my privilege to lead one of the discipleship groups for young adults. God has put in my heart a profound love for others and the desire to take His Word to them. I am now sensing the Lord’s calling to become a pastor.
God has given me so much and now I work to honor the blessings that he has given me. His grace is poured out on us and he uses the church as one of his instruments. The Norte Church made me feel welcomed. They made me feel that there was space for me. God used this church in order that I could know his love. There are so many stories of restoration in our church. I consider it a small piece of heaven.
God manifests himself by different ways and people. It doesn’t matter what has happened in the past, God will extend to you his hand, he will forgive you and receive you with love.
