Mozambique young man standing holding biblical materialElidio, a 24-year-old in Mozambique, grew up in a Christian family. But he admits that at one time he was a “backslider.” Brothers and sisters from the local church kept inviting him to Project Philip Bible studies, but he wouldn’t go. He had no desire to go to church. But one day, that changed.

“I thought to myself, ‘No, this is not happening by mistake. It is God who is encouraging me to come to this program. Today, I’ll go and see what’s going on at that church,’” he remembers.

He headed to the church that day and found people learning about God through a Project Philip Bible study. He had always thought that his family’s church was the only good church, but he soon learned that it was not about the church itself, but about God. “Until that moment, I was living according to my own desires. But when I came to this church, I discovered that Jesus wants us to live according to His will,” he says.

For years, Elidio was very judgmental. “I even judged my own parents,” he says. “But since I’ve been here, I have discovered that the Bible says to not judge. I was looking down on other churches and believers. Here, I learned it is not about the churches. No, it’s about Jesus who called people to be in the Church. We have to live according to the will of God.”

Today, Elidio is praying for his father, a Christian who has now gone astray. “My mother and I are battling to change his mind,” he says. “It’s not easy to live in harmony as a family.”

Despite his father’s resistance to the Word of God, Elidio doesn’t stop. Many days he sits with his father and his Bible, trying his best to share the Good News. “Often, he says he doesn’t want to speak with me about that, so I’m limited,” he says.

Still, Elidio is thankful for the materials that changed his life and will hopefully change his father’s life. “The Project Philip materials are like gold. We are receiving so many good things from those booklets.”