Joyce Dias turned down an arranged marriage which is in line with Indian tradition because she was a romantic young woman who believed in prince charming and happily ever after. After being dumped for the third time, she settled for being happily single, but God showed up and wrote her perfect love story. In her words, “He regularly interferes in my life.” But she is glad that He does. Joyce has a marriage made in Heaven, and her testimony is proof that God is the perfect matchmaker. Single ladies, this is your story…enjoy.
Tell me a little about yourself. Where were you born? Where did you grow up?
I was born in Mumbai in India. My parents were originally from a little place called Goa, off the western coast of Bombay. About 200 years ago, it was colonized by the Portuguese and a lot of the Portuguese intermarried with the locals, and this is how I come by a name like Dias, it is of Portuguese origin. And a lot of the local Hindu population that intermarried with the Portuguese were converted to Catholicism, so my parents were Catholic, and I was born and raised a Catholic as a child.
What is your biggest testimony of God’s faithfulness?
How I met my husband and how it all came about and the circumstances in which it rolled out has been my biggest testimony of God’s faithfulness.
I grew up in India, and in India, typically they have arranged marriages, and I resisted every attempt to set me up with an arranged marriage because I was really a very romantic little girl and I just believed in Prince Charming person and Fairytales.
I did date one or two people then I got dumped. Let me tell you what was common about both cases. I got dumped because I refused to have an affair. I refused to enter into a live-in arrangement. And I used to wonder often because I was in my thirties and by Indian standards, at age 25 you are considered to be over the hill
The third time was in Canada, and I was like I shouldn’t be in this country, I should be back in India and allow somebody to set me up with an arranged marriage but now I am over the hill, and so no one will want me, you know all those thoughts were going on in my head. And I was independent, I had my own career and everything, I didn’t feel the need for it anymore. But my mum, she said, “well, I want you to be married, not for the sake of getting married, I just I don’t want you to be growing older without someone looking out for you.”
I was quite happy with my life the way that it was, but because of my mum praying so much, I started praying to God, but not for me. I was saying, “please God, my mum believes in you so much, please answer her prayer, and I don’t want you to do it in your time, I want you to do it in the life time of my mum and dad. Whatever it is you want to do, take your time, but it has to be in the life time of my mum and dad because that’s what they want for me.” And I was praying because I didn’t want them to have to go knowing that I was alone.
And I used to write letters to Him, I still do. I am in the habit of writing letters to God; I have a mailbox at home. It’s a red velvet mailbox, and I post my letters to God. So anyway, I posted the letter. What I did was, I actually wrote down everything about the other guys that I did not like. I did not like that they would not make a commitment and that they would not honour me and my need not to be in an intimate relationship with them before marriage, which to me appeared to be a certain lack of respect for the honourable bond that marriage is. I wanted somebody who held the same old fashioned values as I did. I wrote down everything I did not want and on the other side I wrote down everything that I wanted.
And every evening, I was praying, and I had been praying for about seven days when I began to get the dreams. And I am a very logical, scientific rational person and for this to happen to me was completely off the wall impossible. If anyone had told me a story like this, I would have pooh-poohed it and said, “you’re telling me a fairy tale, it is not possible.” But when it happens to you, you sit up, and you take notice. And that’s what happened to me.
I remember even when I wrote that letter I said “God, do not, I repeat do not appear to me in a burning bush. Don’t do that to me. Why don’t you appear to me on television, on a commercial? Or send me a message through a movie? And I will get it that this is the answer to what I am praying about. Or better yet, why don’t you come to me through social media? You’ve got to speak my language, don’t speak yours.”
When I got that first dream, I was standing in the middle of a room with a wooden floor, and it’s got wood panels on the wall. It’s got long windows overlooking the lake, and I can see water and trees blowing in the breeze. I can see these portraits on the wall; I am not seeing them very clearly, but I know exactly where they are positioned on the wall. I actually see my dream as I am telling you.
And I am being held from behind by a man; his arms are around me, and I am feeling so weak at the knees from a sense of belonging. I am just held in that firm embrace and in my dream, I am trying to wriggle so I can see his face. I cannot explain this to you it’s like being conscious, but you’re conscious only within your dream. And the more I tried to wriggle to turn around the firmer he holds me, and I am looking down, and I can see his feet in the brown sandals. I can see that he has a pale skin I can see the light down on his legs and he’s wearing shorts. Anyway because I am already a naughty person in real life too I finally reach behind, and I tickle him under the knee, and his grasp loosens in the dream, and I swing around, and I see his face for the first time.
The brown eyes, looking lovingly at me in the dream, took my breath away. His side parted hair, his face, but predominantly his eyes. And then I see that he is wearing a grey hoodie, you know like the ones you wear at university with navy blue lettering. In my dream, it showed me the word which looked like the word “brain” in the navy blue lettering. I found out later that he went to Cambrian College.
Anyway I saw his face, and then I hear a knock on the door, and I run up three steps because it is a sunken living room and there is a glass door, and I open the door, and there he is again, smiling. The same man, this time I am seeing him face to face.
Anyway I woke up from this dream, and I was so happy I can’t explain it to you, this is not normal behavior for a scientific rational person that you wake up from a dream, and you’re happy with the dream. And I wrote it down and went to work feeling happy all day. It was ridiculously weird; it wasn’t that I hadn’t been dreaming before that, but this one was so clear I cannot explain how clear it was, so clear and vivid that I could see every hair on his arm that was holding me.
I remember calling one of my friends who is Canadian and telling her about this dream and she was so excited and so supportive of me. Then I called my mum and told her about the dream, and my mum said, “I think my prayer is being answered. To you, it may be just a dream, but to me, it looks like my prayer is being answered.”
And then I had a series of dreams that were also in great detail, and I wrote them down because they were all consistent and all this time I am still praying. I wasn’t spooked I was just having some happy little dreams and writing them down because it was nice to pull them out and read because it made me feel that sense of happy belonging that I can’t explain.
Three months later, I met my husband at the church where I go every Sunday. He was a visitor to the church, and I had never met him in person until that moment. As I am stepping out of the dark church I see him standing there, his face lit up because he is standing outside in the sunlight and I am telling myself in some shock, he exists! He’s real! Of course, he didn’t know anything about it, he came towards me, and we talked, and he asked me out.
Describe your first meeting with your spouse. When, where and how did you meet?
So, on that first date he asked me out, and of course, I said yes because I had that dream, the divine sign from God. He was a total stranger, for all I knew, he could have been an axe murderer, but I just said yes. So, we agreed we were going to meet after work at the church, and typically you don’t have a mass at that time of the evening, so it was quiet and not crowded.
I remember thinking I didn’t want to stand all by myself in the car park, you know, what if he was an axe-murderer he could just kidnap me or something. So, I stood out by the church by the door and the church door opened, and this little old friar comes out, and Gerald is walking from where his car is parked toward me with one hand behind his back, and I am thinking, an axe murderer, he’s got an axe. But he’s approaching a little diffidently, and the friar takes one look at him, and one look at me, and he says, “you know, if you’re going to get married you need to tell us a year in advance.” And I remember just blushing, and Gerald takes his hand out of his back, and he has a rose in his hand, and he gives that to me.
So, we stood there in front of the church, and we chatted and kind of got to know each other a little bit. And we discover that he likes dancing and I like dancing too and I remember he stood up and he struck the waltz pose, and I put my hand on his shoulder and into his hand assuming the woman’s pose and he said, “Oh we fit well.” And then he asked me out again to go dancing at a friend’s stag and doe bachelor party, and we really enjoyed ourselves, and he asked me out again.
I thought it was only fair that I should tell him about my dream because I had an advantage over him. So, I told him, I said, there’s something about me that you have to know. And it’s funny how he responded; he said: “Oh no, you’re an axe murderer, I knew it.” And this is what I had been thinking about him all the time you know. So, I said, “Well, I am going to let you be the judge of that; just hear me out.”
And I told him this dream, and I have this horrible habit of going into excruciating details sometimes non-necessary details, it’s my way of boring people, my special gift, and I told him the dream, with every little detail, right up to the three steps in the sunken living room the portraits on the wall, the hoodie he was wearing with grey with navy blue letters with the words Brain.
And I finished telling him the whole thing, and I said, “So there you have it, now you know how weird I am, it’s only fair to give you the chance to run while you can because I think I am going to marry you.”
He gave me a long look, and he said, “do you see me running?”
I asked, “why not? You must be really weird too if you’re not!”
He said “Because the place you’ve just described is my parents’ home in Sudbury (which is like 500 miles north of where we are. I’d never been to Sudbury and certainly never been to his parents’ home). And the hoodie you’re describing, I have one just like it, I’ll wear it the next time. And the words you’re describing, Brian, is Cambrian College.”
And then there were a lot of funny stories during that courtship period by the way that tied in with all the dreams I had. But in August, he took me over to his parents’ home and it was identical, sunken living room by the lake. Identical to what I had dreamed.
Now to answer your other question, why is it the biggest testimony of God’s faithfulness? Because all this happened in the year, 2001, when 9/11 happened, and my mum was very worried about getting on the flight home after 9/11 happened. She was visiting with my Dad, and they had both met Gerald and loved him.
But throughout that time, she was for some reason telling me, “I am afraid that I am going to die.” And I remember having conversations with her, reassuring her without any knowledge or understanding of her fear. But she returned to India in November and took ill and was hospitalized right after Christmas and was diagnosed with galloping pancreatic cancer and it came and claimed her in nine days. She died before we got married.
And why is this God’s faithfulness? He answered my mother’s prayer for me, and He answered my prayer that if this man does exist out there, that He should bring this man into my life in my parents’ life time and the timing of it, God knew what He was doing. He allowed all of us to enjoy a lovely summer together, knowing that He listens to every prayer from the heart and to let us know undeniably that He was in control. Gerald was with me, and we prayed together when we got the news about my mum.
I flew back to India I was at my mum’s bedside at the hospital, mum didn’t know she had cancer, we were all in denial, it all happened so rapidly, and all she said was, “this man is such a good hearted kind, gentleman. If this man asks you to marry him, say yes, get married, we’ll celebrate later”, that’s what she said. And then a day later she died.
And then, of course I was in India for a month and a half, we were grieving, I was with my dad, and my sister and our first Valentine’s Day was spent apart from each other, but it was all part of God’s plan for me that I should not be left alone because I was extremely close to my mum and losing her has been the biggest separation that I’ve had to go through. And this is my biggest testimony of God’s faithfulness, and there are stories I could tell you around that, about my mum and God, after my mum died, how close I’ve been brought to God because I recall in the hospital just coming out and I saw a priest, and I remember clutching at his robe and saying, “my mummy just died.” He was the first person I encountered when I got out of that room. And he held my hand, and he said, “in all things, give praise to God. In the midst of your sadness just say, I praise you, God, thank you, God because you might get angry, people grieve differently, and some people will be hostile there will be anger, in every emotion, you will encounter, continuously give thanks to God.”
And that encouragement from him is what got me through those lonely days and of even talking about my mum at her funeral service, and when I got past it, I realized that it was actually an action of God to take my mum so quickly because pancreatic cancer is the most painful type of cancer there is, and had I prayed for my mum’s life to be extended, she would have suffered greatly. And it was actually a blessing the way God took her, but I would not have seen it that way had I not been thanking God throughout that experience and so for me it was a real testimony of answered prayers, her prayers, my prayers, but also of Him, knowing His plan knowing how devastated I would be and bringing Gerald into my life to step into my life at exactly the right time, just as my mum was stepping out.
When and how did you get married?
We had met in the summer of 2001, and in 2002 August, we got married. So, it was a year from meeting him. And we had a church wedding, a regular Canadian three-day wedding and it is funny because in the Indian culture we have a three-day ceremony. So it was funny that we should both come from cultures that have a three day wedding and not just a one day wedding, but of course we followed the Canadian way, which is basically the rehearsal party dinner on day one then you have the actual wedding ceremony on day two and then on day three you have I think the gift opening ceremony and brunch for the out of town guests. That’s what we did. It was a beautiful, beautiful wedding, up there in Sudbury, by the lake.
How has your marriage impacted your life and career?
Let me tell you this I have this extreme sense of belonging. I can be myself. I don’t have to wear makeup to know that I am loved. I can grumble and cry and be a total mess. I sometimes like people and sometimes don’t like people, and I am venting all the time. You know like I come back from a client, and I am just venting about it, and it makes no difference to the quality of relationship that we have. I am never judged; I am always accepted. And that type of acceptance, I have only ever experienced with my mum and dad. Not even from my siblings, other than my mum and dad and I guess, God, right? I have not experienced that feeling of complete belonging. I can be wearing my glasses and not looking glamorous and I am completely accepted. That is a great feeling to have in a marriage. It’s a great, great feeling, you don’t feel like just because you’re not looking great, he’s going to go find somebody else, you know. I don’t feel that, I feel very secure relationally and having that kind of security in marriage, emotional security, whether as a child growing up and being completely accepted by your parents or in a marriage and being completely accepted by your husband for who you are, warts and all, puppy fat and all, is so empowering, because it frees you to be yourself. You don’t have to put on a mask you can be yourself. So, it is such a huge, huge impact when you marry the right person, and you’re completely accepted, as opposed to marrying the wrong person or marrying a person who judges you or is critical.
And it was because of Gerald that I joined the John Maxwell Team. He introduced me to John. Gerald reads a lot of books, and he owns a lot of John Maxwell CDs, and we used to go on long-distance road trips, and he used to stick a CD in all the time and I was always sitting bolt upright and listening to John Intently, because there was something in his voice that spoke to my soul. And when I first heard about the opportunity to join the John Maxwell Team, Gerald was away and travelling. He knows how much I like John and I said “I have to join this team,” and it is a significant amount of money, right? It’s not like shoes where you can just go and buy it; this was a larger amount, and I wanted to talk it over with him. And he said, “Oh my goodness if it is John, I understand why you want to join the team.” And that’s how I joined the John Maxwell Team. This has transformed my life and Business. And it was all because of meeting and marrying this man of my dreams.
What advice would you give to Christian women who are still single?
I know what it’s like to be single because I have been there and experienced it for many, many years. I know what it feels like to want to be married, especially if you are a romantic like I am. And I know the heartache of being dumped. I’ve gone through that, and I am sure that other women have gone through that as well.
But the advice that I would give Christian women and based on my experience is Honour Thyself. And what I mean by that is, whatever values are important to you, don’t sell yourself short. Because I know a lot of women who enter into intimate relationships with men, and they may or may not be dumped, but you’re selling yourself short because the right man will honour you if you honour yourself first. So yes, I got dumped and no it did not affect my self-esteem because I am just so arrogant like that (laughs). I’m thinking, what a fool, he dumped me.
But I always preserve my dignity. I have a feeling that my dignity was never stolen from me because I did not allow it to be taken away from me. No one can take your dignity without your consent. And I did not consent, and that’s wrapped up in those two words, “Honour Thyself.”
The second thing that I would tell Christian women is Be Independent. If you’re marrying for the wrong reason, like if you say oh I’m so tired of my career and I wish I lived in the fifties when I had a man that would provide for me, it’s not true because I think being independent builds your self-esteem. And that’s a very empowering state to be in. And I find that when you’re needy, you’ll repel men, but when you’re independent, you attract them.
The third thing is to Be a Person of Quality. You don’t get what you want; you get who you are. And so as long as you are in the undeveloped state following the example of everybody else moving with the crowd, doing what everybody else is doing, following the peer pressure route, of course, you’re going to attract the dregs of society. Because quality men don’t shop at singles pubs. So be a person of quality, inculcate or nurture the qualities that you want in your spouse nurture these qualities in yourself. Be the type of spouse that you want to attract.
I am an old fashioned person, and I was shamelessly old fashioned, and I attracted a man with old fashioned values.
The other thing is, know what you don’t want and what you will not tolerate. For instance, with the guy in Canada, I was happy when I got released from the relationship because I could not tolerate how he treated his mother. And I remember he said, “why are you treating her so nicely?” And I said, “because it’s really not about you, it’s about me, I was culturally brought up to respect older people, ” and I said, “if the devil himself came to my house I would offer him tea and apple pie.” That’s how I was brought up, you know. So, for me that was one of my highest values, respecting parents because I had such a close relationship with my own. But I found it very hard to tolerate somebody who couldn’t. So then when you know what you don’t want and what you won’t tolerate, it will then make it very clear to you what it is that you do want. In my case, I wanted a man who would honour his parents, and I got exactly that.
What advice would you give to single women who are discouraged by what may appear to be an inability to marry?
Don’t marry for the sake of being married. Don’t just marry because everybody else is doing it. Don’t marry because you’re afraid of being single. There is nothing wrong with being single. At the time that I met Gerald, I was happily single. I was not single and available I was happily single, enjoying my life as a single person. I was thinking, Oh how wonderful, I am single, and I can have lobster for dinner every day. Nobody could tell me what I should or shouldn’t eat or what to wear; you know what I mean. I can go where I want; I can read what I want I can watch what shows I want. I was so delighted to be single. I had every intention to be happily ever after single for the rest of my life.
Until God stepped in and interfered again!
And then, intentionally choose not to be unequally yoked. I know loads of people who married people, and they know that they drink or whatever but they still say, “oh when he’s sober he’s nice.” And then they would get married, and they hope for the sober times and they find that eighty percent he’s drunk and twenty percent he’s sober. Well, what kind of marriage are you having in the sober time, just enough to make babies, probably?
One of the people I was dating, he used to spit in front of a church, and that affected me at a very soul level, and I was trying to look past it when it was happening, but I knew deep inside that I could not tolerate it. I felt like he was spitting on my mother and my mother was my dearest friend. That’s how I felt when he was spitting in front of the church because he was trying to express his disdain for anything spiritual. He was not the right person for me, and when he walked out, I went out and celebrated because I didn’t think I would have walked out on him, so I said: “Thank you God for letting him walk out.” God weeds our lives beautifully, so stop hankering for the weeds.
So, that is my advice for young Christian women based on my own experiences. And please don’t listen to the statistics about older women having a slim chance of getting married. God does not work with man made statistics He works with you.
Finally, stay in prayerful expectation. You expect this man to come into your life. You don’t hope. There is a difference. Like you say I hope someday I will be a millionaire. It means that you are resigned to poverty. But if you expect it, expect is such a powerful word. You expect to be married, and you stay in expectation. You know what I used to do? I was alone in my apartment I was living a single life, but I used to pour two glasses of orange juice. I was setting that expectation that someday somebody will be sitting there sipping that orange juice with me, but until then, I will drink for him and for me.
And sometimes now when we have a special celebration of some accomplishment it would be one glass of wine for me, one glass of wine for him, and I would pour out a third glass of wine, and that’s for Jesus. I’m inviting Him to our table. We set the table for three and sit down to enjoy the meal. And sometimes I will be completely weird, and I’d ask God, “so how are the potatoes?” And especially when my husband will sit down there not making conversation with me, I would speak to the third guest, and I would say, “you’re more interesting than my husband today. What miracles have you done today?” So, that’s what I used to do; I used to set the table for two when I was single. Stay in Expectation.
How has God received the glory through your marriage?
Honestly, I have hidden the story of my dream for a long, long time because my husband felt that it was too weird for other people and we were just fine with keeping it to ourselves. And I am a speaker, and I felt I should share this experience. So, I asked my husband for permission because this particular talk I was giving was to all left brained people. They were all professionals and lawyers, political candidates and mayors and stuff like that and I just had a very strong feeling that I should share this story.
And Gerald said, “are you crazy? I mean if you talk to people who are a little more accommodating of your weird stories, that’s different, but this is a rational, corporate audience with a low tolerance for “woo-woo” stories.” And I said, “I don’t know why I feel I should share this story today but I need your permission.” So, he agreed. I did my talk, and at the end, I shared the story of the dream of how I met Gerald and how I married him.
And a very astounding thing happened; a hundred and fifty people came forward to me after my talk was done. It felt like a surge, like a tide like a wave, of human people and you know what almost every single person told me? “I’m so glad you shared that story because it reminded me of when…”, and then they described little incidents in their lives when similar things had happened to them, and they said, when we heard you speak about your story, it reminded us of something that happened in our lives that we had either ignored or pushed aside and by you sharing your story we are reminded of the presence of God in our lives because of our own experience that we had pushed aside. I said, “oh my God, I’m not the only one who’s had this experience; there are other people who are going through similar blessings but not standing up and sharing it.”
And that first experience is what has given me the courage to share this story more freely because I honour God’s active Presence in my life when I do
So, how has He received the glory through my marriage? We were invited in the early days of our marriage, I think we were a year or two married at the time, we were going to a Bible study and there was an elderly couple and they were speakers, presenters at the marriage prep course at a down town church and they invited us to come and be a presenting couple. And we have been doing it now for the last twelve years. So, we honour God because we’ve been brought together as a couple, it’s the way that we can give back to that ministry of preparing people for marriage.
And we’re not there as teachers; we share our story pretty much but what we find and it’s funny because every time you give God the glory, He glorifies you. And I find that just serving in that ministry and doing the marriage prep course and we do it twice a year, two weekends, and in our story, there is one story where we repeat the vows we made to each other when we got married.
And you know how powerful that is; you know how quickly when a marriage goes stale you forget the reason why you got together in the first place? And the very act of doing this marriage prep course and repeating those vows makes it all fresh again. It makes it all come alive for us. So we give God the glory by sowing into the ministry of marriage, and He gives us glory by keeping our marriage fresh with all the memories, and I remember telling them that as a couple brought together for a purpose by God, we are dynamite. Dynamite in His service. And in other ways as well, we are an active Christian couple in our churches in Bible study we lead some of the youth ministries, Gerald and I we are very happy to be involved, so we’re not just passive Sunday church Christians but we are active Christians, we do what we can.
What is the most rewarding thing you have done thus far, and why it was rewarding?
Two things, the first one, is when I started my business, you know when you leave paid employment and go into business and suddenly it’s a mystery where is the money going to come from? I remember making a promise to God, and I said, “please God look after my bills and everything because I don’t know where the money is coming from and I will make you a promise that anytime anyone asks me to serve children of the world I would step forward and not charge.”
So, when I first started in John Maxwell, and they first launched the Youth Max program, Paul Martinelli invited us to volunteer he said, “we are going to do this worldwide, and I need volunteers.” And nobody stepped forward, remember we were all new. And I felt God was asking me to step forward, and I am having this conversation with God, and I am saying, “well I guess I’d like to help a few children God, but I didn’t ask to take on the whole world.” And it was like God was saying, “well, you made a promise to me, step up and show me.”
And I remember that I had no idea how I was going to do this and I do projects, and I have done international projects, but I’ve never done something of this caliber, with youth and children, worldwide. Anyway, I remember telling Paul, I’ve never done anything like this, I don’t have any experience in this kind of thing, but here I am, I am stepping up and I remember telling him in that email that what I do have experience in is, holding my nose and jumping off a cliff blind folded and landing on my feet because I have done that in my life loads of times and by the grace of God, I always landed on my feet. And then I get a call from Paul Martinelli; he said, “you’re in.” For me, it was simply about keeping a promise to God.
There have been several such opportunities to help children that come my way that I have obeyed and the more I obey the promise, the more God honours me. I have discovered that. Every time I have stepped up; it has blessed me. I step up to keep the promise, and the blessings come from completely unexpected areas not directly related to that opportunity. And so, for me, that was very rewarding because Gerald and I don’t have kids, but we foster children in India, orphans, and one of them even got married, but we couldn’t bring her here so we just fostered her there, paying for her education and so on. That has been very rewarding.
The second thing that has been very rewarding is a trip that we accompanied John Maxwell to transform Leadership in Guatemala. Around that time, I had three of four significant clients who provided 80%of my income. And my biggest income providing client, when I told them I wanted to go to Guatemala they said, “no you are contracted to us, at this stage we can’t afford to let you go.” And I said, “I am only gone for a week,” and I was only contracted to them for a day in the week. I said, “when I come back I will give you two days instead of the one and I will not charge you for it.” They broke the contract with me, and that was my highest paying client at the time. Which meant my income was affected and I could no longer afford to go to Guatemala.
And my husband was just shaking his head and saying, “you’re so stubborn about your ways”, and he said I shouldn’t go to Guatemala and then I went all over the house moping, I had this long pathetic face, and my husband couldn’t bear the look on my face, and he said, “get out the credit card and go already.” So, I put the money on the credit card and here’s what happened. Within seven days of my having put my money down and booked my flight, I get this letter in the mail from Revenue Canada (they are the tax people) with a cheque. And they said, “we discovered that seven years ago, we made a mistake in your tax returns and here is a cheque to reimburse that mistake.” It was the exact amount for my Guatemala trip. You tell me, is God not involved? And all the time I could not understand why I felt the strong call to go to Guatemala and then I did.
I went to Guatemala, and it pretty much changed my life. I am walking on a street in a group with other John Maxwell members, and this old woman of about 85 or 90 years with tears streaming down her face comes right up to me, takes my face in her hands and says, “you are here, you have come.” I felt like I was Jesus Christ coming back (laughs). And she said, “we have been praying for you to come and you are finally here.” And she said that she had been dreaming about me that she recognized my face. How weird is it? I was very touched and finally understood that strong call upon my heart to go to Guatemala, no matter what the personal cost.
So, this is a plan that God must have had. And I had some other strange experiences in Guatemala, and it was so rewarding it opened my heart up to helping people who had no way of paying you back. It showed me that I have a purpose and He has brought me here for His purpose and that’s why that experience was so rewarding to me. We step out to serve others and to transform a country that is not our own, and the transformation happens inside us.
When and how did you begin Success by Heart?
I began it in 2008. I got a grant from the Government when I first started. When I left that last job that I was employed with, I knew that I did not wish to be employed anymore. I knew I was taking a big risk as I had no clue as to what I was going to do in my business. And I had the name, Success by Heart, given to me again, in a dream.
Where can people get more information about you and your achievements?
My website http://successbyheart.com/
