Since 1973, Fred and Rachel Whitman have persevered to plant a church in Perugia, Italy, a city about 100 miles from Rome. Tiziano is one of many saved through their ministry. Here, he tells his story in his own words.
After growing up on the streets of Rome, where I was involved in drugs and especially heroin for about 20 years, my family moved back to Perugia, where I had been born, in an attempt to get me out of drugs. It didn’t work. I easily found them at Perugia too. My girlfriend Ester had a brain aneurism and during that crisis I prayed for the first time, selfishly asking God to spare her life. He did answer my prayer to spare her life, but that didn’t change the way that I was living. I just got deeper and deeper into drugs, even stealing from my parents and robbing strangers to pay for my habit.
After Pastor Whitman’s visit at our apartment that night, my girlfriend’s life was radically changed [Click to read Ester’s testimony]. Pastor Whitman, whom I had seen years earlier in Rome on his Gospel telecast, La Bibbia Oggi (The Bible Today) did his best to get me to visit the church with Ester, but it was too convenient for me to drop her off on Sunday and then go and buy my drug supply for the week. One day after church, as I stopped in front of the church to pick up Ester, Pastor Whitman came out to greet me. He asked me if I was afraid to visit the church, and I assured him that I wasn’t. In fact, the next Sunday morning I came to church with Ester. I was given a Bible and challenged to begin reading it.
One Friday evening as I read about how the Lord Jesus had suffered on the cross, I understood that He had done it for me. My wrecked life and my slavery to drugs had become unsupportable. I cried out to God for His help, believing His promise, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” I had already set up an appointment for the next morning to drive a friend of mine to pick up our drugs for the week. I kept my promise and drove for him, but I didn’t buy any for myself. In fact, from that night I never touched heroin again! Praise the Lord!
After I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into my life, Pastor Fred told me that if I really wanted to be serious about being a disciple of Christ I would need to interrupt my adulterous relationship and move out of my house, leaving Ester and her boys to sleep there alone. He offered me a bed at his house in his boys’ room, and I went there to live for several months until Ester and I were able to get married. Over these past 20 years I have had my ups and downs, but I know that the Lord has saved me, changed my life, and will carry me ahead until He comes for me.
As I look back over these years of the Lord’s faithfulness, I especially remember a wonderful way that the Lord used me for His glory. After I was saved, I had a burden to reach my former drug-friends with the Gospel. Two of these, Ivano and Massimo, in consequence of their sharing needles, had contracted AIDS. As I would go and visit them, they would try (unsuccessfully) to get me to smoke pot with them. They were also very angry that I, who had shared their needles, miraculously had not been infected with AIDS as they had been. Even though they made fun of me, I kept returning to talk with them and talk to them about Jesus, what He had done for me and what he could do for them. One night Ivan, who at this point was totally bedridden, prayed and put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was miraculously changed. Instead of cursing God’s name and swearing, he wanted me to pray and read the Bible with him. The next day I took Pastor Fred to visit him, and he said that it was one of the most glorious conversions that he had ever seen. One month exactly after Ivano found pardon and forgiveness in the Lord, he was taken into His presence, never to suffer again. I am so glad that I’ll see him in heaven, even though his brother Massimo rejected the Lord until the end.