Called To Be Ministers of Reconciliation
By Claudia Bonfante
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Claudia Bonfante and
I live in beautiful California. I am the wife of Michael Bonfante and
the mother of Tami, Juli, Mario and Mike. I am now in my 60’s and am
thoroughly enjoying being gramma to 6 delightful grandchildren. My life
today is full and abundantly blessed.
But, there was a time in my life when all I wanted to do was commit
suicide. You see, I spent the first 33 years of my life abusing myself.
I was very outgoing and popular and to others I appeared to have it all.
But inside I was insecure and thought very little of myself. I found
that I always compared myself to others and managed to find ways to
belittle myself. This eventually led to years of self abuse which
manifested in alcoholism, prescription drug addiction and bulimia.
During those devastating years of my life I made two serious attempts on
my own life. On both occasions, God saw fit to intervene in miraculous
ways. He would not allow it, though unknown to me at the time, He had a
plan and purpose for my life.
Our family had suffered greatly as a result of my addictions. My
marriage was about to end and I feared that should my husband leave me,
he might be able to get our 4 children. Everything I dearly loved was
being threatened and that is what brought me to my knees as never
before.
In spite of my awful sin and disobedience, God chose me. To this day
that still amazes me and causes me to praise Him. It is an awesome thing
to be chosen of God. I believe that God knew me in my mother’s womb and
despite the abuse of others and the abuse at my own hands, He had a plan
and I was about to discover that plan that would give value, meaning and
purpose to my life.
First and foremost He wanted me to know, in an experiential way, that
He was my Father and that He chose me to be His child. I thought I was a
Christian. After all I was an American and attended church with my
grandmother as a child. I knew about Jesus, but I had not had a personal
encounter with the Cross. I did not have a personal relationship with
Him. You see, there is a big difference between knowing things about
Christ, and knowing Him personally. Without the personal experience,
being what the Bible calls, being born again,
I did not have the power to overcome sin in my life. Once I had an
encounter with the person of Jesus Christ, I knew I was loved in a way I
had never known love before. Something in that healed me at a heartfelt
level. I was never to be the same again. This happened in my life in
August of 1976.
My conversion experience was a very dramatic and emotional one. It
was truly a born-again experience. What that meant for me was that one
day I was one way and the next day I was like a totally different
person. Everyone around me could see remarkable changes very quickly in
my life. It wasn’t long before changes began to start to heal broken
relationships. My marriage had hope for the first time in over 8 years.
The day I was born-again, the craving for alcohol just disappeared never
to return. God just broke that chain instantly. The bulimia took 2 years
to overcome completely as I learned how to bring the body into
subjection to the Spirit. Little by little over the years God has healed
every broken area of my life teaching me valuable lessons along the way
from His Word and through life experiences. For many years, I worked in
my local area among alcoholics and drug addicts. It was so wonderful to
see God move in their lives and see them set free in the name of Jesus.
Eventually a ministry was born. Today many who are broken and hurting
are being reached and introduced to the new life they can have in Jesus.
Claudia Bonfante
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