“Jesus came and showed me that He was real that day.”

Janet Mabie
Spur Ottawa Writer

It’s a warm summer morning as a father plays with his three young children at a local park. As they play, he teaches them about sharing sand toys and taking turns on the play structure. One child slips and the loving father consoles her, yet there was a time when this father was sure he did not want to bring children into the world.

“My dad asked me if I wanted to get married and have children. I felt unworthy to be married and I felt it would cause more harm to bring children into the world,” shares Teti Kabetu.

At the time, around 2014, Kabetu was overcome by negative emotions caused by the dangerous lifestyle he was living. “I dove into the world for the desires, my appetites that I was looking for. I had come to my wits end. I was done with life.”

Desperate, hopeless, and about to overdose, Kabetu reached out to Jesus. “I said, ‘Okay, you know what? If you are real, show me that you are real and I will serve you.’ He came and He showed me that He was real that day, pretty much that moment.”

As he prayed, the effects of the drugs left him immediately. After that day, even though Kabetu continued living his harmful lifestyle, he started seeing evidence of the reality of Jesus in different places.

“I was touched by Jesus’ love and I felt His presence hugging me and telling me to let go of everything, all the things I’d done.”

“I kept seeing Him manifest physically, like the verse in Psalms where David says, ‘If I didn’t see God in the land of the living, I would have died.’ I just started seeing Him.”

When a woman in a restaurant looked at him and started telling him how Jesus loves him, he knew the Holy Spirit was at work. Some time later, a friend invited Kabetu to church.

“I was touched by Jesus’ love and I felt His presence hugging me and telling me to let go of everything, all the things I’d done,” he says of his church visit. “I cried and I felt the love of Jesus, but also the love of the people there. I felt forgiven.”

Soon Kabetu began attending the church where his mother worshipped and that is where he met his future wife, Stacy.

“When I was around her I felt peace and joy. I could be beside her and not even talk to her and I just felt so comfortable,” says Kabetu. “I enjoyed going to church to worship Jesus and to hang out with the ‘smiley girl’ who kept forgetting my name.”

“You are never too far gone.”

As the weeks went on, Kabetu became more committed to his church and got involved with church groups. He could feel God working in his life, transforming his heart, and blessing him richly.

Kabetu also felt that God was going to bring him into a relationship. Then, in 2016, he began to create slogans on hats. He made a hat that said “Joy breaks down walls” and gave it to Stacy, not realizing her middle name is Joy. Kabetu says God certainly used Stacy to break down emotional walls and barriers in his life. The pair started dating, and are now married with three children.

“You are never too far gone,” Kabetu stresses. “Jesus will find you wherever you are. He loves you! Follow Him and He will grow you into the person that He sees, the person that He created you to be.”