Marcelo Sousa was born in Brazil. He and his family immigrated to the United States when he was nine years old. This tell- all memoir of truth and healing tackles one man's struggle with immigration and identity issues, and touches on topics such as gender and sexuality according to the Gospel.
Written for those at a challenging point in their lives, Marcelo offers a light in the darkness to guide people back to God as well as help them in their internal struggles. After all, no one should battle alone.
This heartwarming, intensely moving story of a lost son’s return to God will illustrate the beauty in surrendering to Jesus Christ and how the Lord can set us free. Reading this young Brazilian American boy’s tale of peace and healing will inspire reflection and insight into your own difficult moments.
This story of hope, peace, and healing. This young man’s journey to freedom in the Lord’s love will inspire you to grow your personal connection with God. No matter where you are in life, or what you’re facing, this book can help you. From a struggle with an identity crisis, addiction and recovery, isolation, loneliness, poor parenting skills, one man’s advice and raw life’s story, can help guide you back into the light. Sometimes you have to be broken to find your purpose.
Many will identify with my deeply personal, intensely moving story of immigrating to the United States from Brazil, and growing up in New Jersey. Born to an incredibly religious family, I wound up lost and without God’s guidance.
This book is about identity and the challenge to change from the old into the new being. The transformation away from loneliness and guilt, to a world filled with love, instead of hate and anguish. I have always longed for something more but didn’t know what it was. It all began with the want. I’m writing this book first for myself. To that little boy from Brazil who never stopped dreaming and who always, and still does, have an enormous heart. This book is my healing and my breakthrough to conquer the next chapter of my life. Coming to the United States, and adjusting to life in America, has been one of the biggest challenges in my life. It has also been unfathomably rewarding. I sometimes wonder how my life would have been different if I had stayed in Brazil. And then I catch myself. It is important to look forward, never backward. Does the butterfly long for his cocoon or does he dream of flying through the air, and drinking the sweet nectar of life?
The butterfly arrived and floated up so high that you simply had to stop and admire its radiant elegance, influenced by the sources of light and energetic currents flowing all around. It peered up and flapped its wings as if calling for attention, conducted by the choir of the heavens, following in rhythmic vibrations. It danced so delicately that I was in awe of its grace and determination. Landing on a single red rose, it stretched its wings like it was preparing for prayer, preparing to tell the story of a boy who would one day share his plight with the world. Its strong angelic presence surrounded me, confirming a message that God was always, and will always, be nearby. It symbolized that God watched over me, offering protection, and sending comfort. An emblem of a journey of change and growth. A story of identity and dreams, and of a being that would one day reach his full potential.