Valia’s Witness Talk in Chania

A Witness Talk in Chania, Crete

April 2, 2023

On April 2, 2023, Ms. Valia Zoppa presented a witness talk about her life experience and how God finally brought her close to Himself. Although back in 1989 at the age of 23 she had met Vassula Ryden, the receiver of the messages of True Life and had heard Vassula’s witness; and although she realized that it was truly the Most High speaking to all of us through Vassula; and although Vassula’s friendship to her never ceased, her mind was not set to change. So many times, Vassula tried to put some sense in her, but Valia’s temptations were stronger than any calling from God.

Valia was not a saint. She led a rebellious life for years, spending endless hours in bars after her singing sessions, in hotels, getting drunk many a time, and leading a life as far from God’s ways as one would think. God had given her many chances and many opportunities to lead a proper life. God had given her the gift of singing and a gift of a well-talked witness. She could have given witnessing talks, as she had this gift of making people listen. But no, she let all these gifts fade away in nonsense.

In the end, Vassula one day asked her to either choose God or her rebellious life. She chose the latter. Years went by, and one day, in 2019, she was found with a cancerous tumor. This was the day she was bent flat, and asked in a shrill, “My God, please give me another chance, and I promise I will make your name known and glorify You; just give me another chance!”

After successfully extracting the tumor, and as she had promised God, she finally changed and has turned out to be one of the strongest disciples of Christ to witness about His great Love and Mercy. Today she is living only for God, praising Him day and night. God had to really flatten her and draw her into mud so that she finally returns to Him.

Through Vassula, Valia learned that Christ suffered and is still suffering, for too many of us have not chosen to live in Him, with Him, and though Him. He is calling us to love Him, embrace Him in our lives, and make Him the focus of our every day. By reading the True Life in God Messages, Valia began to hear Christ’s desires, His longings, His teachings, His essence; she began to know Him. The TLIG Messages were such an inspiration for her, that she would spend hours each night, after her work schedule as a musician, reading, praying, contemplating on God’s divine plan. The True Life in God Messages had such an impact on her life, as did her long-standing friendship with Vassula, that she enthusiastically and passionately desires to share her experience, her wisdom, her blossoming love for Jesus and our Holy Mother with an audience that seeks spiritual enrichment.

Above all, she desires to talk about God’s infinite mercy, and of how having been for years a rebel to God, God finally had to test her in a very severe manner to bring that rebellious spirit to nil…and make her understand that what He had done was for her own good, to save her soul, reminding her of the greatness of His Love that He has for her.

Valia’s witness event took place at the Lektorio in Chania, Crete, through the devoted efforts of friends from Athens. Doros, Theodora, Catarina, Thalia, Marina and Sofia spent hours dedicated to event preparations: from creating and sending out invitations and announcements, to creating online registration portals and websites, to phone calling with event reminders, to collecting and sending books for distribution at the event. Candy videotaped and photographed the event. Valia, who like Vassula is from Rhodes, prepared her talk by spending a bit of time consulting with Vassula, who indeed came to support Valia. Hence, Vassula was in the audience. She came with event organizers from the Athens.

Truly, it was memorable, heart-warming, hopeful, blessed, and spiritually uplifting for us as the Chania hosts, and we have a new list of 14 people whom we can contact in hopes of perhaps starting a True Life in God prayer group. (23 people attended) Valia did not place a direct focus on True Life in God or Vassula in her talk (only alluded to them), as instructed by Vassula. Thus, The Holy Spirit can accordingly guide each participant towards True Life in God. The organizers did pass out many TLIG books, and everyone in the audience received the Heaven is Real, but so is Hell book in the Greek translation. (The presentation was done in Greek) Without a doubt, The Holy Spirit was indeed present at this memorable talk, and we were blessed to have Vassula’s support. 

When we were worried about hosting our first Witness talk in Chania, Valia reassured us saying: “Don’t worry God has a plan.” We look forward to being able to participate in His ongoing plan of evangelization in Crete. 

Written by: The witness event hosts-Maggie and Nektarios

 Valia

Report A True Life in God Witness Talk for Christmas 2023 Chania Crete

A True Life in God Witness Talk for Christmas 2023

On Sunday, December 10^th at 3:30 pm, in Chania, Crete, Theodora Konidari presented a witness talk in English, with Valia Zoppa interpreting into Greek, to an audience of 23 participants, all residents of Chania and its surrounding villages. As we neared Christmas, it was an especially good time to share the spirituality of True Life in God.

Doros from Athens TLIG designed a special website for the event which we can re-use with editing for future efforts. He also placed facebook and google ads. Thanasis, also from our Athens TLIG group, used the Greek TLIG facebook page to promote the event.

Flyers and invitations designed by Sophia-TLIG Athens were printed and distributed. The day before the talk, in rather cold weather, two other volunteers from Athens, Thalia and Marina, handed out almost 1000 invitations near the actual location where the talk would take place. We did have people come because of this effort. The Athens TLIG people worked together in a spirit of cooperation and selfless Christian love, and the event could not have happened without this selfless team work.

Theodora and Valia prepared for this talk with enthusiasm and dedication. Theodora chose to use some True Life in God Messages that brought to mind God’s Love for us, what this Love entails, and how we can find a relationship with Christ so that we can live in this Love.

Theodora firstly introduced us to her own journey towards God’s abounding love through her encounter, her reading, and contemplation of the True Life in God Messages. She spoke about the inception of these messages, given to Vassula Ryden from God. Theodora stated that without any preconceived notions or preparations, Vassula’s angel (Daniel) made her see how her sins were offending and saddening God, and she saw the sins as a film before her eyes. She saw her sins with God’s eyes, and not as we see them. What a big difference. This was a grace because she really saw the gravity of her sins; God allowed her to feel her sins. Through this experience, she suddenly saw her true self, what she was really like, and she despised herself for having offended God so much. She wept when she saw her true self. For three weeks this went on. This is indeed an awakening message for all of us. Our wrong-doings affect God directly.

Theodora continued by saying that within the True Life in God Messages God asks us to take out the word Vassula when we read them; instead, we are asked to read them by adding in our own name because these messages are for all of us. They were given to Vassula for each of us personally, and for all of humanity. Therefore, by reading them, we discover what God wants from us, what we can do to please Him, and how we can live our lives in holiness, in His Sacred Heart. Theodora quoted a message where, Jesus says:

“Love Me more, but you cannot love Me unless you know Me. That is why you must approach Me in intimacy. I want your intimacy, but never forget that I am Holy.”

Theodora clarified, “So, what does this statement say about what God wants from us? He wants us to run to Him like a child, with simplicity of heart and speak to Him from our heart, as a child speaks to his Father (intimately), but with reverence respect, honoring Him and praising Him.” She furthered, saying that God sent His Son to earth to show us God’s essence, to have His son teach us how to live our lives with God. Jesus Christ’s birth reveals the Father’s loving character. Jesus Christ brings each of us to Him, to that intimate love, and from there we can serve God as He wants us to serve Him.

So, God wants us to get to know Him, because how can we love someone we don’t know? Through the messages of True Life in God, Christ is shows us how much He is offended by our indifference to know and to love Him. We have even replaced His birth with non-important things, celebrating Christmas in the wrong way, forgetting the true significance of this day.

On the 24th December 1991, the eve of Christ’s birth, our Lord said:

“…today I come with peace-terms and a Message of Love, but the peace I am offering is blasphemed by the earth and the Love I am giving them is mocked and jeered in the Eve of My Birth; mankind is celebrating these days without My Holy Name; My Holy Name has been abolished and they take the day of My Birth as a great holiday of leisure, worshiping idols…I have warned the world…” 

            Towards the conclusion of her talk, Theodora led us back to Vassula’s first steps towards God: the steps we take to enable an encounter and relationship with Him. What is this first step we need to take? We must repent. Sincere repentance burns like fire in the soul, stated Theodora. Repentance allows the Holy Spirit to descend upon us to accomplish His divine work, tearing down all the dirt and imperfections that resist Him. To prepare us for this perfect union, He must purify us. When we repent with all our heart, we see our unworthiness through the eyes of our soul, and thus we become humble. Her call to action was:  Let us think whether we have offended God and ask for His forgiveness.

In order to achieve this task towards complete repentance, God asks us for unceasing prayer. This is when one’s heart desires God and thirsts for Him all day long; it is a prayer without words. It is the silent prayer: A contemplative prayer. It manifests when one’s spirit is completely absorbed in God, and therefore becomes sensitive to His Presence. In those moments, one has no need for words to express oneself to God because one’s whole being is inflamed with love for God. There is no other higher endeavor worth achieving.

The participants received The Heaven is Real but so is Hell book as a Christmas gift. A survey was passed out, and the feedback we received was all positive. People verbally and in written form commented on the themes from Theodora’s talk that really penetrated them. This confirmed to us that her presentation was truly inspired by the Holy Spirit. Our hope is that a prayer group will form through the participants interest in the near future. For the organizers, this was truly a wonderful way to celebrate and prepare for Christmas.  

Book Table 

Theodora’s Witness Talk

Athens Report -Nektarios’s Witness

Our Creator ‘He who loves us most’ is calling… Will we listen?

« Living in His Love »

In gratitude for the remarkable testimony given by Valia and Theodora in Chania, Nektarios reciprocated the gesture by giving his testimony in Athens on April 20, 2024, with Catarina as his Greek translator. The title of his talk was: Our Creator ‘He who loves us most’ is calling… Will we listen?

Nektarios has been reading and studying the True Life in God Messages since 1997, and was baptized in 1998 by Vassula in Rhodes. When he began to read the True Life in God Messages, his desire to penetrate them led him to a deep repentance. Our Lord is no man’s debtor, and has given Nektarios not only a knowledge and understanding of his sins, but also a desire for God’s Wisdom. Hence, Nektarios’s breadth of understanding and prayerful acceptance for God’s word led him to travel with Vassula on her missions and present his testimony as a witness to various audiences. He has presented his testimony in Switzerland, Germany and in the USA: in Los Angeles, in Chicago, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Georgia, imparting concepts from the True Life in God Messages that inspired in his listeners a genuine desire and acceptance for God’s commands; in turn, finding a way to live in His Love.

It took some effort for Nektarios to construct a testimony for the Athenian audience. How does one impart the language of love, the desire God has to reach us, so we live with Him and for Him? Nektarios tried to capture the True Life in God Messages from various angles, asking the Holy Sprit to guide him. After quite a few revisions, Nektarios’s final account illustrated firstly that “Jesus, as the head of His Church, wants it stronger. He wants the Holy spirit to flow into it in greater force.” He introduced Vassula, presenting a video about her encounter with her Angel Daniel and God’s desire for her to receive His word, so as to spread it far and wide.

Nektrios summarized: “I can tell you the messages were sent by God to help us Find Him because so many have lost faith in God or their faith is weak. This means, that if you take the TLIG Messages to heart and work with them, a new sense of peace, purpose and meaning will grow in your heart; and this growth you will know in yourself as a divine blessing in your life.”

The Athenian hosts Theodora, Doros, Sophia, Thanasis, Marina, Thalia and all who helped them exerted much enthusiasm and energy towards inviting people to this presentation. Doros and Thansis worked online, Thanasis on facebook; Doros created a website and google ads. Sophia created a welcoming invitation that Marina and Thalia in-exhaustingly passed out to people, with the help of True Life in God friends. Theodora organized the event, reserving the venue, making the follow-up calls to the interested individuals, and creating evaluations, along with a True Life in God book display. She kept the organizational momentum going, listing the interested people, making sure the invitations were spread. May she and all the volunteers be blessed. A verbal invitation, thanks to Pavlo, was furthermore given via the True Life in God Radio. As a follow-up to the talk, a subsequent event was planned for the following day for those who wanted to hear more. It was a more intimate setting at a nearby café.

On the day of the talk, everything in the venue was set. Nektarios’s translator, Catarina, energetically, and with much love in heart translated Nektarios’s every word in the spirit and tone that he imparted. She echoed and complimented the whole of Nektarios’s presentation, enlivening the words in Greek as Nektarios did in English. Nektarios’s presentation, through the Holy Spirit’s grace, was full of life, encouragement, newness, and a clear depiction of our Lord’s calling through the True Life in God Messages. As his display, to illustrate his words, he used visuals, videos, and readable excerpts from the True Life in God Messages. He colorfully clarified the True Life in God themes through personal anecdotes, historical accounts, stories, and a call to personalize God’s calling. Overall, the presentation was animated.

There were sixty members in the audience, thirteen newly interested in the TLIG messages and four that attended the café gathering the following day. Everyone took a Heaven is Real and/or the TLIG Book One. Picturesque cards and calendars were also freely given. The witness talk was a success, Thanks Be to God Almighty!

Nektarios ended his talk with this True Life in God passage:

« I, the Lord, love all of you and it is for the sake of those who seek The Truth that I come to show them again what The Truth really is and what It means since they have forgotten It; I am The Truth and The Truth is Love, Fathomless Love, Sublime Love, Eternal Love; My Book is a Book of Love;«  (TLIG Messages, April 9, 1988)

Written by-TLIG Volunteer: Magdalini

          Nektarios

The Athens Audience