It was August of 1984 when I found myself living a life that was going nowhere fast, I was on the run and nowhere to hide. I was one of four brothers born to Maximino and Coralia Capdevila wonderful loving parents. From the day we arrived from Cuba in 1962, my parents had worked very hard and made many sacrifices for us boys to have a better life and truly take advantage of all the opportunities this wonderful country had to offer us, in other words to live the "American Dream" .Together as a family we did exactly that. Just ten years after arriving to Tampa, FL,  Maximino and Coralia Capdevila together with their four boys Jorge, Luis, Albert and Maxi Jr. bought a business named La Teresita Grocery and with much success shortly after with much hard work and sacrifice the family built the business to be the biggest Latin grocery store in the bay area.

 

But as we grew the boys which were now young men got lost in their success and began to experiment the fast life with power, money and addictions. In 1984 I found myself living a lie in the fast lane and could not stop I was out of control like a plane on a down ward spierow with a contract on my life for unpaid drug debt. My brother Luis had given his life to Jesus Christ of whom I wanted nothing to do with was now a pastor and was left with no other alternative than to take me out of town till we could figure out how to handle the situation. It was there that I found myself in the middle of nowhere in a place called Christian Retreat, within hours of being there in the late midnight hours I found myself making a decision of no longer wanting to live, I was a failure and had disappointed my family as well as the young lady I had fallen in love with, whom until just a few days prior had just found out that she had fallen in love with a man she truly new nothing about. I had been living a double life and obviously feeling betrayed and heartbroken had left me.

 

So I came to the conclusion of taking my life and found myself at the rooftop of the hotel of this retreat center and as I stood in at the edge contemplating jumping off and ending the nightmare I had been living. Suddenly I heard a voice out of the darkness that said to me "Albert don't jump I have something better for you" I was so scared that I almost fell off the rooftop. At that moment I thought no one knows that I am here in this place. So very carefully I got down from the ledge and back into my hotel room where I got down on my knees and said these words, "God if that was your voice I heard and you know all things then you truly know how much I hate who I am and how I hate this drug addiction that has destroyed my life, please help me, I surrender all of my life to you." When I awoke the next morning I was completely healed and delivered from drug addiction and alcoholism and everything else that had been destroying my life praise be to God! It's been twenty six years since both my wife and I gave our lives to Jesus Christ the only one that can take credit for whom we have become and where we are today. We have been faithfully serving God since that very moment. We started going to my brother Apostle Luis Capdevila's church and it was there that we were disciple and trained for ministry. Two years later we became the youth pastors of The King's Church and Christian Center where we pastored the youth ministry for seventeen years. Throughout the years God has molded my wife and I, and in 2003 we became the senior pastors of the very church that we had grown in as my brother and sister in-law Anita were called to Missions and named us as their successors.

 

It has been throughout all of these years that God has truly worked in our hearts through many trials and tribulation that God by His Spirit has truly placed a love in our hearts for people. God has not only placed a love in our hearts for the lost, but for those who don't know of His "Great Love". God has shown us that not everyone that comes to know Him has a revelation of the Love of God. You see Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you Love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another." "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:34-35

 

You see God has been showing us that though many come to the saving knowledg of Jesus Christ and are saved, but because of the lack of revelation of who God truly is and that He is love many can't love one another. And there are others that because they have been hurt by the church, meaning by a pastor, a leader or just simply by a situation in church they have been wounded and there for causes then not to love. In our lives we have been hurt and I'm sure that we have hurt other as well and that is going to happen in this world we live in but God has taught us that we must be responsible and not hurt people. God has taught us to not "take up the offence" we must choose to love and forgive, and that is the only way that we will be able to live a true life of loving one another that the world may know that we are Jesus' disciples.

 

Today we are excited of where God has taken us, though it has not been easy and have had to endure much pain and many trials we have purposed in our hearts to love regardless of the wrong that has been done to us. And today we teach that we must all forgive and refuse to take up the offence, this is part of keeping our hearts pure and preventing ourselves from opening doors that will keep us from truly walking in the love of God.

 

And out of a true desire to love people and to restore lives and families who likewise have been hurt and have been wounded God gave our Church the name "Abundant Love Worship Center". Our ministry is a place where lives can truly be restored, delivered and healed by the power of the Love of God. We must also keeping in mind that God has chosen to use people like you and me to show forth His love. It's a command not a choice and we as the body of Christ must apply it and take responsibility for the wrong that has been done in the church and go back to the scriptures and begin to live what we preach. It is very easy to preach and teach about all the revelation knowledge that we have of the Word of God, but how sad it is that with all that revelation we forget the most powerful tool that express who God is! "Love" Yes God is Love and that is why we are Abundant Love Worship Center, we are Pastors Albert and Chery Capdevila this is our family, and this is our story.