Hi my name is Estêvão, but I was always called Steven because people couldnt pronounce it. I am 21 yrs old and am a first year student at university.

I was raised in a Christian family. I am the youngest of three brothers, although I am now the tallest. I used to live in a bad neighbourhood in Bolton called Breightmet. The area was horrid to live in, we then moved to Salford to another bad area, but its the better of the two. From a young age I could see God working in my life. Once when I was younger I knocked over a cup of boiling hot tea and burned my leg, it became bright red and it was very painful, this was during a housegroup meeting. My dad then picked me up and ran cold water over my leg. When I went back in the room the person in charge of the housegroup meeting prayed for my leg then it slowly started to heal. By the end of the night it was healed.

When I turned eleven I got baptised. At this point I felt it was right to do so when the opportunity arrived I took it. While I was in high school I found it easy to make friends and was never bullied, but my brother (who was at the same high school) had it worse. As I finished the final year I didnt do well in my exams, I didnt score any high grades.

I then went to college and studied a few short computer design courses that I really enjoyed, I did this for two years. Then an opportunity arrived to study a national diploma in Multimedia; as I didnt have the qualifications to do this course so I could see that it was God influenced. The person in charge of the course saw what certificates I done and said that I could go on the course because Ive basically covered what was going to be on the course. My average grade on the course was a "merit", During the second year of the course I applied at university. I got accepted at either Bolton Institute or The University of Central Lancashire. I chose to study my degree at Central Lancashire. What I needed to get in was an average mark of a "merit" with three distinctions. I achieved an overall "merit" and four distinctions.

At university I attend the Christian union and have made some good friends. I am also secretary of the volleyball team. Its a really poor team, to be truthful, but at least it keeps me active. Im finding my course fun all except for one module, "programming", but hopefully I should be able to change it and study media technology instead of web and multimedia. Media tech is basically the same but without programming and more television production that I enjoy anyway.

I know that this testimony may seem boring compared to that of others, I never did most of the things that my peers did, but my need for God has been no less than that of anyone else.