My name is Dionysis Theodorou. I was born in Cyprus, I lived in England for nine years and in New York for eight. In April 1998 while living in New York, I came to faith in Jesus and was born again. I went on to study Biblical Criticism, Jewish History and Hebrew Linguistics. I moved to Israel in October 2002 where I have been living since. I am a music producer and instructor and I perform around Israel with my band Bouzouki Groove. I recently started producing worship music. 

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The Lord came to heal the sick and the needy.

 

Those who are righteous and healthy and content have no need for help have no need for a doctor.

 

Yeshua came to heal the sick that the blind may see that the deaf may hear. Lepers were cleansed  and the paralyzed walked and the dead were brought back to life.

 

In my weakness His strength is made perfect.

 

Maybe there are people who casually move through life at ease. Maybe there are those who feel no stress, no pain—who are comfortable in their own body and in their relationship to the circumstances and people who surround them.

 

I’ve never felt comfortable. I’ve always experienced fear, discomfort, anxiety, insecurity, lack of confidence, lack of trust for others—A stranger and a pilgrim in the world.

 

I’ve always suffered from addictions because of my constant need to escape my reality—to alter my state of mind. I started smoking when I was 12 years old. At 12 years old I was performing at weddings on weekends. By 13 I was smoking almost a pack a day. I was performing at a hotel 3 evenings a week at 13 years old so money to buy cigarettes wasn’t an issue.

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I’m not even entirely sure where the pain came from. Why was I was so sensitive to my surroundings and why did I react with such desperation?

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By 14 I was performing 5 evenings a week and getting drunk on brandy sours almost every night.

 

Why did the bartender allow me to have so many brandy sours every night? I remember that I would compete with my self and with the other band members—I counted 7 brandy sours in one night. The youngest band member was 15 years older than me—the eldest was 30 years older.

 

This was Cyprus in the mid 1980s. None of this would have gone unnoticed had it happened today.

 

School was very difficult for me. I’d arrive from performing in Ayia Napa at around 1230-0100 and I’d wake up at 0645 to be at morning assembly in the school auditorium at 0730. I was actually very responsible concerning school attendance and I was hardly ever late and never missed school.

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At school I was bullied and I’d get into fights. The other kids would make fun of me because I played the bouzouki-Metallica and Iron Maiden were in style, because I was tall, because I was one of two kids in the whole school whose parents were divorced—because I didn’t fit in.  The head bullies would tease me and would even rally the other kids against me. In 9th grade I remember about 20 kids gathered together in what they called the Anti-Dion-Association and started shouting A.D.A. at me, making fun of me and calling me names.

 

My parents had their own issues going back as far as I can remember. My father left home just before my 16th birthday. He moved close by, remarried a year later and started a new family. My relationship with my mother and father and with his wife and  new family has always been steady and healthy. 

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There’s no doubt that I developed self-hate and a lack of trust and detest for my surroundings and my peers. I numbed the pain and punished myself with excess smoking and drinking. By 16 I was regularly smoking pot.

 

Through all this I enjoyed my music and performing. I had hope that I would one day be free from the troubles that plagued me—both internally and externally. I didn’t know how this would happen. I thought I would just grow up and grow out of negativity and self-destructive habits.

 

I have always read a lot. From the age of six I would read the Bible and I developed a sense of awe for the supernatural, a love for the God of the Bible and a hope that somehow in Him people like me can receive empowerment from above to overcome troubles and find trust and contentment.

 

In New York at 25 I found myself almost cigarette and alcohol free but addicted to marijuana which clouded my mind, distorted my judgment and my view of reality and plunged me into a deep depression.

 

Through all this, especially through all of 1997 and the winter of 1998 whilst seeking for truth and deliverance in the Bible, I felt that I had a choice. I sensed two paths: the one that I was on that would likely lead to destruction OR to surrender my life to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Bible, the God of Israel and receive a new life. I felt it in my heart and knew it in my mind. I heard Him calling me and His call was a call to escape and be saved.

 

“Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved” The Hebrew reads “Will Escape”

 

I didn’t know this verse then. I did know that I needed to escape and to be saved. I wanted a new life, a new path and an active relationship with the living God.

 

In April 1998 at age 25 I called out to the God of Israel who led me to my Lord, God and Savior Yeshua who changed my life forever.

 

Matthew 11:27-28 (NASB)

27 All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

 

I almost immediately became free of all my addictions. I fell in love with Yeshua. He opened the eyes of my heart and mind to understand the scriptures. The Lord would provide me with scriptures that related not only to where I was at that specific moment in time but also to my past and to my future.

 

My life changed. My perspective changed. I was born again a new creation. I had hope for the future. I had fallen in love with Yeshua. I was excited about my new life. I was excited about reading and understanding the Bible. I felt like a child l—as if I had received my innocence again.

 

You must be born again.

 

A new creation. All old things are passed away and a new creation is born.

 

The old man is perishing while the new man is being renewed day by day.

 

Translated from this world of darkness into His kingdom of light.

 

Crucified to this world and this world crucified to us.

 

Identified by baptism—like a burial—with His death and raised with him in newness of life.

 

When I fell in love with Yeshua I experienced an amazing turnaround and overturning in my life. I was gripped by a powerful reassurance and conviction which led me to make decisions in a way that required no contemplation. Decisions of a heart, mind and body captured by the love of Yeshua.

 

I experienced His hand in my life in the most comforting and amazing way. My life changed internally as well as externally.

 

I was excited about learning Hebrew so that I could read the Bible—TANACH in its original language and so I could move to Israel. I fell in love with with the people and the land of Israel and I knew that the Lord was going to make Israel my home.

 

I moved to israel from New York in October of 2002.

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