This was of course extremely painful. My situation was not just a matter of mere depression or phobia within physical bounds· it had to do with bonds. I was bound...satanically bound. The devil had caught me in his tentacles. One after another his tentacles grabbed tightly around my soul. I was steadily heading to destruction. The depression was gradually getting worse, the phobia within my mind was increasing, the bonds in my mind were growing bigger and bigger and my antisocial behavior seemed to be getting off limits.

Christ was not in me, I did not have the hope of glory. ( Colossians 1: 27 ) I did not have the hope of being delivered. As I was in this desperate situation which was little by little getting worse, I began making plans to commit suicide. Of course it was not me who was making these plans· it was someone else who was planning them and placing them in my mind in the form of suggestions. In the Gospel of John 10: 10 we read that “ the thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” The devil hates man so much that he wants to utterly destroy him because he himself is already destroyed and has but only very little time in his hands.

For about eight years, 1974 till the early months of 1982, my life was speedily heading to a thorough destruction. Psychologically, I was in a deep despair and hopelessness.

Besides the psychological pain I was going through, there was something else which added even more pain in my life. It was a bodily disease in the form of allergy which appeared to me in my early childhood.

I remember my mother taking me to hospital at such a tender age, desperately hoping for a remedy which would put an end to my pain and distress.

However, Christ, the hope of glory ( Colossians 1: 27 ) the hope of healing, was not in my heart. I wish I had met Him at that time...! The allergic disease I had was called “Erythema Multiformee”. At the start it affected only the area around the mouth and especially my lips which started being full of sores and melting. I was not able to eat any solid food and even had a hard time drinking liquids. When food or drink touched my lips which were full of sores and were melting, I felt an excruciating pain as if someone was scratching these sores. There did not seem to be any known remedy. The doctors only tried to cauterize the sores using all sorts of ointment. As I grew older, the disease not only failed to respond to the treatment I was given, but it kept increasing inside my mouth all the more, especially after the age of 18 when it begun to appeared all over my body. During my military service I was admitted to Paphos Hospital where I was examined by different doctors. One of those doctors suggested treatment using 10% nitric silver if I am not mistaken. This cauterization was one of the most painful things I have ever suffered in my life so far. When this acid touched the sores on my lips and the outer part of my mouth, it was so severe that it opened small holes even on my teeth.

During my military service as well as later on I was being examined by a doctor at the Nicosia Hospital. On one occasion, Andry, my fiancée,- before we got married-, had accompanied me to the hospital and, secretly asked the doctor about my case: “ I want to know all about this man. I am going to marry him and I have the right to know what’s happening to him.” Then the doctor said to her. “Unless he takes his medicine he will die...” I didn’t know anything about this. The doctor had given me pills which contained cortisone, as I later discovered, and told me to take them regularly in order to fight the disease. However, this treatment had no results at all. The disease would appear again and it grew worse all the time, at a very fast rate. When I was younger the disease would appear once or twice a year. Later, however, it manifested itself almost six times a year, with the symptoms lasting longer and getting worse.