The Great Exchange: Moving Away from Religion and Closer to God

By Aneasa Perez

Aneasa's commitment to connecting with Christ helped her escape the deceitful promises of false prophets, charlatans, and cults.

The Great Exchange recounts the author's life and struggles with loneliness and false church communities. She was raised by her grandparents without the love of God, which caused her to strug

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Dec 3, 2024
• ISBN: 9798893336580

Aneasa Perez

Aneasa was born in Trinidad and came to the US at age fifteen. She has personal experience with prophetic dreams and spiritual connections. A child she thought was lost was resurrected by God, and He restored that missing gem. The process of writing this book has encouraged her to know that we never lose our children. They are always safe with God. Aneasa's passion for children and parents inspired her to write, encouraging anyone who has experienced loss.

Book preview

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Smile and the whole world will smile back at you.

I love to smile, and I always remember this saying.

I always felt my smile was real to others. Not fake, my smile was genuine.

I truly love smiling at others and greeting people.

Greeting others through a smile was a pleasant experience for me. Being a greeter at church was always a favorite job of mine, too.

But there were many times when I was alone. There was no one smiling back at me. That smile turned into loneliness and sadness. And I would say to myself I want the smile to be happiness, but who can I share this with? I remember some of my days of depression, and most of them were spent laying on my bed; tears were my best friend. My pillow was my only comfort. Isolation seemed to be my only friend. The company I kept was sadness, bitterness, emptiness, and insecurity.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope ad a future.

- Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

I realized that God’s thoughts towards me are good. He has good things for me.

FOREWORD

The Great Escape by Aneasa Perez is a real-life story of how the power and love of God delivers her from the kingdom of darkness, where she was for close to 40 years, into the kingdom of light.

Her journey chronicles and explains how many people today are taken advantage of by false prophets and charlatans

In her quest to find God, she ended up in churches that are full of deception and lies. These churches and prophets presented themselves as God’s tools and workmanship, but in truth, they are just after people’s money and talents.

Commercialization, abuse, and occultic and deceptive practices in the church cannot be ignored. Many ignorant and naive people are being taken advantage of while these false prophets and churches keep getting richer. That’s why I invite you to read this book by Aneasa. It unravels the secrets of these enterprises; it’s an eye-opener. I commend her for her boldness and courage in sharing her experiences while enslaved by the deception and manipulation of these magicians and deceivers masquerading as men of God.

The light of the Word of God set Aneasafree from the bondage of deception, and God can set you free also. She’s been walking in victory since then while sharing her great testimony.

While reading The Great Escape, I encourage you to open your heart to the truth so that freedom will come to you. Aneasa Perez is proof that God can set us free from many years of deception.

Solomon Izang Ashom

Christian Apologist and Journalist

South Africa

1

Childhood

When I think of Trinidad, I think of sunsets, and lots of time with the ocean and flowers.

To me, the ocean means connection.

The ocean calls for freedom and creation, openness. The ocean gives you space to be yourself (to breathe). It was the only place I felt free as a child. I didn’t swim; the most I would do was put my foot in the water. But it felt liberating, and I was relaxed. I felt as if I were easing away; the tension in my body would melt away. When I’m at the ocean and look at the sky, there is no end, and I know I’m not alone. There’s a presence there; it’s so big it feels impossible that I could be alone. There is greatness in that space. At that point in my age, creation began to tell a story. It told me that I’m not alone. This was the beginning of something that would happen, but I didn’t know yet. The awakening hadn’t happened yet. I was beginning to know the spiritual feeling that I’d come to understand later in my life. I was cautious because I still felt numb and afraid, so I wouldn’t go deeper in the water. I would look at the raging waves on the rock, and I was cautious to not go deeper. When I saw the waves, I could see they were so powerful there must be a force moving all these things. This made me wonder.

Mystery was always a word in my mind. Mystery has been a force of God’s creation in my mind. The creation of everything I saw around me, the sea, the sky, the sand, spoke to me.

All of God’s creation has a voice. We are all connected since God formed us from the dust of the earth.

I was two years old when my mother left me to go work in New York. I was to be raised by my grandparents, along with my older brother. She could have taken him (our patriarchal culture would prize the boy), but she wanted us to stay together. We had each other, at least, and we are still close today.

I felt like Moses. She dropped me at the door of my charitable grandparents and community. And she sailed away. However, they didn’t take time for my education or well-being. I was never fully embraced or really loved. I felt just like a stray. They cared for my basic needs, but there were no hugs, no I love you.

My bedroom was shared with cousins. These kids were my uncle’s children. There were over seven children living in the house. For the most part, the girls would all share a room, and the boys would share another room. My aunt and uncle also lived with us in this house, and I had to sleep with them in their room because there wasn’t enough space in the girls’ room with the other children.

My grandparents never sat and talked to us. They never asked how my day was or showed interest in what I was interested in. My aunt was usually put in charge of the children. She wasn’t nice and would often pick on me. She had no children at the time. Those other cousins had their dad active in their lives, but my dad was not in the picture.

If I was eating and I didn’t like the food, she would tell me I must eat it and she would try to physically force the food down my throat. She never did this to my other cousins. They would see this and know it was unfair but couldn’t say anything. My brother also went through similar things, but I didn’t realize at the time because I was going through my own. My other cousins were also struggling in a different way.

All the children were expected to help clean the house. However, cleaning responsibilities were placed more on me. They would keep me at home more, not at school, isolating me from my peers, unable to learn. I might be sent to the store twenty times in a day, not to school like the other children.

Everything I did was frequently met with a hit or slap. I was always being attacked by my aunt.

Going to church every Saturday was a routine event. My Grandfather was a Seventh-day Adventist pastor. We were always invited to different churches and homes. The food and friends were warming. Every week it was in a different place, seeing different people, meeting different communities. And every service, weekly, he’d call me and my brother up. This was my moment. I was a star! As Grandpa would say, We don’t discriminate against anyone, showing his beloved grandchildren and our dark skin.

I can still smell curry and roti, the yellow-staining turmeric, potatoes, and flour. There was so much flour around to make the roti, a bread like naan. I gobbled it up and felt happy for a while. Fruits and vegetables were