Christian Daily International’s new podcast, Faith Without Frontiers, turns in its second installment to the story of Palmira de Sá of Angola, who speaks candidly about surviving childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence and racism — and about the Christian faith that shaped her long journey toward healing.
Released April 7, the conversation with host Gordon Showell-Rogers introduces de Sá not simply as a survivor, but as someone now walking alongside others through her work with the Prince and Princess Association in Angola. “Each time that a victim just tells their story, I cry with them,” she says. “It just breaks my heart to see a soul that Jesus died for so broken.”
Her account moves between painful personal memories and the wider realities she says many women and children face in Angola. Looking back on her younger years, de Sá recalls reaching a point where she believed “I was brought to this life just to suffer and to be used as trash.” But she also describes how that outlook began to change through prayer, Scripture and what she understood as God’s steady presence in her life.
One of the most striking threads is her description of forgiveness not as a quick or sentimental idea, but as a costly process. Speaking about the man who abused her, she says the turning point came when she was finally able to pray, “I ask you to forgive him, I ask you to bless him.” That, she says, lifted “a heavy burden” from her heart.
The discussion also widens to the failures of police, courts and churches to protect victims. De Sá says survivors are often silenced by shame, fear and bad theology, while abusive behavior is too often treated as a private matter rather than confronted openly. “If you do not report, you are being part of it,” she says, arguing that church leaders must learn to distinguish between problems to be counseled and crimes that must be reported.
Despite the suffering of victims, De Sá repeatedly returns to the conviction that healing is possible in Christ. “Jesus is the healer,” she says. “He’s not just the healer of the body. He’s the healer of the soul.”
Listen to today’s conversation as it opens a window into the courage, sorrow and hope behind De Sá’s ministry.
