My name is Brian Agustin Yapura. I was born in the Argentinian city of Salta. On my father’s side, there’s a mix of Catholicism and paganism – going to mass on a Sunday while also praising Mother Earth (Pachamama in Spanish).
On my mother’s side of the family, there’s a background of evangelical Christianity, though she never believed in the gospel or got involved in church. My parents decided to send me to a Roman Catholic school, meaning I was baptised and confirmed in the Catholic tradition in order to attend.
In my early teens I was very badly behaved at school. Academically I achieved well, but my conduct was far behind. My family had to speak to the headteacher every week because of something or other that I had done. I reached a point where one more incident would get me expelled.
During that time, some friends from a local tennis club shared a book with me about the supposed non-existence of God, written by an atheist author. I devoured it, and started to think that I might not really believe in God. Meanwhile, my brother started attending a church and made friends with an American missionary who had been working in the country for about ten years.
