story
URSULA
CAMPOS
“I was surfing three times per day, stoked, but yes I was very empty.”
Ursula, was there a moment or experience that led you to faith?
Uhm, so I grew up in a very broken family. My father was very involved in his surf, he used drugs and was a very difficult person. My mom has a mental illness (schizophrenia) so she wasn’t very “normal.” I was looking after her since I was 15, and I was very lost.
I got involved in surfing as a child, growing up around competitions and seeing my father judge in Brazil. I started bodyboarding when I was a kid, and at 15, I began surfing with a shortboard – and I loved it. So I became a surfer, surfing three times a day, stoked, but despite that, it felt very empty.
I remember once my mom actually invited me to a church service at a Baptist church. I went and accepted Jesus, which was very random but after that, I gained a new sense of discernment between what was good and what was bad – which I didn’t have before. Before that, I would act out, looking for fights and doing things to get attention.
That was a small shift, but then some older women came to my house for a prayer meeting and told me I should stop surfing because it wasn’t good for me. I was like: “Oh no! They’re brainwashing me!” Haha so I stopped going to church.
Eight months later, I was working at a surf store and none of the owners there were Christian, but one guy who had participated in a surf competition, where the Christian Surfers Bible was given as a prize, just left the bible there at the store. So while sitting in the store, I recognized that it was a Bible and then started reading the testimonies of the surfers. It was crazy I was recognizing the pro surfers and was like: “Oh sick, is CJ Hobgood Christian!” It was really cool and I felt inspired and encouraged, thinking, “I want my life changed in this way too.” And inside the Bible, there was also a flyer about a Christian Surfers meet-up in Brazil, and it was in a suburb where I knew a couple people.
So randomly, I ran into a guy from our crew who was known for being wild and into drugs – like “never say sorry” kind of attitude. But he lived in that suburb so I mentioned the meet-up, and asked if he knew anything about it. And he’s like: “Yeah I’m going and I’m a new man.”
At the time, I wasn’t Christian, so I was shocked and found this very strange, but he invited me to come along. I was like, “Great!” but I never called him. I wasn’t going to go, but two weeks later, I ran into him at the beach, and he was like “Ursula, the Christian Surfers meetup is today, do you wanna come?” I decided to go.
So at first, I was waiting for the bus and the one that came seemed like a sign to not go because it was heading straight to my house, so I thought, “I’m probably just going to go home rather.” But then I heard a voice inside of me saying, “You do many things for yourself. Why don’t you do one day for me?” So I went, and I really found my tribe. Everyone shared my surf style, embraced me, and really made me feel loved. Then I became Christian for serious, got baptized the following year, and now 17 years later, I’m still here.
Crazy! And what impact did reading those testimonies of others have on you?
Everyone wants to have their lives changed, right? When I was in the ward, I was searching for something. I didn’t even know that I was looking for something, but I was. I also didn’t realize that what I was searching for was Jesus – and that this hole inside of me was the size of the presence of God and a relationship with Jesus, something I didn’t know I could have. Now, it just feels right.
But yes I feel like when you find something meaningful, it becomes real and personal. If someone had just handed me a Bible to read without context, I probably wouldn’t have cared. But when I read it and saw how the words were transforming real people – people I’m a big fan of – it hits differently.
It was very relatable, especially for surfers. Reading the testimonies and seeing where people came from and where they went is inspiring. And for me personally, I know I could never be where I am now if it wasn’t for Jesus.
Was there a particular Bible verse that impacted your journey?
“Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
This verse really helped me when I first became a Christian. I remember the first time I truly understood it. Yes you can read the Bible, but when the Holy Spirit gives you a revelation about a verse, it becomes life-changing. The Christian Surfers Bible was the first bible I ever read and when I read that verse, I thought, “Wow – He really is the way, the truth, and the life. There’s no way to get to God except through Him.”
For me, that was a major moment. It was when I really started to fall in love with Jesus and began to understand that if I wanted to know who God the Father is, I’d have to first understand Jesus.