Being A Son

(Skate ministry! we reach out to the community in the skate park :) )

This last year was wow, amazing, awesome, inspiring, and transforming! I loved every bit, even the hard times because it got me that much closer to The Father. 2012 makes me laugh and become very very excited for the rest of my life because I see how God changed a "lost boy" into a man knowing who he is and growing everyday in that knowledge. My identity has been revealed to me by the Father and in the Father. I love him for it so much! I see how even in my career choice that God has put in me desires like His for His people and for the "lost boys" like I was. I'm no longer seeing people for their short comings and if I do He shows me very quickly who they are made to be, who they ARE.

(baby bro Ethan's sneezing Ernie experience haha )

I finally see  God being my Father, He has always been in every area of my life and its mind blowing and fulfilling. Passions I've forgotten and dreams I lost, he restored. Holes in my heart no man or women in my life could fill He keeps on filling over and over, and when I forget He sends more love my way like the Father He is would. I am covered from head to toe in peace when I remember that my Father is also LOVE and the author of all real love. How can you beat that??? In being a stylist/barber I get to love people for who they are and help them see exactly what the Father sees as well. Some people think its strange, but even though i'm working on the outside of people I get to see the inside too and admire it! God made them! He knows them, and I get to be apart of that with every haircut and every talk I have. I love people so much!

2013 is going to be a promising year and is already! I've seen so many great relationships built and grow and some restored! God is powerful like that and loves bringing family and friends back together. 
                                                 ~ some of my lovely friends~

 

                   

I have an excellent opportunity this year to go to Pattaya, Thailand and in that trip I'll be helping many people see who they are and how God loves them. I mentioned this trip in my last post, but more info on the trip has been given and I'm super excited! I might have a potential connection to go back to thailand in the future and start a ministry over there I've been thinking about. It would involve showing sex/trade victims who are being restored potentially learning a new trade to start a new life. Rather than just giving them hand outs we can teach them how to provide for themselves! amazing right?!?! Please pray with me on this one because I want this connection bad, and it would be first of many to bring to other nations including our own!

I'm also raising funds for that Thailand trip and I'm about $2600 short. I'm also going to need to stay in school and finish off strong, but have only a little less than 3 payments left for tuition. Total left for Tuition is $1000.00! I've come sooo far and thank all of you who have prayed with me on this journey and supported me!

here are the links below if you wanna donate:)

Tuition: $1000
https://www.ibssm.org/a/donate/secure-form?student_id=215780&target=tuition

Thailand: $2600
https://missiontrips.ibethel.org/transactions/new/570 

                                               Send me something a letter or whatever:)

1063 gilbert st redding, ca 96001

(Fall)ing Into My Destiny

The news recently is I'm going to Thailand! Pattaya, Thailand to be exact! Thailand has been on my heart for awhile and I have bumped into a couple people here and there in the last 6 years who have really inspired me to look into the culture and the people in Thailand. I've grown to love all the different food, colors, and hospitable culture they carry. The sex slave/trade between young women and children is huge there and we will be working directly with these people to show them how great a people God sees them as. I have to come up with around $3000 (with money for bills and stuff when i'm gone) for the trip and I'm seriously believing since God put me on this trip He will bring about the finances. I don't know how that looks, but i'm excited to see how it unfolds. (no seriously He surprises me all the time.) These Nations are crying out for us!  I know God put them on my heart for a reason and this is a part of my calling to minister to them and LOVE them. My deadline for the first deposit for the Trip is Dec 7th and its $270. If you feel lead to,  Give Here :). 

I also got blessed with an amazing studio to do my friends hair here and there while I continue to look for a real job. My Heavenly Father knows me so well and He blesses me with the little things to! Most recently Bill Johnson has been speaking about stewarding our gifts and talents with all excellence as worship to God. This really has changed my perspective on everything because even in working on my homework now or talking to a friends about their life issues and i can even see that as being worship to God. I believe The Father wants to bless me, but He wont give his kids blessings if they continually fail to take care of what they already have. This chair above was only like $35 and that's just one example of the provision for the little things God has been faithful with. 

A Fresh Start

Lovely Family and Friends!

I'm writing this blog for you, to be able to see what exactly God is doing in my life here in Redding, CA. I'm so excited what this year has already brought and am looking forward to seeing the purpose God has for me. Its Funny where life takes us, it seems for me its been a lot of ups, downs and sharp turns. But really.... God has been through every bit of it. He hasn't given up on me when I tend to give up on myself weekly. He is the most amazing encourager and he creates something new in me every time he does encourage me. Pretty awesome to know that God loves me so much he would take personal time to mold and shape me into the man he wants me to be, regardless of my past. Here are some awesome examples of what God has done while I've been down here.

The first week of school was spectacular and I loved it soo much, but Im going to start with the summer events before I get into the school year so you're all caught up. The first week I came down to Redding I was with Nate and JJ and we saw some amazing and powerful things happen that first week. The first service was amazing and though there wasn't any spectacular signs and wonders physically God was showing me a whole new world spiritually. It makes me laugh now, because I realize he was draining a lot of the old religious thinking out and putting in new faith and hope in a God I only barely scratched the surface with. Bethel thrives off encouragement, Prophetic words, worship, love, heart to heart talks, and of course the never ending talks of the Fathers love. But what really amazes me is how much they actually live out a culture of honor. In this service Paul Manwaring was speaking about Hunger and it wasn't so much that whole word on hunger but a particular phrase that drew me. He said "Jesus didn't die for you because you're worthless, but because you worth it. He died to break the lie your worthless." and then I began to ask the question why would a God who loves me die for me if i was worthless?? It's just logical that he did it because he saw the worth in my life. When you're raised in a church that doesn't acknowledge the true life changing love and grace that God has for you, you begin to miss these key truths. I'm super grateful for my home church because they began to instill this in me before I left for Bethel and it readied my heart for all the great change that is happening. After I heard this I couldn't help, but go up and ask the intern to pray with me. From here my heart was then ready to begin to receive all the new things I am getting now and there was no more major wall between God and I. Truly amazing point in my life that I wont forget.

After that night things began to roll into motion. I was getting prophetic word followed by scripture proclaiming more who I am and the life I am to live. My heart was growing more and more hungry. I began to ask God for encounters with people and one day a Girl came into the sandwich shop I work at  and she was super pagan. My initial reaction was to just make her sandwich and get on with my night, but something pushed me to ask her specifically "so tell me what's hurting you" and I was like super scared at first, but then when I asked her my spirit posture began to change. My heart began to race with this new love for this person I never met. She began to tell me her life story and how her two husbands were both cheating on her (pagans can have more than one spouse apparently) but her biggest
concern was her kids. CPS took one of her kids away and another was being scrutinized for another taking. I asked her If I could pray for her and she actually said yes. So I prayed my heart and spoke Fathers love into her life through prayer. She began to weep and tried to hide it and i told her she could cry and she should its okay and that God will take care of her. She and i began a long conversation after that, that led to her asking for information about bethel's homeless support and what not. At that moment I felt like she was supposed to call one of her husbands and she would get a good report and then she said that the kids are fine and she was going home to them. Its amazing what God can do through his people when they take there eyes off the problem and put them on the person.

That was one of many encounters so far. I'll have to write a few more posts, but right now I need to go cut some hair for tuition money I don't have. I made it into School and I'm living by a lot of faith now financially. Thank you all Friends, Family, and Church Family for your support God will bless you.

I love you all and will update often

Mateo

Donate link:
https://www.ibssm.org/a/donate/secure-form?student_id=215780&target=tuiti