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