Transcript
A (0:02)
Life is like a roller coaster, but it's so much better when we go through it together. It's true. We are better together. And this season I'm asking our podcast community to do something together to make a difference in the world. There are hard things going on around us. Hurricanes, floods, fires, people hurting. And as followers of Jesus, we show up in the hard stuff and we build relationships with people who need us. We give. Each week I'm bringing you a short piece of an interview with a special guest. And each week you'll hear more about what we can do together. These are short episodes, less than 10 minutes, so come join us.
B (0:51)
The reason I wanted to learn learn English and that's the reason I speak English is because the church so how much I love my letters all or how I wanted to volunteer organizing the letters for other children at the at Dulce's office. And that's how they enrolled me into English classes in my ghetto. And so that's how I actually got in love in with the dream of speaking English in the future. And it was both sides. It was hope for eternity, but hope for the current reality that I was going through. And this is funny because Jamie didn't know by saying keep on preaching, she was promoting heresy because I put Jonah in the cross and Jesus in the womb of the faith. I was just baptized and they gave me a mic. But that's the power of letters. And I reflect on the New Testament. It's 30% letters and this is not the word of God. That's not what I'm trying to say. And yet the word of God in the form of letters were given to churches, to Christians in need going through trials. And these words from old apostle in jail give them hope for the current reality that we're going through and the future reality, the future grace that we're expecting in Christ. And for me, letters were that after that event, when I was 12, I continued growing in maturity. I'm now serving in the church. I'm involved in service opportunities. I'm all in about Christ. I'm sharing the gospel in my school, in my community. I'm still in poverty, but I am aware that God is working and he has a plan. And when I was 14, the most difficult moment came in my life. My father again hidden me from his family. I was born out of his marriage and I do remember I used to meet with him once a month for five minutes in different places. It was an FBI relationship and I didn't understand why we will meet in different places every Time, Once a month for five minutes.
A (3:20)
Yeah.
B (3:21)
One day, a Saturday, two of my father's brothers, two of my uncles show up at my house. I didn't know them. I only knew my father. And then my mother told me, jonathan, these are your uncles, your father's brothers, and they're going to take you to meet your father's family. And that was, for me, scary and exciting at the same time. Suddenly, I'm in a room later that day full of people that I have never seen in my life. I'm 14 years old, and my father's wife was there, my four sisters were there, my father's daughters, my grandparents, uncles and aunts, family to spare that I didn't know. And everybody's looking at me like, oh, yeah, he's Almonte. He's from our family. He looks like my father. They were like, oh, yeah, he's from the family. A year passed and never talked to my father about that meeting. And the day came when we met in one of these spots that we used to meet. And in Latin America, we say, father, will you bless me? Or mother, will you bless me? And they say, God bless you. It's a. It's something that we do out of respect for our parents. And you do that for your grandparents, uncles, aunts and. And father and mother. And he didn't bless me that day. And he said, why you did that? He was angry, and I was like, why I did what? And then suddenly he said, you met my family without my permission. And I understood what he was talking about. And I said, dad, I'm sorry, I didn't know that you didn't know. It was Uncle Lucas and Pedro who wanted me to meet them. And you have a beautiful family. And then he interrupted me and said, neither you or my brothers had the permission to get involved in my life. You have to understand, you're a mistake in my life. And I am 14 years old. Yeah. So if you ask me what is the worst poverty that I have gone through, that is the worst poverty. Again, I learned how to deal with my broken shoes, with lacking school uniform, lacking food. But how can I deal with the reality of my father thinking that I was a mistake? The reality can do. That's the reason I said at the beginning, there is a lot of blaming in poverty. But nobody gave me a menu to be born. Where I was born, I was just born.