From the Streets to Destiny: Prophecy, Purpose, and Mondo De La Vega’s Incredible Transformation #132

Episode Transcript
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Mondo De La Vega (00:00):
My father turned into a monster right
before my eyes, I saw adifferent man. He went after and
started trying to beat the doordown. The door opened. She
escaped through that door.
Little did I know that was thelast day I will ever see my
father. From that moment on, allI wish was when I get older, I
want to come back and kill thisman. We were a bunch of

(00:23):
knuckleheads with no leadership,and we went wild. And when I
came back up from that beating,I came back like a fierce Wolf.
I saw a lot of people that weretrying to be gang members, but
wannabes don't last. The gangtold me, Don't make plans past
18 years old, because you're notgonna survive. You're not gonna

(00:43):
make it past 18 years old. Mycrazy life, which is the tattoo
I have here, represents threedestinations that the gang leads
to prison, death or in thehospital. And I told my homeboy
in front of me, I said, we can'tleave him back there. And he
said, We have to leave him backthere. Let the dead bury the
dead homie. And she began toprophesy. And she said, What if

(01:05):
God is real? What if prayerworks, and what if you have a
different destiny? Who wouldever thought that an ex gang
member will help rescue atelevangelist that fell from
grace? Who would ever thoughtthat a former ex gang member
that the world said, lock himup, throw the key away, will be
the catalyst of helping JimBaker get back to television. So

(01:26):
I began to fall in love with thecalling of God, yet I was
missing the will of God, and thewill of God, for my life was

John Matarazzo (01:37):
mondo della Vega. It's great to have you
here on along the way this, thisconversation has been a long
time coming from the first timethat you and I connected through
an interview with charisma andthis conversation we're going to
talk about your crazy life. Butone of the things that I'm
really excited to talk about,too, is the the thing that you

(01:57):
and I really connected with isTV production. I was a TV
producer for a daily program ina Christian station in
Pittsburgh called CornerstoneTelevision Network from 2015 to
2021 so six years doing a dailyprogram, that's a lot. And
Brother, you have been producingthe Jim Baker show, which is,

(02:21):
which has, I think, isworldwide, and everybody knows
about Jim Baker. Love him ornot. People know about Jim
Baker, and he's gone. He's gotan amazing testimony as well.
Oh, man, the pressure, right?
Pressure, the pressure, so, butbrother, that just talking about
production and TV stuff, we'regonna have a good conversation

(02:41):
here, but thanks for joining mealong my way. Oh,

man, thank you for finally connecting and
stepping out to do what you'resupposed to be doing. You know,
every now and then you meetpeople along the way in life
that your background may not bethe same, but we have something
in common that we love, andthat's people. That's

(03:06):
production, and it's figuringout how we can get the message
out there. And I really believethat it's time, it's time for
people to connect with otherpeople and network and step out
in faith and do it. And I thinkyou and I have a lot of years of
production of what can go wrong.

Oh, man, what can go wrong? That's a That's an
understatement. It's what can gowrong and how you overcome that
in the process. But man, we'regoing to talk about some of
these stories now. We can't namenames, per se, but we can tell
stories, right? Brother,

yes, absolutely. Here. We're not here
to expose anybody behind thescenes. As a matter of fact,
it's all about experiences thatyou learn that as people, Oh
man, we're some messed up humanbeings.

Yeah, definitely. And one of the
things that's great about TVproduction and the role that you
and I, that we've, that we'vebeen in, is that you are, or we
are, helping people share theirstories in the best way
possible. And everybody has astory. Everybody has a life
journey, but sometimes peopledon't realize that. And one of

(04:21):
the, some of the fun moments forme as a producer has been
pulling those stories out ofpeople that they didn't even
realize that they had like theywould be, they would be ready to
do an interview about one thing,but then you find out this other
facet, which is reallyinteresting. And then you try
to, you tell the host that, hey,make sure you ask about this,
because they're all so excitedabout this, and it just kind of

(04:43):
either brings breaks down a wallor something like that. So
brother, we're going to talkabout those, those kind of
stories, but I want to hear yourstory about your crazy life. So
oh man, I'll just kind of askquestions as as as the Lord
leads me, but tell me. AboutMondo de la Vega and how God's
brought you to where you aretoday.

Man, I feel like you're about to give me a
job, and I'm doing an interviewfor a job, a position, and a job
is Tell me about yourself. It'slike you forget about everything
you're gone through in your lifewhen someone asks you that
question. But you know when Istop and think about my whole
life? And it's funny, becausewhen you write a book that has
to do about your life, it forcesyou to go back to some of the

(05:28):
greatest moments, but also someof the most painful moments that
you have encountered as a humanbeing that makes you who you are
today, whether it be somethingthat has to do with trauma, or
it has to do with having a goodtime, they all lead to this
moment in time, right now, andyou know the subtitle of my

(05:51):
book, my crazy life, and themoments that brought a gangster
to grace, because I believe thatthe moments in our lives is what
makes the whole picture is whatmakes everything happen in their
little moments and their bigmoments. But at the end of the
day, the beginning part of mywhole entire life begun in

(06:12):
Central America, and thinkingthat I had a good life, my mom,
my father, my family, we wereall together all the time, and
as a six year old little boy,you think that everything is
perfect because your mom and dadprotect you from their own
problems. They protect you fromtheir own demons that they're

(06:33):
fighting. Yet my father was myhero. My father was everything
to me. You know, John, it'sfunny because my father never
once raised his voice at me. Henever once cussed at me. He
never once beat me. He neveronce nothing. He was the most
gentle person towards my sisterand I, and therefore, the moment

(06:58):
when I saw my father turn into amonster towards my mother,
changed the trajectory of myimage of who my father was. And
in my book, I detailed. Icouldn't detail the whole entire
process, because it would beimpossible, but I detail one
evening we were all sitting inthe in the kitchen and having a

(07:22):
good time, as we did everysingle night with our cousins
and our aunts and our uncles.
You know, life in CentralAmerica is much different than
America in America. You know,everybody has dinner. You know,
they schedule dinners withfamily. They schedule in our in
our in our country. Life justhappens. And they come into your
home and your aunts stay around,it's just a different

(07:43):
atmosphere.

Unknown (07:45):
What happened was my father

turned into a monster right before my eyes, my
sister and I were supposed to besleeping, and all we can hear is
my father began to cuss at mymother like we've never heard
him cuss before. Begin to beather like we never seen him beat
her before. We I saw a differentman, and in her distress, my

(08:14):
mother was able to escape thatroom and go into the bathroom,
and my father, man, I don't evenknow how to explain it. He, he
went after her and startedtrying to beat the door down.
And my mother, you know, thedoor open, and she escaped
through that door and foundherself in the corridor where

(08:36):
it's dark, there's no one elsein the home. All the adults had
left the home. Everyone wenthome, and it was just my mother
and my father in the corridor inthe middle of the night, and my
father began to beat my motherwith the same broom that my
mother has sweep our home foryears, that

Unknown (08:58):
broom became the very object of her demise. If I can
say that

my father didn't realize that I was
looking from afar at what wastaking place, and hear my mother
screaming for help, and no onecan hear her, I was six years
old, six years old, wow, and I'mwatching my hero fall apart
right before my eyes, and I'mwatching, and I wish I can help
my mother, but I stood thereparalyzed John. It paralyzed me

(09:30):
because I couldn't help mymother, and I was hoping she
wasn't dead. She looked dead,she wasn't moving. She was
trying to get out of thatsituation, and for some reason,
my father was able to stop longenough to walk away, and all I
saw was my sister run and beggedmy father to stop. As my sister

(09:53):
was going to help my mother totry to help her and clean her
up, my father began to walktowards back to the. Bedroom,
and I'm thinking, if I don't goback under those sheets, I'm
afraid my father is going tobeat me to death as well. How
can I go in 24 hours thinkingthat my father was my hero, and
in 24 hours, my father became aperson that I began to hate with

(10:17):
a passion, and I couldn'tcommunicate with him what I was
feeling, because in those days,it's not like today, John, where
you can communicate yourfeelings and what are you
feeling today, Little John, howdoes that make you feel back
then you couldn't share youremotions. So I had to carry that
anger, that frustration, thatfear, and that fear paralyzed me

(10:40):
to the point that I didn'trecognize myself little that I
know John. That was the last daythat I will ever see my father.
It was the last day that we willbe a family. Because my mother,
in her moment of despair, had tomake a decision, do I stay here,

(11:03):
or do I take this kid out ofthis place? Because if I stay
here, either he's gonna kill meor I'm gonna kill him. That
moment changed the trajectory ofof my whole entire life, because
I began to carry an anger. Andyou know what's funny, John that
when we left that home, I left alittle note, because I was able

(11:24):
to write. You have tounderstand, I I was born with
the gift to play soccer, and myfather was behind me, trying to
coach me and get me to be aprofessional, and signing me up
on every team and and I wasgifted, and he recognized that
gift, and then, and heencouraged that. And he again,

(11:44):
he was one of my he took meeverywhere. He was proud of me
and and I was proud that he wasmy father. He was a very
respected man in our community.
My father was one of the, one ofthe one of the top coffee
producers in Central America.
His father, which is mygrandfather, had been a mayor

(12:06):
for two terms in our town. Theywere involved with politics.
They had a lot of connectionwith the military and the
police. So my father was a verywell connected, influential man
in our town, and he told mymother, if you take my kids away
from me, I will hunt you withevery military and every police
person before you even thinkabout taking my kids away from

(12:29):
me. Yet my mother in herdesperate moment. Now, you have
to understand, and I detail itin my book that my mother tried
to commit suicide three times inher marriage, I didn't realize
how bad her marriage was until Istrike, until I started writing
this book. Really, I didn'trealize the abuse that my mother

(12:49):
was suffering for nine years.
Before I even knew what wasgoing on. All I knew is that in
that little letter that I wrotemy father, little note and it
said, When I grow up, if I findyou, I'm going to kill you. A

Unknown (13:05):
six year old boy,

the moments that changed my life. That was
the beginning. I believe thatfathers have such an influential
part in developing the characterof a little boy and a little
girl in a way that it shapestheir thinking. It shapes the
way they carry themselves. Itshapes the way you communicate

(13:30):
with other people. And my fatherwas a frustrated man, a man that
did not know how to communicatelove, a man that was frustrated
and took it out on my mother. Ishare in my book that I didn't
even realize that as a six yearold little boy, I had defiled my
mother because of what how I sawmy father treat my mother, John,

(13:55):
I never called my mom mom untilwe came to America, from the
moment I was born all the way upto six years old. I was not
allowed to call my motherMother. I had to call her by
her, by her middle name. Icouldn't even call her by her
first name, let alone anythingelse. My mother was not allowed
to own even a pair of keys ofthe house she lived under a

(14:19):
turmoil relationship, yet shehid it from my sister and I so
we can be happy. But thatevening was the last straw that
my mother could bear, and it wasthe moment that shifted
everything John and anger wasbirth, the pain, the
abandonment, the rejection, thelast words I heard my father say

(14:42):
to me,

Unknown (14:44):
and I never thought that I would hear those words
was I don't want them anymore.

The rejection I felt like a knife pierced my
heart and my soul. From thatmoment on, all I wish was when I
get older. I. I want to comeback and kill this man. That
moment, John was the beginningof the future that laid ahead,
and that was a perfect candidatefor the streets of Los Angeles,

(15:13):
California that became thebreeding ground in America for
gangsters. Now, America was usedto seeing mobsters and gangsters
from Chicago, right fromPhiladelphia, Russian mob,
Italian, Italian mobs, uh,Chinese mobsters. But they
never, they weren't and theywere not expecting the influx of

(15:38):
gangsters from Central America,South America, let alone
Chicanos and Mexican Americans,that was birthed in the late 80s
and be exploded on the scene inthe 1990s I was that perfect
candidate for that

Unknown (15:54):
moment. So you

just mentioned a different like several different
gangsters, mobsters, thedifferent types there. What
would you say makes the gangstertype that you are, the the
Latino gangsters? What makesthat different than like the
Italian mobsters, or some ofthose other things? What just

(16:17):
kind of explain that for peoplethat don't quite understand?

Yeah, I think one of the difference you will
know is, first and foremost, theorganization of the Italian Mob,
for example, were different thanthe Central American and the
Mexican culture later on, youknow, the Latino gangs became
more organized than the ItalianMob and all that. But when you

(16:44):
go back and look at the historylike John Gotti in them, they
own pizza shops. They own, youknow, trash companies. You know,
they dealt with in thecommunity. Here, you had a bunch
of immigrant kids from SouthAmerica, Central America, and
then you had your Chicanos,which is your Mexican American

(17:04):
and your Hispanic Americanculture that was already here
from the pachuco era, that gotrejected by society in
California, that were forced tobreed protection from society
itself. Here we were just abunch of broken kids that came
together to be able to survivein the streets with the

(17:26):
rejection of the culture. Yet,when you look at the mobsters of
Chicago and New York, they weremore organized than we were back
in the 80s and 90s. Again, webecame organized after a while,
but they became the poster childof how we should conduct and do
business right. The differencewas the way we dressed, the way

(17:48):
we talked. We became moreruthless. Now you have to
understand the Italian mobsters.
They were ruthless, but theywere more of the behind the
scenes. We were in your face,the Latino culture gang members
that were in your face, you knewthat you were gonna get in
trouble right at that spot.
Versus, I think the best way todescribe it is the Italian

(18:11):
mobster words were moreintentional with their crimes.
We were just emotional about it.
We reacted too fast, until wegot organized, and we became
more intentional in how we didthings in the streets.

Do you think that that has a bigger thing to
do with the absence of fathers?
100% 100%

when you look at the Chicago mobs and the New
York mobs, you had a lot ofinfluential father figures
within that circle, older men,the godfathers, is what they
call them. When we were growingup, you had 20 year olds being
the shock callers that were notas organized and father figures.

(18:53):
You have to understand, most ofus had no fathers. Then on the
other side, you had, you know,people that were born into the
gang. Gangs have been around fora long time, the pachuco gangs
and, of course, the biker gangsand all that. And then we became
an extension of that that becamemore rebellious than the former

(19:14):
culture of the gangs. But theproblem is now you had a bunch
of knuckleheads withoutleadership, without father
figures, the Italian monsters inthem, they had father figures
that corrected them. And if theyfell out of step, they got
corrected immediately. We gotcorrected later on, but we were

(19:36):
a bunch of knuckleheads with noleadership, and we went wild. We
were discovering what being agangster was, until we figure
out the way we dress, the shoeswe have to wear, the colors, and
all of a sudden, every street,every neighborhood, was split
into different gang. And withinone mile, you can have 10
different gangs fighting for oneterritory. Wow, that's the.

(20:00):
Difference.

So how did that affect your life? Like, what was
your involvement with that? Whatwas your role in the gang?

Oh, my goodness, this is, this is a
great question, because everygang member starts as a peewee,
as a rookie, right? And as arookie, you begin to develop a
heart, to be able to know if youhave the heart, to be able to
deliver the expectation that thegang culture develops for you
and has prepared for you. In mybook, I write about the making

(20:30):
of an LA gangster, I haveanother chapter that it talks
about not everybody has theirheart to be one, and I saw a lot
of people that were trying to begang members. But wannabes don't
last. Either you had the heartto pull the trigger, either you
had the heart to stab someone,either you had the heart and the

(20:51):
ability to have the courage tofight on site, to defend your
neighborhood and to defend yourpeople and to defend the colors
that you're representing. Andhere I was my first initiation
for them to say that kid hasheart, and I detail it in my
book, my first experience in theLos Angeles Unified School

(21:13):
District. And I was standing inline waiting for roll call, and
a young kid begins to make funof me and starts laughing at me.
I didn't speak English. I didn'tknow what this kid was saying,
and the only thing I was able todo is turn around, and this kid
next to me looked like he was.
He can speak Spanish, but noteverybody that looks Spanish
speaks Spanish. You understand?

(21:35):
So I took a chance, and I askedhim, What did he say? Why is he
laughing at me? And he looked atme scared, and I said, and I
demanded, tell me what he said,and he told me, and I can tell
you that he was not inviting meto his birthday party, let's
just say that he startedmouthing a lot of bad words, and

(21:56):
in that anger, all I saw was myfather. I took my backpack off,
and I went back, and witheverything I had inside of me, I
punched this kid, and I brokehis nose, and I began to jump on
him and hit him. What saved thatkid's life and what saved my
life at that moment was anamazing teacher

Unknown (22:18):
came and pulled me off,

took me to the principal's office, and the
principal got ready to call thepolice, and I was getting ready
to go to juvenile hall, and thatteacher intervened for me and
believed in me. I knew then thatGod had already a purpose and a
plan for my life. I just didn'tunderstand it. But it was not
enough to keep me away from thelurking and the calling that the

(22:43):
gang culture was giving me.
Everybody in the culture,especially in the gang that I
was around, saw what I was doingand said that kid, that kid's
spunky, that kid has heart onme, that kid right there, is who
we need. So I one of my firstjobs was to recruit, recruit
other kids, because other kidswere in the same situation as

(23:06):
me, with no father. They neededprotection. They wanted to feel
like they belong to a family. Wewere dealing with depression. We
were dealing with anxiety.
Today, we identify him as that,but back in the 80s and 90s, we
didn't know they had names. Wewere dealing with mental health
issues, yet we couldn't identifywhat we were going through,

(23:27):
because we were told, you don'tdo that. The weakness of a
warrior is love and compassion,and if you have love and
compassion towards one another,then you're a weak warrior.
You're no good to us. So Ibecame one of the first
recruiters. I became a mule,which is, you know,
transporting, uh, bags of drugsone place to another without

(23:48):
asking questions. And I slowlybegan to go up the ranks and
understanding what is, what itwas going to take for me to earn
the spot of the shot caller.
What was going to earn me thespot for the leader of the gang.
Now, I knew it was going to bean impossible situation, because
everyone is is driving towardsthat, and a lot happens in
between all that, but that wasthe beginning of my development

(24:12):
of what it was to be a gangster.
So how

old were you at this point where you you dropped
your bag, and you startedbeating that kid, and then you
were responsible to recruit kidsas well. So if you're a kid at
this point and you're recruitingkids, how old were you and how
old were some of the kids thatyou were recruiting?

Unknown (24:32):
What's so funny is that, you know, society has
built that

by 1314, years old, the gang culture comes
after you. I happened to getahead of the game, and I wasn't
jumped in to the gang just yet,but I was already identified as
one, and I'm talking about I'm910, Eight, 910, years old.

(25:01):
John, by this moment, I wasexposed. The moment I arrived to
America, we lived with some ofour family members, but that
only lasted for a few monthsuntil my mother gathered enough
money after working and foundherself in a place where she can
go get her own apartment. Shecame home one evening, and we

(25:22):
were staying at my uncle'shouse, and she said I got enough
money to get us a place. Ithought she was going to get us
a beautiful house. You know, wehad a we had an amazing looking
house in Central America. We hadan amazing family atmosphere.
Now, we were living with people.
We were being transported fromone place to another. We didn't
have a home for a long time. Wehave traveled for 12 different

(25:46):
homes, 12 different cultures, 12different places. Nothing felt
like home. And I feel like Ifelt lost as a little boy. So
when my mother had enough moneyto buy her own, you know, get
her own apartment, we showed upto this apartment complex, and
I'm looking at her, and I'mthinking, Where are we? What is
this? Oh, this is our new home.

(26:07):
You're going to love this, andwe're going to have our own
place, and we're going to be ourown family. We walk up the
stairs, and as I'm walking, Isee the gang activity on the
first floor, and as I'm walkingup to the second floor, and we
she opens the door to theapartment, and it's a it's not
even a one bedroom, it's astudio apartment. And I asked

(26:28):
her, where's the bedroom? Where?
Where are we going to sleep?
Where's the where's the livingroom? Where? Where? That's the
kitchen. I felt so embarrassed,and I felt so ashamed that we
went from having this familyatmosphere in this home to now
we're living in this box. Yetshe was so happy. But yet, on

(26:50):
the other hand, I'm embarrassed,and I'm ashamed to even let
people know where we live, and Ibegan to grow in anxiety and
hatred towards my mother, and bythis time, I'm between eight,
910, years old, and my firstexperience to witness someone
else get beat right in front ofme was a gang. The gang that was

(27:15):
downstairs was disciplining oneof the gang members, and they
were disciplining him because hebroke the code. I explained this
in my book to set the set thefoundation of what it was to
witness someone else get beat.
This time was a baseball batinstead of a broom. Now you have
to understand John during thattime, in the late 80s and early

(27:36):
90s, Central America wentthrough one of the hardest civil
wars to this day, and as we'rerunning away from my father and
fleeing from him, we had to fleeto another country to hide from
him. But in that transition fromleaving my home and landing to
another family member, anotherfamily member's home, I

(27:59):
witnessed the Civil War takeplace till this day, I can close
my eyes and I can still hear thesounds of war. I can see women
being raped. I can see men beingbeat down and and people's
houses burning. And at a youngage, I was already seen more
violence than most adults wereseeing at that time. So by the

(28:22):
time I landed in Los Angeles, myheart was already too hard to
even have compassion. So when Isaw this kid being beat and
being disciplined, it gave me asense, instead of fear, this
time, it gave me empowermentthat I want that power. I don't
ever want my life to ever be inthe hands of someone else's

(28:45):
choices. I want that power, andwhat do I do to get that power
by the time I'm 11 years old?
There's a chapter in my bookthat I titled it the baptism of
the Spirit, or the baptism ofthe soul, is the only way I can
describe it. And Christiansunderstand that the connection

(29:08):
of what happens when you getbaptized in the Spirit, when you
get baptized underwater, whathappens John, your submission
underwater, you go in feelingone way, and when you get dunked
underneath the water and you getback up, how do you feel? John,
you feel brand new. You feellike you're born again. You feel

(29:29):
like everything's different. Youfeel like your mind is
different. You feel like you canlove the world, and you feel
like you're indestructible. Youfeel like the king of the world,
right? I felt the opposite. Andthe baptism of the soul is when
you have six guys, eight guys,depending on who they put and
they beat you and they kick youand they want you to feel the

(29:53):
pain that way, if you get everget caught up and get beat down
from another gang that you canwithstand. That beating, or if
you get in the hands of the copsand they want to beat you to get
information out of you that youcan handle that beating as a
little boy, I went down as alittle boy,

Unknown (30:13):
innocent little boy,

and when I came back up from that beating,
I came back like a fierce Wolf,with more hate, with more pride
and more narcissistic pride tobe able to have that survival
mode. But yet, I was stillfeeling broken. I was still
feeling depressed. I was stillfeeling confused. On the other

(30:39):
hand, they were cheering for me.
Hora le, homie, you're one ofus. Homie. Now your job is to
live and die for theneighborhood, homie. Your job
from this moment on is to diefor us and to work for us and to
take this gangster world andexpand the Billy Graham style,

Unknown (30:58):
and that became my mission. Oh, wow.

So how long were you in the gang? And what was
the catalyst that brought youout of this? Because obviously
your your book is called mycrazy life, and now you're not
in the gang anymore. Praise theLord. Yeah, yeah. Quite the
turnaround with the thing thatyour teachers saw in you, that

(31:23):
you kind of saw in yourself,that God had a call in your
life. You just didn't know whatit was then, but you even felt
it back then. What like tell meabout this journey, about how
you, I mean, you were in thegangs for several years, right?
Oh

yeah. I mean, we were there for a long time,
but I want to remind peopleabout this. In my book, I detail
that even though I didn't knowit at the time writing this
book, I discovered that God hadbeen speaking to my mom and my
sister and I propheticallyduring the transition, and I'm

(32:00):
just going to lay the foundationto how I got to where I got
because I didn't want to write abook John about another gangster
story and make people think thatI was Pablo Escobar or I was
John Gotti. And no, that's oneout of 10 that will ever be able
to accomplish that. The rest ofthe gangsters that are out

(32:21):
there. We look tough, we want toact tough, but inside we were
little boys crying for help. Wewere little boys that all we
were trying to do was justsurvive, hoping that no one ever
found out what we were feelinginside, and we had to create an
image in order to protect thatlittle boy. And if I can keep
you as far as I can from knowingwhat I was really feeling, then

(32:45):
I can keep myself guarded. Butwhat happened was when my
mother, when my mother fled withmy sister and I God, began to
speak to my mother,prophetically, my grandmother
was involved in witchcraft,Santeria, and that affected her
own marriage with her, with mygrandfather, eventually, she

(33:05):
left them and she she went tochurch, and she's the reason
why. Then her her entire family

Unknown (33:12):
knows Christ today,

and my grandmother told my mother, hey,
we're going to go to church thisSunday. Do you want to come with
me? And my mother said, Ah, youknow what, that's not for me. I
don't even want to go to church.
Please don't talk to me aboutchurch. I don't even want to
hear it yet. After a second, mymother said, You know what, I
don't have nothing left. What ifthat's the only thing that works

(33:37):
right now? And she said, Youknow what, let's go, kids, let's
go. We didn't know what we weredoing. We never been in church
like that. It was a big megachurch, a charismatic church. No
one knew who we were. And Idetailed this in my book,
because I wanted people tounderstand that in your crisis,
God has been there all thistime. God had made a way for

(33:59):
you, God had been involved yet,just because it doesn't feel
like it, it doesn't mean thatGod had been absent. Instead,
God had been more present than Iever even imagined. We showed up
to that church where everybody'ssinging and dancing and all
that. All of a sudden, thatchurch quiets down and they

(34:20):
begin to speak in tongues. Ididn't know what that was. I
didn't understand the churchlingo. All of a sudden, someone
else stands up and begins tointerpret to what this person
had just spoke. And that personsaid, there's a woman here with
two kids, a boy and a girl. Godwants you to know that God has

(34:41):
taken you out of your Egypt, outof your misery, and I'm going to
make a way for you, and I'mgoing to take you to the
promised land, and I'm going touse your son. I have called your
son, I have called yourdaughter,

Unknown (34:57):
and I have called you,

and I will lead. You through the borders,
and I will get you to thePromised Land.

Unknown (35:04):
While this is happening, I'm watching my
mother, and she's saying, That'sme. That's me. You're talking
about me. It must have been10,000 people in that church.
And she said, That's me. You'retalking about me. You're talking
about my son and my daughter.
After the church service wasdone, John, they told her,

Would you like to get baptized? That's That's
how you know that's a goodchurch. They lead you to Christ,
and then they'll baptize

Unknown (35:36):
you immediately.

My mom says, we're getting baptized. I'm
looking at her. What is baptism?
I don't even understand whatthat is. All I knew was it was a
nice pool. We're going swimming.

Unknown (35:49):
She had us baptized.

Yet we thought things were going to get better.
Things got worse. Yet, God'sword was prophesied. We went to
another nation to hide from mydad trying to get my mother
wanted to do things the rightway, John, meaning she had an
option to immigrate to America,going through Mexico and cross
the borders, just like I'mseeing hundreds, if not

(36:14):
millions, of my people do rightnow, fleeing horror, fleeing a
horrific situation in their ownnation, yet my mother said I
can't do that. I can't affordnot during the Civil War. I
cannot afford to be raped. Icannot afford for them to steal
my children. My mother was bornin Los Angeles, California. She

(36:35):
was a full US citizen, yet mysister and I wasn't, but she
wanted it to do it the right wayfor her family. I understand why
people leave and cross theborder. I'm not judging that,
but I wish our nations inCentral America will make a
better way to do it, the rightway for our people. And I
believe there's an answer forthat, but it costs 1000s of

(36:57):
dollars, and we had to wait fora whole year, John in order for
us to get our paperwork to beprocessed. And the middle of
that, we got bad news. We weredenied, denied and denied over
and over and over again. Mymother lost hope. She said, if I
can't get this, then I'm goingto have to immigrate. But
there's no way I can go back tothat home. She's sitting in the

(37:20):
poolside we're swimming,

Unknown (37:23):
another prophetic word comes to my mother,

and I detail it in my book. A famous
Christian singer approaches mymother while she's at the pool,
and she says this, miss, I knowyou're gonna think I'm crazy,
but God gave me a word for you,John, it was the same word that
God had given my mother at thatchurch.

Unknown (37:47):
The very next day,

my mother receives a call from immigration
and said, We need to see youright now. You need to come
right now. She arrived, and thesame man that denied her over
and over for almost a wholeentire year. Hands are three
envelopes with my sister's name,my mother's name and my name,
and it says, your son and yourdaughter are now full American

(38:11):
citizens. Wow. Welcome toAmerica. Wow. Only God is able
to do him. That set thefoundation of why I believe in
prophetic words for your ownlife. Why? Because what changed
my life, John, the catalyst. AndI'm gonna go back to your

(38:31):
question. I apologize for beinglong winded, but it goes back to
this.

I knew what to expect, asking you to be on this
podcast.

Unknown (38:39):
I hope you have time.

We're good, we're good. But

I want to tell people this

Unknown (38:45):
God spoke to my sister prophetically, and she he told
my sister, before the year isover, your brother's gonna come
to Christ.

And my sister said, God, there's no way he can
make it out. My brother's lostJohn. Again, I detail it in my
book. Death was around thecorner. Death was death was
stalking me. Death every time Ileft my house, death was always
stalking me. I can feel it. Ican sense it. I knew I was going

(39:21):
to die because the gang told mealmost every other day, don't
make plans past 18 years old,because you're not going to
survive. You're not going tomake it past 18 years old.
Either you're going to be deador you're going to do life in
prison or you're going to be inthe wheelchair in the hospital
Vida Loca, my crazy life, whichis the tattoo I have here,

(39:43):
represents three destinationsthat the gang leads to prison,
death or in the hospital.
Fighting for your life. Mi VidaLoca, my crazy life, yet we
lived it knowing that you knowwhat. Yeah, my life may be
crazy, but I'm thankful for it.
My life may be crazy, but I'mglad I'm still here. I don't

(40:07):
know how much more time I haveleft, but I knew that death was
around the corner and I wasbeing set up. And I detail in my
book how I came close to dying.
I came close to being killed. Icame close yet God had his hand
on my life, and I didn't evenrealize it. My sister began to
pray for me. She began to fastfor me. She began to contend for

(40:27):
me before she even approachedme, because she knew I didn't
have time to hear this nonsense.
I didn't have time to hearanything. I was so narcissistic
and so enthralled with myselfjust trying to stay in survival
mode that I couldn't seeanything. But I knew that all I
wanted to do, I wanted to die. Iwanted the misery, the pain, the

(40:51):
anxiety, the depression, therejection. I wanted all to end
yet I was still surviving tostay alive.

Unknown (41:02):
Three things. My sister walked into my world, and she
began to prophesy. And she said,What if God is real? What if
prayer works, and what if youhave a different destiny? She
prophesied those threestatements, and that pierced my
soul, because a few hours beforeI was supposed to be dead, yet I

(41:28):
am wondering, why am I stillalive? What do
you mean? You were here. Youwere supposed to be dead. How
you remember when pagers werearound? Yeah, the

little beepers, you get the number shows up, and
then you got to go to a payphone or somewhere, and you got
to call, and

this looks like a beeper, right? I had a
beeper. We got inside of the lowrider, and I was waiting for
instructions to go do a hit. Andthe OGS gave me instructions,
and I needed to make sure I gotthis work done, or I got this
job done because I wantedGoogle. I wanted to go up the
next level in the ladder. Iwanted to earn my respect in the

(42:09):
streets. You got to earn yourway up. And you earn it by doing
crimes. You earn it by doingcrazy things all the way to
where it almost gets you killed.
The ultimate price you can pay,maybe I look at the three dots,
some will experience one out ofthree. Some will experience two
out of three. But the ultimateis to experience three out of
three. Here I get we're in thelow rider. We're listening to

(42:32):
ice cube. We're cruising downthe Whittier Boulevard. And I
get the page, and it's time forme to call my homeboys that are
driving in front of me, and thatone of them was the driver, and
my other homeboy, Snoopy, was onthe other side. They begin to
argue. They were older than me,and they begin to argue. And I
say, stop the car, homie. Weneed to, I need to go make this

(42:57):
call so we can go take care ofthis hit. And one of the older
guys looked at me and said, Youneed to shut your mouth. And
man, we got we get into thisargument. And I said, if we
don't go take care of this, nowwe're all going to be dead. We
started going back and forthwhen he pulls the gun on me and
I pulled my gun on him. Finally,he snatched the beeper out of my
hand. He said, I'm going to gotake care of this. I said,

(43:19):
That's my job, homie, that I'msupposed

Unknown (43:22):
to be doing that.

Finally, he walked out to go make the call,
and walks all the way up to thepay phone. We're sitting in the
low rider, We're smoking ourcigarettes, listening to ice
cube, and all of a sudden wehear gunshots.

Unknown (43:41):
The homeboy that's driving

puts the car into drive and peels off. And
I'm looking at my homeboy, andhe's dropping dead with bullets
raining all over him, golly, andI told my homeboy in front of
me, I said, we can't leave himback there. And he said, We have
to leave him back there. Let thedead bury the dead, homie.

Unknown (44:06):
And I'm thinking in the adrenaline,

we can't leave him back there. We're homeboys.
We're down for one another man.
We made a pact. And at thatmoment, I realized, when the
adrenaline came down, thatshould have been me. That hit
was for me. I was being set up,and I asked my homeboy who who
was trying to set me up, and hecouldn't say anything. He
couldn't say he was nervous. Iknew something was wrong. I knew

(44:33):
that someone had a hit for me,even in my own gang. I knew
death was around the corner.
Everywhere I went, death wasaround the corner. I give a
chapter called That isunbelievable, because I detailed
this, and I talk about thedeadly combination, and I write

(44:55):
about chapter 10. When you getmy book, you read it should have
been me. Three, and then itleads into chapter 11, that is
called Blood Red, where the copsbeat me up and they took us in.
But the weird thing is, theydidn't book us the way they
normally booked people that weregoing to go to jail. Instead,

(45:17):
they took us underneath thedivision department, and they
begin to beat us to try to getinformation of something that
they had done yet we weretrained never to talk to the
police. And their frustration,they started beating us. And in
that beating, it's amazing,because this is another God

(45:40):
moment,

Unknown (45:43):
I hear the radio go on, and who's singing on that radio?
The Lennon sisters,

famous Lennon sisters from the Welk Show.
You'll Google them if you haveto, but I want to tell you
something. Dick Clark startedsaying you're going to be
hearing from the Lennon sisters,and there's going to be the
Lennon sisters hour, and they'regoing to be sharing family
stories, and they're going to besinging and data. And I'm
thinking the last thing I wantto hear is family stories. The
last thing I want to hear isthis. Lennon sisters talk about

(46:14):
how wonderful their life is. Andhere I'm on the on my deathbed,
waiting to go get dropped off onanother neighborhood so they can
kill me. That was the protocolof this corrupt cops. Now I
believe that most cops areamazing. We need the police in
our society, but they're badapples like this, people that

(46:34):
beat me and beat us, and theygrabbed three of my homeboys and
they beat us, and they knew theycouldn't get information, and
what they did, John is theydropped us off in different
neighborhoods because they knewthey were going to kill us. I
was dropped off in the bloodneighborhood up in the valley.
But guess what happened twoweeks before, there was a young

(46:56):
black kid that was gettingjumped and harassed by another
Hispanic gang, and for somereason, John, I felt compassion
for that black kid, and Iintervened for him, and I saved
this life, not realizing thatGod was going to use this same
kid to save my life when thiscop dropped me off in The blood

(47:17):
neighborhood, this this book isfilled with stories that will
leave you hanging, but at thesame time leave you knowing that
God's purpose in my life and inyour life, whoever's listening
and watching that God had beenin your crisis all this time,
but because the life that welive blinds us to even know that

(47:41):
God is even involved in whatwe're doing. Sometimes he has to
take a young girl like my sisterand give her the authority and
the courage to walk into myworld and prophesied. What if
God is real? What if prayerworks? And what if you have a
different destiny? That was thethree catalysts that began to

(48:03):
give me the courage to find away to walk away from the life
that I was living. It's

like those three points are the counter to the
three points of my crazy life.
And it's definitely, speakingprophetically to each of those,
that's just kind of what I'mwhat I'm feeling as you're
talking about this. So tell meabout you actually coming to
know Jesus. Because, I mean,we've talked a lot about your
time in the gang is, becausethere's a there's a lot to talk
about, for sure, but I reallywant to get to the point where

(48:34):
you you've met Jesus. Your lifehas changed. You become a TV
producer for a Christian aChristian personality, a
Christian leader, who's he'sbeen in Christian TV forever,
and then God's open up a lot ofdoors for you, like your sister
was totally right. She, wheneveryou she said, God had, what if

(48:58):
God has a different plan foryour life? Brother, tell us
about how God brought you tothat other plan.

God brought me in an amazing place. Because,
again, I detail in my bookchapter 13, stop the car, homie.
Is the title because I was on myway to go do another hit, John,
but that morning, when my sisterprophesied those three again,
what if God is real? What areprayer works? What if you have a

(49:27):
different destiny? It made methink I was never caught up on
drugs. I tried them, I sold thema lot. I didn't like drugs. I
didn't like what drugs weredoing. I had a homeboy that was
my mentor in the street, and hesaid, Don't be emotional in the
streets. Be intentional.
Emotions will get you dead.

(49:49):
Emotions will give you life inprison. Be intentional. Stay
away from drugs. Stay away fromthat. He began to give me
guidance, and I stayed away froma lot of that. Stuff that we
were using to sell and makemoney, but I never used it. I
didn't like what it was doing tothe to my own people, right?
Yet, my sister said, I want youto come to church tonight, and I

(50:13):
want you to listen to the manthat is going to be giving his
testimony. And I looked at mysister and I said, I can't be at
that church. I can't be seen atchurch. If I'm seen there, my
reputation is gone. You don'tunderstand I can't be there.
It's going to ruin everythingthat I'm working hard to attain,
and everything that I'm workinghard that I've already attained.

(50:34):
And but she said, promise me.

Unknown (50:37):
And I said, You know what? I'm gonna promise you,
I'll be there tonight. I forgotthat we had a hit to do that
night, and as I got in the car,things

got intense.
Something felt different,something and uneasiness came. I
just didn't I just knew I had toget a get out of that car to
make sure I want you to read mybook so I don't want you to, I'm
not going to tell everything. Ifound myself. I found myself,
and you gotta, you gotta readthe book to know what happened
in that vehicle, because in thatvehicle was the last time I saw

(51:11):
those guys, and I never lookedback. I walked up to that
church, and I was scared. I wasscared of hope, John. I was
scared that I was going to finda new way out. I was afraid to
leave what I thought was myidentity. I showed up with my
bandana on my gangster Lopes onmy white t shirt, black Dickies,

(51:35):
my Nike Cortez shoes. Peopleknew I was a gang member, just
by the way I looked, and by theway I had my nine millimeter
with me, just in case someonerecognized me and I was going to
be set up. As I'm walkingtowards that church,

Unknown (51:55):
I'm hearing the sounds that I'm not used to, and as I'm
walking up the stairs of thatchurch, is a hot environment.
There's no air conditioning. AsI'm walking upstairs, I look to
my left and the room is packed,

but I'm look to my left and I see a bunch of
gang members there, and I grabmy gun, and I'm thinking, my
sister set me up. The differenceis those gang members had their
hands raised, what I know now iscalled worshiping God. I look to
my right and I see the OGS aredressed in suits,

Unknown (52:39):
and they're crying. At

this moment, I'm not seeing my sister
anywhere, so I'm thinking, sheset me up, and I grab, I grab my
nine millimeter tight, and I'mthinking, if anybody sees me,
I'm going to react all of asudden, the man that gets on
stage, I recognize him as aformer gang member in one of my
enemies. And I'm thinking, thisguy isn't gonna this guy's gonna

(53:04):
kill me. My sister set me up.
But this man began to talk abouta guy named Jesus. He began to
talk about Jesus in a way that Ihad never heard Jesus being
spoken of in a way, the way hespoke about him. And when he
began to speak about Jesus, hehe locked eyes with me. And as
he began to speak, he gotlouder. And the louder he got,

(53:26):
the tighter I got to my gun, andthe more he began to walk
towards me. It's as if he forgotthe room was filled with other
people. And he he focused in me,on me, and I'm realizing I got
my looks on, but it's like hecan see through my glasses,

Unknown (53:46):
my sunglasses, and I'm thinking, How does he know what
I'm feeling?

He begins to give this message like I've
never heard before, and hebegins to ask me a question, and
I write about it in my bookbecause I thought it was, it's
the PROLOG of my book, because Ithought it would be important to
add it. Because he said, What ifyou leave this place and a
bullet with your name on it isthat is designated for you, not

(54:18):
realizing that a few hours ago,a few days ago, and a few weeks
ago, bullets with my name on itwere designated for me, yet God
spared my life.

Unknown (54:30):
He said, What are you going to do? You're going to
leave here knowing that youheard the gospel for the first
time, knowing that you heard allthat to say, he touched my heart
in a way that I never saw. Neversaw it coming. I was getting
ready to walk out of that room.

There were no fog machines, there were no
fancy singers, no fancy band, hesaid, as I'm getting ready to
walk out. I began to hear thissong that I was not used to
hearing at the cross, at thecross where I first saw the
light,

Unknown (55:12):
and I began to cry.
This guy invited me to go up tothe front to pray for me, and
I'm not going to give you thedetails, but it was a wrestling
match, yet that was the momentthat I came to Christ.

The next day, I was called in by my OGS, and I
knew that I had to give anaccount of where I was. Now, you
have to realize the guys that Iwas in the car with John, I
didn't know what happened tothem. I found out when I showed
up to this meeting that they hadbeen arrested. They had been set
up by the FBI, yet God spared meto get out of that car that

(55:58):
moment, I never saw them. It'sbeen 26 years, and I've never
seen them ever again. Thedecision for me to accept Christ
and to follow Christ was not atthat moment, at that altar, the
moment that I knew thatfollowing Christ for me was
going to be life or death, waswhen I had a shotgun in my back,

(56:21):
a pistol in my temple and apistol on my chest, and they
wanted to know where I was thenight

Unknown (56:26):
before. Yet I couldn't respond quickly,

because I knew if I said the wrong thing, my
brains were going to be blownaway. But at the same time, I
couldn't deny the feeling I feltthe night before that change the
greatest miracle I've everwitnessed, John is not someone
that can grow an arm is notcancer going away. I've never

(56:54):
witnessed a dead man come tolife. I never witnessed miracles
like people talk about but thegreatest miracle I've ever
witnessed was the change ofheart of an ex gang member that
fell in love with Christ andfelt compassion and peace that
surpassed every understanding ofthis world, and I stood with

(57:17):
those guns, not being afraid ofwhere I was going to go and end
up instead, I was confident withthe authority that God had given
me the night before that my onlyjob was to let them know what
Jesus did for me the nightbefore that was going to be my
ticket out of that gang. Fastforward to where I am today. Who

(57:44):
would ever thought that an exgang member would help rescue a
former a televangelist that fellfrom grace? Who would ever
thought that a former ex gangmember that the world said lock
him up, throw the key away wouldbe the catalyst of helping a
name by the name of Jim Baker.
Get back to television to where,where he once started. Guy used

(58:06):
me John to save Jim Baker'slife, because Jim Baker had just
got out of prison and nobodywanted to be his friend. He was
feeling depressed. He was dyingin depression at the Dream
Center, and I don't have time totell the story about the Dream
Center where God called me toserve the inner city of Los
Angeles, the Dream Center withPastor Tommy Barnett and Matthew

(58:29):
Barnett in the heart of one ofthe biggest rivals of my gang.
Wow. And I can't wait to you,for you to read that story,
because it's an unbelievablebecause miracles took place. Yet
that was the place where I metJim Baker. We began to dream
about doing television again andbuilding Morningside, and never

(58:50):
understanding what my life wasgoing to be or where I was going
to go. I didn't have a job.
Nobody wanted to hire me, so Isaid, God, I'm going to give my
life to you, and I don't knowwhere I'm going to go, I don't
know what I'm going to do. Idon't have anything to offer.
But yet, God knew that I had adream as a little boy to be on

(59:11):
television, but I couldn't tellanybody that, because I was
afraid people were going tolaugh at me. Yet God puts me
next to the pioneer of Christiantelevision. Later in life, we
found ourselves launching thePTL network all over the world.
Relaunching the PTL network, andit's syndicated all over the

(59:32):
world. In America, over 10million homes in America and and
growing. And here I have my owntelevision program, hosting it,
and then co hosting the JimBaker show next to this man that
impacted the Christian worldlike never before, here we were
two broken guys and God broughtus together to restore one
another. He became a father tome. He became my mentor to me.

(59:55):
He became someone that aconfidant, not real. Imagine
that 26 years later, I'm sharingmy story to millions of people
every single day. Yeah, that's amiracle for me. That's the
craziest part of life. Yeah,

John Matarazzo (01:00:12):
you had some crazy things from the world's
eyes happen earlier in yourlife, but since you've, since
you've given your life to Jesus,the crazy path that he's brought
you on, that he's held your handwith, is really something that
is more crazy, because in theworld's eyes, it makes no sense.
How does God take a gangster, aformer gangster and a former

(01:00:37):
televangelist who, as you said,fell from grace? There's a lot
of things that happened, andthere's still people that have
grudges and they have issues ofunforgiveness, but that's they
need to work that out, becauseGod is using Jim Baker in a
powerful, powerful way. Butbrother, I got to hear about you

(01:00:58):
stepping into TV production,because that's one of the things
we talked about as we just gotstarted here. That's where you
and I really connect, kind of,you know, when we're not
sorting, but like, tell me aboutsome of this, and then I got to
ask you my official along theway questions too, but tell me
about no getting into TVproduction, because that is,

(01:01:18):
that is something that I just Iloved that season of my life.

Mondo De La Vega (01:01:22):
You know what's so funny about how I got
to what I'm doing now? And I'vebeen doing television for 26
years, from producing to hostingto directing, and, I mean, you
name it, lighting director. Butwhen Jim Baker wanted to come
back to television, very fewpeople stepped back in and said,
I will help you, Jim. And youwould think that the pioneer of

(01:01:45):
Christian television was goingto draw a lot of the production
crew that he once had. He wasconsidered the number one
television personality and atone time and had the very best
productions. He was it man. Hewas he was what everybody envy.
Well, fast forward to where wewere in life in 2002 very few

(01:02:06):
people came along to help us,good people and but they didn't
stay long enough to help us.

Unknown (01:02:13):
And you know what

a man without a vision perishes, and without
vision, people perish, andwithout having the work ethic
behind the vision, peopleperish. And I told Jim, I'm
going to help you. I don't knowanything about television, I
said, but if you give me theweekend, we will be on
television by Monday morning.
And sure enough, I took theweekend, and I had my dear

(01:02:40):
friend Michael Phillips, and hetrained me over the weekend how
to direct, how to produce, atleast the foundation. And then
other people, like Dale Hillcame along and started training
me in production, and and otherpeople came and they began to
see this ex gang member wantingto see Jim Baker get back to
what God had called him to do,because my destiny was tied to

(01:03:03):
his gift. My destiny and mypurpose was tied to the
fulfillment of what God hadcalled him to do. Because inside
of me, I wanted to be on thatchair next to him, co hosting
and sharing the gospel aroundthe world, but the Bible says,
in order to lead, you must learnto serve first, right? And I

(01:03:23):
began to serve, and I began towhen everybody else left, I
stayed afterwards, and I learnedlighting, and I learned the
lighting directing, and Ilearned how to direct
television, and I learned how toproduce, how to research and and
I read a lot, and all of asudden I began to train other
people from we didn't haveenough camera people to even run

(01:03:46):
cameras for the production, so Ilooked around the audience that
would come and be a part of theshow, and I asked the question,
how many people want? Who wantsto be a camera person? Five
people. I said, I need fivepeople. With five people raised
their hand, have you done camerabefore? No, we never ran camera.
I said, Well, do you have goodeyesight? Yes. Do you know how

(01:04:06):
to hear yes, I can use you. Somy production crew were smokers
that were coming in, people thatwere in the audience that wanted
to see where Jim Baker was, andif how Jim Baker looked? Yeah,
God told me, use what you havethe miracles in the house, Tommy
Barnett said, years ago, and themiracle of the production was

(01:04:29):
right there in the middle ofthis audience. My little brother
Ricky, was nine years old, andhe couldn't reach the camera,
and I got a milk crate, and he'sstanding up running camera. He's
helping. How

old was Ricky?
How Ricky was nine? How old wereyou at this point? Oh,

my goodness, how I was in my mid 20s. Okay,
no. And all of a sudden, here Iam. Editing the show. I don't
even know how to edit, but Ilearned how to break and then I
found somebody that knew how toedit. I brought him in and and I
said, Can you help me edit theshow? Can you do help me do
voiceovers? Hey, can you help meput this on? Hey, can you be the

(01:05:14):
audience, person that the floordirector? And I'll tell you a
little story, a very famoustheologians daughter became one
of our main floor directors. Shenever been on television before,
and she was from London,England, and she came and served
under our ministry, and shesaid, Well, I can help you. I
said, Can you do floordirecting? No, but I'll learn.

(01:05:35):
And I began to teach her how tofloor direct. I taught other
people how to run camera and howto run the gym. I taught one of
one of the best lightingdirectors in the country right
now. I trained him. He startedwork. He was 19 years old when
he came to the studio, and hestarted as a database entry
person. And he said, Hey, man, Iwent to college, Junior College

(01:06:01):
for six months, but I have apassion for television. Can I
learn? I said, if you want tolearn, meet me after work. I'll
be here all night. I didn'tthink he was going to show up.
This kid showed up today. He'sone of my best friends in the
world. Jason Rico, one of thegreatest lighting directors, one
of the best directors. I trainhim as a director, lighting

(01:06:23):
director. He's one of the topcolorists in the industry right
now, one of the best people inproduction. But he started
because he had passion, and Itrained him every day how to how
to light a set, how to dress aset, how to build set, but I
learned it from Jim Baker.
Everything. Jim Baker will sharestories of how PTL and heritage

(01:06:46):
USA, how they would doproductions, and the little he
knew. He taught me how tobacklight, how to how to
background, light the key, lightthe fill, light the backlight.
And Jim and I, he was sick forhours teaching me the trade. He
says, someday, you're going toneed this. Someday, when I'm
gone, you're going to be hostingyour own show, and you don't

(01:07:09):
want people fooling with you.
You got to know your craft.
Yeah. Hours and hours John and Ispent dealing with production
people. I remember one of thetop moments in my life was to re
to be a co director for theLarry King Show. You remember
the Larry King Show? That was abig deal? Yeah, so the Larry

(01:07:32):
King wanted to do a livesatellite from from his studios,
and wanted Jim Baker on theshow, and he said, I need
another director. Do you haveone? I said, I am the director.
Man. I got to direct the LarryKing show from here.
Unbelievable. God has used me inso many different ways to be

(01:07:53):
able to help Jim fulfill hiscalling all the way to
fulfilling what I'm doing today.
But guess what? I learned byworking hard and learning one
step at a time all the way towhere I am today and still
producing. I'm hosting, cohosting, but I'm also producing

(01:08:14):
other programmers and helpingthem and consulting other
people. I have my own businesson the side, where I do
consulting and production fornon Christian industry, thing
things and and hiring me to comeand consult how to do television
and programming and data. AndI'm thinking, Man, my experience

(01:08:37):
is nothing but School of thehard knocks.

Yeah, man, that's That's amazing. And so
you just, you just made yourselfavailable and obedient to the
things that God opens up to you.
And I just find it interestingthat how we look at at Jim
Baker's fall from grace as youknow this, this horrible thing
that happened, and there's badthings that happened with that.

(01:09:04):
He's re he's repented, he's beenrestored, and I thank God for
the grace of God. But if itwasn't for that situation in his
life, he would not probably haveever met you at the Dream
Center. No, never. Then changedthe trajectory of your life, and
now you're impacting so manypeople through the Jim Baker

(01:09:26):
show, through the Mondo show,and now through your my crazy
life book, as well as all theseother things that you that you
mentioned, you know, Mondo, thetheme of this podcast. It's
called along the way, becauseit's themed after the Emmaus
road story how in Luke 24 thedisciples are walking on the

(01:09:47):
road to Emmaus, but they andthey're depressed. They've got
that Jesus has been crucified.
There's kind of rumors that heis alive again. But people. They
don't know what to think. And sohere comes this traveler, and
they he asks, What are you guystalking about? And they say to

(01:10:09):
him, they say to this traveler,are you the only person in
Jerusalem that has no idea whatjust happened? And then he, the
traveler, just continues to tellthem, like all these things
needed to happen so thescriptures could be fulfilled.
And they continue walking forthe seven to 11 miles. Whatever

(01:10:29):
it is that they finally get toEmmaus, and it says it was time
for for the meal, the eveningmeal. And so they get there, and
they invite him to come in. TheBible says that he would have
kept on going. So they sit downat the table, and it's Jesus. He
breaks the bread. He blesses thefood. He breaks the bread. Their
eyes are open. They realize thatit's Jesus, and it's been Jesus

(01:10:52):
this whole time walking withthem, and then poof, he's gone.
And they turn to each other inLuke 2432 and say, weren't our
hearts burning within us alongthe way as he was revealing the
Scriptures to us. And the funthing about that is that even
though it took them probably twothree hours to walk that they

(01:11:15):
ended they were at sunset. Theyran back to Jerusalem because
they were so excited about thisnews that they had Mondo as
you're looking at your life, andwe've covered a lot in your
life, and there's so much morethat we could talk about, maybe
we'll have to do another one,focusing more on the TV side of
things. But Mondo, where do youlook back at your life now, and

(01:11:37):
you didn't realize that Jesuswas walking with you, but now
you can look back and you seeJesus really was there.

I think the part is emotionally. I didn't
think I was available in life.

Unknown (01:11:52):
I was a living, dead walking man. I was a dead man
walking

I had no idea that I can love I didn't have an
idea that I can even be afather, because I grew up
without a father, and I neverwanted kids. I never wanted to
get married. I didn't think Iwas good enough. I didn't feel
good enough to even be a father,be a husband, be an employee. I

(01:12:20):
only felt good sitting at thetable with killers, gangsters,
shock callers, pimps andhustlers. I thought that was my
only life, and I thought thatwas only good enough just for
that

Unknown (01:12:34):
yet,

God is in his amazing ways. Reminded me, even
back then and writing this book,not realizing that

Unknown (01:12:46):
he had been there when everyone walked away,

he reminded me in ways that he never left me.

Unknown (01:12:55):
The key was

I never thought that I had anybody have
plans for me? And the scriptureof 2911 of Jeremiah says, For I
know the plans I have for you,says the Lord,

Unknown (01:13:10):
and I stop right there.
I

don't even have to keep reading the rest of
the verse, just the fact that hehad plans for me, just the fact
that he took the time toorchestrate a plan for me, let
me know that he wanted to makethings right with me, that he
was crazy about me

Unknown (01:13:31):
today,

one of the best things that's happened in
my life, because I've traveledall over the world. John and I
didn't even speak on this, on mybook, I had the opportunity to
travel all over the world,almost every continent, to share
my story, and I spoken in crowdsof 50,000 people. For six months
straight, I was being invited toconferences. I've been yet. I

(01:13:56):
walked away from all thatbecause I wanted to know Christ
in an intimate way. I wanted toknow him because I fell in love
with him. And God brought peoplelike Gary Smalley. God brought
people like Jim Baker, RickJoyner, people like Steve
Strang. And I want to thankcharisma for believing in me and

(01:14:16):
helping me write my book story,because I met Steve Strang, the
president of charisma and thefounder of charisma, 26 years
ago, and he told me, one daywe're going to write a book
together. I never thought aboutit after then, and then a few
months ago, he called me andsaid, Are you ready? The whole

(01:14:38):
thing is this, God never forgetsyour dreams. God never forgets
your desires. God never for Ithought God forgot about me
John, yet God reminded me everysingle day that he was with me.
Yet I was too blind to see it.
But I reminded today, when Ihave one of my best friends is
called Jim Baker, one of. Mybest friends was the late Dr

(01:15:00):
Gary Smalley. One of my greatestmentors was the late Gary
Smalley, trying to give meadvice about relationships and
getting married. And I said,Gary, I don't believe in
marriage. Stop giving memarriage advice. He said, No,
one day you're going to need it.
Well, that one day came and thegirl that changed my life became

(01:15:23):
the girl that was the daughterof one of the Lennon sisters,
the same group that I heard inthat jail cell on my way to my
deathbed. That's a miracle. Andthen God blessed us with twins,
a boy and a girl that changed mylife, John, if you asked me a
few years ago,

Unknown (01:15:43):
I thought that my job was to win the world for Christ.
I thought that my job and myduty and my mission was to win
the world for Christ.

Today is not a job. It's a gift that I get to
do. My job is to raise my kidsand to lead them all the way up
to adulthood and walk with themall the way to adulthood and be
with them every single moment oftheir lives when they need me,

(01:16:16):
when I'm there 24 hours a day,seven days a week, my job is not
to win the world and lose myonly kids. I rather, I rather
love the world and keep sharingthe gospel, but my greatest
investment that I can do is towalk my daughter and my son, my
twins, all the way up toadulthood, and see him succeed,

(01:16:38):
and see him walk with God andsee him fall in love with God on
their own. Me as guiding them,correcting them, disciplining
them, but also being with themall along the way. Because if my
father would have stayed to walkme all the way up to adulthood,
my life would have beendifferent. My life would have
ended different. I see itbecause 13 years of my kids

(01:17:02):
being alive, they are thesweetest twins you will ever
meet in your life. I'd beworking in my office or having
dinner and the kitchen table,and they're walking by and they
say, Dad, I love you. Dad, Ilove you. Dad, thank you for
being in our lives. Dad, thankyou for being with us. Dad,
we're so proud of you, dad. Allday long, 13 year old kids, it's

(01:17:27):
because I decided, my wife and Idecided that I don't want to go
and win the world and lose mykids. I'll share the Gospel for
the world, and I'll givewhatever I can to the world to
give them Jesus. But thegreatest calling and the
greatest job I can have is towalk my kids all the way up to

(01:17:47):
their

Unknown (01:17:47):
adulthood life and my success is granted at

that moment, and then stay there if they need
me back. But I believe that thething I learned was stay
consistent with your kids, stayconsistent with the call of God,
because you want to knowsomething. John, the gang was
the only consistent thing in mylife. That's why the gangs

(01:18:14):
became part of me. That's whythe gangs were so deep ingrained
in me that I was willing to die,live and die for my
neighborhood, yet they didn'tgive me anything back. It was
false. It was a lie, but Ibelieved it because it was the
only consistency that was in mylife today,

Unknown (01:18:33):
for my kids,

man, I want to be the most consistent man in
their life, the most consistent,passionate guy that loves Jesus,
not by preaching to them, but bywalking it out. I don't ever
preach to my kids. I let themwatch me, watch me when I fall,
watch me how I pray, watch how Iworship, watch how I serve

(01:18:57):
people. Watch how I go to theand share the gospel on
television, how when otherpeople are not watching, how we
help restore other peopleprivately. And yet, the greatest
gift that I learned that Ididn't realize that was with me,
was that God had been there allthis time. He never left me, he
never walked away, and here Iam. I feel I am the happiest I

(01:19:21):
ever been with my wife, with mykids, with my ministry, with
Morningside. We build the PTOnetwork. We even did that. I
didn't know how to build atelevision network yet. Here I
am. God used me and my team andmy family and Jim adopting five
kids from the inner city ofPhoenix, and here you got a

(01:19:42):
bunch of ghetto kids like myselfand God used us to build a 24
hours a day television, PTLTelevision Network. Wow. We
don't have education, but wehave, yes, God, use me. God, I'm
available. God, that's so good.
I'll learn. God, and that wasthe key. And today we have a 24
hour PTL television networkwhere we're syndicating

(01:20:06):
television program all over theworld, 24 hours a day, and
continue to build newprogramming and hosting and CO
hosting and serving, but I canalways get down from that ladder
and serve as good as anyone elsein the ministry, because none of
that faced me, none of thatglamor, none of that man being

(01:20:26):
with someone like Jim taught me.
Hey, don't fall in love with thegift. Fall in love with Jesus.
Don't fall in love with thecalling of God. Fall in love
with the will of God in yourlife, everything else will fall
into place.

Amen, that's such a good answer. You covered
a lot of ground in that. Butknowing that, you can look back
and you see that Jesus has beenalways there, and there's so
many times in your story that ityou can see like how Jesus was
was there as you're telling itnow, and I appreciate you being

(01:21:04):
open and vulnerable to sharethat and to write it in your
book as well. My follow upquestion that I always like to
ask is Mondo, with what you knownow, with your life experience
that you have now, if you couldgo back in time and cross and
meet up with yourself at ayounger age and your timeline at

(01:21:27):
some point, what advice wouldyou give yourself and what's
going on in your life at thatpoint that you would actually
want to receive it? Now I'mimagining that you might want to
go to that time where you weresix years old, or maybe it was a
time where you saw that kidgetting beat up, or, you know,
whatever this is. But I justwanted to hear from you, what
advice would you give yourselfif you could go back in time and

(01:21:50):
what, what would be going onthat you would want to receive
that, or need to receive that?

That's a fantastic question. And I've
thought about this question forthe last, um, umpteen years of
my life, and is this I wouldtell my younger self learn to
forgive.

Unknown (01:22:10):
If I could have learned to forgive earlier in my life, I
would have lived a happiermoment in my life

if I could have had the opportunity to make
things right with my fatherbefore he before he was
murdered, if I could havelearned to forgive my mother, I
would have had a betterrelationship with her. If I had
to learn to forgive my enemies,I would not have been this angry
young kid that was lost in angerand hatred and despair and

(01:22:44):
confused, and I think about thepower of forgiveness. My book,
if you really want to know whatmy book is about, it's not about
a gangster story. It's about akid that learned how to forgive
through the trials andtribulations of life. And how is
it that a guy, by the one of thegreatest theologians in the
world, got brought into my lifeto teach me about the power of

(01:23:08):
forgiveness? Dr, RT Kendall, oneof the greatest theologians in
the world, became one of myclosest friends for a period of
time, and God used him to teachme how to forgive. Not only
that, if I could have learnedhow to forgive from my heart as
a kid, I think my life wouldhave ended up a little bit

(01:23:29):
different, because I didn'tlearn how to forgive. I didn't
learn how to forgive till laterin life. Even as a Christian, it
was a process, and God had toteach me the power of
forgiveness is the key tounlocking the will of God in
your life. The Bible says thatif you don't forgive, My Father

(01:23:51):
will not forgive you everythingif you want to get into heaven.
It's not how well you canpreach, it's not how many
followers you can have, it's nothow many missionaries you can
help, and not how many thingsand wonderful and dynamite
things you can teach, how manybooks you have and and the
acclimate no is to you have theability to forgive your father,

(01:24:14):
that you have the ability toforgive your mother, that you
have the ability to forgive yourhusband for cheating on you so
you have the ability to forgiveyour kids for hurting you. The
power of forgiveness is whatunlocks for me to understand
what the will of God was in mylife. John, at one moment, after

(01:24:34):
being saved and after going tochurch and being in Christian
ministry and traveling all overthe world. I thought that
Christian world was aboutdeveloping the gifts that God
was giving me and the gifts thatGod gave me because people were
inviting me to speak at theirconferences, people started
noticing that my story can dothis and my story can do that.

(01:24:57):
Then I fell in love with thecalling of God, because
everybody. He said, Man, you gota great calling and and you're
like Nikki Cruz. And so I beganto fall in love with the calling
of God, yet I was missing thewill of God. And the will of God
for my life was I had to learnto forgive my father. I had to
learn to forgive myself, thepower of forgiveness, if I could

(01:25:21):
have had that knowledge backthen, oh, man, if I knew then
what I know now, it would havechanged who I was as a person,
because it destroyed me foryears. It's taken over 20 some
years to undo the emotionaltrauma that the gangster world,

(01:25:42):
that my father's decision andthe moments that changed my life
is taking 20 some years toforgive from my heart, the Bible
says, As a man thinketh, so ishe. But the heart, the Bible
says, is very deceitful, and myheart deceived me for a long
time, yet it was when I dealtwith the power of forgiveness,

Unknown (01:26:06):
man, I was able to make peace with my past that's so
good.

Mondo. You know, I always like to look for
opportunities to ask my myguests, to be able to minister
to the audience. And I wasoriginally thinking that you
know people that feel like theydon't they don't know what their
calling is, or they feel likethey don't have a call, but
something that you said aboutforgiveness basically releases

(01:26:34):
or opens up or reveals yourcalling. Could you just pray for
the people that are that havebeen with us, watching this or
listening to this, and just praythat they're that as they
understand forgiveness, thatthey would walk into their
calling, their plans that Godhas for them.

Unknown (01:26:55):
Absolutely,

if you're listening to my voice or if
you're watching right now, Ibelieve there's two things that
we're after in life. One ispeace of mind. Number two is we
want to be loved. Love and peaceof mind. But it starts from
forgiving from your heart.
There's a lot of turmoil in yourheart. There's a lot of a lot of

(01:27:17):
things and trauma from the past,abuse that has taken place
someone close to you abused youremotions. Maybe they abused you
physically, or maybe even deeperthan that, they abused you
sexually, and they tookadvantage of your innocence, and
it changed the trajectory ofyour life, and somehow, by
ignoring it has not gone away. Ipray that you would lead your

(01:27:43):
way to a place where you canlearn how to forgive from your
heart, and I pray that when youonce you understand the steps of
learning to forgive, that thefrustration of not knowing what
your purpose is, not knowingwhat you were called to do not
knowing what gifts you have. I'mlike you. I didn't know I had

(01:28:04):
gifts. I didn't recognize thefulfillment of my life. I didn't
know I had a purpose. I thoughtmy purpose was to die in prison.
I thought that my purpose was tobe dead by the time I was 18.
Yet it was far more than that,and I'm praying that you will
find peace of mind, that youwill find the forgiveness, the

(01:28:24):
power to forgive from yourheart, not to get even I'm not
asking you to forget what theydid. I'm asking you to forgive
what they did. You don't have toforget. We will never forget
what people done to us, but wecan learn how to forgive, so we
can find the will of God for ourlives. And I pray that as you're

(01:28:45):
listening to this prayer, thatthe peace of God will come over
you and teach you ways that willlead you into a place of
forgiveness and the brokennessof who you are, even if you're
successful already, even if youown multiple businesses and you
have your Lamborghini, maybe youhave a private plane, or maybe

(01:29:07):
you have a mega ministry, butyou're still holding on to the
trauma of the hurt of the past,and if people knew the real you,
and they found out who you were,you will lose Everything. Well,
I want to tell you that ask Godto forgive you from your heart,
because the forgiveness willunlock the true peace that the

(01:29:28):
Bible says that will surpass theunderstanding of this world.

Unknown (01:29:35):
Amen. Amen. Amen.

I just want to encourage everybody that's
watching it or listening towrite in the comments what God
was speaking to you, and howyou're going to act out this
forgiveness. You're going towalk out what Mondo was just
talking about, because that'ssomething that you don't just
want to let this sit back inyour in your life, and just kind

(01:29:57):
of let this moment pass, dosomething a. About it. Make that
thing stick in your life. Makethat decision a prominent one,
not just a passing one. Make itpowerful and purposeful, because
you're everything can change ina moment. As Mondo was saying,

(01:30:18):
this, forgiveness is somethingthat he wished that he would
have learned a long time agowhen he was a kid, his life
would have been a lot a lot morepeaceful, a lot more purposeful,
and thank God for Hisforgiveness and his and his
grace in our lives, becauseGod's been able to bring him to
where he is now. But there'sthings that you can do and

(01:30:43):
releasing forgiveness, forgivingothers and forgiving yourself
that will bring freedom to you,and in no other ways. And so
Mondo, thank you so much forallowing me to come and have you
on my podcast. And this has beena blessing so much. And I want
to do just an episode with you,just talking about TV stories.

(01:31:06):
We talked a little bit aboutthat, and I know we've gone a
long time already, but maybewe'll have to do another show of
that, because those are justsome fun stories. Because
actually that's one of thethings that I would love to do
more of is actually you and Iboth are really good about
helping people pull the storiesout of each other. Yeah, we

(01:31:28):
could talk about that for foranother time. So everybody you
know look out for that. Makesure you subscribe and you like
do all that stuff, and make surethat you you enjoy joining us
along our ways. Amanda, thankyou for allowing me to

come and thank you. Thank you for allowing me
to share my story and fortalking this long. And I just
love you, man. I appreciategiving us, guys like myself that
have a message and have a storyto share on your platform. I
wish you the very best ofsuccess everything that you're
doing to help people like me andhelp other people get their

(01:32:04):
message out there, because it isso important that you are the
next Jim Baker. You are the nextgeneration of of broadcasters
that are breaking ground in thenew technology and the new way
of television and the new way ofhow to stream things, and man,
keep doing what you're doing,because you're a legacy of the

(01:32:25):
pioneers like Jim Baker and PatRobertson and and some of the
pioneers of the 1950s thatbrought television to where it
is today, and now our generationand the Generation below us are
now taking it into the streamingworld and doing something much
bigger than what the pioneersdid. And I'm amazed. I'm just so

(01:32:50):
happy that you know what thegift of what those old timers
had is now going into whatyou're doing. And I wish, I wish
you much, much success, anddon't stop, even when it gets
hard, even when it feels likeyou don't want to do it no more.
And just keep pushing through.
Because, you know, the oldtimers used to say this, don't
give up on the brink of amiracle, and your miracle is

(01:33:12):
just around the corner. If not.
Listen, keep pushing through,because we need you and we need
more voices like you,

amen. Amen. Oh, man, Mondo. I said it or I said
it earlier, but I'll say itagain. Thank you for allowing me
to join you along your way.

Hey, I appreciate you, and don't forget
to get my book. My charismashop, I think, is called Get the
book. You can go there, mycharisma.com and listen, the
thing is this, that when you gothere, I think you're going to
receive 25% off the originalprice that you will get on
Amazon and other places. Sothat's a little thing that a lot

(01:33:55):
of people don't realize that,uh, charisma is doing something
special. And I appreciatecharisma. I appreciate Steve
Strang and joy Strang and you,John, all of you at charisma for
believing on this ex gang memberthat God has done something
amazing, and your team andeveryone in charisma believed in

(01:34:17):
me to get this book out there.
And I'm an accomplished authornow. I.

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.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}On Purpose with Jay Shetty

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Cardiac Cowboys

All Episodes

From the Streets to Destiny: Prophecy, Purpose, and Mondo De La Vega’s Incredible Transformation #132

On Purpose with Jay Shetty