Changed Lives Open School Doors in Pocatello

We have been seeing visitors at every service. Men have been catching the vision of our Fellowship. We have couples getting right with God by getting married and stepping into the destiny that God has for their lives.

From the weddings we have been getting faithful fruit. We are believing in God for a new outpouring of revival that touches the city of Poky. I would like to thank my Pastor Rick Martinez and Sister Cecy and the entire Ogden congregation for their investment, prayers and support. Please continue to pray for us. Testimony Joseph Rodriguez

My name is Joseph Rodriguez and I would like to give God all the praise and glory for my testimony.

I have been saved and serving God for two years now. My wife and I met soon after I moved from Oregon. She was 14 and I was 15 at that time. We both came from broken homes. Neither of us had our fathers in our lives. We skipped school, drank alcohol and smoked weed every weekend. Going to parties was the way we lived our lives.

I had a lot of hatred in my heart so I would find reasons to release that anger through fighting and getting involved in a gang. I didn’t know how to deal with the normal way of life. Much of this was caused from the way I grew up, feeling abandoned and rejected and the environment I lived in.

My wife grew up surrounded by family in Pocatello, Idaho but still was neglected by her mother throughout her life being raised by her grandmother. Her home was filled with uncles and cousins who were addicted to drugs. As we got older our addictions got worse. I started off selling weed and quickly moved to selling meth and heroin. I sold to anyone who had the money, including my wife’s family and mine. I was very selfish and violent.

I was 20 years old before my wife and I got really heavy in using the drugs I was selling. We had three children that were all taken away by the state because of our lifestyle.

I was in and out of jail. I shot up heroin and dope for years while my wife smoked it. Even though we had everything we wanted, like material things, a house, cars, money, and drugs, we still felt empty inside. It never felt like it was enough when we weren’t high. All we did was argue, and I always thought about getting more.

In the end we lost everything and ended up homeless, on the run from the law, sleeping in my mom’s kitchen with a sheet over the entrance for a door. After living like this for a year, we both got locked up and this time I found myself going to the state prison. For a year and half my wife stayed in the county jail but during this time I found myself in my cell talking to God, asking what my purpose was in this life. I remember saying if this is who I was created to be, then alright, because I knew I could do time and all I ever knew was a life of crime. But if God had a purpose for me, I asked Him to show me.

I got out on a program after I did the time and quickly started going back to what I knew best. One day I was in my apartment with my wife. We were about to get high when someone knocked on my door. I saw it wasn’t my probation officer through the door so I answered it, and it was a man inviting me to church services at the Potter’s House. He told me about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all that he had delivered him from. That man is now my pastor. The first thing that came to my mind while he was witnessing to me was me talking to God in my cell. I knew it was from God so I went to service and during that service, God met with me and I knelt at the altar, repented of my sins, and asked Jesus Christ into my heart.

I was delivered from drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, the way I used to think, the way I dressed and even the way I would speak. I have truly been transformed by the power of God.

A couple of months later my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, came in and got powerfully delivered from everything as well. A month later we both got baptized, and three months after that we were married in our church here in Pocatello, Idaho. We are now the Door directors.

God has given us so much peace and demonstrates his love and faithfulness in our lives more and more everyday. He has restored our family and the relationships that were broken. We are both just so excited about his plan for our lives we thank God everyday for the Fellowship he has placed us in. He has answered my prayers and has truly given me purpose.

All the glory be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!