Living Testimonies
Living Testimonies is a faith-based podcast sharing real stories of transformation, healing, and hope. Each episode features powerful conversations with guests who open up about the challenges they’ve faced and how their faith in God has shaped their journey.
Whether you’re looking for encouragement, spiritual insight, or a reminder that you’re not alone, this podcast will uplift and inspire you. These are stories of redemption that point to one truth: God is still moving.
Your story, His Glory!
Living Testimonies
A Transformative Journey From Flesh to Faith, with Kyle Almodovar
Join me as I talk with Kyle Almodovar, a man who once lived a life consumed by partying and fleshly desires. But everything changed when God spoke to him, transforming his life forever. Now, Kyle is married, a father, and alongside his wife, guides couples through Love By Faith Ministries. Listen in as Kyle shares his powerful testimony, revealing the struggles he faced, the moment God intervened, and the lessons he's learned along the way. Be inspired by his story of redemption and discover how you too can live a life of faith, hope, and purpose.
Links to Connect with Kyle Almodovar:
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Your Story, His Glory!
Welcome to Living Testimony Stories of Faith and Redemption. I'm your host, Israel Caminero, and I hope everyone that's listening is blessed and doing well. With me today I have my brother Christ, Kyle Almodovar. And it's taken us a while to get him in here because he's a busy man. He's a podcast host. And a father and a husband. And Kyle can you just introduce yourself to everyone, please?
Kyle Almodovar:What's up, Izzy? I'm glad to be here, man. It's uh it's so fun to be here. Sorry that it's taken me so long to get here. You know how it is. Yeah. Bunch of kids, house, family, jobs, businesses, ministries. The calendar fills up so quick. It happens, it's not just you, it happens with everybody. My brother's like, hey, let's get together on Saturday. And I'm like, how about Saturday in six weeks? That's when my calendar's open. He's like, oh man, come on, bro. Why's it gotta be like that? Like, it's just there's so much with everybody. And I don't know if it's like this for you, but my kids have like birthday parties to go to, and it's like at least once or twice a month where their friends are like, hey, come to my birthday party, and it's just all the time.
Israel Caminero:That's right.
Kyle Almodovar:It's all about the family, right? And so, yeah, so when you were like, let's get on the podcast, I was like, Yes, let's do this, but in six weeks when I can when I have it open Saturday time to get in the recording. And uh so yeah, I'm glad to be here, man. Thanks for having me.
Israel Caminero:It's all good, and I'm glad you're here. You know, it's all in God's timing, that's what it matters. And he's a host of a podcast with his wife, and it's called Love by Faith. And if you haven't listened to that podcast, I'll have all those links in the description of my podcast. But I'm sure he's gonna elaborate more on that, and it's a wonderful ministry that they have going. But before he gets started to share his testimony, I just want to lead us in prayer. Father God, just thank you for this time to share with my brother uh Kyle, as he's here to share his testimony, uh, to glorify you, Lord. Just be with us in this room, Lord, to just give us the words to say, the questions to ask, and to glorify you through all of this, Lord, because it's his testimony, but you're the one that truly gets magnified through it. Just the changes that you did in his life, and the changes that you might still be doing in his life. We'd like to bless his ministry, we'd like to bless his family. I say this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.
Kyle Almodovar:Amen.
Israel Caminero:Amen. So, Kyle, I've never heard your testimony. Okay. So, this is a first for me, and I'm excited to hear it. I I know about your life a little bit because, like I said, I listened to your podcast, I've known you and your wife for a while now. And if you can just share with everyone your testimony with everyone, that would be great. Sure.
Kyle Almodovar:So I'm so so glad you have me here and do this. It's um, I think when you're sitting back, when I'm sitting back to think about my testimony, it helps to reflect on what God has really done, how God has really moved. And I was praying about this and really not struggling for direction, but like it's always like, how do you tell the story? Right. How do I tell my story and the battle of my story's not that interesting? And my my story, oh wow, that it was interesting, that was interesting. And then I talked with my wife about how I'm gonna talk about it. But before we came here today, uh our church had all church prayer this morning, and so I was like, I'm gonna go to prayer, get prayed up, come in here ready. And sure enough, at prayer, I felt the Holy Spirit moving and giving me a great layout for how to share my story. Amen. And so I'm gonna go through that, and you know, I don't know how the time will go or what, you know, what time limit you need, but we'll I'll get it in and I'll tell you my story, and um I'm excited. I think uh when I was praying this morning, I was in there and really felt the Holy Spirit tell me that there's there's three parts to my story to really bring and share today. It's the story of of childlike faith, and then the story of the Holy Spirit at work, and then the third part, living it out in faith. And so growing up, my childhood was was awesome. I had a great great parents. My parents were married forever, you know. They both passed away in the last few years, and it's been hard, but that's a whole different story. But uh growing up, we had you know two-parent household, lived together uh with them. I was an only child until I was 12.
Israel Caminero:Okay.
Kyle Almodovar:They decided to have another baby at 12, and so from zero to twelve, it was just me and them, and my grandma would take care of me all the time, and we would go to church off and on, and we would go to Catholic church, and I had a really great church experience, nothing, nothing uh crazy, like the Catholic Church has a horrible history of right, but I had a great great priest and a great upbringing, got baptized there. I was like, I don't know if I was like five or six when I got baptized the first time, and um would go to church, love Sunday school, went to the youth group there, and we would our youth group wasn't like uh now we're that we're a non-denominational church, and I don't know what you're listening, you know, listeners come from everywhere, but right our youth group was you get together, hang out with kids, make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and take them to the homeless shelter. That was what youth group was. Every so we did that uh off and on. And my parents weren't necessarily every Sunday, but we'd go like a bunch of Sundays in a row and then take a couple off, and really just at that age I learned like a reverence for God and how important and special God was, and always had a belief, a foundation of belief that God was there and God was God was something, right? God wasn't Santa Claus, God wasn't a tooth fairy kind of fake thing, right? Just to get you to be morally right. It was really God was Jesus who came and loved us, and that was really supposed to impact your life. And so as a kid, this really hit me like I have something to live for. Like God gave me a reason to live young. Like young, I understood this because of the story of salvation was really explained to me well there. And just as a kid, like understanding and respecting God and having reverence from God really changed my approach to life. So I was really a I was really a rule follower when I was a kid. I was really a really good good kid. And then it didn't stay that way, right? So I got older and I got to probably about 14, 15 years old. High school. High school. Yeah, high school. Um got kind of influenced by outside, you know, right, outside influences, wanting to be cool, wanting to hang out and be part of the the cool kids, and getting into doing uh making bad choices and getting high. And I didn't I didn't really drink a ton when I was a kid. Like I tried a beer, yeah, but I didn't get like drunk. My first time being drunk, I think I was 18, 19 years old. Okay. So I was I wasn't uh wasn't into that, right? But I did did smoke a lot of weed as a kid, unfortunately. And uh but uh God delivered me from all that, and we'll get into that. Okay. And so growing up, I grew up in uh in Lakewood, which is a which is like a it's kind of a dense small city. So it's a it's got big city feel, like you're right next to Cleveland, but it's still a small city. Right. And it's got a it's kind of like it's not a suburb, but it's not the deep city, like somewhere in between that. I don't know what the technical term would be for that, but that's where I grew up. And um Lakewood had such a impact on me growing up because it was such a diverse place. There were so many different kinds of people, different kinds of kids, and I could have friend groups that were, you know, emo kids. I could have friend groups that were the athletes because I was an athlete, I played football. Okay, and it was okay because there were so many kids, it didn't matter. Nobody there was no like diverse, right? It wasn't clicky because there was so many, there were so many kids that it was nobody cared, right? You just did what you what you enjoyed, and that was awesome. Great for confidence, great for how I grew up, and um fast forward to about 17, 18, you know, I'm getting ready to go off to college. I want to go do my thing, so I get to college and it's just free-for-all, right? Just typical college, 18-year-old, free, off the leash, running wild, right? Doing too much, doing way too much in my life. I partied all the time. I went to Kent State and uh partied all the time. I joined a fraternity. It was it was an awesome time, right? But it was horrible for my development, horrible for me as a person. Um, it was horrible for my confidence, horrible, you know, it's just um it was it was a lot of trouble. It was not much fun, but it felt like an amazing time while I was going through it, right? Exactly. But it it was it was setting, it was sowing horrible seeds of destruction that definitely I reaped years later. So going through the the childlike faith phase, I was learning about God, and I came up, and I still, even when I was in my hard times partying through high school, partying at Kent State, partying in my college age, like I knew God was there, and I knew God was real. And the Holy Spirit was always just in my heart, right? Telling me, like, this isn't right, this isn't the way you're supposed to go, this isn't what are you doing, you know what I mean? But like God is a gentleman about it, not forcing me, not twisting my arm, you know, but giving me plenty of signs throughout the years. Like, like I remember I got uh I got uh not uh not arrested, but I got stopped by the cops at Kent State.
Israel Caminero:Okay.
Kyle Almodovar:And they they stopped me and they're like, what are you doing? You know, like I was I did nothing. I was just walking walking home. They just randomly stopped you? He said he saw, he said he saw my my pockets were bulging and wanted to contraband. Thought it was weird, and I had two beers in my pocket, right? I had cargo shorts on, and he's like, I saw something in your pockets and I wanted to check it out. And so I was like, all right, here's two beers. He's like, Oh, well, you're underage, so he gave me a ticket for that. Okay, and so it was just like, but he's I remember him saying to me, What are you doing, kid? What are you doing? Like, you don't need that. Right. You know what I mean? And it's just like, man, and so I had a horrible uh I had no what's the right way to say it? I had no no trigger to stop. Like nothing was like, this is too much. I had no this is too much regulator in my brain, ever. Ever, right? So I'm going off the deep end for hobbies, go off the deep end for sports, go off the deep end for for love. We'll get to that. But uh so when he says that it really hit me, right? And so after a year and a half at Kent State, I come home, I have a summer job as a painter, right? It was my my second year doing this job, and I met a guy named Dan. Dan Getz was his name, and he was a non-denominational Christian, and he witnessed to me about his life. Not like hardcore Bible thumper guy, just yeah, this I don't I don't do that, Kyle. Like, I've never had a drink. I don't know what what you're talking about or why you do that. And I'm just like, what? You never had a drink in the city. A different world, right? Right, and he he never cussed, never said anything. I'm like, bro, how come you don't even you don't even say like anything, right? And he's like, No, I don't need to talk like that. Like, it's just uh, you know, I pray with this mouth. I don't want to talk like that. I'm just like, that's good. What? What are you talking about, bro? Like, it's just your it's just words. And he's all summer just little little things like that, just like, no, that's not how how I live, not how I want to be. And you know what I mean? He's like, you know, it's because I'm a Christian. I want to, you know, God's called me to do something, God's called me this and God's called me that. And I'm like, God's called you. And so I, you know, I share with him about how my life was and what you know, knowing God as a kid, and you know, thinking I was good enough because I went through all the Catholic stuff as a kid. And uh at the end of that summer, he gave me a Bible, and it was it was cool. He was just like, it was just it was a seasonal job. So we're at the end of the season. He gives me the Bible, he's like, Man, have a great, great year at school, good luck. You know, I was going back to Kent State. So go back to Kent State, get there, get get through the first semester, and I realized my grades weren't gonna get me into the program that I needed to get into.
Israel Caminero:Okay.
Kyle Almodovar:And so I'm like, oh, I'm gonna come back home, I'll go to Cleveland State, stop wasting all this money at Kent where I'm not getting into the program I want. And uh I come back home, and that's where my life goes off the rails for me. Because I'm again free off the chain, but now I'm at home. Now I have a full-time job painting and making pretty good money, and I can buy whatever I want, do whatever I want. I got an apartment living with a buddy, just living however I wanted. Right. Basically, you know, basically prodigal living, right? But when with with nothing to stop me. I had no there was no nothing to to fail out of. I wasn't losing my job. I wasn't losing my car, wasn't losing my apartment, right? Right. And so I just went off the rails just drinking too much, smoking too much, and I think I was I think I was like, I felt like I was looking back on it, like I was drunk from 19 to 22.
Israel Caminero:Every day.
Kyle Almodovar:Just yeah, drunk or high or both, from 19 to 22, right? Gotcha. And through this, God kept coming back to me. So he put another another uh the next season at work, right? We talked about Dan. The next season at work brought a guy named Don, who was another um non-denominational Christian, just a Bible-believing Christian. And he was a little more little more firm on witnessing to me, like, you know, and telling me about God and God's will, and like you need to listen to what Dan was telling you last year, and so he was he was my boss at painting. And so he's teaching me about being peaceful, and he's teaching me about he's he's so he's married, he's got two kids, I think, at the time, and he's telling me about what is what good marriage is like with God in the middle, and I'm like, man, this sounds awesome. Kind of you know, my parents had a great marriage with God in the middle, and they still were able to to enjoy themselves and drink, you know. But uh once that really hit home with me, where that really hit home with me was was just the peace. I saw the peace that he had. I saw even he had a hard job, but like don't get me wrong there, but he had such a peace around him that it was that it was like made me stop and say, hmm, there's there's something different about him, and there was something different about Dan, Dan and Don. It's confusing, I know, but there was something different about him, and it really was like made me stop and take a breath, and you know, he really was like God has something for you, like don't don't miss it. Don't waste it, right? Don't miss it, right? Like, he's like, I can see you're not, you know, I see who you're trying to be, but I can see that God has something for you. Like, don't don't miss that. And so I carry on about my life, you know, we go another another year, and on my 21st birthday, I go off, right? This is my 21st birthday, right? I wake up the the next morning at my at my parents' house, and my face is all busted up. So I fell somewhere along the way on my 21st birthday. I still made it home.
Israel Caminero:Didn't even know it, huh?
Kyle Almodovar:Didn't know. No, I woke up like, oh, good morning. I was supposed to go to work. The next day was a work day. I didn't call off or nothing. I was like, nah, I'll be fine. I was so so arrogant. I thought I'm gonna go out and kick it. See, this is where I was at. I was gonna go out and kick it and go hard and then wake up at seven and go to work. Didn't happen, right? I wake up, realized my face is all busted. Called work and was like, hey, I'm not gonna make it today. Like, I'll see you tomorrow. And I had enough, I don't know. I'd never done anything like that at work before, so they were like, all right, Kyle, we'll see you then tomorrow. Right. So it wasn't like I was getting fired, thankfully. And it was just that was that was the real moment where I was like, this sucks. This is stupid. Why am I doing this to myself? Where am I gonna be? You know, down the road. That wasn't where it stopped. I kept kept going, right? I just said forget it, you know. And at this point it was it was alcoholism. I was I was drunk. Okay. You know, no, no way to go around it.
Israel Caminero:So you stopped the weed and it was just strictly alcohol then, or both? Both.
Kyle Almodovar:It was everything. It was yeah, it was everything. I never did any hard drugs, thank God. Right. But the the weed and the drinking all the time. And so after my 21st birthday, things keep going. I'm still painting houses, right? And we're riding back, I'm riding in the truck, a guy named Matt from work. And I don't know anything about Matt's life at this point, per se, except that he runs the painting company with us, right? Okay, and so our work trucks were little Toyota Tacomas. So this was like the kind of smaller size, the early 90s Tacomas, right? So this was there was like five feet from door to door. It was like little truck. I'm sitting next to Matt, and we're in a truck, and he's like, Kyle, if you died today, do you know where you'd wake up? Like, just that was his opener. I don't know where that was his that was his opener, right? And I'm like, what do you mean? I'd be dead. He's like, no, would you wake up in heaven or hell? And I'm like, man, really? This this is where we're at? And we're driving back from the east side of Cleveland. So I got this is the beginning of like a 45-minute ride. And I'm like, bro, where where are you going with this? And he's like, no, I'm serious. I'm serious. Like, there's two places you can wake up. You can wake up in heaven or you can wake up in hell. Like, where do you think you'd wake up? And I'm like, what? Probably wake up in heaven. And he's like, Oh, why? What makes you say that? I'm like, well, cause because I'm a good person. He's like, no, no, that ain't gonna do it. I ain't gonna cut it. Being a good person, what do you mean? There's plenty of good people out here, or you know what I mean?
Israel Caminero:Yeah.
Kyle Almodovar:What about Jesus? He's like, he said, I remember him saying that. What about Jesus? You know, do you know God's will for your life? Do you know God's will for your life? And I'm like, what are you talking? You know what I mean? Like, I'd never heard anybody ask it like that, or you know what I mean? Right. I didn't know he was just going hard, like heaven or hell, turn or burn, evangelizing to me. That's good though. At 22, you know, 20, I was like 21, just being a bonehead. I needed that, right? So that swift kick, that swift jolt reignited that Holy Spirit driving me, like, and I couldn't. From that, literally from that day, I couldn't ignore the Holy Spirit anymore. Right? So fast forward to February 14th, 2010, and I wake up from another night of partying, another crazy night. My coffee table's all full of everything, paraphernalia, empty beer bottles, empty liquor bottles, everything. And I just wake up and it's the Lord is like, do you want the life that I have for you or not? Like I could hear the Holy Spirit say that to me. Do you want the life I have for you or not? And I was like, yeah. He's like, well, get rid of this stuff. And so I went and grabbed a garbage bag and I swiped just my whole table. There was there was still valuable stuff there. And I just swiped it all into the garbage bag and I threw it away. And I've been clean and sober since February 14, 2010.
Israel Caminero:Praise the Lord.
Kyle Almodovar:And the the culmination of those people in that the Holy Spirit pushed them to reach out to just me, who was, you know, that didn't make a difference in their life. Right. Whether I believed anything or followed anything, but them being faithful to the Holy Spirit to answer the call and share to me, it made me able to say yes that day when God really finally tore down the walls of my heart and was like, hey, what are you doing? You know?
Israel Caminero:That's so good. I was just gonna say that, you know, you had the police officer, he was first, right? Then Dan. Right. Then Don. Then Don. And then Matt. Matt.
Kyle Almodovar:Yep.
Israel Caminero:All of them were planting seeds. Yeah. And you just kept doing what you were doing.
Kyle Almodovar:Yep.
Israel Caminero:But then when the Lord said what he said, it's so great that you were like, I'm done. And you threw all that stuff away.
Kyle Almodovar:And I called my mom. So I threw all the stuff away. And I call my mom. And she was a big, she was a big in the AA. She got sober. So about 2004, she got totally uh sober. And she stayed sober until she passed away. And I call her and I'm like, Mom, you know, like, will you go to church with me? And she's like, Yeah, you want to go, you know, to St. Pat's to our old church? And I'm like, no, I want to find a church close to me that's easy to go to. And I want to go to a non-denominational church since all these guys who witnessed to me were non-denominational. It seems like different, right? Getting in the Bible is the way to go. And so I'm like, all right, let's do this. And she's like, Yeah, of course. She was awesome. She said, Yeah, of course. And so I went uh I went to it's called Lakewood New Life Church. I know you've had a couple people from there on here. And Pastor Ryan, who you had on here your first episode, he just came up to me right out of the right out of the blue first day and was like, Hey, how you doing, man? What's going on? Nice to meet you. And he was, you know, I'm I'm Puerto Rican, and he was another Latin Puerto Rican guy, and so it was easy to bond with him, you know. He was from the inner city, like he, you know, he talked and shared, and I got to know him, and they were just launching their small groups. So I got plugged in with their small groups right away. And then I met Pastor Bob, and he really kept kept after me like an accountability way. He would always call me on like Saturday night at nine. Hey, what are you doing? What's going on? What are you doing tonight? Yeah. I'm just like, not that I'm going to church tomorrow. Can't wait to see you tomorrow. But he was just, you know, he kept checking on me, making sure. And you know, he's good for that. You had his story out here, and he knows what it's like to battle to stay sober, right? To battle to to keep on the the narrow road, right?
Israel Caminero:Exactly.
Kyle Almodovar:And so this Holy Spirit just kept guiding me and kept moving me through and kept me with great believers and got me in a great church. And I stuck at New Life Church. And in 2012, I met my wife there, and we started running the the youth group ministry there. We were part of the team, and we we ran uh an outreach called uh the Love by Faith. Not Love by Faith, that's our that's our ministry.
Israel Caminero:Love Lakewood, let's love Lake.
Kyle Almodovar:Let's Love Lakewood, right? Let's Love Lakewood. And we headed up that outreach um event, and that was like a whole week of of like it was supposed to be like a mission trip to our city, right? So our intention was to have it be daily, like we were on a mission, but we were in Lakewood at our home city, and so we put that all together, and that was really where I fell in love with my wife, got to know her and fell in love with her there. And um after that was over, we kind of went on our first official date, and uh the rest is history.
Israel Caminero:That's right.
Kyle Almodovar:We've been married 11 years, three kids, dog, cat, and uh recently, you know, we started the Love by Faith ministry where we're helping couples and married couples, you know, engaged couples, and we have our podcast that we share about love and about relationships and how to be a better husband, better wife, how to be prepared to be a good husband, how to be prepared to be a good wife. That's right. And so that's our that's our ministry focus right now. God's just done so much. I mean, then then that that just staying on the path and being faithful to what he's called me to through all of it.
Israel Caminero:I just want to share something real quick before you continue. I've known Kyle for a while now, and I know his wife also, and what they're doing is tremendously awesome. They've taken this ministry and they have weekly shows. Uh, you could follow them at any major platform that's out there.
Kyle Almodovar:Yep, Love by Faith Ministries.
Israel Caminero:Love by Faith Ministries, and their podcast is Love by Faith. There's a there's another story to their story of how they got together and everything like that. And yeah, all that stuff is on their podcast. And they have an incredible story on when they got together. These two did not kiss or do anything for years until their wedding day. Yeah. Can you imagine who does that?
Kyle Almodovar:I can't imagine redoing it right now.
Israel Caminero:They did that. I was so blown back by that. I'm like, what do you mean? They never kiss until their wedding. Like they were dating and everything for a while.
Kyle Almodovar:Yeah, we were we were together two years before we got married. Um, and a little bit more than that with dating and then being engaged, and you know, we did like a whole courting and engaged, and yeah, it was just at the time. So if I could dig into this for a second, I don't know how we're doing on Twitter. No, you're good. But when we were when we were dating, the um we were we were running the youth group. I talked about that. Right. We were running the youth group, and so we were talking to the kids about purity and how to be save yourself for for marriage and how it's important to the marriage. And so we started studying all this, and we knew I come from parents who had a beautiful marriage, you know, married 30 years, loved each other literally till death, till death do their part. And so and so when I was getting ready to when I felt like God was calling me to be ready to be married, I knew I wanted a beautiful marriage like my parents had, right? And so I was like, what am I supposed to do? I was such a you know, I was just a young guy, and so you know how it is when you when when I was young and dating, you're like chasing after one thing, right? And so I was like, how do I put myself so far away from that just so I can get to know her better, get to be good friends with her? And I Pastor Ryan was a great mentor at the time, and you know, and he was like, don't leave room for for a mistake, right? Right, and so if you don't kiss, it can't lead to other things, right? And so I was like, let's just start there. And so when I tell her this, I'm like, hey, you know, I don't want to kiss till we get married. You know, I want the next kiss I be to be at the altar with my wife, and I don't know if that's gonna be you per se, you know, so we're just gonna hold off on that. And she always tells a story and says that it was such a relief because she was worried about the same thing. Like, what do I do if I can't stop? Like, what do I do if we And so we never had to worry about that because we didn't have anything to stop from, right? We didn't you don't have to stop if you don't start. Exactly. And so that was that was a huge challenge. It was hard, right? We liked each other. I bet the closer we got to being married, the harder it was.
Israel Caminero:I bet.
Kyle Almodovar:Right? And so we we just set we set boundaries, you know, dates were out of the house, we weren't sitting around watching movies, we weren't sitting, you know what I mean? And uh I had roommates, she lived with her uncle, so it was easy to not be in an empty house alone at the time, and so we uh we made it work again. I don't know if I could do that, I don't know if I could do that today, right? Like, I'm not who I was back then. Thankfully, that's where God had me at the time.
Israel Caminero:I remember. I remember the the day of the marriage, and I saw the pictures of you guys kissing and stuff, and I was like, wow, I'm like, you know, it I didn't do that, and you know kudos to you for doing that, because a lot of people don't do that these days, but you guys were following what God wanted you to do in order and and look at you guys, how you guys are doing. You have a ministry as far as just coaching and pouring out to other couples, and and you know, she's been doing it for a long time, also, and she's gonna be on this podcast, so I don't want to share too much about her okay because I want her to share things about her. Um, but I just wanted to bring that up, yeah, as far as because that's a testimonial on its own. Sure, you know, you know what I mean? Just you guys being together and just staying pure.
Kyle Almodovar:So I'll give you another another tidbit in our story. So our families knew each other when they were growing up, right? So before Celine Celine and I were ever you know in the picture. Her mom and my parents grew up within like a quarter mile of each other's house.
Israel Caminero:Okay.
Kyle Almodovar:So my dad's stepdad would take all the kids to school in a station wagon, and so my dad rode to school with with his with her mom and sisters and and aunts. So my our parents knew each other as kids. Oh wow. So when we started dating, everyone was like, oh wait, she's she's an aspendus kid? Oh yeah, we know that family. And so our families already knew each other.
Israel Caminero:So you didn't know that your parents knew each other? Not at all.
Kyle Almodovar:I didn't I didn't know who this family was they were talking about.
Israel Caminero:Wow.
Kyle Almodovar:Right. And so so I tell them, and then it turns out, so like her mom and aunts worked with my aunts like as adults, like they just these they grew up in the same neighborhood, they grew up together, they knew each other forever. And so when we found that out, we were like, that's kind of weird. Like our families know each other, and so at the wedding, it was awesome. It was just one big party where like all the you know, everybody was familiar with everybody. Yeah, and so it was awesome. And then I, you know, once I found that out, I think back as a kid, and her her uncle would always just sit sit on the porch with my grandma and my aunts all the time. I remember seeing him over there all the time. Like he was just hang out with them.
Israel Caminero:That's so good.
Kyle Almodovar:It was it was literally walking distance to the to the houses, they were all so close.
Israel Caminero:Don't you just love how God just orchestrates all this stuff?
Kyle Almodovar:That's so cool. It's so God is so it just blows my mind, right? How he goes, we think it's just just this little picture thing, and it's just a grand masterpiece. Amen. Amen.
Israel Caminero:It's so good, amen. So you ended up at Lakewood New Life, right? You ended up meeting Selena, you dated her. I know that was a struggle. Like I said, if you want to hear more on that, go to their podcast, Love by Faith. They have the whole story there. They have two seasons now. Yeah, two seasons now, they're on every week. Every week, every week, they're giving you new tidbits on how to strengthen and better your relationship. And I love it. I listen to it every week. I do, I'm not gonna lie, you know, because they, even though I'm not there with them, they're pouring into me. Yeah, you know, and and everyone goes through this with relationships. Whether you have a greatest relationship, whether you have the worst relationship, you need this type of stuff because it strengthens your relationship. There might be something that they say that you're like, oh wait, maybe I should try that. And it's awesome. I just want to say thank you for that.
Kyle Almodovar:And it's our pleasure, but it's what God's called us to do, and we're we're just being faithful to that. I think the one of my biggest motivators in life is to be best friends with my wife, right? It's to just be someone she can go to no matter what, to be nothing off limits between her and me. And I think the more couples can do that, the better they're gonna, the better they're gonna grow. Yes, right. Our our ministry is built on being on the verse about being naked and unashamed. And so the more we can do that with each other, you know, figuratively, of course, literally sometimes. And uh come on. You just got that one. And uh, the more we can do that, the better the marriage is gonna be. Amen. And so we wanted to really just help couples, right? Our our podcast isn't all this is what you do, A, B, and C. This is what you do, A, B, and C. It's our story, it's about our mistakes, it's about how we have learned to grow together, what we have done to adapt to an ever-changing world, right? That's right. The ways we have screwed up. We should we share our screw-ups in there, right? Because when we screw up by being a jerk or by being ignoring her needs or ignoring, you know, my needs, it messes everything up, it throws off the whole balance. That's right. And now with kids, the whole balance is more than just us, right? And so we we just really are focusing on how to be good husbands and wives so that the rest of our gifts can flow out of that. Because if it's not good at home, if it's not good in your heart, it's not gonna be good anywhere else. Amen.
Israel Caminero:Right? I remember, I believe it was this past week's episode, and I just want to touch on this, or maybe it was last week's, because I listened to both of these the same day because I missed last week, so I listened to both concurrently. Sure. But it stuck with me because you were talking about, and I have a problem with this. I've always been sarcastic. And you were talking about the sarcastic husband, yeah, and how he might be being sarcasm or sarcastic, but to her, it might hit her the wrong way. Oh, it's cutting deep, yeah. And yeah, that ever since you said that, it stuck with me because I'm like, wow, I'm like, I'm like that a lot. Right, right. You gotta and yeah. Sometimes I feel like, okay, I'm just being sarcastic. But she's not taking it that way.
Kyle Almodovar:Right.
Israel Caminero:And I I just personally want to say thank you for sharing that because it has stuck with me ever since you said it.
Kyle Almodovar:Amen. That that sarcasm is so it's such a it's a tightrope, right? Because if if the timing is good and it's good and funny, it could be okay. But again, the tightrope, it just takes one gust. If she's not in the mood for that, if she's not ready for it, you know, you could soften it and be like, hey, I'm gonna make I'm gonna make a joke here, so that she knows, hey, this is just a joke, right? Right? But if you still cut deep and attack her personally, it's over. She's gonna be thrown off.
Israel Caminero:Trust me, I know.
Kyle Almodovar:And then that that sarcasm, man. You got and then in the in the motion, in the in the in the moment when you get emotional and then you just let it rip, that's oh it's so hard, right? It's so I find myself so many times just having to like, hmm, hmm, bite my tongue, zip my lip, walk away. And my wife's so good, she can read my body language like that. Like she's just like, well, what what do you gotta say, Kyle? You got something funny to say? And I was like, nope, I'm not gonna say it. I'm gonna protect our peace here, and just you know, we went to uh we went to the weekend remember when we were still engaged. We went to the weekend remember uh seminar, yeah, seminar, conference, but we went to the weekend remember, and they talked about how those little things just pile up so much, right? All those little things and and fighting fair and being upset at your spouse, sometimes you can soften that, even though you're so mad at them by calling them a cute, cuddly name, right? Yeah so even though you're so mad, you just say, Oh, you're just my little pookie, and and it just it helps. The other one they said to do is remind them when you're when you're heated and you're trying to keep your cool with your spouse, is to tell them that you're God's perfect masterpiece, you are God's perfect masterpiece for me, and and it just like we still say that to each other to this day because it means that you're driving me crazy and I can't stand you right now, but I love you anyways, right? God's perfect masterpiece for me. That's good, and so we we use that a lot.
Israel Caminero:That's good. Yeah, the marriage conference. I know what you're talking about. We can to remember the marriage conference, and it's great. I think they're actually coming to Akron in November.
Kyle Almodovar:I'm not affiliated with them at all, but it is totally worth it to do. We did it before we were even married. Like we were engaged, and we were like, I think we were even pre-engaged. We were before we were engaged, and we were like, let's go see what this is about, let's learn some more tools and tips so that we can be sure that we're sure that we're sure before we do this. We didn't want to get divorced, right? And so it's so weird to even say that word. Sorry. We we didn't want to get we don't want to get divorced. So we want to just stick together no matter what, and not just stick together and like white knuckle it. You know, they use that term and staying sober, white knuckling it, and just hanging on for your life, and like you're just seconds away from grabbing the bottle all the time. We didn't want to white knuckle it, right? Like we wanted to be secure in our marriage, we wanted to be know that we were fighting for love, fighting for a lasting friendship, right? And so it's caused us to prioritize each other almost over everything. Like, there is it is easy for us to just say no, we're taking a season off and doing this, taking a season off so that we can go on dates and we can go and reconnect. And even when it got at its hardest for us, it right before COVID. I'll tell this story. And uh right before COVID, God gave me a dream, and he showed me uh we were living in an apartment, two-bedroom. We had the the two boys, and he gave me a dream, and he showed me uh a nest, and it was out behind our house, and it was a big eagle's nest. It was like you know, in the dream it looked like it was about the size of a of like a car tire, just sitting there. And the eagle was outside of the nest, and the babies were inside of the nest, and they were all just trying to fight for room in the nest. And so really I woke up and I was like, Whoa, that was a real spiritual dream. Like you wake up and you feel different, right? This was a spiritual dream, and you know, pray. And Lord, give me interpretation on this. And right away, instantly, it was your NASA's too small, bro. What do you you know what are you gonna do? So I talked to Selena. I'm like, honey, it's time to start looking for a house. And this was uh summer of 20 summer of 2019?
Israel Caminero:Okay.
Kyle Almodovar:Yeah, like spring and summer. So all that we're looking for a house. We can't find the right house, can't find the right house. Finally get the house in the in the fall, September 2019, we closed on the house. Well, we got a house that was a total fixer upper. We had to we gutted the whole bedroom level of our house. Just gutted it because it was so bad, it was so small, and we reorganized it and laid it out right. And this was all good and well, but most of the work was done by me and my contractor buddy, right? And so I was out of the house. We kept it was just like HGTV where we had to like reorganize and replan, and this isn't gonna work. How are we gonna make this work? You know, this project's gonna be done by we closed in September, we thought we'd be in by Thanksgiving. Okay. Then we're like, well, we got this space, so we kept adding more work, and it kept taking longer to get done. We didn't get in until February of 2020. Wow. And so the strain on that from Thanksgiving, where we were my wife is like excited, she's gonna get to have Thanksgiving in our new single family house, no more apartment. We're gonna get to invite people over. Nothing didn't happen, right? So already she's mad at me, bitter. Not not at me, but mad, right? Right, disappointed that we didn't get there, right? And that I I kept the hope there that this was gonna happen. And then we're like, all right, well, we'll get done by Christmas. And uh the contractor guy kind of started getting flaky, started uh talking about he was leaving because he was he was kind of a a snowbird, so he would leave and go go to Arizona in the winter every year. And it was into December already, and he's like, you know, I'm leaving in January, like whether this is done or not. I'm like, what do you mean whether this is done or not? Like we're we're here, and so from in December, from from Thanksgiving to we got it done, I just went all hands, all hands in. Like as soon as I got off work, I just go to the house, right? Working on the house, getting it done. And so our connection was so far gone. Yeah. So far gone. Christmas, I don't even, you know what I mean? It was such a blur in this season, right? I don't even remember Christmas, New Year's, these things were just such a such a blur. I had my son's our son's first birthday through that, and it was just such such a blur. I had a great party for him. I remember that. And um by the time we got to moving in the house, I remember telling her, We're gonna get to move in. Aren't you excited? She's like, honey, I don't even remember what this house looks like. I don't even remember what what you know what I mean? I don't care. She's like, I don't even believe that there is a house out there anymore. Like she's just mad because it's taken so long, her hopes have been dashed so many times, she doesn't believe, you know what I mean? And so the last 48 hours trying to finish that house, I think I stayed awake that whole 48 hours just working and finishing and cleaning and getting stuff out. And then the carpet guys came to lay the carpet because that was the last step before we could move in. I got the carpet guys in, and then our our counter was supposed to come in and that got delayed. Oh wow. The the the company literally shut down. This is this is February. I ordered it in January, right? And it was supposed to take three weeks to get the countertop. Okay. And the company completely shut down. They call me and they're like, sorry, we can't fulfill this order. The company who makes these literally shut down. So we're reordering it. It's gonna be about six weeks. So we moved into the house without a bathroom, without a without without one of the bathrooms. Thankfully there were multiple, so we were all right. But we moved in and we had to wait for this counter to get done. And we just made it work. But the the point I'm saying is we were so separated by that time.
Israel Caminero:Right, because you were so busy with work and then working on the house.
Kyle Almodovar:Working full-time, working on the house. It was our busiest part of our year for my job then. And we get into the house, we go on vacation, we went down to Florida to see her mom, hung out there, went to Disney. It was awesome, had a great vacation, and then we get home, and the next week it was COVID shutdown. So the whole country is shut down. My work is like, we're shut down, and so her and I are just forced to reconnect. We uh COVID sucked, right? Yeah, but for that first six weeks, we were just stuck in this house with each other, right? And it forced us to reconnect and build that friendship, and it was COVID was just what we needed for our marriage. That was so awesome. We went we obviously we still went through hard times. We had we we um we lost a baby in there. She was pregnant and lost a baby, and we had to get through that together during this the season of 2020, and thank God we we did get through that, and it didn't tear her down too far, didn't tear us down too far that we weren't able to build back up. And um it's funny just being faithful and staying on that road.
Israel Caminero:We were just it's not funny, that's not what I meant, but we were just talking about it how God works. Yeah, you know, all that strain on your relationship, and then boom, the world shuts down. You got no choice. They got no choice but to talk to each other, no matter how you feel right now. I always tell I've I've shared it before that you know, a lot of people hated COVID. I personally did not, you know, because there was no distractions. Yep, no distractions, and I got so close to the Lord during COVID that I couldn't even begin to tell you, and that's why I didn't hate it, because there's so many distractions in his life. I still say that to this day to my wife, like, man, there's so many distractions. Like you can't even like read the Bible. Sometimes I'll read it on my phone, and it's like five texts or messages just come through, you know. Yeah, do not disturb so that exactly, and it's just it's distractions suck, basically, is what I'm trying to say. But I just want to thank not COVID itself, but that the world got shut down because I can honestly say that it brought me so so close to God during that time.
Kyle Almodovar:It was it was a it was you know what it was, I think, I think it was a a time of purification, right? It was a it was a fire, it was a trial, and all the you know, in the fire, like the the visual of the burning off all the excess out of the gold comes. So in that fire, you're gonna see all the ugly, all the dirty is gonna get washed out, and if you let it, it's gonna go away, and you're gonna be able to come out fresh, come out renewed, come out re-refined. And for me, that that's how COVID was. That that season I came out better, stronger, more on fire, more connected with my wife, and more more comfortable and confident in who I was.
Israel Caminero:Yep. I totally agree with you. So I know you shared your childhood before Christ was in your life, which is incredible. I still can't believe how those people came into your life and you you finally did it when God, that's what I like. That you kind of like the seeds were planted, right? But you were still doing the worldly things. But when God said, Kyle, that's when you were like, I'm done. And I love that. I love your ministry. I love you guys. You guys are great. You and your wife and your family, you're great.
Kyle Almodovar:We love you too, man. We've been we've known each other for so long. Yeah. You and your family. Yeah. It's been uh it's been an adventure together. I mean, you guys came to Lakewood only a little bit after we came. Right. So we were growing up in Christ together.
Israel Caminero:Yep, I believe ten years, maybe ten, a little more, a little less. I don't know the exact dates, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that we're still in each other's life, right?
Kyle Almodovar:And God is still working on us.
Israel Caminero:Amen. Every day, every day. We've come to the point in the podcast where I always ask my guest two questions. And my first question is, Kyle. When Kyle's having a bad day, or even not a bad day, just a Bible verse that has stuck with you throughout life. I guess your life verse is what I'm trying to say. Okay. Do you have a life verse that you could always rely on or go back to when things are happening in Kyle's life? What is that life verse and what does it mean to you?
Kyle Almodovar:Of course. So I go right to the full armor of God. So if I'm feeling beat down, I'm feeling not right. If I'm having a bad day, bad start, right to the full armor. Okay. Put on the armor, pray the armor over myself, pray the armor over my day, and go from there. That's that verse. When I first got saved, right? I had friends who were still not saved, right? Right. And I remember getting a message from one of them, and it was not an appropriate message. It wasn't something I wanted to see or deal with anymore. And I said, Hey, I'm, you know, I'm I'm following Christ now. You know, if you could just not send stuff like this to me, I'd appreciate it. You know, just like that. Real polite, real straightforward though. And they responded with, Oh man, I'm so sorry. It's awesome to hear, you know? And he says, You know, Ephesians 6 10. I was like, I was new to the Bible. I'm like, what does that mean? So I looked it up. I had the Bible app on my phone, I looked it up and I read it. I was like, man, this is awesome. Yeah. And it's literally just stuck with me forever. The full armor of God.
Israel Caminero:That's awesome. And it it's funny what you just said. You know, your friend sends you an inappropriate message, and then you tell him right, you're not that person no more, and he's the one that shares. And he's like, What's okay? Cool. This is God. Right. And it works because that's exactly what you were trying to do at the time. Yeah. You know, to protect yourself. That's so great. Now we've come to my back to the past section of the podcast. Back to the past. Back to the past section. And basically, what my back to the past section is, if Kyle could go back and talk to the younger Kyle, what would you say to him that you know now that you didn't know then? Hmm.
Kyle Almodovar:Reminded me of a country song. It was a country song like this. Oh, really? Yeah.
Israel Caminero:I've never even heard it.
Kyle Almodovar:Oh man, it's uh I can't remember the song right now off the top of my head. I feel like it was Kenny Chesney song. Yeah, it was. Now I'm gonna have to look that up. You can look it up. It's a good one. It's a good one. And uh, but I would I think I wouldn't say anything to myself if I if I could go back and see Kyle just being Kyle out there.
Israel Caminero:You wouldn't say anything?
Kyle Almodovar:I wouldn't say anything at all because I I would love to see it, you know, see it from the outside and see what I was like to myself. Okay because it's like the what do they call it the the butterfly effect? Okay. I wouldn't want to change anything about where Kyle is today. I wouldn't want to tell Kyle at 12 or 13, you know, just wait, you're gonna have three kids and a house and blah blah blah ministry. Okay, I got you now. Because then 13-year-old Kyle would change who he was and wouldn't get to go through all the stuff that 16, 17, 20 year old Kyle had to go through to be who I am today. Wow. So I wouldn't I wouldn't go back and talk to me. That's good. Because I wouldn't want to change where I am today by changing who that guy was. Okay. And it just it wouldn't be it would throw something off. I wouldn't be here.
Israel Caminero:That's right.
Kyle Almodovar:And so I don't want to change that. That's right. This is where I was meant to be.
Israel Caminero:That's a good no one's ever answered like that before. That's that's a good one.
Kyle Almodovar:That's the only way I can answer that.
Israel Caminero:That's that's good, man. I appreciate that. Twist twisted up the question. Sorry, it's just no, it's good.
Kyle Almodovar:My brain works, man.
Israel Caminero:No, no, no. That's fine. That's fine. But I want to thank I want to say thank you, Kyle, for being here again. I know I can't stop saying thank you.
Kyle Almodovar:It's great, man. It's it's a it's a great podcast. I love your your formula. I love your letting real people share real stories, right? Because we all have such different stories. And I struggled for a long time when I first got saved with thinking my testimony was boring. I was kind of a just a good kid and kind of a straight and narrow kid. Didn't go too far off the rail. Like I went off the rails, but not like you know, there's worse, there's worse off the rails. Yeah. You know, but I used to think it was just kind of kind of boring, kind of meh. And now I see that it's okay. You know what I mean? That's right. I appreciate you having a platform where there's people who are just sharing every part of their life, you know. The um I think everyone wants to know when you're gonna do your testimony, when you're gonna do your living testimony, right? Right. Want to hear hear that because I know there's there's a lot there. Yeah. You know what I mean? I think I think sometimes I think you're hiding behind that microphone, being the host, hiding in that host chair.
Israel Caminero:Yeah, I know. A lot of people ask me that, and a lot of people have asked me to be on their podcasts, and you know, I I I don't quite think I'm ready. I might do it for my second season coming up. Okay. And we'll see where the Lord leads me, because I'm just trying to glorify him through all this. Not, you know, I I I don't know what to say. You know, not not about my testimony. I just I'm just letting him lead me to when he tells me it's time. It's not my timing. I always say that it's his timing. So if I haven't shared it by now, it's because he hasn't gave me that prompting to it's your time. But I will, trust me. We were just talking about that yesterday, Sandy and I. Yeah. And she actually told me to share it to her yesterday. And because you know, there was a lot of hurt there as a child, and she doesn't know all of it, but I'll just stop right there because right now it's not about me. Okay, it's never about me. Yeah, all right. It's always about my guests. Did you guys get to have a good good talk about it at least? Yeah, we did. We did, we did, and she enjoyed it. Um, but if you want to share what you have coming up or any future plans for your ministry, or even plug your ministry, go ahead.
Kyle Almodovar:Yeah, Love by Faith Ministries and all the socials. Um, we're in season two of our podcast. Season one was all what we would call the foundation series, and so we shared our whole love story. We shared our whole um kind of the pillars of what our ministry stands on. Right. Our whole foundation of our ministry. And this this season we're into more of the the nuts and bolts of marriage, the nuts and bolts of understanding um each other, and that's what we're gonna build on for this year. So it's at Love by Faith Ministries, everywhere, whatever socials you want. It's a video podcast, so you can see us on YouTube, you can watch us talk to each other, or you can find us on the typical podcast platforms, audio only, and it's just as good. Um and that's that's how you find us, man. You can reach out, DM us. We're we're real active. We like to talk to people, we like to share. We have uh couples, couples coaching, premarital, premarital stuff we can do with with couples. And if you're married and wanna want to work on getting your marriage back to a healthy place or reset, we're glad to talk to couples. Reach out to us. Depending on when when this airs, we'll be launching our website here in the next next few weeks. Okay. Be able to really contact us and get something, get something going to work together. If there's couples out there who want to work together, if you're in a in an early relationship and want to make sure that you're on the on the right path, we we love doing that kind of stuff.
Israel Caminero:A few couples we work with and talk to and hey man, and I'll have links to all their social media and contacts and all that in the description of the podcast. I urge you, you know, if you're in a new relationship or even in a relationship or even married, just go check them out, even one time, because I bet you won't stop. I bet you you'll follow them and listen and everything to that matter, because it's great.
Kyle Almodovar:We're not we're not perfect, right? And we are very okay with that.
Israel Caminero:Yeah. No one's perfect. If we were perfect, we wouldn't need God, right?
Kyle Almodovar:Right, right. And in the podcast, we let it show and we're okay with sharing, you know, stories about when we messed up and when we screwed up, and to help couples. Because our testimony, I bring it back to the testimonies. That's what we're here for. Our testimony is not for ourselves, right? It's for encouraging others, it's for building up others, it's for helping others to grow and to grow with God. Amen. That's what we're out here for.
Israel Caminero:Amen. That's right. That's right. Um, again, Kyle, thank you for the 1800 time. Thanks, Izzy.
Kyle Almodovar:Man, it's been great. It's uh it's being on on somebody else's podcast is a little easier. I feel like the pressure's off because this is your thing, man. You can figure it out, you can do the editing.
Israel Caminero:Right. That's great. Um, usually, Kyle, I asked the guests if they could pray us out. Sure. So could you do that for us?
Kyle Almodovar:Lord, we are grateful for today, Lord God. We are here to share what you've done. I'm here to share your message for people, Lord. And I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to talk into this microphone. And I just pray for those who are hearing it, Lord, that they would find something in there that they can connect with, they can relate to. A lesson that I had to go through that can help them avoid a hard time. I pray that your Holy Spirit is at work in their in their hearts, in their lives. I pray for Izzy and his ministry here, uh, gathering testimonies and spreading the good news of you. And I just pray for for this to continue to grow and flourish, Lord. And I'm just grateful today and every day for the gifts that you've given to each of us individually and that your Holy Spirit leads us. We thank you. We give you glory in Jesus' name. Amen.
Israel Caminero:Amen. Amen. Thanks for that prayer, God. I appreciate it. I just want to let anybody know that might be listening, because I know the love you've shown me is tremendous. You know, just I got people listening around the world, and I shouldn't say I have people listening to me around the world. God has people listening around the world. And I never would have imagined that. You know, Columbia, United Kingdom, Africa. It's it's crazy when I look at who's listening. I never would have thought of anything like this. But it's about to glorify God, and he's the one that's doing this. I'm just the hope. I'm just his body of this. He's the one that's doing all of it, working behind the scenes. And I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the support of all of this. And if you ever have a testimony that you want to share, you can reach me at living testimonies at all. Just send me an email. I know sometimes people are scared to share testimonies because oh, it might not be great. It might not be as good as this person or anything like that. But anyone's scared of the other rock. Yeah, it doesn't matter how big or small your testimony is. There's someone out there that needs to hear it that might be going through the same thing. So if you want to send me an email. I just want to say thank you again for Kyle the Love by Faith Ministry. And all my guests. Until next time, and God blessed.
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