From Flesh to Faith: My Journey of Transformation, with Steven Ribeiro

Join me as Steven Ribeiro shares his powerful testimony of transformation. Growing up in a Christian household, Steven thought he had strong faith, but it wasn't until his parents separation and his own struggles in college that he truly encountered God. Listen as Steven shares his journey from a superficial faith to a deep, transformative relationship with Christ, and how Gods word and grace transformed life from inside out. Don't miss this inspiring story of redemption and new beginnings!

Transcript

Israel Caminero: 0:30

Welcome to the Living Testimony, stories of faith and redemption. I'm your host, Israel Caminero, and I hope everyone that's listening is less than one well. With me today I have my brother Christ Steven Ribeiro. And if that name sounds familiar to you, it's because my last podcast, his wife was in here giving her testimony. She mentioned to me that he would want to share his reach out to him. And he actually agreed to do it, and I'm glad that he's here to share his testimony. So how are you doing today, Stephen? Can you introduce yourself to everyone?

Steven Ribeiro: 1:02

Yeah, yeah. Is everyone doing well by the grace of God? Thank you for having me. Uh yeah, for everyone who's listening, my name is Steven Ribeiro. Uh, grew up in New Jersey, um went out to California for school at the Masters University, and now I'm currently uh married to my beautiful wife, Katherine Ribeiro, here in uh Ohio, and we are both teachers. I teach Bible at Open Door Christian Schools, and uh very thankful to be on the podcast.

Israel Caminero: 1:29

Oh, that's awesome. I didn't know you you taught Bible at Open Door. I've been hearing about that school. But uh before we get started, I'd just like to open up in prayer and like to say, Father God, thank you for today, Lord. Thank you for just all the blessings that you supply, Lord, with without even us knowing that you're supplying them, Lord. Thank you for Stephen being here to share his story for everyone, and that hopefully it touches someone out there that is going through the same thing. I would like you to be with him, Lord, and just fill him with what he needs to say and wants to say for everyone to hear, and to just glorify you throughout his whole testimony, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. So, Stephen, you're in Ohio now. I know you said you kind of bounced around a little bit in your youth, and that's what it's all about. Can you share with us a little bit about your past and how you grew up?

Steven Ribeiro: 2:28

Yeah, yeah. So I grew up, as I mentioned, in New Jersey, uh born and raised to two loving parents. Um and both came from, they both grew up in in Norc, New Jersey. And the reason I I share that little details is if you know anything about Norfolk, New Jersey, it's kind of a rough place. Um both grew up uh into uh Catholic families, and uh my mother very quickly um uh grew up as the second oldest in her family, and then her father um left the picture, and so her side of the my my mom's side of the family just grew up in a really rough position. Um and so my my grandmother was forced to try to just make ends meet, and then my my um my mother eventually uh met my dad, and my dad grew up in a loving two two family parent household. My dad's Brazilian, my grandparents are Brazilian, um, and then my mom's side is Puerto Rican, and so they met, got married in '93, had me 99, and um, yeah, I went to private Christian school growing up. It was a lovely childhood. I mean, I couldn't ask for anything more. I was a spoiled brat because I grew up as an only child. Um my parents wanted more kids, but the Lord just just had had my mom just have me, and he was sovereign over those things. So I uh growing up in the private Christian school environment, my parents really try to do their best to just kind of just shield me from the world while also not leaving me just in the closet all day, and in some sense, just kind of um as like closet Christians. I mean, they they really wanted to be involved in a Christian community, but found it quite difficult as a result of our church situation. We were hopping around. We we we couldn't find growing up. I just remember um just like asking my dad sometimes, are we going back to this church? And we would go to some churches for like a year or two, and then we'd just hop around. And my dad, as the spiritual leader of the household, was trying to make the best decisions. He was trying to find not just the perfect, he wasn't trying to find the perfect church, but he was trying to find a theologically sound church where the Bible was taught. And even if there were some minor disagreements, my father would be willing to put aside those differences and just try to study the word. And he he just wanted a pastor that would preach the word. And so just growing up, we never had a strong accountability, um, strong accountability from fellow Christian believers. My parents had a lot of unbelieving friends around all the time, and I really believe that kind of affected my upbringing and and their relationship. Okay. Um, they grew up uh as I grew up with them, they they they loved one another, they they were always very affectionate, but they would there would be some times where things would get explosive and they would start arguing and stuff like that.

Israel Caminero: 5:32

Well, coming from Puerto Rican and Brazilian family, I I would expect that, you know?

Steven Ribeiro: 5:37

Yeah, it's like dynamite. Right. It's like oil and water, yet it's like gasoline and some sparks anymore. A lot of spunk there, yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So they they had their fair share of of kind of just fighting, but at times, I mean, it it was just a lovely child. And I mean, growing up, it just was truly beautiful. Um, but things started to change when I was 13 years old. I was uh I just had entered um high school at my private Christian school. It was a K-12 school, so they they uh they instituted that at some point and um we're just in agreement to just have me keep on going. And it was good because I I had known the people there and and things were going well, and I had I was doing okay academically, and um, and then my parents' relationship right before my eyes just started to kind of shape shift and um the the affectionate father then and mother that I had started to just look different. My father wasn't as affectionate at times, and just things were looking different. And um Are you talking about with each other or with you? With with one another, I guess with me it it was similar, it was it was kind of uh static, things were going the same as usual, but I I really just started to see from a distance um just things weren't the same. They were acting different toward one another. And um and long story short, um my father was just not in the best place spiritually, um, nor was my mother, but they they just both were not in the best place spiritually, especially my my father in this instance, and um he just was unfaithful, um, and he just was not in the picture for that period of time after that. So that's around like 14 years old. My mom um is is stuck with me, and he and her separated and they both uh agreed to go through the process of a divorce. And so at 14 years old, uh this picture of this beautiful marriage that was flourishing from what I can see on the outside uh ended up manifesting that it was not flourishing because something was wrong was wrong within. So um, so long story short, um they they followed through with their separation. My dad started paying child support um and he started working a lot to try to make ends meet to support that financial bill that he was getting, that extra bill that he was getting. But also my mom was working 50 hours, sometimes almost 60 hours a week, sometimes 60 hours a week just to provide for me. Um the house that I grew up in for 18 years of my life um began to undergo foreclosure at the age of 14. And my mom was like, I can't afford private Christian school, so I'm gonna have to pull you out of that. So that's when things in my life started to become real. Like I had made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ at the age of 11, but it very quickly dawned upon me just circumstantially that that profession of faith was made null and void as a result of how I responded to that predicament. Uh I I started to almost lash out at God in some sense. Yeah. I never, I never there was never a point in time, for as long as I can remember, that I doubted God or like doubted the existence of God. As a matter of fact, I really believe the God of the Bible was the true God. I I'd never had an instance where I was like, yeah, Jesus Christ is not God. But it just as soon as I entered public school and was able to get a hold of things that could please the flesh, to put it that way. Right. Uh then I, as John 3 says, as Jesus says in John 3, uh, men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. And and that was my heart. It was it was it had an opportunity to taste and see the wickedness of the world and chase after the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. So long I mean, just to boil it down, in high school, I mean, I I just really manifested my lostness. I got involved in um in substance abuse at the age of 15, and I I was just trying to find myself. Like my mom was never home because she was always working, and I would see my dad every other weekend. Um, so like I felt like it was great at the time. I was like, you know what, I got no guardians, I could do what I want. I'm I'm I'm you know right.

Israel Caminero: 10:20

At that age, you're like everyone probably looking at you like you're the cool guy. Let's you know, let's go hang out with him, his house, no one's home, right?

Steven Ribeiro: 10:27

Literally, I mean that's exactly what happened. Like, you know, we I just to even bring up how I used to talk, we used to be in high school and we'd all be like, yo, what's the wave? What's what's going on after school? Who got five on it? And we'll be like, yo, come through, come through to Steve's crib, and everybody would just leave and go to my house, and we'd all hang out and uh do drugs and and then go on with our days. And right. My mom had no idea. Until um at the end of my sophomore year, she found out through the grapevine, through some friends and their whereabouts and them not being home that I was with some group of people, and long story short, she found out that I was using some substances. And what I mean substances too, I mean it was just the uh smoking weed and and you know, just those kinds of things, and you know, I was resolved to stay away from very hard substances, but then again, like I wasn't immune to those things. So I my mom was trying to do everything she could as a single parent working 50-60 hours a week to make ends meet and now um and now keep me alive in some sense. So she felt the burden of responsibility there. And um my father had no idea. I didn't tell him until she told him they weren't talking at all, and she told my grandparents, she told him, she told the world, like Stephen needs help. Stephen is in a bad place. Stephen is not he's not where he should be, and he's not living in a way that's gonna keep him alive because he's following the wrong crowd. Right.

Israel Caminero: 12:09

Now interrupt you real quick. When you say you were doing these things, did that last like a long, like years, months, or yeah, good question.

Steven Ribeiro: 12:19

So it I mean, all in all, it it lasted about four and a half years, four years. Okay. Give or take. Yeah. So I I got exposed at 14 and started using certain substances at 15, psychedelics and all that stuff. And then by the time she had caught me, I was using for probably like six months. Okay. So, um But it continued after she caught you. It did. So I went into a counseling center and it was not a rehab, but it was like a it was a counseling center partnership with the parent thing. Yeah. And um, I was in a house in a they would take us to these rooms and have meetings with individual counseling, and then they'd have like group counseling. And I would be sitting there with these other kids, just you know, we we knew how to play the game.

Israel Caminero: 13:08

So like you you said everything they wanted to do.

Steven Ribeiro: 13:10

Oh yeah, man. I mean, that's why there's no answer in psychology. You just need the Bible, like you really do. Um, but they they would bring all their psychological, you know, um intellectualism to the table and try to dissect our minds, and we let them do it, and they would think they were getting away with it and like helping us out, but we told them, like you said, everything they wanted to hear. So by month four, they were like, Steven, you look like you're just doing so well. We're so thankful that you're improving in your in your state of mind and your quality of being, and and and you should probably consider the fact that we are gonna graduate you very soon here. So, congratulations. You know, your drug testing is gonna be minimal now as a result of you passing for the last four months. Um, so we're really thankful that's happened. And I was like, sweet, I get to use again. Right. So I figured out how to cheat the system and I started using the last month and a half, relapsed at you know, month five, month four. And they graduated me from the program, and my mom was just so thankful that she thought I was not using anymore, and I was just this wicked, rebellious sinner that was just thankful I can get away with more sin. Yeah. And the moment she dropped me off home, I went and called up my buddies and was like, yo, what's up? Let's let's hang out, man. Got high. Like it just that's how the heart is, the human heart. It's desperately wicked. So fast forward a senior year, that was kind of my life, junior year into senior year, and it just was stagnant. And it wasn't until the end of my senior year when I started facing the reality of um just life. Like I'm gonna have to graduate. This is not life. High school is not life. High school is like it's a bubble. Even a public school is a bubble in some little sense of the terminology bubble. We think of bubble as like Christian school bubble, but even in public school, I think there's kind of a bubble, there's like a naivety that kind of um just clouds out the the the realities of life.

Israel Caminero: 15:15

Yeah.

Steven Ribeiro: 15:16

Because kids can, you know, fake it till they make it, but the moment they hit the streets and have to work and actually have to live life, then then life hits them. Yeah, and then that's very true. Yeah, and now they have like now they gotta actually work. They have to do that thing called work. Right. And now they have to actually figure out how they're gonna survive. And so I I started really questioning like, what what am I gonna do with my life? And from the age of five to that point, I had just wanted to be in the Marines. I was I was just like, I don't college is not for me, I don't want to be in college. Like, I'm not an academic, I'm not an intellect. I just want to be in the marines, just serve for this country. And the Lord shut that door on me because I had been doing so academically poor at times. Like it was I I was still passing, but ironically, I couldn't pass this one test that they needed me to pass in in the instit to join the institution and all that stuff. It was God's providence in that. And so I had at this point uh was about to graduate and was facing this real life crisis of what am I gonna do when I graduate? How am I gonna make ends meet? But what do I what am I gonna do with this God thing that my parents raised me up on? Because that started to haunt me. Like I I started to question, like, you know, God, are you really out there? Because I know you are, but are you are you really like are you really gonna send me to hell because I failed to live for you? And I started to fear God at times. But again, as Romans 1 says men suppress the truth in unrighteousness. And and I kept doing that even after high school. So I graduated, worked at a landscaping job at the golf this golf course in Belleville, New Jersey, um, for about five years after that. I would even come come home um periodically during college, but it I had um at that point really considered community college in that area, local county community college. So I I joined the local county community college in hopes of trying to figure out something to do with my life. And uh that's when I started picking up the Bible again and and reading it. Um and one of those reasons was because of my grandfather. Uh my grandfather, my father's side, I should say, he um he was kind of the as you would know in in both Hispanic and like just kind of Latin American, South American families, there's kind of like a patriarchal figure in the family. Right. And it's all about respect. And my grandfather was that patriarchal figure in my family's life. And whenever we saw him, we saw dignity, we saw respect, we saw an outstanding, upright, not merely a citizen that was good, but we saw uh a stalwart man who was a man, and but he was so humble and he he barely uh spoke English, he can barely uh teach him. He taught himself how to read the Bible. Um he taught himself how to read Portuguese by reading the Bible in Portuguese and fell in love with the word of God after he got saved. So he I remember him asking me, he used to always say this in in Proverbs chapter four. He used to always say, Um, don't go to the right, don't go to the right or to the left. You know, walk in the straight path and and walk on the right path and walk on the narrow way in Matthew 7, and and you know, don't don't walk in a way that displeases the Lord. And so I um that convicted me, and he used to say stuff like, you know, I know what you're doing. Oh man, that was like a spear going through my heart. He knew how I was living. Yeah, so that kind of pricked me. It was that summer of 2017, and into my first year of community college, and I started seeing them a lot, and he would ask me, you know, why don't you read the Bible a little more? And so I did. I started to read it. I started looking into other religions just for fun, just in terms of like I was curious, like what do they believe? And I was like, Man, they all sound ridiculous. Like it just sounds weird. This really does just sound true. Like, I'm just fighting again. I knew what I was doing, I just was living in sin, and and so I started to read and read and read while still hanging out with my friends and. Doing my thing here and there, but it started to become less often. Okay. I started to stop going out and and partying and and like hanging out with my friends. I would do it way, way less, and and eventually the Lord just started getting a hold of my heart. And it was around October that I really started to just fear the concept of death. Like I really felt like, okay, if I die today, I don't think I'll ever see God face to face from the standpoint of being justified by Christ.

Israel Caminero: 20:35

And that just happened out of nowhere?

Steven Ribeiro: 20:37

Like you just Yeah, it it was I mean it's yeah, both supernatural, but also um it was also through just coming in contact with the truth by reading his word. I I just started as I would read periodically out of curiosity too, certain stories would come to my mind and I would remember hearing about them in commute in pr uh sorry, private Christian school.

Israel Caminero: 21:02

Okay.

Steven Ribeiro: 21:03

Because I grew up having to memorize verses. I grew up having to recite, you know, whole paragraphs of psalms or whatever. And those were those seeds that were getting planted. Yeah, amen. It really were. Because they came to haunt me when I was living my life of sin. Yeah. And they would periodically pop up even in the darkest times.

Israel Caminero: 21:24

Right.

Steven Ribeiro: 21:24

And so it was kind of like God's providential way of reminding me that this is true and what I'm doing is a lie. Like it what I'm doing is wrong, and I'm gonna stand before God and give an account for those things.

Israel Caminero: 21:39

Now, what about you know, when when you started doing that, you said you were still kind of dabbling in what you were doing, but it became less and less. What about the friends that you were hanging with? Would they were they still seeking you? Were they, you know, not seeking you? Were they thinking you were acting weird at times?

Steven Ribeiro: 21:57

Yeah, that's a that's an excellent question because I did I I kind of was resolved. It's kind of interesting. Like I graduated from um I graduated from high school, and then all of our friend groups just started to dissolve apart, you know, as as usual. You know, you you say in public high school, yeah, that's my boy right there, man. I'll never leave him. And like two months later after you graduate, where's your boy? Like he's out working somewhere or he's doing something crazy. Right. And that's how it kind of was for me. But I still had this core group of guys that I really appreciated because they were really real and they would reciprocate when I had these conversations because sometimes I'd ask them, like, what do you think of God? Like I grew up always reading the Bible, but what do you guys think? And they would ask questions and like they were really open. But it but to your point, to your question, I would I would actually sometimes find myself as an only child would be more reserved, and I would I would find myself spending a lot more time by myself.

Israel Caminero: 22:58

Okay.

Steven Ribeiro: 22:58

So I would start to say to them, like, guys, I'm gonna just not hang out with you today because I just got stuff going on. And I'd like to go home and I would just I would just open up the Bible sometimes and just read. And um, or I'd just sit there and play guitar. I fell in love with that instrument during that time. And that was some the senior year is the rough one of the roughest times too, because I was becoming an adult and um my mom was kind of like, What are you gonna do with your life? You can't be a dirtbag and just sit here. And and my dad was Can't play guitar all day, yeah. No, for sure. And and I didn't even have a job in high school. Like I was a bum. I really was.

Israel Caminero: 23:37

That's what I was gonna ask you, backtracking just a little bit. You know, when you were saying that you started thinking about getting a job and stuff, how were you supplying your stuff, you know, yeah during high school? Just I'd I just any which way you can, cutting grass, things like that.

Steven Ribeiro: 23:54

Yeah, honestly, like it was that. Like I would landscape every now and again, ever since I was like 11, 12, I would get paid under the table to landscape um for my mom's friends, and I would tell them, Yeah, tell your friends, and then they'd hit me up and hey, I need my lawn mode, and I'll be like, I'll be there, just give me a second. So you didn't have an official job throughout my school. No, it was like every once in a while I get some jobs like just landscaping um under the table cash. Right. And then, you know, every now and again you also gotta make a quick buck, so you do what you gotta do. Right. Um, so so yeah, that's how I kind of had that. And I saved, I wasn't like some of my friends, they would literally go down and have no money, they would be just broke, they would spend it all on clothes. Like we all go to the mall and they just drop like 150 bucks on some jeans or something like that. I'm like, dude, you don't got that money. Why are you trying to act like you got that money? And they'd just look at me like, no man, I like this pair of jeans I got here and this and that. And I'm like, dude, just save it. Like, just save it. And I I just remembered learning that lesson from my parents because they both grew up in a tough situation, especially my mom. I mean, my my abuelito left my grandmother, and my mom would just she would recount and recall memories of just them eating rice and beans for like a week. Yeah, and then sometimes it was just rice, and then other times just beans, and then when they got like if if there's any Puerto Ricans that are listening, if they had pateles, then that that's when it was like uh it's a good time because family would come over, make some food for them because they knew they were in a rough spot. So I just anyway, I had that mentality of saving up. Um that's good though, yeah. And it was just the grace of God, but yeah, so so back to So you were talking about your grandfather and how he told you to read the Bible more.

Israel Caminero: 25:46

Yeah. That's when you started having to change your heart and staying home more.

Steven Ribeiro: 25:51

Yeah, and and that's that's what really led to the Lord saving me. Um, I really believe around that time I I would find myself often um falling under just great conviction. I would start reading um the Gospels or random places in Scripture, but mainly the Gospels. I remember reading through the Gospel of Mark um and then reading parts of John and just falling under such great conviction and like just crying out to the Lord, and then going right back to where I was with my friends partying and stuff like that, again, a lot less, and it wasn't as frequent. But I find myself um feeling as if what I was doing in those parties or just hanging out was wrong, and you're feeling convicted, yeah. And that those convictions, it was like the blinders started coming off my eyes. I mean, the the concept of hardening your heart is a real reality, and just like Pharaoh, God hardened Pharaoh's heart, Pharaoh himself hardened his own heart, and I hardened my heart with sin to the degree where God gave me over to my sin. But the closer I got to the truth, it was like it's that proverbial saying of like the same sun that hardens clay can melt wax, and the Lord was melting my heart, and he was he was really just kind of breaking me down, showing me what I was worth as just a vile sinner, and more and more I'd fallen under conviction, and uh December 1st was a big change in my life. Um was in rebellion, living my life, and my friends and I were hanging out and we almost got into a car accident. We were totally inebriated, all of us, even the driver, and uh almost we probably could have lost our lives in a car accident. And um basically just um I was very angry and was like, we're not gonna hang out anymore. Like this is this is dumb, you guys are just nuts. And um, so I I just remember going home, um stumbling my way up. I drove home, I stumbled my way upstairs, and I just pulled out my my Bible after I I hopped into bed and uh I just started reading my this King James Bible my parents got me when I was 10, and it was first and second Peter, and uh I had just a candle, I just lit it and I just started reading, and I was too too tired to go you think that feeling of just being like too tired to go to bed, yeah, but also wired because you're on substance. So I was like that, and I was just like also distressed and distraught and full of anxiety and just full of angst and just just afraid. And I just started reading, it's like three, four in the morning, and I read 1 Peter, and was like, man, this is amazing, and then read 2 Peter, and as I was reading 2 Peter, I got to 2 Peter chapter 1, and it's that passage where Peter starts discussing the qualities of probably what a true believer looks like, and then he got to verse 8 of chapter 1, where he just begins to say, For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I remember reading that and just being like, I do not know if I have those qualities. And then I read verse 9, for whom for in whom these things are not present, that one is blind, being nearsighted, having forgotten the purification of his former sins. And I don't know if that was a moment, but I know that it was a succession of moments like that where just falling under great conviction. And I remember falling under such great conviction, I just was crying out to God, just like Lord, you either must save me or just throw me away. Yeah, because I am useless. There's there's nothing that I'm a sinner, I'm a great see sinner, and I need a savior. Yeah, Lord, I need you to save me because I'm sick of running from you, I'm sick of my sin, I'm sick of of my pride, I'm sick of my arrogance. I'm I'm I'm truly the most vile human being that have ever existed on the face of this planet. And that was the last day I used. Um and uh, you know, marijuana, and there was there was other substances that you know after after that again, like it was just an up and down, up and down, but eventually a steady upward flow or stream. And uh it was that December where my life really just began to change. I just started telling everyone, I'm a Christian, like I truly am. Yeah, um, I wasn't before, and and I'm saying this because I want you to hold me accountable. And if you want me to party with you, I'm just let you know, like just stay away from me. Don't even don't even ask me. And so I ostracized myself from the whole world in some sense, and um was not I I lost all my friends, with the exception of probably one guy that I still text every now and again. And um and a lot of them ended up either you know in some good jobs, uh a few others maybe still in the same position. Yeah. And then a lot of others, um three of them uh passed away from gang violence. Um one of them is locked up for 14 years for something crazy he did. Um, and then two of other ones um also, you know, they're on probation for you know they just recently got out of jail. It's like just I asked the question, like, Lord, why'd you save me from that? Right? Yeah, just why? So so I after that I I just started soaking in the word of God, just saturating my mind with the truth. I I just was not willing to give it up, and I just read all the time. I was always reading, and it was then when the Lord started to change my direction. Um finally in community college, I was like, you know what, I'm gonna be a music major, just just cuz why not? Like, you know, I still don't know what I'm gonna do, but I know I do want to do something, I'm gonna do something with this book. And I was going to um I started going to this uh Pentecostal church, and I knew um I went there because I knew friends that I had went to private Christian school with that were there. And um I had started going, and even though I like, even in spite of disagreeing, having some doctrinal disagreements, the Lord really used it because um I was always out with a lot of my friends there on the streets evangelizing in Patterson, New Jersey, and we always hit the streets um and start evangelizing every Friday, and um that really kind of changed my perspective on uh evangelism, but also as I grew and um grew in hunger, the church started to change a lot. Pastor left. Yeah, and that happens. Yeah, there was there was a there was a lot of different little things that just occurred. It was kind of unfortunate, and um another pastor came in and he started changing all these things around and stuff, um, and it was kind of the Lord's way of saying, right?

Israel Caminero: 33:16

It's time for you to go.

Steven Ribeiro: 33:17

Yeah, yeah. And so I started um listening to um MacArthur. My dad grew up as a big John MacArthur fan, but um, I just liked how much he exposited the word, and so I started going to a church that was pastored by uh the um by a man who graduated from the master seminary out there in Southern California, and he came to Jersey. And long story short, he just discipled me for for a year and a half that's good through the through the book of First Timothy. It was just verse by verse exposition, and it wasn't just this rote, like mundane, okay. This verse in Greek says this, like it just it was like practical. Like sometimes we would just sit there with our Bibles and he'd be like, How are you doing, brother? as he always used to start. And I would just just proverbially throw up. Like I just would lay everything out, like, brother, I'm still fighting this sin, this sin. Like, I thought when you get saved, you know, these things kind of just go away. And he'd like to welcome to the Christian life. Yeah, and so that was uh he was really a just a father figure in a lot of ways, too. And at that time, my father's relationship with myself and my mother's relationship with myself, it it was still rocky, but it was steadily growing, and I I had forgiven my dad, and um, and I also asked for forgiveness for my mom for all the stuff I put her through. Both of them, I mean I put them both and everyone that I you know, all my decisions didn't just affect me, they affected everyone. Right. So I started going to this church. Um it's called Chapel on the Hill, and um, yeah, and long story short, he he invited me to a conference called Shepherd's Conference in Southern California, and I went and um uh day number two of the conference I heard about the Masters University, and so I was kind of curious um to know more about that university, and so I'd never heard about it. So I went home and um I just researched it, and at that point it was kind of clear to me, I just want to do something with this book. I was like, I just want to know the Bible, I don't want to do anything else in my life other than just be someone who knows this book well, and I just want to know God. Like I just I just want to know Christ, I want to know what God says about himself. And it was uh through that opportunity of getting to know some admissions counselor there um that they told me about masters and I applied and got accepted, and um after I visited it uh in 2019 and in 2020 I had gone there and um and this is my testimony may be crazy, but I feel like this is even crazier with regard to God's providence. So my roommate that I got randomly paired with or assigned to live with in the first semester grew up going to this church called Grace Church of North Olmsted. Okay. And I, through my pastor, had heard about this pastor in Grace Church of North Olmsted, Ohio, which I was like, where the heck is that? I can't tell you. And my pastor is just like, yeah, I went to seminary with this man, his name is Dean Good. I think his daughter is out there somewhere. So, you know, just if you see this girl, her name is Catherine Good, just just uh Katie Good, I think they call her, you know, let you know let me know. I I would love to get in contact with Dean. So I I meet this this roommate of mine, his name is Chatham Van Wingerden, and I um tell him about these connections that I may have or whatever, and he's like, Oh yeah, I grew up with that girl. She she's uh my pastor's daughter. And I'm like, no way, dude. Like, are you serious? Right, of all people, and now she's my wife. It's just like, okay, Lord, you have a sense of humor. He really does. So um after after that, it was kind of history. I mean, I 2020 was a hard year with COVID.

Israel Caminero: 37:29

Um for everyone.

Steven Ribeiro: 37:31

For everyone, yeah. And I was still, again, relatively new in my faith, struggled a lot, but um the Lord really started to grow my faith and my love for him through those hard times, and um really started to give me a stronger desire for the ministry after that, and to just want to teach and where there were opportunities, even preach just to see, like, Lord, am I gifted in these manners? And uh my pastor in New Jersey gave me some opportunities to to preach and fell in love with them, um, but also just felt the weight of it. And um, so I eventually yeah, I eventually started to just pray a lot about those things, and I had a single-minded focus as a single man to just graduate with a a Bible degree after I declared my major at master's, um, a bachelor's in in biblical studies, and then I was like, okay, I'm gonna be resolved to go to the master seminary after that, just makes sense. And then the Lord put Catherine in my life and we started talking, and then we eventually um yeah, I got engaged out there, and um the Lord had other plans. He opened up opportunities to teach out here and uh to for her to teach as well at her alma mater at Westside Christian Academy, and um and we got married summer of 2022, and uh here we are. This is we're coming up on two years of marriage, and the Lord has just been abundantly faithful and kind. Um have a wonderful father-in-law who is a faithful pastor and a wonderful mother-in-law who yeah, just loves the church, and just I couldn't ask for anything better.

Israel Caminero: 39:19

That's so awesome. You know, like we were just saying, the Lord works in mysterious ways, and who I didn't know that story about you and Catherine. That's that's so good. And one one thing I wanted to touch base on, I'm a I'm backtracking a little bit again. Sure, yeah. You know, when you were speaking about your friends, that some of them, you know, stayed in that life and they're locked up, and you know, some got good jobs, and you you said why did he save you from from that life? But to be honest with you, he was always with you. He was waiting for you to be at your very worst. And asked for him to come into your life. And that's what he did. And you continued that journey. You know, you could have went back and backslid or whatever, but you kept on track and he kept you on track to be where you're at today and not be like your other friends that are still doing the same thing or locked up. You know, I have friends like that to this day. And you there comes a time in life where you think and it's like it's time to grow up. Yeah. You know, it's like you're not a young cat no more, and you're still doing the same thing you were doing back when you were in high school, and and it's it's just so weird, you know. You see these friends still, and I know exactly what they're doing. And, you know, you try to talk to them and they don't want to hear it. They're just stuck in that life. Yeah. Yeah. So I just wanted to let you know that that, you know, he he didn't choose you, he was with you, but he saw that you were breaking and you were reaching for him, and that's when he came and was like, I'm here. Yeah, you know, I'm here. And the church that you're speaking about, it's actually right here, right down the street. And I know what church you're talking about because I live like two minutes away from it.

Steven Ribeiro: 41:17

Yeah, that's crazy.

Israel Caminero: 41:19

Yeah. Yeah. So Catherine shared that with me last podcast. And you also have a very kind of similar story to mine. You know, like I like we were just speaking. I haven't shared my story, but yours is kind of very similar to mine in regards to, you know, the broken home and and you know, the partying and then just having God in your life afterwards. Yeah, yeah. And you said your your dad and your mom, you still talk to them and are they talk to each other, everything is good with them now?

Steven Ribeiro: 41:55

Well, with them, yeah, good question. I completely forgot to mention that too. Like my my um my mother and I talk, my father and I talk, but they do not talk with one another. Okay. The divorce was uh was pretty ugly. Um last time they saw each other was at my wedding, um, which the Lord sustained. Um and you know, it was a lot of angst at that time. But um my father remarried, and I'll just say this too. I mean, just on the record, um he he's he's truly a different man, not in a bad way, uh, but in a good way. Uh the Lord really um I would just say humbled him and broke him, but also transformed him through the power of his word. And um he has uh he's repented and and he's he's walking line in step with what the Lord wants for him to, you know, just he wants to do what's right. And um again the Lord sees the heart and I see that he's a changed man. Um and our relationship couldn't be better. Um and my mother and I's relationship couldn't be better. And she's she's still single and she still lives in in New Jersey, and um and yeah, perhaps off the record, perhaps I perhaps they wouldn't appreciate if I shared any of that. But I mean they they she's doing well, I'll just put it that way.

Israel Caminero: 43:30

Okay, um you don't need to say anything you don't want to say. Yeah, yeah. That's good. I'm glad to hear that you know they're doing well even though they don't talk to each other, but eventually you never know. Yeah, they might start talking to each other. Yeah, your wedding might have been the perfect spot, but yeah, obviously it wasn't.

Steven Ribeiro: 43:51

Yeah, yeah. But I'm thankful the Lord has kind of reconciled those relationships. I mean, Catherine has a great relationship with my mother, loves my mother. Um, there couldn't be any other woman in the world that could just uh love my mother the way Catherine does, and and vice versa. My mother just loves and adores Catherine, and I'm so thankful for that. Um but yeah, and even my father and and and his wife, I mean, it's it's a reconciled relationship.

Israel Caminero: 44:21

So yeah. That's good. Well, I'd like to thank you, Steven, for being here today and sharing that powerful testimony you have. And I know in an hour there's only so much we can share. I'm sure you have lots of stories, but in an hour you gotta share everything in a nutshell, you know what I mean? But it's definitely powerful and and very similar to what I went through in my life. And um I know you shared a few scriptures and I know you know a lot of them because that's what you studied. But do you have a favorite one that you go to when things start to get rough or just an everyday verse that you go to?

Steven Ribeiro: 45:04

Yeah, I I have grown. That's a that's a great question. It's such a hard question. Um I've grown to love um Isaiah, a lot of verses in Isaiah specifically. I'm thinking of Isaiah 55, um uh verses five through eight um just concerning the the meek, but I I've I've fallen more in love with Isaiah 66, too. Um but to this one will I look to him who is contrite of heart and who trembles at my word and and um I don't know why that just came I mean uh is that a favorite? Uh perhaps it is, it's one among many. Um I don't know that I know a lot of people have many, but I always ask Yeah, I'd say I've said probably you know what I'm just verbally processing through it, honestly. Um I find myself often coming back to 2 Corinthians 5. Okay, verse 21. Um that yeah, he who knew no sin became sin for us. Okay, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. I mean, I find myself often returning to to that verse, so yeah. Okay.

Israel Caminero: 46:21

Now we're going to my back to the past section. And if you're not familiar, my back to the past section is what would the Steven Ribero of today go back in time and tell the younger Steven Ribero of back then?

Steven Ribeiro: 46:43

Oh man. It would take a lot in me to not want to slap my old stuff.

Israel Caminero: 46:52

I was gonna say not that the old Stephen would listen or anything like that.

Steven Ribeiro: 46:56

Yeah, I was I was Ephesians 2.1, I was dead. I was dead in my sins. Um I I probably if I could go back to the old Stephen, I probably would treat it the way I sometimes treat my interactions with students. Um just in a cordial and kind, yet in some sense, I'm not a father yet, but in some sense a in a paternal way, in a fatherly way, just come alongside a student and just say, Hey, um, and just express the gospel, the the reality of the gospel. And if I knew my old Stephen, if I knew this old Stephen inside and out, um, then I would probably I would probably, you know, I would probably be tempted to try to share what's in my old Stephen heart and just say, hey, like you're living in rebellion, and um the Lord sees everything you're doing, and the Lord sees all things, yet at the same time, the Lord is gracious and slow to anger and abounding in mercy. And if you simply come to him and repent of your sin, uh the sin that you love, the sin that you have so much affection for, the sin that is drawing you away from God, if you give it up and come to Christ, He forgives all of it and He will transform your heart and and you will truly taste and see that the Lord is good. So, so come and taste. Yeah, the Lord is good. So um, yeah, I just express the gospel to my old self.

Israel Caminero: 48:25

And what do you think he would say? No, just kidding. We all know what he probably would have said, you know.

Steven Ribeiro: 48:30

He probably would have said, Yeah, you're right. I agree. Right. I go away, you know.

Israel Caminero: 48:35

It's true, it's very true. Because when we're young like that, we don't pay attention to knowledge. No, you know, very true. We're living in our flesh and in our sin, like you said. So sometimes it's hard to receive things like that when people are trying to, with experience, tell you the right thing and you're just like, whatever.

Steven Ribeiro: 48:53

Yeah, yeah, sure. So very true.

Israel Caminero: 48:56

But I'd like to thank you again, Stephen, for being here and for taking the opportunity to share your story, even to meeting up with me today. Um, but at this time, I'd like to ask you, can you close us out in prayer?

Steven Ribeiro: 49:10

Yeah, yeah, sure. And before I do, Israel, thank you. Thank you, brother. Thank you for for doing these things because they really do have an impact on other people. And they just listening to other people's stories through this podcast is uh you know, it's impacted my life. So thank you. Thank you for that. Yeah, let's pray. Father God, we we do humbly come before you through our great Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And Father, we're thankful that you have uh sent Christ to redeem us from our sins. Lord, we were so undeserving of mercy and grace made manifest in our Savior, and yet you and your infinite kindness and wisdom saved us, not on the basis of anything we've done or on the basis of anything that you saw good within us for all of our righteousness as filthy rags. Yet at the same time, Lord, you have redeemed us. And so, Father, I pray that you would uh use us for your glory. Father, I pray that you would allow us to walk in a way that pleases you. And for all those who even listen to this podcast, Lord, I just pray that you would um you would just give them an affection, a strong desire and affection to meditate on your word day and night, that they would delight in it, and that they would love it, and that they would walk with you day by day, one step at a time, um, seeking to please you in every respect, that we would uh seek first your kingdom and your righteousness. So, Father, be with us today, be with my brother, continue to sustain his ministry, even in uh using this podcast to reach out to so many others. I pray that the gospel would go forth and that Christ would be exalted and that you would just be with us for the remainder of this day. We pray in Christ's name.

Israel Caminero: 50:58

Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you for that. Thank you for that, and thank you for being here again on this lovely Cleveland or North Olmstead, Ohio weather. Yeah. It's very hot out there. And to all my listeners out there, like he said, you know, this is this is what it's about. It's not about his story, it's not about anyone's story, it's just to glorify God throughout everyone's story and how God worked in your life to get you out of those situations that you were in. And you can listen to this podcast in every major podcast outlet. You know, subscribe, follow, review it. I'd greatly appreciate it. And I'd like everyone to have a blessed day. And God blessed. Until next time.