From Gangs to Redemption: Overcoming Adversity and Finding Purpose, with Jose Vargas Zapata

Join me as Jose Vargas Zapata shares his powerful story of transformation, from being a gang member, incarcerated to becoming a youth mentor, certified life coach, and recovery specialist. Discover how he found hope in the darkest moments, overcame adversity, and discovered his purpose. Learn how he's now dedicated to helping others break the cycle of violence, mentoring youth and find redemption and resilience in the face of adversity.

Jose Vargas Zapata Linktree

Transcript

Israel Caminero: 0:16

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 in Christ. His name is Joey Vargas Zapata. And let me tell you, Joey has an incredible testimony that he's about to share. But can you introduce yourself and everybody, Joey?

Jose Vargas Zapata: 0:39

Well, thank you for this opportunity to be on your podcast, my brother. Yeah. I'm from Lacas Puerto Rico. And I was uh raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I'm married, uh four kids, and a grandson, so we're here doing God's purpose. Amen.

Israel Caminero: 0:57

Amen. And that's that's that's what we're all doing. That's his purpose, and glorifying his name while we're doing it. But before we get started, I'd like to pray over us, and I'd like to say, Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you today as we prepare to share Joey's powerful story with our listeners. We ask that you would bless our conversation, guide our words, and anoint Joey's testimony to bring hope, encouragement, and inspiration to all who listen. May your presence be felt throughout our discussion, and may your love and redemption be the central theme of our conversation. We pray for Joey's words to be infused with your wisdom, compassion, and power. Give us ears to listen, hearts to understand, and spirits to receive the message you have for us today. May our conversation be a reflection of your love and glory. We also pray for our listeners that they would be touched, transformed, and empowered by Joey's story. May they be inspired to deepen their faith, to trust in your goodness, and to share their own stories of redemption with others. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. I've read and seen some of your story. I don't know it fully completely, but I thought I'd reach out and have you share it with everybody because from what I read, it seems like you have a powerful testimony. So the floor is all yours. If you want to start from the beginning before you were saved or anything like that, just share it with the with the crowd.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 2:26

Yeah, um, my full name is Jose Varga Zapata. Everybody called me Joey. Um I was born in La Jas, Puerto Rico. My family moved from Puerto Rico to the United States to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when I was around two years old for better opportunities and better jobs. So I was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, my father and my mother. So as we grew up, my parents always taught us biblical teachings. We used to go to church and play the instruments. Um and it was teaching us about God and and the ways to to to serve God and in in the household. So at that time, as we was growing, you know, we're six kids, and I'm I'm the oldest. So as time went on, my father went through some kind of transition. And in that transition, he's he we we started leaving God little by little.

Israel Caminero: 3:38

Okay.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 3:39

He started consuming drugs and alcohol. It got to the point where the environment at home started changing. See, the Bible says that once you leave God, once you leave church, it's correct me if I'm wrong, is it's you get seven spirits, seven demons on top of whatever you have once you when once you leave the church that they start taking over your mind and and and and your body. So once once you sh once you leave God, you got all these demons and and and taking over and taking control of you. He started consuming drugs and alcohol. He started changing at home. He started treating us different. He started treating my mother different. It got to the point that as we were getting older, he started to put hands on my mother, started putting hands on each and every one of us. So I could every time I went to school, I couldn't be able to concentrate and focus on my education for the simple fact I was in school with anxiety, depression, thinking about me not going home for the simple fact that my father was starting to put his hands, abusing us verbally, and abusing us physically. Every time he felt irritated or got mad under the influence, we had to deal with him. And we wasn't trying to deal with that. I mean being the oldest, I felt that I had these burdens, and it was my responsibility as the oldest to protect my siblings and protect my mother every time my father started acting this way. Now I came to the point where one night our room was on the second floor. It was about probably like two or three in the morning. I heard my mother, my uh father yelling and screaming, and I got up and I started walking down the stairs, and I sat down in the middle of the stairs, and I used to watch this happen like a movie plane. I seen my father brands on my mother. I see my mother sitting down in the corner of the living room just crying and asking God, why me? Why do we have to go through this? What's going on? Now, since my father left church, he changed drastically. See, the enemy, the enemy, the enemy's job is to destroy us individually. Right. So our spiritual life, you know, destroy families, destroy the relationship between kids, children, and and and and and their parents. And at that time, that's what he was doing. He was using my father. It wasn't, you know, I can't blame my father because it wasn't him that was acting this way. It was the enemy that was taking control of my father at this time. But since I was young, I didn't really understand that. So there was gangs.

Israel Caminero: 6:42

How old were you at the time?

Jose Vargas Zapata: 6:44

At the time, I was probably I was just I was in middle school, so I probably was like 10, 11, 11 years old around there.

Israel Caminero: 6:51

Gotcha.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 6:52

Um once it was starting getting worse. So, you know, not being able to concentrate in school. I had friends that was involving gangs and and selling drugs in middle school. I started skipping school. I started kicking it with the wrong crowd. And as I got older to high school, it was the same way. You know, things started getting worse at home. Start started kicking it, you know, with the gang members and all kinds of different gang members and drug dealers and things like that. And then you were exposed to the to the environment, to the neighborhood. You know, you seen people gang banking, you see people selling drugs, and that's that's what you've seen at that time. And then, you know, once you didn't want to, you know, go home because you didn't want to deal with that with that situation every single day for for so long that your mind and and and enemy start start controlling you, and you get these negative thoughts, and then you got these gang members that start dragging you in, trying to pull you in into this world, you know, of street gangs and street violence, and and because I was rebellious towards my father, I started going to the street life.

Israel Caminero: 8:06

Right. You were looking, uh, you were having all that trouble at home. You were looking for love elsewhere in all the wrong places, pretty much, right?

Jose Vargas Zapata: 8:15

Yeah, definitely. I mean, imagine you being young, and then you got all of your siblings coming to you, telling you that your dad is doing this and that, and then you have to find a way to find a solution. And you're young as well. So it's like I never had a big brother. I never had nobody to teach me certain things that my father couldn't teach me. You know, every day dealing with my father, going back and forth, bumping heads. I mean, he provided for us. He did everything he was supposed to do as a father, but when he started consuming drugs and alcohol, that's where everything changed. I mean, he worked, my mother worked, they provided. I mean, there was times that we struggled and we went, you know, we went through a lot, but at the same time, I can't say that my father never provided for the for us. It's just that once someone starts consuming drugs and that drugs and the enemy start taking control, it's no longer you. It's no longer you. The enemy, you know, is gonna start taking control of you and having you do things that you don't want to do. See, that's something that Paul talks about, I believe, is in Romans. Uh, I don't know if it's chapter eight or chapter nine, where he talks about the flesh. He says, every day we we we constantly battle with the flesh. We start doing things that we don't want to do, and the things that we do want to do, we can't do because we're we're we're constantly fighting with sin every day. We constantly fighting with this flesh. And people gotta understand that this this battle is spiritual. We when we when we fight against the enemy, it's it's in the spirit. We gotta pray. We have to we have to use discernment. We have to discern before we make certain decisions. But see, I was young, so I couldn't understand that fully. You know, this is real deep. This is when you bring yourself in and and in the presence of God, you start understanding a lot of things, and then you start opening your spiritual eyes. But since I was so young, I didn't really understand that. So I started kicking in with the gang members. I had family members that was well known as well in the gang. Okay. So we moved from the east side of Milwaukee, from the east side, we moved to the north side, from the north side. We ended up on the south side. So when we moved on the south side of Milwaukee, that's when it got worse. It got to the point that me and my father started throwing hands. We started, we started, it got to the point where we was fighting. I mean, it it got really bad. So he kicked me out the house. He kicked me out the house. I joined the gang, I was in the gang. So my family got together. When my family got together and they had a meeting, this was behind my back. I don't know what's going on. Since they seen I was out here in the streets going crazy, about 17, 18 years old, they said we're gonna move him to Puerto Rico without him knowing.

Israel Caminero: 11:16

Okay.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 11:17

Thinking that by moving him to Puerto Rico, everything was gonna get better. Now, before this happened, before this happened, see, I was already selling drugs. I started selling drugs to my own father. My mother used to go to work, my siblings used to go to school. I was selling my father drugs and he was missing work and doing drugs at home. See, at that time I was thinking, instead of my father going to these drug spots and buying drugs, and if something happened, that he would get jumped, he would get killed. When you go to these drug spots, and then if you do something where you steal or something happened, if you don't have the the the entire money or whatever the case may be, life is short when it comes to the environment. So I'm thinking, you know, let me sell drugs to my own father, I'll protect him, I'll make sure he's good, nothing's gonna happen to him. But I will I was blind at that time. I thought I was actually helping my father by by thinking nothing's gonna happen to him because it's me. He's getting it from me. See, but I didn't understand that I was making it worse.

Israel Caminero: 12:39

Right.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 12:39

I was killing him and myself softly. So I was doing that for a while. They sent me to Puerto Rico. I go to Puerto Rico, they sent me there for I believe it was uh six months or a little bit longer. I came back. Everybody started looking for me. I went back to the hood, started selling drugs again, started kicking in with the guys, gambanging. My family thought if by the time I came back, things are gonna be better, it's gonna change, but it got worse. So I did certain things in the street to get street credit. It got, you know, it was to the point where I got so deep in the streets and I was involved in shootouts and selling drugs that I escalated, you know, there's a ladder. When you when you went in the in these organizations and gangs, there's a ladder. You there's levels to it that people don't understand. So I was I was running up that ladder by doing certain things in the in the street. I still I had my own in the hood. I was running the shorties. So I had it. I had it for the shorties. I had the the shorties are are are the teens that didn't go, didn't go to school, they was on the block, kicking, not doing nothing. I had I had people on security, um, with you know, with guns and drugs. We was posted up on the block, waiting for the opposition to come by. They come by, they shoot at us. We wouldn't we went we used to go to their hood and shoot back at them. This was the lifestyle I was living in, and and I thought it was normal because I got so used to it. See, you you got you got you got so many people that are living this exact life. Right now, as we speak, we got people in neighborhoods on security, little kids selling drugs, you know, when it comes to Chicago, um, Detroit, New York, see, these known cities, but this is everywhere. We got these young kids that's going through so much, that's been through a lot of childhood trauma. They're involved in the streets because their pops or moms in prison or they're under the influence of any drug. See, they they're trying to find an escape route. And a lot of times, unfortunately, the escape route is the street. Right. Why? Because it's it's the closest to your to your trauma. So once you walk out that door, you you you you don't realize that you you are walking out to this world where there's so much negativity, there's so much uh negative influences that once you start getting connected with the gangs and the drugs, it's they'll pull you in. And once you start living this lifestyle around these urban neighborhoods, that it's normal. You go to these normal, you go to these urban neighborhoods, and you and you go over there, you say something to them, they're gonna look, they're gonna look at you like you're crazy because that's all they know. See, a lot of a lot of these kids don't go far enough away from from the from these neighborhoods from the from their hoods. Like they don't know nothing else. All they know is it's the hoods, the neighborhoods, and being around guns and and shooting at people. And and if that guy has a red shirt or green shirt or yellow shirt, they start shooting because that's because the gang member, the gang colors. That's all they know. So that's what I seen. And I have family members and friends that was close to family, that was involved in the gang life. So I'm thinking, okay, this is normal. The enemy took control. We was blind, so we couldn't see what we were doing, what was wrong. So I started getting locked up for petty stuff. Police used to come by and mess with us, locking us up, jaywalking, locking us up or just standing, you know, in front of a store, just for no reason. It just the police came and messed with us just because they knew we were active gang members. We kept getting locked.

Israel Caminero: 16:44

I was just gonna say that.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 16:46

Go ahead, go ahead.

Israel Caminero: 16:47

No, no, I was just gonna say that that they knew what you were doing. That's why they they were doing, you know, harassing you or whatnot.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 16:54

Yeah, so what so what goes on in Milwaukee is once they when once these cops and and uh um the jump bar boys, which is the detective, the undercovers, we we call them the jump bar boys because they used to drive regular cars and they used to jump out at us, lock us up, right? Once they know, once they knew that we were gang members, from that day on, they had pictures with a whole bunch of papers, where it says uh our position, this guy holds security, this guy is the gunner, this guy's selling the drugs, this guy's the runner, you know. So they knew who we were. So by doing that, everywhere we went, that stopped us. We could have been at a restaurant eating food. They came in from the everybody, lock us up, handcuff us, take us for investigation. They used to drop us off in the opposition neighborhoods. So that was an issue as well. See, there they're there there's good cops, but they also there's also cops that are yes, most of that that's in every that's in every state. Best believe that. So they used to drop us off in the wrong neighborhoods, and then the opposition see the cops dropping dropping the the the these kids and uh or these gang members off, they know it wasn't there. So all you could do is run. Either you go on, either you're gonna back, you know, back then when I was growing up, they didn't really, there was a lot of shootings, but you were still able to fight box, you know, fight one-on-one. You know what I mean? So basically you either got jumped or you try to fight two or three guys at the same time, and then you bounce. You try to because you you in the wrong neighborhood. You know what I mean? But nowadays, people get shot for for no reason.

Israel Caminero: 18:41

That's right.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 18:42

You know, now nowadays it's even worse. That's right. So it's like, so I got involved in the streets and the gangs, and my, you know, I I got street credit, and and my name was known, and and and I got uncles who who they called the twins that was really involved in in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and we started getting recognition in Chicago and Michigan, and we were getting big, and our family name was getting big, the zapatas. So as we got older, we was getting involved in deeper situations. So when I was about 21, 22 years old, my grandmother was like, Listen, you gotta go to church. My grand my grandmother has been in church all her life. She says, Listen, you gotta go to church. You gotta come visit church Sunday because you've been shot at and you've never been shot. So many people shoot at you, you you don't get shot. You know why? I'm like, no, I don't want you. She said, Listen, I've been on my knees for years praying for you. You're my oldest grandson. And not only me, there's people at church and different family members who get on their knees and pray for you. That's why you're not dead. Because God's grace, you're still living.

Israel Caminero: 20:03

Amen.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 20:03

And I didn't understand that at that time. So I said, okay, let's go to church. I went to church and visit. Some people came from Chicago to preach at the church. Once they preached at the church, they were preaching at the end. They started praying. My grandmother said, We're going to go to the front. We're going to go to the altar so they could pray for you. I said, okay. We went. This lady that I don't know started speaking to me in tongues. And I know God was using her because she knew things that only God knew at that time that I was going through and what I was feeling. And she spoke to me. Around 21, around 22, around that age, I accepted God. I accepted God. God started using me. I started visiting church. I went to the guy who had it for the state. So there was some somewhat like a meeting in this house. My uncles was there. A lot of these guys that I knew was there. I was there. He had it for the state.

Israel Caminero: 21:10

Okay.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 21:11

He said, uh, we had a conversation. He said, listen, he said, you know what, this is what I'm going to do for you. I'm going to let you walk. I'm going to give you a pass. But for the simple fact that you were out here putting work. You was out here wild. You was out here selling drugs for us and shootings. And you was doing a lot of things for the organization. We're going to let you pass. I don't want you to come back. Go ahead and go to church, change your life around, and do what you got to do. From that day on, I started praying, going to church. My aunt or pastors, till this day, they're pastors. I was going to their church. Every preacher that came to the church started speaking to me. God's going to use you. You're going to be a preacher. You're going to be an evangelist. Slowly but surely, I used to go to church in the mornings to pray and fast for everybody else. As time went on, let's say I was in church for about a year and God started using me in a powerful way that I couldn't even believe in myself. So it got to the point where I ended up getting into the word and getting closer to God that I started preaching. Doors started opening and I started traveling to different states preaching the word of God as an evangelist. I did this for around about five years. Now, mind you, that I was still learning. I didn't have no person in church like a mentor to teach me certain things so that I could understand. I, you know, when I started going to church, it was to where God was using me, but I still needed guidance. And I didn't have no one at that time to be like, you know what, Joey, you you slacking on this, or you got to fix this, or you gotta pray more on this, or when you go preach, you do this. You know, I didn't have nobody to help me. I was on my own. So I was thinking, okay, I'm doing good. I'm praying to God, I'm doing everything I gotta do. But you know, when you go to church, it's it's a little, it's you learn every day. You learn something new every day when it comes to the word of God.

Israel Caminero: 23:35

That's right. I'm still learning.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 23:37

Yeah, so when you know, I met my wife in Boston. I was preaching and I went to Boston so many times that I met my wife in Boston. We started talking. A year passed, got you know, we we got married, she she moved to Milwaukee with me, had my son. So we started struggling. The enemy started attacking me, her, the household. It was tough, it was rough. We didn't know what to do, we kept praying. In church, something happened in church where two people did something to me and my wife that scarred us.

Israel Caminero: 24:29

Okay.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 24:30

Something that we did something that we didn't expect. Inside of the church, we stopped going to church, you know, right. Little by little stopped going to church because we was hurt. And slowly I rebelled against God, not knowing at that time that I was looking at man and I focusing on God.

Israel Caminero: 24:53

Amen. That's right.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 24:54

God never did nothing to me and my wife. It was the enemy that used these people inside of the church. See, because a lot of people have to understand that the enemy could use and just be just because just because you're going to church doesn't mean anything. You go to church and the enemy can still use certain people to attack you.

Israel Caminero: 25:12

That's right.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 25:13

See, if there if there are people that's going to church and they're not they're not really in deep spiritually, not praying and fasting how they're supposed to, and they and they open that door so the enemy could come in, the enemy could use anybody from church.

Israel Caminero: 25:29

Absolutely.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 25:30

That's what happened. I started focusing my vision on man instead of God. So we rebelled. I rebelled, I didn't want to go to church. I wrote a letter to my pastor, thought I was being professional, is why I'm leaving the church and whatnot. We stopped. Once I stopped church, got a knock on the door. The guy that had it for the state told me, once you leave church, you're automatically active. And you back active in the gang.

Israel Caminero: 26:12

Wow. Automatically. But you weren't though, right?

Jose Vargas Zapata: 26:16

No, I was I wasn't I wasn't I was in church. But once I left, once I won, once I left church and stopped going to church, right? I'm automatically active.

Israel Caminero: 26:27

Okay.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 26:28

Okay, you're not going to church anymore. So okay, you're not going to church anymore? You're active. Right there, right there, and then you're active.

Israel Caminero: 26:35

Gotcha. I get what you're saying.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 26:37

They came, they they spoke to me. That was like, it is what it is. We understand what you went through, but this is what it is. You know, we we spoke, and we we told you that when once you stopped going to church, and you know, it was it was a cow, it was a conversation. And uh he was like, Man, you were doing good, you were doing good, you was preaching, you were trying, you were doing good, and what happened? We were just talking. And just because I stopped going to church, me and my wife, I was active again, and I couldn't say no. Right. I mean, there's no way you you go and tell no to these guys, right?

Israel Caminero: 27:19

Because they come back to get you, right?

Jose Vargas Zapata: 27:23

Yeah, the streets don't play that. Right. So once I spoke to them, we sat down, they said, You active. I'm like, well, you know what? I gave them my word. I had a conversation with my wife. This wasn't something that she liked. You know what I mean? So I slowly but surely I started getting myself in the streets again. And it got worse. Uh once I left church, I changed. I wasn't myself anymore. Something took over me. I was worse than before.

Israel Caminero: 28:02

Right.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 28:03

Kept getting locked up. I was starting getting charges. But these charges was, I these give me charges, but they'll get dropped. Right? They'll give me charges for shootings that get dropped. They did they try to throw charges on me for kidnapping. It got dropped. They started throwing all kinds, I mean, all you could think of, they were throwing these charges at me and it was getting dropped. In my mind, I'm like, what's going on? See, well, this is the thing. I was running for God, but God was like, no. I have a calling. See, when God promises you something, when God says something, when God declares something over your life, God is not a liar. That's right. God is going to make sure that whatever He promised you gets fulfilled. So God still try to work with me. And He tried to use certain people, you know, speak to me through a lot of people. Now what I did, I was running from God, ignoring God for a long time. So while I was in the streets, I didn't know that we was being under, we was uh we was under investigation with the state and the feds. So I caught a a state case, a shooting case. I fought it and I took a plea. I said, I ain't gonna fight this no more. I said, it's what it is for state prison. I went in, I was there for almost a year fighting my case before I took a plea. I bailed out. I bailed out. So I was out until uh my sentencing, until I'm supposed to get sentenced. Now, once I bailed out, the feds came and got me back to back. So I was already out on bail.

Israel Caminero: 30:09

Right.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 30:10

The feds came and got me, and it's like 30, 40 more people.

Israel Caminero: 30:13

Wow.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 30:15

So same thing. I went in, I was fighting my case, and I wanted bail to get released. They denied it twice. I was there for over six months, fighting my case. I went in to try to get a bail again. It was approved for the simple fact that my lawyer argued that before the feds came and got me, I was already out on bail. I wasn't a flight risk. I wasn't gonna run from the from the state or or or the feds, you know, because of my charges. So I was released. So I was out, you know, fighting both of my cases. Um, and I was still involved somewhat, you know, with the guys and family and and and the gangs and all of that. And it got to the point that my sentencing came. I got sentenced, and that's that's how I ended up in state prison. Then I I went to the feds.

Israel Caminero: 31:18

Were you there for a while?

Jose Vargas Zapata: 31:21

Well, for the feds, they'll give me a lot of years. But look, the thing is with the state and the feds, they give you a lot of years, but that that's not exactly what you're gonna get. It depends on the judge and the federal um uh uh system. It depends, it's by points and and your background and things like that. And the states, it's not by points. The states go by your background. And this is my this is my my my first felonies. I I used to get misdemeanors, and a lot of my big charges got dropped before this. So I got sentenced with the state. The state gave me um, the state gave me three in, three out. So I went through the um, I went to the I did state time and I went to the feds, and altogether I did I did uh five years, five years and and and four on papers. So what happened was since it was my first case, they ran in concurrent, they ran it together. Since it was my first my first felonies, and I caught them back to back. So once my state ran it concurrent, that's that's when the federal judge was like, well, the state ran in concurrent, so that's how we're gonna run it. So this is this is just your first your first felonies, just don't do it again. They're like, to do it again, you're gonna you're gonna get more time. So they ran it together. So I did some state time and whatever time I had left with the feds. Um, I did that. So the feds gave you certain certain time off. Let's say give you five years from that, they'll they'll take some time off from that. So you don't do the whole the whole five years.

Israel Caminero: 32:58

Right.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 32:59

So so once I went to the state, finished that, I didn't have a lot of time in the feds, then I got released. But the time, that time, you know, when I was incarcerated, it was a journey, I can say. My first time before I went, you know, I went in prison. Um, they already knew I was coming. I mean, these guys knew my background, these guys knew my full name, my date of birth, they knew my case, they knew everything. I came in, it's all you wanted the guys, right? Okay. Well, the Latin folks, the Latin folks are at this area. Yo guys over there. Okay, I go over there, they screen me, ask my background and whatnot. Tell me how the prison is, how high works, you know, that's how you learn in prison politics.

Israel Caminero: 33:52

Right.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 33:54

So again, the same thing that was going on in the street, it was happening in prison.

Israel Caminero: 34:00

Yep. So there's no rehabilitation and rehabilitations.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 34:05

Yeah, it's it's really it's really hard, you know, depending on your on your situation, but it's prison politics. See, people to understand that, you know, the same thing happened outside. You could happen inside of prison. People sell drugs outside, and people sell drugs in the prison as well. And a lot of people ask, but how how do they bring in? Listen, they bring in drugs. There's a lot of ways they're bringing in drugs, but there's a lot of crooked, um, there's a lot of crooked, you know, officers that that works in the prisons that are also involved and they help bring drugs in and everything. It's crazy. It's crazy. You know, you do the exact same thing you do when you outside, when you're free, um, we're in prison. So with the prison politics, I was still involved in the gangs and we was the same thing, but we just we was locked up, we was locked up, you know, around, you know, inside of these four walls, whatnot. This old school gang member gets released. Let's say after, you know, is it like, I mean, there a year and something, some change. He gets released. Now, once he gets released, his celly, his cellmate is supposed to take over because he had it, he had it for the prison for our gang. He got released and went home. His celly, his cellmate, took it, you know, he passed it to him so he could run the prison for for for the gang and whatnot. This guy started sending hits out in prison. He started doing things that he wasn't supposed to do in prison. So they grabbed him, they grabbed everybody that was involved with him. He wasn't supposed to be doing this. This was against our laws, you know, when it came to prison politics. You can't be out here, you know, sending sending hits on people and things like that for just no reason, just because you want to, or because you're trying to make moves without talking to everybody else. Yeah, he had to sit down with the guys and talk about this before he did that. Right. So they are they all ended up in a hole under investigation and solitary confinement. Once he got, he they were all in solitary confinement. I found out that, you know, they was doing the whole big investigation. So that was they was watching everybody. The guy that got released, that was outside in the world, they had it for the prison. Somebody came and told us that he died from an overdose. We're like, what? This guy was just here, he got released, and he died from an overdose. That's how you know his life is really short.

Israel Caminero: 37:01

Right.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 37:03

So I ended up having it for the prison until my release. So I had it for the prison. So once you have it for the prison, you're you're you're more involved because you got to make sure everything is how it's supposed to be accordingly. With the guys, you have to make sure that everybody came in and had whatever had the little the little care package. You had to make sure there were no there were no beef or no drama with with with the with the Latin kings, there were no beef with the bloods, there were no beef with anybody in there. See, we were with the Latin folks. So we was there with with a lot of the gang from the Latin folks, and I had to make sure that there was no issue. Because a lot of things jumped off in prison. A lot of fights, a lot of gang fights, and things like that. So I was trying to avoid and try to put things in place. So I ended up in solitary confinement because they did another round of investigation. So they grabbed us. From then on, I started doing time in solitary confinement than in out there in the open population.

Israel Caminero: 38:20

Okay.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 38:21

I did more time in solitary confinement. Almost my whole bed in solitary confinement, because I went in and out. I did four months. I was out, I did six months, I was out, I did eight months, I was out. So I was back and forth. So being in solitary confinement, you in this little cell, in this little room, surrounded by four walls. You can barely walk, you can barely walk in there. You don't have nothing in there. They'll come in, they open up this little chute. This little shoe that they open up, you know, that that's that's connected on the door. They open a that they open a latch up. They throws, they throw Bibles in there. They threw me a Bible. I started reading the Bible. I started praying. Remember, I was running for God. God was still trying to work with me. I was running for God.

Israel Caminero: 39:15

Right.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 39:16

I did not understand what God was trying to do. In other words, since you're running from me and you're being hard-headed, I had to grab you from the streets to save your life. I put you in prison so you can stop running. Now I have you in solitary confinement so I could work with you and I could talk to you. And you cannot ignore me. I couldn't run. I couldn't ignore God. Put me in the place of darkness where I was alone and I had to ask for his help. I had no choice. God put me in a position where I had no choice and I had to look for him. I started uh uh go ahead.

Israel Caminero: 40:23

I said you were at that point of surrender, huh?

Jose Vargas Zapata: 40:27

I was. I had to surrender because I couldn't do nothing else. I got on my knees, I started crying, I started talking to God. See, in prison is a place where you cannot show your emotions. You cannot show weakness. But being in solitary confinement, you got these little cells right next to each other. I was in my own cell. So all I did was just cry and speak to God and ask for help and ask God for my forgiveness because I was stuck in there and I wasn't gonna get out. I started talking to God. I started having a closer relationship with God while I was in there. I started praying, I started reading the Bible every day. I mean, mind you, I was there for months, reading the Bible every day, speaking to God. I had a big experience with God. So many of them while I was in solitary confinement. I told God, please speak to me. If you if you want to keep using me, I left you. If you want to keep using me, and you want me to preach your word, show me, guide me, God started to reveal things with to me in dreams and visions. I just see myself preaching in the streets, outreach. I mean, I seen it was like it was like a moving plane in my head that God was showing me. That's so good. Once I got released from solitary confinement, you know, us being human, being man in prison, hard-headed, I was still involved in the same thing. Even though I was still praying, speaking to God, but I was like one foot in, one foot out. Because I was in prison and I still had to wash my back.

Israel Caminero: 42:33

Right.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 42:34

And you got all these enemies, and I had fights in prison. We have fights in showers, we have fights at Rag. We have, I mean, you so I'm like, okay, well, I still gotta defend myself. God, I believe you, but I gotta defend myself. I can't, you know, when it comes to life and death situations, I I I have to protect myself. So mean me trying to show no emotions to anybody, you know, I I mentored a lot of inmates and and and I spoke to a lot of inmates, and a lot of people knew me in the prison, and we spoke, had conversations, and we spoke about God, but I was still involved in gang activities because I had it for the prison. So when my release date was coming to get transferred to the feds, I passed my position down to somebody else who was going to stay there. So from there, I transitioned. I went from there to the county to the county to the feds. I go in the feds thinking it's just like the state. I go in the feds, I walk around, I do what I want. I'm in my own little world. The feds doesn't get, you don't get hit, they don't get down like that in the feds. Once you win the feds, same thing, they knew you, they screened you, then they already knew you were coming. Now, when you in the feds, you gotta be on your P's and Q's. You can't slip up. Once slip up is over with. That could be your life. Especially where you're going with the gang tattoos, and then you were an active gang member. Come on now. It's like I, you know, I was a lot of folks back then. So you got the Latin Kings, you got the Bloods, you got you got all these gangs that don't like you, hate you. Right? Well, any opportunity you give them is over with. They can stab you. In the Feds, they don't play, they jump you, stab you. You know, they they they do more than that. So I go on the feds, and they're like, listen, you gotta understand something. You can't be walking around by yourself when you're in the feds. You gotta walk in twos. I'm like, what you mean you gotta walk in twos? I'm used to in the state, you don't gotta walk in twos, you just walk by yourself, you go wherever you gotta go. The feds, you gotta walk in twos. So I gotta be you and another one of the other guys in case if something happened, that that other person have your back, right?

Israel Caminero: 44:53

Right.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 44:54

So I was walking one day and I went to the rec room. They caught me slipping. I got caught slipping. I tried to fight. It was five of them. I tried to fight. Couldn't be able to defend myself. I got jumped, almost got killed. They had shanks and everything. I was supposed to get stabbed up. That ain't happened. I don't know what happened, I don't know what's going on. So what they did was everybody that was involved, everybody was involved in that situation. Even if you didn't do anything, you got sent to the shoe, which is solitary confinement, to look at the cameras and to, you know, it was a gang activity, a gang move. They thought it was a hit. So you was in the shoe, and then they would do an investigation. Mind you, I didn't have that much time left because I was in the state doing time.

Israel Caminero: 45:53

Right.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 45:54

I just got transferred. So I had whatever I had left, and whatever percentage they took off of my sentencing in the Feds, they were like, you know what? You don't got you don't got time, you don't got that much time left. So they used to come by the door and talk to me. We want to check you out, we want to know who did to you or whatnot. I said, listen, I don't want to cooperate. I want to keep doing my time. I want to get out. Y'all need to get out. You gotta get me out the shoe. You gotta get me out the shoe, right? Mind you, because I've been in this state in solitary confinement back back to back. I I was tired. I was tired of that. You know, being being locked up in this little room, you know, it's times where you talk to yourself and you go crazy. I mean, you go through a lot with yourself. That's how God, God, that's what God used to speak to me. So I was in the shoe, I was in solitary confinement again in the Feds. That left me there for months. They just passed by, do their little rounds. I used to ask what's going on, what's the status of my situation? They said everyone that was involved in that have to stay in solitary confinement, got to stay in the shoe because this is an active investigation. I mean, for how long? And they never told me. They never told any of us for how long.

Israel Caminero: 47:15

Wow.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 47:16

I was in solitary confinement for almost nine months.

Israel Caminero: 47:21

Wow, that's crazy.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 47:23

Nine months. They said you're going to get released from solitary confinement, and you're gonna get transferred out from the shoot, from solitary confinement. I started writing grievances. I started doing, you know, doing everything in my power that I can do because I'm like, this ain't right. There's no way y'all gonna keep me under investigation for eight and nine months. The feds, the feds is cutthroat. The feds, they don't care. Now, there was a a kid that was about, I believe he was about 18 or 19 years old. He was young. He got brought in. We could see certain inmates, you know, across across the hallway, you know, and how the inmates interacted and spoke to each other was that they'll grab a piece of paper, they'll write a kite, they write like a little message. What they do is they'll they'll grab them little strings from from the shirts or pants, and they'll just they'll they'll make a knot and tie it to the to the to the paper. And they'll they'll put something to the paper so I can have weight. So what they did was it was like a little fishing line.

Israel Caminero: 48:42

Yeah.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 48:43

Say they did that to send messages to different cells in the in that part of the shoe, that part of the wing. That's how everybody communicated with each other. So this kid was about 17, 18, I believe. He was yelling every night. I can't do this. I guess he got a lot of time. I don't know, I don't know why, what was his charge. He got a lot of time. So he was yelling. I can't do this, I can't do this. This is his first time in prison. So it was me and a couple other guys out the little door try to try to give him, you know, try to stay positive. We would try to keep each other positive when we were in the shoe. Because we're all in solitary confinement. We we you know, we all get depressed, we all feel lonely, we all deal with anxiety. We all, you know, that we as times we get suicidal thoughts. I mean, when you're in your shoe, you in this, and in the Fez, you shower in your cell. In the Feds, you shower in the same little room, little cell that you sleep in.

Israel Caminero: 49:46

Wow.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 49:47

So you have to grab your bed, fold it up, put it in the corner, and then they got the little drain in the middle, in the middle of the cell. You take showers, the whole, the whole cell starts getting hot, the walls start getting all wet, all humid, and everything, and then you have to grab your old clothes, your dirty clothes, and that's how you start cleaning the walls and cleaning the floor so you can dry it up. And then that's where you sleep, that's where you sleep. So you shower, you use the restroom, and you sleep in there. The only time you go out is to walk around, probably for like a half an hour, maybe an hour, depending on the day. And then you walk around, and it's little, this little, they call it wreck, but you you go out and it's like you're surrounded by these big old walls, and then you can't do anything. That's your last little wreck. And you you go back into your to your cell. So I dealt with that for about eight, nine months, and everybody was involved in that situation. The only thing was that I was being released, but eight, nine months doing that, it wasn't easy. I was going crazy, I was speaking to God. I mean, it was insane. So this kid that I was telling you about they came in, it was one morning, he was quiet. We all wake up, we start talking. They got these vents where you could sometimes um speak to the to the person next door, depending on the vents. You can like say something, they can hear you, you can say certain things back. I'm like, hey, yo, what's up with the kid that came in? Like, we don't know, bro. So we we yelling out the door, see, out the out the cell, see if we get his attention. We hear the guards yelling, and you can hear the keys. You can hear the keys they have on their waist, run, they running down the hallway. They start covering all the windows in the cell. We like, what's going on? They ain't say nothing. Coming to find out, the kid committed suicide. Wow. He hung himself. How? I don't know. He would do this all the time in prison, unfortunately. He hung himself. He was young, he couldn't take it. Just thinking the amount of years that he had to do, and and he thought that things was going, you know, things was going to happen to him in prison that he wasn't gonna make it all the way through. Wow. It was na he was native, he was Indian. I forgot what what um kind of native he was, any he was, you know, at that time, but um he was young and and you know, that hit me. That hit me because I'm like, man, he was so young. You know what I mean? And it's like so many of them do this, and people don't understand that the things that happen, you know, inside of a prison. I mean, so much things happen inside of a prison is it's crazy. And it's something that you gotta get used to, and something that you gotta you gotta have a cold heart and you have to put your gay face on, and you can't show nobody that you're weak because if you if you do that, they're gonna try to they're gonna try to step all over you. Right, they take advantage of you. So the thing that that broke me was when they was dragging this kid out. See, they don't look at you like a human being when you're in prison. They look at you as your number, inmate number. That's how they know you about, that's how they treat you. They dragged this kid from his cell all the way down the hallway. They covered the windows, but you can hear them drag this kid out of his room down the hallway. While they did that, they were laughing and making jokes.

Israel Caminero: 53:40

Wow.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 53:42

Saying he's stupid for doing this, laughing. And everybody in there in the shoe on that wing went nuts, they went crazy. I mean, everybody went crazy, yellow, yeah, they were they were yelling at the at the at the guards, they were they were cursing at the guards. I mean, come on now, that that that was a life that that that was just taken away because he thought he wasn't gonna make it in prison, and you guys are laughing and making fun of him because he did that. Right. Prison is cutthroat. I see. No emotions.

Israel Caminero: 54:19

So you were in state, the feds all this time, you were talking to God, but you were also watching your back, obviously, for obvious reasons, because that's the way it is. Um you saw this little boy. Well, you didn't see it, but you witnessed, you know, him hanging himself or whatever. When did it all change for you as far as you know you fully committing to Christ again? Was it after you got out of the the feds or while you were there?

Jose Vargas Zapata: 55:02

So when I got released from the feds and I finally got out the shoe, my mind wasn't right. I wasn't thinking well. Being there for about eight, nine months, couldn't go nowhere, finally got released to a halfway house. When I got released to a halfway house, I was there for a couple of months. Once I got approved to go home, I was home on a ankle, federal ankle monitor. I was on probation for four years. So what God did, God started using them four years that I that I was limited to go certain places. He used them four years to speak to me, to me to read the Bible, for me to spend time with my family, go to church, get myself together. So that's how everything started. I started talking to kids when I went to the park, um basketball courts, things like that. So that's I started speaking to everybody I bumped into about what I went through, my sharing my story, preaching the gospel, talking about God, and that's how little by little I was doing that. And and PA, when I got released to Pennsylvania, I was doing that. Now how I got to Boston, where I'm in now, my wife's father was getting ill, um, issues with his health, and I said, you know, families first.

Israel Caminero: 56:40

Right.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 56:41

So we moved from Pennsylvania to Boston. Now I've been here in Boston for about five months. So since my release until now, that's what I've been doing. I'm a youth mentor, I'm a life coach. I'm in the process of completing my chaplaincy to be a chaplain and get my badge so I can continue to visit the prison. Um I'm supposed to start visiting county jails. Um on the 22nd, I believe, if God, if God permits, and the doors keep opening, because I know God has a purpose for me and God's promises are going to get fulfilled. Um so that's where I'm at, visiting prisons and the county jails and um doing speaking engagements, motivation is speaking to certain events and and other places I go and preach the gospel and speak about God and the great things that God is doing in my life and my testimony, how how God has saved me because his grace and mercy endures forever. And that's the reason why I'm still here. I've been shot at so many times and never got shot. I've been jumped, I've been I've been through it all. I got hit by cars, by Latin Kings, bloods, try to run me over. I mean, I I've been I've been through it all. I've been through it all. Gang fights, um, street fights, I've been through it all, and I'm still here. And you know, me and my wife talk about this all the time. And my grandmother, I'm sitting in touch with my grandmother and my mother, and then everybody I speak to, they see the drastic changes. Like, man, you was out here walling out. You was out here walling out. I mean, you you you were shooting at everything that moved. You was out here selling drugs, you was out, you got caught in that in that drug conspiracy, and then you've been through it all. Now you out here making a difference in your communities. You're impacting the lives of of the youth and people who are incarcerated, who are going through what you went through. You know, a lot of people deal with suicidal thoughts, men and women. Um, a lot of men, you know, they don't like talking about feelings or their emotions or or things like that. So they bottle everything inside to try to, you know, look tough. But inside, they go through depression, they go through anxiety, they go through suicidal thoughts. I had times where multiple times I try to take my my you know my own life away, and it wasn't possible. Um it will it wasn't possible because God didn't let it happen. That's right. But I tried. Amen. That's why that confirms that God had, you know, God have something something for me. You know what I mean? Psalms 37. The Psalms 37 4 says, Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. So by me praying to God and looking for God, and the desire desires of my heart is preaching, sending the message. Message, preaching the gospel, preaching to those who are in the streets using drugs, gang members, those that are out there in the streets, they're involved in streets and gang activities that nobody preaches to them. See, nowadays everybody wants to preach to the church. Pastors, you want to preach to the congregation, they want to preach to the church, but everybody in the church are supposed to be saved. We're supposed to be going out of the church and preaching the gospel to the drug addicts, preaching the gospel to the gang members, preaching the gospel to the prostitutes, preaching the gospel to everybody who are lost in this cold world. But so many churches don't understand that.

Israel Caminero: 1:00:53

That's right.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 1:00:54

Make a difference. And a lot of churches nowadays don't understand that we are living in rough and hard times where we need to go out there out of the four walls, get out of these four walls and preach the gospel where the people need to hear it, not just in the church. So that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to go out. I don't care if it's snowing, if it's raining, if it's cold, if it's hot. You're gonna see me out there doing outreach, speaking to the youth, speaking to everybody I can speak to and tell them God is real. God save me. God's mercy is real, his grace is real. God wants to transform you. God wants to restore your heart. God wants to heal them scars you have in your heart, which no one can see. God wants to use you, God wants you to do a lot of great things, but you need to believe and you need to let Him work with you. God is here to transform you. God wants to work with you. But a lot of people either they don't they don't understand that, or there's a lot of people that don't really hear that, don't get to hear that because there's not enough people out there searching for those who really want to hear the word.

Israel Caminero: 1:02:16

Amen. Amen. And I mean, look what he did with you, you know, like and and it's in a way, I I don't want to sound weird when I say this, but look where you came from and look where you're at now. With all with all this activity that you were doing, everything that you experienced, like you can go up to these people that you know in your area and speak to them from experience, you know, and that's what he's using you for, and that's a great thing, my brother, you know. And I saw I I heard you use a psalm there. That was one of my questions. I'm I'm still gonna ask you that question. But uh you know, that one of my questions that I always ask my guests is Um is there a life verse that stuck with you throughout this whole journey when you found God, or just any verse that you can go to now when you're having a bad day, or anything like that that stuck with you, sort of like your life verse. Do you have one and what is it and what does that mean to you?

Jose Vargas Zapata: 1:03:26

I believe is um Psalm, if I'm not mistaken, Psalm 138. If I'm not mistaken. And basically it tells you that God has a purpose for you. And that purpose is gonna get fulfilled. If I God called you and said he's you're gonna be an evangelist, you're gonna be an evangelist. If God said you're gonna be a preacher, you're gonna be a preacher. If you're gonna be a pastor, if he said they're gonna, you're gonna be a pastor. You know what I mean? If God says he's gonna use you, he's gonna use you. And that verse talks about that. And it talks about how his grace and mercy endures forever, and and you know, um, that's that's the verse that I always keep with me because see in Spanish, Spanish, it says, um, it says, uh. You know what I mean? God is gonna, you know, fulfill his purpose in me. You know what I mean? And that's something that I believe because God called me to do this, and I feel as I have to do this. It's it's it's not it's not um how people say, oh, what do you do uh uh uh on the side? You working, you you you spend time with your family. Um, what do you do on the side? I'm like, I don't look at it something I do on the side. It's it's my passion. I do it every chance I get. If if I'm if I'm with my family and I get a phone call, and then I have someone that wants to speak to me because they're going through a crisis and they're having suicidal thoughts, I'm gonna step away and speak to that person, and I'm gonna speak life into that person because the word of God is life. And you feel weak, you feel like you got so many burdens that that that that's taken over you, that you feel these the weight of these burdens on your shoulders. The word of God is life. The word of God is is something that's going to transform you. As long as you take time to read the word of God, and if you really don't understand it, talk to a pastor or talk to someone who knows something about the Bible that can help you understand. Read the Bible, pray, ask God for discernment, ask God for discernment before you read the Bible, so you could be able to understand because because the word of God is deep. I can sit here and read a verse, and I could read the same verse about five times, and then every five, every those five times, I'll I'll I'll I'll exactly. See, you are see you already know. You already know because that that's how it is, that people don't understand. And I mean, once you're in the spirit, you're in the spirit, you have your spiritual eyes, your discernment, you're you're in the presence of God, God speaks to you in so many ways. It's it's it's you know, God works in mysterious ways.

Israel Caminero: 1:06:37

He does.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 1:06:38

I had to go to prison to understand the purpose that God had for me. I I I was in church, I preached the gospel, I traveled, and and I still had to learn and I fail. And God was like, you know, you you stopped going to church, you fail, and you went through, you slipped to fail. But he was here to remind me that listen, I still want to use you. You're running away from me. Okay, no, okay, that's fine. I'm gonna lock, I'm gonna make sure you get locked up. I'm gonna make sure you you find, I'm gonna show you find yourself in a place where you can't go nowhere. And you have to hear me, you have to listen to me. That's what happened. I listened to God and and he spoke to me, and I felt his presence in a way that I never felt before. And I'm trying to spread the word. I'm trying to spread his message as as far as far as as I can. And there's no stopping, and I'm not stopping. Life is too short. The Bible says, don't worry about tomorrow, worry about today. That's what I'm doing, taking it day by day. We all struggle, we all go through a lot, we all go through storms and crises, but the storm doesn't last forever.

Israel Caminero: 1:07:56

Amen. For every dark night, there's a brighter day.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 1:07:59

Amen.

Israel Caminero: 1:08:01

That's that's so good, you know, and uh I want to thank you for sharing your testimony and being as transparent as you were. And so now we're going to my back to the past section of the podcast. And okay. My back to the past section is if the Jose from today could travel back in time and talk to the younger Jose and let him know what he knows now, what would you say to him?

Jose Vargas Zapata: 1:08:34

Well, that's that's that's deep right there. Um to be honest, I I I don't even know what to say for the simple fact that I feel that I had to go to that process. That's good. Because if I never went through that process, I don't think I'll be where I'm at today, to be honest.

Israel Caminero: 1:09:06

That's good.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 1:09:07

I think I think my journey would have would have been different. I think that by me going through that process and and like, for example, right now, um I still I still have a relationship with my father. It's not as strong as I would like. Um I forgave my father and and and I understood that this was never his fault. This was never him. The enemy used him to attack our family when he was consumed by the drugs and alcohol. It took me years to understand that this wasn't my father. This was the enemy. I was looking at it wrong. And now that I'm in the spirit, and now that I'm looking for God and I read the Bible and I pray every day, you know, God speaks to you, and it's like now I really understand that I can't blame my father anymore. Yes, I went through childhood trauma. Yes, I deal with certain things, but that's what I use, and that's that fire that vote motivates me deep in my soul to do what I do now with with preaching the the gospel. That was that's good.

Israel Caminero: 1:10:19

That's good. Uh I like that you gave that answer because it's it's true. You know, sometimes people have to go through storms in order to be where God wants them to be at at this point in time, like you're doing, and which is a good thing. You know, I I I want to bless you, your family, and for you to continue what you're doing, brother, because what you're doing is a good thing. And at the same time, you're not only you know, it's it's your story, but you're glorifying God throughout the whole story, even when you talk to this youth that like you said, like youth, youth sometimes are lost, you know, and and they go through a lot. And like you said, they go to the streets. They they automatically go through the streets, because you said it's that's the next thing to go out. You just go out that door, your friends are out there, and you know, who's loving who's loving on them, your friends, even though they're bad influences at times, that's what happens.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 1:11:20

And it's worse now, too.

Israel Caminero: 1:11:22

Yeah, yeah, I believe it. You know, in this day and age, like you said, back in the day we used to throw our hands up, but in this day and age, that it's not like that no more. They just pull out a gun and and start shooting. So it's even more dangerous from when you know when I grew up back back then. But I want to thank you for for being on the podcast and sharing your story, Joey. And um, like I said, my continued blessings to your ministry and and and thank you, you know, likewise and what you're doing. Um before we leave, can you pray us out?

Jose Vargas Zapata: 1:12:01

I'll do that. Father God, first of all, I want to thank you for this opportunity, and I want to thank you for this brother to give me a chance to speak my testimony, to share my story. Father God, I hope that when my story I'm able to impact every listener that listens to this episode, to listen to this podcast, to listen and understand that God is still real, to understand that you are here to restore, to heal, to transform, to lift those who are going through crisis, those who are struggling, those that are in the darkness and feel as they cannot see the light for the God. Bless this brother and his family, and I thank you for this opportunity to be here on this podcast and being able to make a difference and glorify you and glorify your name with what you have done and what you keep doing in our lives. Thank you in Jesus' name.

Israel Caminero: 1:13:23

Amen. Amen. Thank you for that prayer. And once again, thank you for sharing your story and being trans as transparent as you were. Appreciate the opportunity anytime. And, you know, like I told you earlier, you know, people go through tests, and that's why we have our testimony.

Jose Vargas Zapata: 1:13:42

Amen.

Israel Caminero: 1:13:43

So I'd like to also thank all the listeners that have been supporting me throughout all this and just uh the outpouring of love that you guys have showed me, you know, just by messaging me, emailing me, just telling me how powerful these stories are. And, you know, some even say that it's changed them. And it's not me that's doing it. I'm just in the middle. It's God that's doing all this. You know, God wanted this to be a podcast about testimonies and people sharing it. And and I just want to glorify him. You know, that it's not about me. I'm just a pawn that he used to do this. So I just want to thank everyone and anyone that might be listening that it's your first time here, or if he even if you have and you're scared to share your testimony, just reach out to me and I'll put you on. You know, the email is living.testimonies at outlook.com. Send me an email. I know a lot of you have, and you've been on here, and we can get you on here also, because everyone's story is different. Not one story, but one testimony is the same. And I just want to thank you again, and until next time, God bless you.