One Cry to Jesus Changed Everything, with Mark Nelson

In this powerful episode of Living Testimonies, Mark Nelson shares a deeply personal story of faith, brokenness, and redemption.

After growing up in the church, Mark walked away from his faith at a young age and spent many years searching for identity and fulfillment apart from God. But everything changed following a devastating AIDS diagnosis that ultimately placed him on life support.

After flatlining for 22 minutes and facing the reality of death, Mark cried out to Jesus — and that moment became the turning point of his life.

This testimony is not about the darkness of the past, but about the mercy, grace, and saving power of Jesus Christ. Mark’s story is a reminder that God’s power is made perfect in weakness and that no one is ever too far gone to experience redemption through repentance and surrender.

If you’ve ever felt beyond hope, this episode will encourage your heart.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Link to Connect with Mark Nelson:

Exchange Ministries Website

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Transcript

Israel Caminero 0:05

Before we jump into today's episode, I just want to take a moment to thank all of you who've been listening, sharing, and supporting the Living Testimonies Podcast. Your love, your prayers, and your encouragement truly keep this ministry moving forward. If you haven't already, make sure you like, share, and subscribe so you don't miss any of the powerful stories God is using to touch lives. And if the podcast has blessed you, I want to encourage you this year to share it with just one person who might need hope or encouragement. You never know how God could use that simple step to change a life. My goal for 2026 is simple: to reach hearts in places we haven't reached yet. New communities, new listeners, and people who desperately need to hear that God is still moving. With your help and with every share, we can grow this ministry far beyond what any of us could imagine. Before we begin, I want to speak a quick blessing over you, which is found in Philippians chapter 4, verse 7. May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. I pray this episode brings you hope, strength, and a fresh reminder of God's faithfulness. Now with hearts open and expectations high, let's step into today's story. I'm your host, Israel Caminero, and as always, I hope everyone that's listening is blessed and doing well. Today I have a guest, and the conversation is heavy, honest, and holy. It's one of those testimonies that doesn't glorify sin or darkness, but magnifies the mercy and power of God. My guest today is Mark Nelson, but I'll let him introduce himself. Mark, can you introduce yourself in your own words?

Mark Nelson 2:11

Yeah, brother uh Israel. Yeah, uh, my name is Mark Nelson. I I live here in Florida, Central Florida, and I serve in ministry here, uh, both with an international group called Samaritan's Purse, as well as my localized ministry to those that struggle with an identity crisis or a gender identity confusion or any kind of a sexual issue. So that ministry is called exchange. So yeah, so I've been in uh ministry for about 10 years now, and before that, I uh was not in uh I was serving a more secular uh work. But uh yeah, we'll get into that when I I begin sharing. But uh that that is uh that's sort of where I'm at right now.

Israel Caminero 2:54

Amen. And I've heard his testimony, and I just had to have him on here to share it with my audience, and I can't wait for you guys to hear this one. But before he does that, I'd like to open up in prayer and say, Father God, we thank you for this moment. We thank you for Mark, for his life, and for the testimony that reflects your grace and power. Holy Spirit, we invite you into this conversation. Use these words to reach hearts, break chains, and draw people closer to Jesus. We give you all the glory in Jesus' name, amen. Amen, amen. So, Mark, like I said, you have a pretty powerful testimony, but we're gonna start from the beginning. What was happening in your life at the time when you were younger?

Mark Nelson 3:37

Yeah, so I was raised up in a very traditional household. I had uh both my mom and my dad in the home. I had uh four siblings, all older than me. I'm the youngest of four of five. And so we grew up in a very traditional household. Uh my parents were Catholic, and so most of all my brothers and my one sister were raised primarily in a Catholic home. Uh, but the year I was born in 1975, uh, my parents were caught up in what was called the charismatic movement in the Catholic Church. And this is when the Spirit of God was just moving and dropping, and and and just his presence was so active and fluid, and people were just speaking in tongues and prophecies, and everything was just moving and shaking in the Catholic Church. And my my mom and dad got caught up into that, and and it brought them into uh going from home church to home church. So the church left the church building and started meeting in homes. So uh from the time I was very young, three, four, five, six, seven, eight years old, I was living a life where I was just moving into these different spaces where the Spirit of God was moving so heavily during those days. This was following the Jesus uh movement, which was in the early 70s, uh late 60s, early 70s, and then in set in the mid to late 70s, it just fell into the Catholic Church. And so uh yeah, this was it was a very exciting time. Uh my parents uh became very active in raising us kids up in an environment of of prayer and fasting and intercess intercession and and just activity that only that was glorifying the Lord in every way. And uh so that so that was that was sort of like this this upbringing. And uh so by the time I was uh uh 10 and 11 years old, I was in youth group, and I was just running this in circles and in the word and reading the word and uh listening to different pastors and and teachers and very active in my youth group. There it was a very large youth group growing up here in Central Florida. It was a uh a very uh vibrant youth group. We were going out on the streets and evangelizing on street corners, we were doing mission trips overseas, and uh at the age of 13 in 1988, is when we had come back from a mission trip to the island of Jamaica, where we were the adults were building um a church building while us kids and the youth were really uh ministering to the other youth in the uh Jamaican village of Old Harbor. So we were all just sort of uh working with the kids there and doing all kinds of uh puppets and and just interacting with the kids and giving the message of Christ uh there to the kids. But when we all came back from that trip, all the youth that came back from that trip, when we got back, really uh had developed a serious level of pride in uh what we had done and what we are doing. We are we were we were all looking inwardly at uh you know, this was what I did and this is what what I did, and and just comparing it to each other, and it and there was just a a very a spirit of pride that fell into the youth group, and uh people were saying, Well, I'm better than you, and and I'm better than you, and it was just that way and and sort of like the enemy started sort of circulating in that pride. Yeah, on a Wednesday night, uh Israel uh the youth pastor pulled me in the back of um the back room outside of where the youth met, and uh he said, Uh Mark, I hear that you're gay. And uh I didn't know what he was talking about. I had no idea what he was what what that even meant. I I was raised really in a Catholic, strict Catholic, conservative home. We didn't talk about sex, we didn't talk about you know any of that kind of stuff. When he so when he said I I hear that you're gay, he had heard from other youth youth group people or youth in the youth group that I was that I was gay. And uh so he took this, and so right there in the back room uh the pastor started doing a deliverance on me right there. Wow. And uh if he was right, it was probably maybe a good thing, but he he had no uh no idea what he was talking about. And so at the very end of his deliverance of me, all I remember him saying at the very end was, Mark, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. Now get out of here and don't come back. And uh when he said that, I thought he was speaking to me as a 13-year-old. I had no idea what he is and his intentions were speaking to a spirit inside of me, uh, which wasn't there. So when he said that to me, I I ran out of the eucalypt that night, and I was just I was just devastated. I was uh I was crying. I I I I was so hurt at that moment. And I remember, yeah, I remember saying to myself, Israel, I will never go back to church again. Those are my exact words. And even when I got home, I told my parents, I will never go back to church again. And that's an inner vow, and I've read a lot about inner vows, and inner vows is is a door for the enemy to come in. And so when I said that, the enemy came in into my mind that night and filled me. And I began at that moment to start having very perverse thoughts and a desire to view pornography. It was very intense, Israel. It was overwhelming my mind. I couldn't get it out of my mind, and so I knew that the enemy was was really taking control. And so uh at the age of 13, 14, I I just tried to start medicating what I was thinking because I couldn't get rid of it. So I was I was I was drinking uh alcohol, I was doing some minor drugs, and I was just trying to to mask what was going on in my mind. Because at that point, I was really feeling that I was born in the wrong body. Uh many people today, that's a very real term that they're transitioning their gender. You know, it wasn't really acceptable in 1988, 1989 to do that. But uh at that point, I just thought, well, man, if I'm if I'm having uh sexual desires for the same sex, if I if I am interested in other guys in that way, then I must be, I must have been born, I should be born a girl. Uh, because all I knew growing up was uh male to female, female to male relationships, I never was recognized a male to male or a female to female. So when I started having these really deep feelings, I mean serious sexual feelings for guys, I thought that maybe I should have been a girl. Uh and so I really understand what some people go through today because uh if if if transgenderism was active back in the 80s, I would have uh felt fall into that. And so, yeah, so I I really fought that and started uh using different things to medicate myself. I met a friend, Sean Lankford, and Sean was um very much, even though I didn't know it really seriously at the time, uh, him and I were the same age. After school, we'd go back to his place and we would watch soap operas. And you know, soap operas for a child is is really uh mild pornography.

Israel Caminero 11:18

Right.

Mark Nelson 11:18

I I mean they were very uh it was very uh uh it was getting into that level. So Sean would then start um wanting to act out scenes from soap operas with him being the female role and me being the male role. And uh come to find out Sean started cross-dressing in high school and started walking in that direction of actually transitioning uh one of the first transgenders when we were 17 years old, 18 years old in high school, he was transitioning himself into a female. I was struggling with a gay identity. And so we took two different paths, but we were we were you know moving in the same same area, and so I I started really fighting this gay identity even more and more and more. But when I got out of high school and into college on college campuses, uh when you fall into that identity, you're you're really affirmed in your identity. Uh you're welcomed in your identity when it when you're on the college campus. So when I arrived, you know, I was raised up in Central Florida. I went to college at in Tallahassee, North Florida, at Florida State University. And so when I arrived there, yeah, I was I was welcomed into these very liberal groups, and I was affirmed in my identity to the point where I felt that I was safe enough to start living out what I thought was my truth. And you know, today you hear all about people live your truth, live your truth, be who you want to be, uh, and all that stuff. So I was I was in in some forms uh wanting to live my truth at that moment in college. So I began having multiple relationships with other guys. I would go and meet them online. It was really early on in the internet, and there were very few websites that were geared to same-sex meetups. But I would get on there and start meeting up with guys and meet them in random places. I would go to an apartment that I had no idea who it was. I had no idea and and and engage sexually with someone in this apartment. Uh sometimes I'd go to you know state parks uh at night and engage, sneak into the parks, engage in sexual activity in the park. So it was really risky behavior that it was all controlled by the enemy. And so uh yeah, so I graduated from college from FSU and and uh and started really uh pursuing a professional career. And at that point, Israel, I decided that I wanted to get into more committed same-sex relationships. I wanted to find somebody that it wasn't just a one-nighter or a two-nighter, it was it was a long-term committed relationship. And so uh I searched that out. So and so when I when I started working professionally in 2000, I was really searching for that relationship. And I began working uh for at that point the governor of Florida. And so uh the governor of Florida was very conservative. Uh it was Jeb Bush, and anything that I was doing in this world was really not going to be agreeable to his party or platform. And so I had to during my professional life there in the governor's office, I had to, I had to really live two lives. I lived my professional life in the day, and I lived my uh sort of my sexual uh perversion uh at night. And so I would uh I would definitely be frequent frequenting parties, after parties, and again searching for someone that I could be committed to, and and that and he could be committed to me. So I I did that, and and uh and that that went on from 2000 to or 2004, and in 2004, Israel, I was asked to manage the hurricane recovery fund here in Florida, and in 2004, we had four hurricanes that hit Florida that year. So it it would put me, uh I would be traveling around the state uh to meet uh with the activity going on in those areas, and in every one of those areas, Israel, I would have a relationship set up in every one of those cities. So if I was in Fort Lauderdale, if I was in uh Fort Myers, if I was in Jacksonville, I would already have a relationship set up. Uh so when I got to the city, I would be engaged in a sexual relationship. And so um, and so that went on. But in 2004, amazingly, um I was asked by the governor to put on a prayer service. We had just got hit by the front hurricane, Charlie. Yeah, he says, Mark, I want you to put a put a prayer service together because this hurricane devastated the area of Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, Florida. And so he he said, I want you to organize this. And he says, I I want Franklin Graham to join me on the platform of this prayer service. And so um, I didn't know who Franklin Graham was. I knew Franklin's father, Billy Graham, because Billy Graham was such a big part of my parents' lives. But um, so Franklin came into to Port Charlotte, Florida. Uh, we had Jeb there on the platform, and uh, I was in the back of the sanctuary. It was that first Baptist Port Charlotte, it was on August 26, 2004, and uh on that day, Israel, Franklin Graham spoke a word from the platform, and he shared John 3.16. And you know, I I've I've read John 3.16, I've heard it before, I knew about it, but when he spoke it that day, the Spirit of God used him to just pierce me in such a way that it it opened up revelation of all that I had done and all that that I had been doing, and how uh, you know, it was really uh a really bad thing of all the years of what I had done over and over and over again. So I felt the true conviction of the Holy Spirit at that moment, Israel, and I I I I I started really my the tears started falling from my eyes. I felt this huge desire to return to the Lord. And uh on that day I left that sanctuary and went back to Tallahassee, my home. On a Wednesday night, I'm I'm actually leaving the bar on a Wednesday night. My vehicle, my vehicle on the way from the bar to my home was like taken over by something, and it moved into this parking lot of this church. Just on the main road that where I drive from the bar to my house, there was a church there. I'd never even recognized or knew the church was there. But on this night, the Holy Spirit of God dropped on my vehicle and moved me into that parking lot, and the Spirit of God moved me into the sanctuary to the front row. You know, I never, I never, Israel would ever go to the front row. I if I went into a sanctuary, I would always be in the shadows. I would never want to be up front. But the spirit of God pulled me into the front row, and Pastor Tarot Todd was on the platform, and I remember very clearly he was sharing that the it was the kindness of God that leads you to repentance. It is the kindness of God that leads you to repentance, and I started weeping. I mean, I was unit was uncontrollable weeping. I was being really obnoxious. People were looking at me, and it was just uh everything was just going crazy. And this lady, Ruby Moran, Miss Ruby, she walked up to me and she laid one hand on my forehead and one hand on my heart, and she started speaking life over me. I mean true life, life of scripture that I will live and not die, and declare the works of the Lord. Greater is he that is in with me than he that is in the world, and Mark is more than a conqueror through Christ who strengthens him. But she was just speaking the word over me, speaking the word. And we know how the word is power, and it is sharper than any two-edged sword and can take down anything the enemy has. So when that all happened, this whole new revelation came over me. I walked out of the sanctuary. I I knew I was gonna leave this LGBT and the gay world and all that stuff. But the enemy started talking to me again, and he the enemy said, Mark, you can still have same-sex relationships and follow Jesus. You can have both of those worlds. And I I I sort of questioned it at first, but then I sort of gradually the enemy just started wooing me back, wooing me back. And uh yeah, I became active in an LGBT affirming church in Tallahassee at that point. It was called Gentle Shepherd, uh Metropolitan Community Church. It's it's part of the one of the largest uh churches for the gay community in the world. And uh so I became very active in that church. I found a guy, Daniel uh or Danny, that we were committed in uh relationship with each other. We were going to church together, we were following the Lord, and so I thought I was on a the right path. I thought that I I was being completely deceived by the pastoral leadership of that church because they never mentioned anything about the cross, you know, and the cross is where we take everything. All they mentioned was the fruit of the spirit. If you have fruit of the spirit, you are in God's good grace, and even if you're in a same-sex marriage or relationship, you will be received. You will be received in heaven if you die. So it was it was total deception. I wrestled with that a long time, Israel. What I was gonna do, what what do I need to do? Because I really knew that something was not right, but I still wanted to be in that relationship, both with Danny and with the Lord. So that's where I was at at the time. And uh, you know, that was that was 2005 and 2006 and 2007. I'm involved in that. And it was in uh November of 2007 uh that I started experiencing some sickness and uh wasn't sure what was going on with my body, but I had to go and and uh sort of see uh some specialists, some doctors. Um at first it started with my head. My head was always uh clogged up and my nasal passages, and so I went to an ear nurse and throat doctor and got it cleared out. And then I started having uh different flus and and uh colds and couldn't get rid of them, no matter what I did and what I what kind of medication I took. They stayed with me, you know, for for weeks and weeks at a time. And so February 15th, by this point, uh I was not working for governor. Bush, I was working for his mom, Barbara Bush. And so on February 15, 2008, um, I was at an event down in Southwest Florida for Barbara Bush, and I totally became ill. I mean, it it was my lungs, I couldn't breathe anymore as well. I had no lung capacity. I I I couldn't even walk a few feet without having to stop and sit down because I had no oxygen. I had no um no lung activity. And uh I was sick uh in my stomach. I had all this fatigue and and and nausea. And so uh I got really, really scared at that point. And I said, Well, I need to just go back to Tallahassee because I was in Southwest, Florida. I need to get up to my home. I need to go see a doctor in Tallahassee. So I went right back to Tallahassee and went to the doctors, and they said, Well, you have bronchitis. Uh you've you've long been a smoker for all these years. You've done drugs, you've done alcohol, you your your body's just worn down. You have bronchitis. And so I was thankful when I heard that. I mean, even though it was a tough thing to hear, I was thankful and I I said, Man, that's good news. And they sent me home with antibiotics, and I laid in I laid at my house for two weeks, and I just got progressively worse. February 20th is when I got up and I uh went into the that local ER, and they finally took an X-ray of my lungs, and they said, Mark, Mark, your lungs are both collapsed. Uh, you need to get yourself to the emergency room right now. So I went to the emergency room and uh my admitting doctor, Dr. Wallenberger, uh brought me in the back. He asked me all kinds of questions. He took my blood to get blood work done, but he asked me all these questions about my life and what I did and what I liked and what what kind of life I was living. I know what he was getting at, and he knew what he was getting at. I just wasn't ready to face it. So two days later, uh I'm in a regular room in this hospital, and uh Dr. Wilberg came in and said, There's no way to tell you, but but Mark, you have AIDS. And man, it was the it was the most difficult message that I was not prepared for. Even though deep down I sort of sensed maybe that's what it was, but I wasn't still ready to hear it.

Israel Caminero 24:20

Right.

Mark Nelson 24:20

And so uh when he said that, uh he said, uh he said, Mark, you don't you don't have HIV, you have AIDS. He says your your viral load is over four million copies. And he said your C D4 count is only four. And he said, We're gonna we're gonna keep you here and uh move you into ICU, induce you to a coma, and put you on life support, because we don't think you're gonna live. He he said, All your organs are in failure mode right now, and uh your immune system is so shot. So because my immune system was was at that level, they allowed no no people in my room. So I couldn't have anybody come visit me. But let me tell you, Israel, every night the enemy would visit me. And he would speak to me, and he would say that I was his and I was gonna be with him forever. And his presence was so dark, and it was so powerful in that moment, and just covered my entire body. And he would come in and he'd come out and he'd come in and he'd come out, and I wasn't able to get any rest. And in the medical reports, it was always Mark, Mark wasn't able to sleep last night, he was being uh met by something, and so there was all kinds of reports medically that that was really reflective of what the enemy was doing. And so uh so pretty soon uh they finally pulled me out a little bit and they said, Well, you need to call your dad and mom. I uh at that point I didn't tell my parents where I was at. You know, I'd been in the hospital two weeks, um, did not um relay that information to them. I didn't want to, I didn't want them to worry um or get fearful about what was happening. But uh the Dr. Wilbert says, well, you need to call them because we need someone here to make life and death decisions. And so uh on that night I picked up the phone and I could not I could not say only one word at a time because I'd have to take another breath of oxygen in order to say another word. Um my lungs were that bad. So when I heard my my the voice of my mother come over the phone, um, all I said was, Mom, and when I went to take more oxygen, my mom responded and she said, Well, Mark, we already know where you're at. The Holy Spirit has told us that you've been in a bad place, and we've been on our hands and knees fasting and praying for you for two weeks. So they had already been engaged with the Holy Spirit for the exact amount of time they had been in the hospital. And uh, so they were already one with this, one with the Spirit of God. And so my mom says, Do you want us to come to Tallahassee? Because they're in Central Florida. I'm in Tallahassee, it's a four-hour drive. I said, I said no. That was my one word when she asked me that. I said no. And so she said, Okay, and she hung up the phone. Well, later that night, my brother Paul, who is uh a longtime EMT firefighter, he knew uh historically my lifestyle. He ended up calling the hospital and getting a hold of a friend of mine who was sort of my contact at that moment, and uh my brother Paul confronted her and said, What's going on? And so she revealed the whole situation and uh that the family needed to come up because uh they're telling us that he won't be living much longer and you need to say your goodbyes. So at around uh, you know, that was around 8 p.m. And so my brother Paul gathered the entire family, which included my parents, all my brothers, their wives, and all their children. And so they all caravanned up to Tallahassee because they were told that this will be their last opportunity to say goodbye to me. So they all get uh wrangled into the ICU waiting room around 1 a.m. in the morning. And Dr. Wallerberger was waiting for them for them to arrive. They all gathered there. Wallerberger came in and he said, Yes, there's no easy way to tell you this, but there's no hope here. Mark is gonna die, and we need you to go in two by two to say your goodbyes. And my brother Paul stood up and he said, Well, we don't believe that because our hope is in Jesus.

Israel Caminero 28:48

Amen.

Mark Nelson 28:50

It was a powerful stand, Rizrael, that he took at that moment because the enemy was in full control of my life and my my direction. And so when he said that, there was a shifting in the atmosphere. You know, my parents were the first ones to walk into my ICU, and they said, All we want to do is go in and lay hands on you and pray. Um, this is what they told me afterwards. So that's what they did. They came in to come right to my bedside to lay hands on me. As soon as they were moving towards my bed, they said that the enemy just physically pushed them away from the bed. And they heard the enemy say, get away from him, he's mine. Get away from him, he's mine. And at that moment, the Holy Spirit of God dropped on them and said, You're ending a war zone. This is a battle between life and death, heaven and hell, and that to get yourselves into the word. Uh, again, the word is power, it's it's a sword, it is it is everything that is needed at that moment. And so that's all they did. They went right into the word Israel, they started speaking it, they started writing it down and meditating on it, and they started just uh reading it over and over and over again in full meditation. And so they were they were just in the word, and and you know, they they wanted to separate themselves from anything negative that was coming out from the doctors. So whenever a doctor would come in to give an update, they would leave because they didn't want to hear anything of what the enemy wanted, they wanted to fully be focused on what the Spirit of God wanted to do in that moment. And so I was in this coma for 22 days. In this 22 days, because of the prayers and intercession going on by my parents and all their family and friends, other family and friends, I was feeling a movement between life and death, heaven and hell. I experienced the depths of hell, and I saw glimpses of heaven. And I believe it was it was sort of like that fight going on in the spiritual, the spiritual realm for me. You know, the the enemy wants to destroy everyone. And so there's gonna be this constant desire for him to to really attack and take over and do all that he has to do. So that's what I felt in that moment. I constantly was moving between the two places during this 22 days. And um the crazy thing is that the medical reports documented this because they they said my that I always felt like I was being attacked by something. So they they would write in the reports that you know my my legs, my arms, my body would just be constantly like it was being attacked. So it was a it was a full confirmation that the enemy was was there and in control and attacking me um during those those really bad times, those low times and those dark times in my my time there in the ICU. But it was on March 22nd, 2008. Yeah, so I'd been in this sort of this ICU coma for 20 days, I mean 22 days. Uh that night the doctor came in and told my family that if my hands, because I was convulsing so much, if my hands were untied from the bed, that I would surely die. You know, if I was able to pull the life support out of my throat, that it would be over with. So the doctor said to keep my hands tied at all times to the bed, all time to the bed. At that moment, the Spirit of God fell on my parents, and and the Spirit of God said that that's the way Satan will take me. That's the way Satan will take me. And so my dad never left my side, he watched my hands. From that night on March 22nd, uh, this nurse came in my ICU. My dad had never seen her before, he never saw her again, but she untied my hands, and my dad pleaded with her not to untie my hands. He kept on saying the doctor said to keep the hands tied, uh, don't untie his hands. But the nurse responded, he'll be alright, he'll be alright. And she walked out. And so at that moment, my dad ran out to try and find someone to to uh retie my hands back up, but by that time I had filled up my arms, I pulled the life support out of my throat. And yeah, and I I had this very brief moment, like seconds, where I saw two nurses running into my ICU and my Gurney dropping to the floor. And then I transitioned into a very dark space, Israel. It was so dark. It was the darkest space I'd ever been in, ever. Uh darker than a uh a room with no lights. It was it was dark, dark, dark. And uh I saw a light in the distance. And at the moment that light showed, I started seeing my past life just in just moving quickly on each side of my head, where I could see just glimpses of my past, good things as well as very simple things. And I and I saw heavily areas of alcoholism, drug abuse, same-sex relationships, pornography, you know, all those different things that I had moved through, but I had seen those very, very vividly as they were passing by my head. And then it went total dark again. And at that moment, I at darkness I started hearing screams, millions and millions of different voices screaming out, help me, help me, help me, help me. I mean, in desperation, voices in desperation. Like uh it was it was just so crazy. And then uh I started experiencing torment on my physical body. I started having uh like tears on my skin, pulling of my hair, just ripping, ripping and shredding my body. I didn't know what to do at that moment. I was raised in the church, but was so far away from God. But because of my upbringing, all I could get to do was to cry out to Jesus. I mean, I always remember, you know, all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I mean, that was sort of my lifeline. So when when uh I cried out to Jesus at that moment, I believe it was at the the the very moment of absolute death. I mean, I was that close to death. But I cried out to Jesus, I said his name, and I heard him say, I am here. And that was the first time I had ever heard a voice like that with such uh strength and uh just uh even kill a word that said, I am here. And so when when I heard that, I remember it was like my soul went right back into my body, and I saw with my own eyes the wind of the Holy Spirit. I've never seen wind before and haven't seen it since, but I actually saw this wind blow into my ICU and fill the room, and then it picked up Satan and all the demons and destroyed them, blowing them out of the room. I mean, it was a powerful wind, it was so powerful, and at that moment, my physical body healed every organ of my body that was on life support, every organ restored to 100%.

Israel Caminero 36:10

Praise God.

Mark Nelson 36:11

Yeah, and what was my viral load was in the millions of copies. At that moment, my viral load went to undetectable, and it's it's been undetectable ever since. And yeah, amen. And then, of course, my mind was clear of perversion. He he wiped my mind clear of everything that was not of him, and that included all same-sex desires. Moved to rehab, so I I lost all you know a function of my strength. Uh, so I had to learn to sort of walk again and eat again and all that. But it was in rehab that I surrendered myself to the Lord Jesus, uh, verbally, uh you know, my my own confession, my own surrender, because up until that point I didn't really completely surrender my life over to him. So that was sort of like turning point of when I began hearing the Spirit of God speak to me. And so when I was in rehab, the Holy Spirit spoke and said I would marry uh Beth. And Beth was this woman that uh took me to the hospital on February 28th. She was sort of my voice, my go-between between everyone on the outside and my care. So she was the one my brother Paul called when my brother Paul called to find out what was going on with me.

Israel Caminero 37:27

Yeah.

Mark Nelson 37:27

So the Holy Spirit said, You will marry this woman. And so, yeah, in rehab, I asked Beth to marry me. And uh in 2008, um, in November, we married and we began serving the Lord uh together at that moment, and uh really uh leaning in on him and just listening to his voice and obeying him. You know, there's no better place to be inside the will of God. You know, being inside the will of God is the best place you could ever want to be. And so it was all about staying inside his will, and so we we just wanted to function together as a husband and wife and and serve together. So we we left the secular world, both of us, and we moved into serving in ministry. And uh ever since then we've been serving in ministry and uh even up until today, and uh we've seen the the Lord work in so many different ways uh that in 2018, which was 10 years after uh this all happened in the hospital, the the Spirit of God sort of kept me quiet for 10 years. 2018 is when I first began sharing my story and what God did for me. And so I waited 10 years. I believe he was keeping me 10 years so he would fortify me and uh put me in a place where I would I would be able to thoroughly defend the word of God when it comes to LGBT, the work of the enemy and the LGBT movement. Yeah, so in 2018, Israel, I'm sitting in devotions at Samaritan's Pirates. I'm at Samaritan's Purse working at this point. And this one of our team members from East Africa, regional director Dale Williams, gets up there to the podium during devotions and he starts sharing about Lazarus. And he said that Jesus tarried four days, not because he didn't want to save Lazarus, but he wanted to show his glory even unto death. Dale went on to say, he said, some of you have stones in front of your stories. And he says, You need to roll away the stone and walk out and tell everyone what Jesus did for you.

Israel Caminero 39:38

That's right.

Mark Nelson 39:40

And it was such a powerful word that the Spirit of God spoke to me immediately after that, and he said, I didn't bring you through this for you to be silent about it. Um and so I knew at that point he was giving me free go-ahead to start sharing. So in 2018, uh, my wife and I became very active in LGBT response organizations and ministries, and and now leading what's called Exchange Ministries, which is based on exchanging the old life for the new life. And so we call it Exchange Ministries, where we are a support group for those that that are leaving LGBT behind to follow Jesus. As well as those parents, those moms and dads and family who have children in those LGBT identities, that we can support them and encourage them as they walk out what God has because we don't want to compromise in this area. You can't be one foot in and one foot out. You have to be all in or you have to be all out. And so we really encourage them to be all in with God because He will He will guide us and lead us.

Israel Caminero 40:46

That's right.

Mark Nelson 40:47

Yeah. So that's where we're at today. So Exchange Ministries is uh and we're seeing testimony after testimony, Israel. We we had a young lady up north from us that that called our ministry, and we're working with her, and and she said uh she was in the sanctuary, in the church sanctuary uh with her wife. They had been in this marriage for a few years, and uh the pastor was sharing on God's design for gender and sexuality, and she shared that when uh the pastor shared this message that the Holy Spirit of God fell on her, and she said something started stomping on my toes, and she heard the Holy Spirit say, run from your relationship. And on that day, she went to the pastor and she surrendered her life, she gave her life to the Lord, and the they divorced their marriage. And so uh, you know, we're seeing a lot of people being freed, and it does take an active engagement by the Holy Spirit. It's nothing that I can say or someone else can say it, it has to be the work of the Holy Spirit. And so in ministry, we always base our ministry on the three C's. Uh the first C being we want to always be consistent in our messaging. We don't want to be on one thing or another thing. We want to be consistent with what the Word of God says. Uh, the second C is we want to be compassionate. We want to realize that this is a very messy issue. It really calls for uh care and compassion. We need to be engaging, we need to be in conversation, we need to love well, we need to ask questions, all those different things. And so the third C is complete, and we mean complete by uh what completes us is the Holy Spirit. Uh He is the complete, He is the complete word of everything. So so that's the that's really the heart of the ministry, and uh we're seeing uh lives being transformed all the time. It's very exciting to see someone leave LGBT behind to follow Jesus.

Israel Caminero 42:43

Amen. Amen. Mark, I just want to say thank you for your obedience and your humility, man. Praise God for all that he's brought you through and what he's doing in your life now.

Mark Nelson 42:54

Thank you, brother.

Israel Caminero 42:55

I want to ask you a few questions. So scripture tells us that his power is made perfect in weakness. How have you seen that truth lived out in your life since you surrendered to Christ?

Mark Nelson 43:07

I would have to say that even though I was freed from all these diseases and uh just the organs that were failing, there was a few years that I still struggled with the idea that I wanted to find out who infected me with this HIV. And that was a weak part of my uh that that was a real distraction. Again, the enemy was involved in that early part. Even though I had surrendered and been set free, the enemy was always trying to come in and bring these things, these ideas, and wanting me to do this and that. So I was very weak in those first years. So I I had to depend fully on his power, his strength. You know, his power was made perfect during those weak times, initially coming out of rehab and moving into the first couple of years of of being restored and being surrendered. And there's other areas too, you know. When my wife and I were first married in 2008, because I had a huge medical debt, I had come out of the hospital. Uh it was a $2.5 million medical debt, and I had to pay 10% of that. So I I was responsible for $250,000. So when I was uh released from the hospital, the bank came in and took my home. And so uh when we were first married, we had we had no home, we had no vehicle, uh, we had really nothing. And the spirit of God, uh, we were very weak at that moment. I mean, it really, it really impacted our marriage a little bit that we were having this huge struggle. But the spirit of God moved us into a church, Israel, that we had no idea what it was or what it was about, but the spirit of God told us to go there. And on the first Sunday we were there, Israel, uh, this couple, George and Sandra Joseph, approached us and they said, You look like you're new here. Can we take you to lunch? Well, they took us to lunch that day, and every Sunday, George and Sandra would hand us cash. And it could be $300, $500, $1,000, but whatever amount it was, it was just what we needed. Wow. And this went on for a few years. And so about five years later, we went to them, we asked them if they realized what they did for us that that moment. They really brought us out of a very difficult financial position. And I remember them very clearly saying that they said, Mark and Beth, we had no idea what your situation was, but the Holy Spirit told us you needed it. And so we were weak, but it was made perfect by him in his power. So very exciting. So we've seen glimpses of that all through our marriage, all through our ministry. He continues to be powerful in what we do, and and uh he is just allowing so many opportunities uh that glorify him in every way. And all we want to do is glorify him.

Israel Caminero 45:58

Amen.

Mark Nelson 45:59

We want to always glorify. I tell people as long as we continue uh glorifying the Lord and pointing people to Jesus, we are in the right place.

Israel Caminero 46:09

That's right. And just what by what you said, we serve a good God, he restores everything the enemy tries to take and destroy.

Mark Nelson 46:17

Exactly. You're exactly right.

Israel Caminero 46:21

So, Mark, do you have a life verse or a passage of scripture that anchors your faith and reminds you what God has done in your life and what that verse is and what it means to you?

Mark Nelson 46:34

Yeah, I have a I have a few uh verses that are everybody does.

Israel Caminero 46:39

I I know.

Mark Nelson 46:40

Right? I mean, isn't that uh that is like a uh a big uh a big question because I I can go back to all those different scriptures that I had uh you know been sort of working through while I was in the hospital, uh whether it be Mark will live and not die and declares the works of the Lord. But uh I would say uh uh my real my real life verse is uh Romans 828. That is like the most powerful uh verse that I have come across. And of course, it says that as you know, Paul is uh speaking to the church in Rome and says God works all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose, offering hope and reassurance that even difficult circumstances ultimately serve a divine plan for spiritual growth and becoming like Christ. And so that that sort of is a uh resemblance of sort of my walk. Uh yeah, because he said he worked everything all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose, offering hope and reassurance that even in difficult circumstances ultimately serve a divine plan for spiritual growth and becoming like Christ. So we trust God. We trust God through everything that we uh you know that we are going through.

Israel Caminero 47:58

That's right. So bring us out. That's right. His timing. I always say that's timing, not ours. Exactly.

Mark Nelson 48:05

Yeah, no, not our timing, his timing. That's right.

Israel Caminero 48:08

So, Mark, now we're going to my back to the past segment of the podcast. And what my back to the past segment is, if you could speak to the Mark who was 13 years old, walking away from the church, or the Mark who felt too far gone, too broken, or too lost, what would you say to him now?

Mark Nelson 48:28

Well, I would encourage the 13-year-old Mark that uh no matter what, God loves you and loves you so much that he laid down his life for you, and that he wants you not to leave, but to stay in in his in him. And I and I would also just uh reiterate the fact that we we must always trust the Lord with all our heart, at least not in our own understanding, but in all our ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct our paths. So I I really really would tell my 13-year-old Mark that uh no matter what, know that God loves you and you can trust him.

Israel Caminero 49:15

Amen. Thank you for that. Mark's story is a powerful reminder that even when we run, God pursues, and when we cry out to Jesus, even from the deepest darkness, he hears us.

Mark Nelson 49:30

Yes.

Israel Caminero 49:31

So, Mark, before we close, would you be willing to close us in prayer, especially for anyone listening who feels like they're beyond saving or stuck in the darkness?

Mark Nelson 49:42

Yes, yes, I will do that.

Israel Caminero 49:44

Amen.

Mark Nelson 49:45

Well, Lord, we just thank you for this time. We thank you for Israel and his ministry, Lord. His ministry that is fully just lifting you up, Lord, and giving you honor and praise for all the transforming work you're doing, the lives of people, Lord. It is your it's your doing, not any of our doing, it's your doing. And we give you honor for that, Lord. We we call on you right now for anyone listening to this podcast, Lord, that is struggling in any area uh that we discussed today, or even if we didn't discuss it today, if they are struggling in any area, that you will reach them where they're at, Lord, and give them what they need and draw them back to you, Lord. We we know that no one is too far gone to escape your love and your power and your ability to bring them uh home, uh, just as you uh brought the prodigal home, Lord. We call on you right now to do that uh in your your your timing and in your ways. We depend on you, we trust you. Continue to bless Israel and his ministry, allow for more opportunity, and uh God be glorified. And it's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Israel Caminero 50:58

Thank you again, Mark, for being here and taking the time out of your busy schedule to share your testimony with my audience. I will have links to his ministry and anything else that he wants me to share on the description of the podcast episode. So if any of the audience wants to go and check out what he's doing and give him some support, I greatly encourage that.

Mark Nelson 51:21

Amen.

Israel Caminero 51:22

And what we heard today isn't a story about how far someone can fall, it's about how far the grace of God can reach. Mark's life is living proof that Jesus doesn't just rescue us from death, he gives us new life for his glory. To my audience, if you heard anything today, hear this. Jesus saves, Jesus restores, Jesus redeems. It doesn't matter how long you've run, what labels you've carried, or how dark it feels, one cry to Jesus can change everything. If today's episode touched your heart, I encourage you to share it with someone who needs hope. And if you're that someone, reach out, surrender, and trust that God's grace is greater than your past. As always, thank you for listening to Living Testimonies and remember, it's your story, but it's his glory.