We received this testimony from a participant in the 2017 School of the Prophets at Bethel:
I was abandoned by my dad when I was born. He was Mexican and Indian. As I grew up, I began to hate all things Mexican—from the language to the music, and soon even the people. As prophetic as I was, I didn't realize where this anger was coming from. I was even ashamed when I wrote my last name on applications because I didn't feel like a [person with that last name]. And I resented when I had to push 1 for English because Spanish was a second option. I used to say, "This is America, and we speak English here!"
Well, fast forward to my community group [at the School of the Prophets]. We did an exercise where we broke up into groups and went to the "mountain" [of society] that we feel most called to. Mine was family. But when I got to my group, everyone in it was of Latin descent and spoke Spanish, Portuguese, etc. Not one other person spoke English! And as I listened to them speak and looked at their faces, something began to change in me. I heard music where I once heard noise. I saw beauty and I was overwhelmed. As the group went on, they translated from Spanish to English for me. My eyes filled with tears, and suddenly I knew what I was going to do. After class, I gathered them all together and told them my story. Then as I sobbed, I asked them to forgive me for hating them and myself. I asked them if they would accept me back into their family. Each one of them shouted yes with tears running down their faces! And then they began to kiss me and hug me and say, "You are family! You are family!" Then the pastor and his wife from a church in Mexico came up to me. He said he was standing in proxy for my dad, and he asked me to forgive him for leaving me.
At that moment, my heart was once again restored to its original design. And I was undone by the love of these beautiful people I was now calling my family. The first thing I want to do now is learn Spanish!
God is good all the time.
Thank you for having this conference! It changed my life! I was also delivered from a spirit of foreboding and drove home alone for the first time in over four years without fear or anxiety. Home for me is nearly five hours away from Redding!