God’s Timing
Mark Anthony Valadez
Even though I was born in Robstown, Texas, I was raised in the Chicago area from the age of one.
I grew up in a Catholic home with my father, Ramiro, mother, Nelia, and two younger siblings. Someone shared the Seventh-day Adventist message with my parents when I was 10 years old, and we were baptized.
Unfortunately, as often happens, by the age of 17, I had strayed from Christ and pursued my dream to become a bilingual rapper with my hip hop friends. One day I woke up and realized that I was actually living a nightmare. At a house party one Friday night, a fight broke out, a gun was drawn and the next thing I knew, I was in county jail surrounded by criminals. I sensed God saying, “Son, it’s time to come back home. The path you are choosing will eventually lead to death.”
Thankfully, I had kept a connection with a special friend I had met several years before while attending an Adventist summer camp. That special friend, Margie, helped me choose a better path back then, and today is both a wonderful friend and my very supportive wife.
We attended our first GYC (Generation of Youth for Christ) in 2002 where our relationship with Jesus grew.
In 2008, Margie, Arnoldo Cervantes, Sixto Ramos Jr. and I co-founded an affiliate GYC en Español. I served as its president from 2008 to 2012 and currently serve as an advisor.
In 2010, I accepted the Lord’s call to pastoral ministry and graduated from Southwestern Adventist University two years later with a bachelor’s degree in religion. Next year, I will graduate with my master’s in pastoral ministry from Andrews University based in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
As I look back at my life, I know the fact that I now use the microphone to lift up Jesus is a miracle. I enjoy equipping people to share the everlasting gospel so that together we can prepare others for Christ’s soon return.
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Mark Anthony Valadez currently pastors the Groves Community, Orange and Groves Spanish district in southeast Texas. He and his wife, Margie, have two children, Melanie Ann (9) and Mark Anthony II (5). For more information about GYC, visit gycweb.org.
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This first appeared in THE FLAME Special Miracles Issue 2019, a Texas Conference quarterly magazine. Find the entire issue at issuu.com/texasadventist.