When Jona Rangel’s mother told the family she had just been mugged by two young men carrying AK-47s, Rangel was furious. He threatened to grab his friends from his gang and seek revenge.
But his mother stopped him.
“My mom said, ‘You don’t understand what just happened. These guys are the real deal; don’t do anything dumb. You need to take this as the Lord calling us and saying that we need to change our ways,'” Rangel says on the “Charisma News” podcast. “It was an alarm for me and my family.”
Rangel took his mom’s words to heart and assessed his life. He hadn’t been walking closely with the Lord and neither had the rest of his family. He knew he needed to make some changes.
That frightening wake-up call launched Rangel into a journey with the Lord, and he hasn’t looked back since. Rangel was shocked when Houston Baptist University accepted him, and he was even more shocked when it presented him with an opportunity to go to Israel for only $500 through Passages.
Oddly enough, though, Rangel says he couldn’t feel God’s presence while in Israel. But the Lord used that experience to teach him crucial lessons about what it truly means to have a deep relationship with God.
Listen to the podcast to hear more of Rangel’s story! For more information about Passages, visit passagesisrael.org.
