Rick and Aviana Valadez on Coming Forth As Gold in Marriage, Blended Families and in Ministry

Rick and Aviana Valadez just celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary on May 23, 2020!

testimonies

Rick shares he was living in a reckless lifestyle, going out, drinking, sex outside of marriage, pornography was introduced. He was doing this year after year and he started to get bored with it, same things over and over again.

He was searching for meaning for life. To appease a girl he was dating at the time, when she invited him to church he accepted. What resonated with him as a chance to start over.  He heard a message about God, Jesus, forgiveness, love, sins and you could start over. 

“What do I have to do to start over?”

The preacher shared all you have to do is confess your sins and ask God into your heart and he did just that.  Yet he said there weren’t any real changes and he kept on with what he was doing before.  Rick married a woman he was dating and started doing the family thing, the church thing but he really doesn’t think he was saved at that point.  

He met up with some old high school friends, and he said the unthinkable happened.  He started to gamble again and partying, drinking, just something him and his wife did and he got caught up in it again.  At age 30 had a wake-up call, found out his wife at the time was having an affair. 

At that moment he had a choice, to do things the way he’d always done or to start doing things the way the Bible says to do them.  He knew if there was anyone who could save his marriage it was God. 

He began asking more questions of God and the Lord always provided a person that was either there to pray for him, guide, him, give him some exhortation. About three years into this affair, he was served with divorce papers, had his two boys taken away, he was devastated. 

He was down to nothing.  Started going to bible studies and digging deeper in God’s Word and one verse really comforted him,

“But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.” Job 23:10

And the rebuilding process began. 

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Avi was raised in a Catholic home and went to church on Sundays with mom and sister, her dad didn’t go which always raised a question in her mind.

She thought she was a “good enough” person. Ironically in 2002, her dad started reading the Bible, going to church and he shared the gospel with her.  No one is good enough on their own, only Christ accomplished what we never could. He is the reconciler to God on our behalf. He paid the debt for our sin which is the barrier from our right relationship with God. Our own “good” merit cannot get us into heaven. So, she prayed the sinner’s prayer, yet her life was remained unchanged, at that point, it was just head knowledge.  During college, she got into a relationship with an agnostic and began to really compromise.  Moved in with this person, having sex outside of marriage, recalled thinking she was a Christian, yet I was living a “Sunday lifestyle and a Monday-Saturday lifestyle. In short, I was living for myself and I got everything I wanted”

Went through a breakup and this is where she truly began to read God’s Word every day, attending church consistently on Wednesdays and Sundays.

“My life went from knowing facts to believing and life changes”

Aviana shares, “My actions were changing, my thoughts were changing.” The Lord sustained her to get through a season where her ex-bf came back into her life to try to get together again but she affirmed that she only wanted to get into a relationship with a man who knew God.  She was delivered from living solely for herself, from compromise, and the guilt from having broken so many of God’s commandments.  “I truly am and feel forgiven.”

marriage story, dating with purpose

Rick and Aviana met in the children’s ministry at their former church. Rick noticed her during a Wednesday night worship service.  3rd grade needed assistance and Rick was sent to help in Avi’s classroom. They exchanged names and occupations. He said, “We should get coffee sometime but she walked away from me”. Insert chuckles. After a couple of weeks of praying and thinking, he found the courage to ask her again. 

Aviana shares, “The interesting part is that it was not good timing and the delivery was…well let me explain…” 

Aviana escorted one of Rick’s sons to his classroom after service and she assumed he was married. She was also still scarred and wounded from her previous relationship and had a hard time trusting men, even those in the church.  Rick asked for the second date and she shares that other than the prompting of the Holy Spirit she doesn’t know why she said yes. She was flustered and overwhelmed. 

Shortly after they went on their first date. May 26th. 

They cleared up the whole “if he was married thing” (he wasn’t), shared testimonies and made it clear they wanted to be dating with the intention of marriage. Dating with purpose. 

blended families

One vulnerable area Rick opens up about is going through a divorce.  The ramifications from that, getting to see his sons only 30% of the time has been hard on him and his new marriage. They had to then learn how to navigate being a blended family. Going to court and learning consistency with 70/30 custody has been a huge test in their marriage. And although a test, Aviana shares she wouldn’t have it any other way. “God has been so gracious to us, and I am so grateful for the life he has lavished upon me.”

street evangelism, the one another’s and the call to missions

In Feb 2018, Rick, Aviana and boys share how they were led to join the SWAT, Students with a Testimony, team at church which is a youth evangelism outreach ministry. This ministry would go to local malls and pray toward sharing the full gospel with people, engaging strangers. They would start by asking or engaging people with questions like, “If you were to die tonight, where do you think you would go?” and that opens up the opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

This past summertime they felt the urgency to open up their home for home bible group. God started to stir in them to use home as a ministry and specifically using the table over meals to foster conversation, it helps let our guards down. This was a call to not just read the Bible but actually live it by doing the “One Another’s” — loving one another, exhorting one another, encouraging one another.

“We wanted to push more and to trust God more, because we wanted more of Him because we couldn’t get enough.”

Then Italy. The process of beginning to pray if God was opening the missionary door began. What they thought would be a possible short term mission trip, looked as if it would become long term one because that’s what the need is…then the call to Spain. 

The Miraculous 

They share all God did to get them to Spain and Italy at the start of this year and how His timing was perfect. He allowed them to take this vision trip before all international travel was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. The most beautiful takeaway from the trip was how important hospitality is. Wome, men, and children taking different roles was a beautiful sight and something to learn from. The emphasis on the home was especially helpful with quarantine and closures, they share utilizing their home has been such a privilege and opportunity. This past Easter, two neighbors who hadn’t been to church in two years joined them in their home for live stream service. Aviana shared, “ I can’t wait to go back to develop that even further, to allow the home to be a sanctuary and that safe place that people know they’ll be fed, not just a meal but the Word of God and be prayed with and prayed over.” God has taken them from Youth Evangelism ministry to full-time missions in Western Europe.

They end their episode with sharing their convictions on marriage and the gospel — 

After Aviana’s breakup, she was given the verse James 1:17: “ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

Rick shares he takes heart in knowing that even though engaging perfect strangers does not come naturally for him, he goes walking by the power of the Spirit, with confidence in Christ. He says, “You’re not sharing the gospel on your own, Jesus’ says “lo I am with you even to the end of the age’” as you teach them to oberseve what He has commanded (Matthew 28:20).