Love Capture’s Former Gangster’s Heart

IDYLLIC START

“It was for a time completely perfect,” Mondo says of his early childhood. His extended family lived together in a large home in Central America. “I always had cousins to play with, an aunt or uncle to give me a hug or tell me a joke. Every evening, we all were together for dinner.” His father, a coffee plantation owner, would take him everywhere, play soccer with him and come to all his games. “He was my hero, he was everything to me.”

That changed abruptly one night, when six-year-old Mondo saw a side to his father he didn’t know existed. He woke to hear his dad yelling terrible things at his mom, Silvia, while kicking and beating her. His little eyes widened at what happened next. “He picked up a nearby broom and began hitting her over and over and over. My father – my hero, the man I had idolized, whose voice had always been a peaceful source of comfort to me – had exploded.” What his dad said to his mom next broke his young heart. “I don’t want them anymore,” referring to Mondo and his slightly older sister, Laura. “Those words haunted and tortured me for years, to the point I said to myself, 'When I grow up, if I ever see him again, I’m going to kill him.'"

Silvia knew her husband would eventually kill her, so she took the two children and escaped. With the help of relatives and kind strangers, they moved 12 times over the next year, all the while trying to immigrate to the United States. Born in L.A., Silvia was already a citizen; the kids, however, needed papers. After a year of constant upheaval, the approval was finally granted, and a close friend paid for their flights to California.         
     
GANG RULE

The parking lot of their first apartment building is where eight-year-old Mondo first witnessed gang violence, as five gang members “corrected” another one by beating him to a pulp. “While I felt the fear, I also felt a rush of adrenaline and a sense of power.” Deeply wounded by his father’s rejection and the insecurity of recent years, he vowed that one day, he’d have that kind of power and no longer let others hurt him. Those gang members lived in his building and protected the other residents - for a fee from the managers. As often as he could, little Mondo hung around them in the parking lot. He thought they were cool and nice, not realizing they were grooming him to be one of them someday.  

A few years later, when Mondo was just 11, he was initiated into the gang through a beating that left him broken and bleeding, but respected. This gang was one of the largest and most violent in L.A., and it made young Mondo swell with pride to be affirmed by older males. “It promised to fill the holes in my soul while simultaneously pouring gasoline on the coals of anger and hate that were burning deep inside me.”

Through his teens, Mondo increasingly took on the identity and adopted the culture of the gang. He had guns pointed at his face, was stabbed multiple times, witnessed things he wouldn’t have dreamed of as a boy, and nearly lost his life. Though he enjoyed the respect and brotherhood of the other members, he knew deep down that they were all covering up hurt. “Behind the door we kept tightly closed, there was a broken little boy dealing with emotions, dealing with abandonment issues, dealing with pain, and wondering, 'Who am I?' We all knew we were damaged.” By the time he’d been in the gang for seven years, he started to question it all. “What used to be fun wasn’t fun anymore. Life became stagnant. Nothing seemed fulfilling. There was a struggle going on inside me.”

NEW LIFE 

While Mondo had been pursuing gang life for years, Silvia and Laura were pursuing God. Laura didn’t preach to or condemn her brother, but told him often she was praying for him. One day, with tears in her eyes, she challenged him with three questions: What if God is real? What if prayer works? What if you have a different destiny? “They (the questions) pierced my soul, disrupted my thinking, and got into my DNA,” he says. Soon afterward, Laura asked Mondo to come to a church event to hear a man give his testimony. He reluctantly promised he would, knowing that being seen in a church would not sit well with the gang. 

The night arrived and Mondo went to the event. He felt completely out of place, but wanted to keep his promise to Laura. The speaker turned out to be a former gang rival, who told the crowd of 500 people that he’d come to share his story, but there was a young man who needed to hear the greatest story ever told. He then shared how Jesus suffered and gave his life for all who would come to Him. “But what got me the most was when he talked about the love Jesus had for me,” Mondo remembers. “That was something I wished I could have shared with my father, but my definition of love had been so corrupted by the way he had treated my mother, my sister, and me. Then, of course, it was further corrupted by what the street had taught me love was.”  

The speaker walked through the crowd until he was standing right in front of Mondo, revealing he was talking about him. Mondo told him he didn’t think God could forgive him for all he had done, though inside, he ached for forgiveness and love. Exhausted from his life, Mondo made a choice. “I went to the altar and I gave my life to the Man who loved me so much that He died for me.”  

TRANSFORMATION

At his mother’s encouragement, Mondo looked into the Dream Center in L.A., and wound up staying there two years. He served by driving their guests to and from the airport. With the kindness and help of pastors Tommy and Matthew Barnett, and mentoring from many others he met there, Mondo grew in his faith and understanding of his true identity in God. His chief mentor was his current dear friend and colleague, Jim Bakker. “Undoing the mindset of the street takes time. God was still working in me, and He used Mr. Jim and other mentors to help me grow.” Eventually, Bakker asked Mondo to work with him as he rebuilt his TV ministry. He studied TV production, lighting, directing, interviewing, and in time, earned degrees in theology and art.  

Nearly three decades later, Mondo looks back at his new life and still can’t believe all the Lord has done. He’s happily married to Liz, the daughter of Mimi Lennon of the popular Lennon Sisters group of the 50’s and 60’s, and couldn’t be prouder of their twins, Mila and Mateo. He wants readers of his book (My Crazy Life) to understand what he’s learned: that forgiveness is critical to growth, and that we should never give up on broken people.

As to the first, Mondo was finally able to forgive his father, who had also asked his mother’s forgiveness and made peace with her. He and his dad continued to talk for years, and though the relationship didn’t develop to the point Mondo hoped before his father died, he was grateful that his heart was free of unforgiveness. Mondo sees how his mother and sister, the Barnetts, Jim Bakker, and many others believed in him and showed him God’s love when he felt like little more than a dried-up ex-gangster. “Nowadays, when I come across individuals who are in pain lonely, shattered, and feeling rejected, I understand that I need to love them because we are all struggling with something. Because of what I’ve been through, I am reminded to never stop loving hurting people.”  

To purchase Mondo's book, My Crazy Life, please visit: My Crazy Life. For more information about Mondo de la Vega, please visit The Jim Bakker Show.