Movements start with people, people with great passion fueled by their stories. It’s not just by happenstance that La Mission Por Vida came about. William Mendoza, founder of this incredible non-profit (and owner of Shelf in Sacramento, California), walked miles in the wrong direction, so-to-speak, before he came to realize what he was born to do. His personal testimony of finding life in Christ is what birthed “The Mission for Life.” It all began in the mission district of San Francisco, California, where William was raised by “a large Irish and Latino family.” Surrounded by “tons of cousins and aunts and uncles, but most of the men in [his] life were either in prison, on drugs or selling drugs,” he says, and “the women were kind of [the] backbone. . .protecting [their] family.” Growing up in an environment with no healthy examples of what it is to be a respectful man, he didn’t have much of a choice but to go down the only road he knew. William grew up pretty quickly and decided to move away without notice as soon as he graduated high school. He says, “I didn’t tell anybody. I didn’t tell my girlfriend. I didn’t tell.
. .anybody. I just told my mom, like, ‘I’m leavin’…I went to Los Angeles by myself, at 17. Moved there and then started my life there.” Unfortunately, it didn’t do him any good as he “started finding friends and hanging out with [the wrong crowd].” “I was trying to fit in and be cool, be noticed, be recognized, be accepted into a community that I thought was cool. I ended up saying I would use drugs just to fit in, just to try it out,” William shares. “Little did I know the drug I [consumed] was about to consume me for the next 17 years. Crystal methamphetamine.” Once he took the plunge, there was no turning back at that point. At least not easily, as he tells us, “Hours later I knew I was addicted.” It didn’t take long for William to get swallowed up within the drug scene— one he swore he’d never fall into, saying things like “I’ll never be like them in my entire life” throughout his childhood seeing too many family members surrendered to substances. The lack of structure and support in his life left him susceptible to the wrong lifestyle. He spent over a decade planted in the wrong kind of community before he had an open door to real freedom.
Unexpected Encounter
One day out of the clear blue God chose to intervene. “While I was 33,” William says, “God spoke to me. . .and stopped me. It wasn’t even a whisper. It was just a loud voice that came over me and sent me right to my knees…I started crying. And everything went pretty crazy from that point forward. But God spoke to me for (I don’t know) about an hour and a half. I [walked] around Los Angeles. I was on Washington Boulevard—I kept walking around this big block. . .and I had just done my dirt [when] I felt like God was like, ‘Alright, follow Me…’ And I just started walking…” William’s instinct to follow without question is remarkable, with him not having a single grid for the glorious encounter he had on that heavily-favored day in LA. It says a lot about his heart. It just happened to be buried under the facade of who he thought he needed to be. After hearing God’s voice, the sheriffs showed up to arrest William. He recalls, “I was just walking peacefully (I thought) and they threw me on their car, emptied my pockets and pulled out drugs and everything else. [In that moment] I just heard God saying ‘Don’t worry, I’m with you.’” As comforting as that should’ve been for him, he just thought “Oh my gosh, I’m going to be homeless in the streets the rest of my life.” Cuffed in the back of the car, he said he threw his head back and thought “I’m going to jail for a long time…”
A Way Out
In response to his valid worries, however, William remembers God answering, “You’re not going to jail.” Still, he couldn’t avoid the thought of homelessness, “thinking that [he was] hearing God.” The unsolicited conversation with God (that he struggled to grasp) continued. William states that God told him “I never lied.” That spurred more crazy feelings, making him think “Okay, I’m tripping out right now.” But he wasn’t tripping out. He heard God loud and clear and it wasn’t all a bluff. William, someway, somehow, got off the hook. The sheriff told him “We could arrest you for 3 counts right now—you could be going prison right now…get out of here…I never want to see you back here again!” God miraculously made a way. He followed through, but He wasn’t finished (He never is). William talks about how God gave him a sign. And it was enough to send him on his way up to Sacramento.
Turning Point
There, church became William’s norm for about six months while he became sober, but he mentions that he fell right back into drugs. About four years later is when the winds of change blew in again. After an incident in Roseville one day where he fought two men and pulled a knife on them, he woke up in jail dismayed by the thought that he may or may not have killed two people. “It took like two minutes to even process… ‘I’m going to be in jail for the rest of my life. How did I get here? I have a good heart, a good family…how did I end up here?’” he thought. This bout of internal questioning led William to pray a meaningful prayer. “Please Lord,” he said, “I accept You into my heart, Jesus. I will accept You into my heart…I’ll do whatever I can. I’m sorry! I don’t know how I got here.” After that, he says, “I started fighting a case to stay out of jail. I got a lawyer, fighting my way to stay out. . .it was a process.” But all throughout, he tells about how he started to see other supernatural signs. And pleading for his freedom he said, “God, You could send me to the belly of the beast. Whatever You want to do, send me. It doesn’t matter now.”
The Mission
God could tell William was really for Him, so He began to put El Salvador on his heart. It was so interesting, “I’m fighting to stay out of prison and I’m fighting to go in prison at the same time” William powerfully states, recalling those memorable days. God, as He does, gave him supernatural signs that helped him to move forward. There came a time where he said, “Okay, Lord, send me. Let’s do this!” He “started putting a plan together to work with the gangs in El Salvador.” At the time “the murder rate was 54 a day,” he states. Using his own resources, William found a way “to give access to clean water inside all the prisons, and into the communities where they put a truce.” They were confused at first, wondering why he was there and what he wanted. And when some of the leaders told him they weren’t expecting someone like him to help out, he responded with hopeful statements like “There’s no reason not to. It’s not me; it’s the Lord just guiding me here, so I’m honored to be here.” Per William, the murder rate went all the way down to about zero or one. All of this was possible through the trust that was built through the help that he was a big part of. He understands the importance of connection as he states, “We’ve got to establish relationships so that we can bring hope and really truly show them the healing power of Christ. Through my story, too…I was able to speak in these prisons and talk about my addiction, where I come from—my family.” From a God-dream birthed in the midst of his own struggle, “that’s how La Mission Por Vida started,” William humbly shares. And he says, “From that point forward, we started partnering with Compassion International, working on projects with them, implementing water projects. (I mean, we worked for a few years before we got to that point.) We worked in other countries— Cambodia, Shri Lanka, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Kenya and other places. What I found was, in serving, I was finding myself. But I was [also] meeting Christ while I was serving. Doing an act of service, I was meeting Christ and not expecting anything. I used to think life was about me, but when I realized it was not—it was about others, and serving—that’s when I really found out who I really was. I was hiding behind this false image of my identity of what the world said I should be, but I always had a loving heart. It wasn’t looked upon [positively] to have a loving heart, you know, around the crowds I was hanging out with [back in LA]. Once I lost everybody I was hanging out with and I started letting God re-build me, He [built] me up in His Word. I joined Bible studies. I think I attended like four at a time, four a week. You know, going to church and serving…I was spending more time in the non-profit instead of my for-profit, because I just love serving people.
I was like, ‘Man, I had it all wrong…’ I was programmed this way, but God was re-programming me in the truth. My identity [became] what He told me [about] who I am, not what others told me I am, what I can do, what I’m capable of, just whatever…It didn’t matter what I had, it mattered Who I had. God, right? It doesn’t matter who you are; it’s Whose you are. He started really taking off all the lies and agreements I’d made when I was a younger child…” William is passionate about “allowing [God] to be a part of [his endeavors], instead of trying to do it on [his] own.” When opportunities arise, he does his best to stay connected to God’s heart. He’ll pray out, “What are the needs in this country? Lord, where do you want to send us next? Guide us. . .put us in contact with the right ture Band), and it’s inspiring to see the way He’s been moving in William’s life over the years. As he keeps a servant heart, there’s really no telling the corners of the earth God will reach through him and La Mission Por Vida.
www.LaMissionPorVida.org people and show us where you want us to serve, who you want us to serve, and how to get there, how to pay for it—all this stuff.” It’s truly a miracle how God sought out William’s heart when he was strung out on the streets of LA. His testimony is such a declaration of the statement we wear on our shirts: Anything Can Happen. It’s another prime example that “He won’t relent until He has it all” (Jesus Cul