talk I have with me today Mitch Marmelstein. Mitch played professional
basketball down in Argentina and he is from California and really an honor to
have him on our water talk today. And so Mitch you're actually headed back to
Argentina on on Monday. May 3rd. So tell everyone how you got to this place
where you're headed back. Yeah and so I guess my story starts off as a basketball
player and I've been passionate basketball my whole life ever since fifth
grade and have played basketball at the high school level and the college level
played college basketball at Grove City College in Pennsylvania and my senior
year I had this vision this dream put into my heart by God and I felt like God
wanted to be me to be an international basketball missionary and had this
vision to to that I was gonna go play basketball for years in other countries
and share the gospel and all around the world and so I decided to give that
dream to God and I started to grow out my hair until he accomplished what I
feel like he was promising me and so three years later I was playing I've
seen the photos yeah surely he has like hair down to here it took a look up the
picture right now well I'm telling the story and then I'll show you guys but uh
I was playing some semi-professional basketball in San Diego and there was
nobody in the stands except for one guy and my family and this guy he just gave
me his card after a game three years later after I made this agreement with
God and he said I'm an agent I am looking for to send players down to
Mendoza Argentina and I remember he got me a contract three years later talk
about a divine appointment and answered prayers and a much-needed haircut I was
in desperate need for that but uh and then here's my hair for all the viewers
just to see right here you guys could see that that's three years of growing
hair right there nice prison photo bribe in a yeah I was really trying to you
know be conformed to the image of Jesus you know literally but okay so so so
you're um so God answered that prayer and you ended up you ended up playing
down there you guys ended up winning a state title yeah you had a blinds yet
you had a blast you had a look you had a little knee issue you came home yeah
it's did some rehab and then and then and then what happened yeah so the MRI
showed a grade four cartilage defect in my left knee and I asked the doctor like
so what I do about that he's just trick-or-treat he's like you don't grow
back cartilage so I fell into a depression I fell into a really low
valley at that moment and because this vision God has given me I was like is
that it is that the whole thing like now I just got to move on with my life and I
remember in my lowest moment I was reading in Genesis and through the story
of Jacob when he was running away from Esau all right yeah Esau and God spoke
to Jacob he said he said I am with you he said I will be with you and I will
bring you back to this land until I've done what I've promised you and I
remember at that moment he was speaking directly to my heart that he was going
to bring me back to Argentina in some capacity someday and he gave me that
promise and from that moment in game though you know yet for me it seemed
like waiting but to God it was training and he just he introduced me to the so
many people during this time he introduced me to pastor Ryan and in
November and you know one of the during this whole time I felt like God gave me
a calling as well to be a pastor and I I say this because two pastors before
they two pastors have asked me have you ever considered being a pastor and at
the time I was like no I'm just a hooper like that's this is all I do like I'm
not really concerned about being a pastor but this call has been on my life
a long time and then and then pastor Ryan you were the first one to call me
what I already was and call me pastor Mitch and it all clicked for me and I
just realized I wanted to to feed his sheep for the rest of my life and so to
answer your question you know I feel called to go back yeah to Argentina now
yeah and time and talk about that because sometimes and and so talk a
little bit about that that can you know people hear that they're really inspired
it's exciting people are praying for you we've have lots of people supporting you
prayerfully financially it's awesome and that's God's kind of hand in all this
and but when someone hears you know okay I'm living in California I'm going to
Argentina Star Church so just walk people through like what are you gonna do when
you get there like what's the plan like what's the plan to start a church like
what does it look like for somebody who's watching this yeah and so that
could be a daunting question yeah and just how do you start church and the
first thing to realize is what the definition of church is and the church
is in the Greek word ecclesia and that's a gathering of believers and I just look
at the ministry of Jesus and how he started with three dudes he started with
Peter James and John and he called them and he did life with them and that is
essentially what I plan to do is I have three guys in mind that I want to spend
life my life with and to worship God with eat food with they're all part of
the basketball program that and down in Argentina and so and I want to do Bible
studies with them and and just get involved and start from there what the
three turns into twelve and twelve turns into seventy and you go from there yep
awesome it's easier when you break it down you're moving down there to play
basketball and have dinner one night a week I'm gonna have you know buy some
guys I already know over we're gonna have dinner have a little Bible study
try to do what try to make a commitment like we're okay we're gonna do what we
read very simple we're gonna read we're gonna do what we read and then you just
start watching God move you also played guitar you're a good musician I know you
he's he's humble but he's gonna put a little band together and they're gonna
find some places to play and just that there's kind of some nuts and bolts of
like how to how to do it in a way that's super fun and in you and and get results
it's awesome it's just exciting it's really fun to watch and also I've been
blessed with having the training and seeing the experience of being a part
of ocean water and just seeing small beginnings and how how church is
possible with just you start with a couple people and then God starts bring
people to you and yep it's just so cool to see that I can do that same thing
that that yeah so I'm just excited to get down that's easy it's simple when
you it's simple when you start the right way yeah when when you start you're like
it's okay to just you know have some food with some guys and that that's how
we start ocean water is myself and Adam Watts and Bobby Ramsey and Ivan and just
meeting at 8 o'clock it on a Wednesday night after the 25 people smell the
entire dojo up with the stank and it worked and but I think I think people
need to hear that people need to people need to like let that seek into them yeah
you know be okay with that then it gets fun but when you start with all these
lofty expectations you put pressure on yourself and then you live under the
weight of these unrealistic unfair expectations and none of that's from God
God never puts unfair expectations on us we put those on ourselves so we get free
of all that we just be who we are it's really fun when the focus is just on
intimacy with God through Jesus Christ yeah it makes things really simple and
it changes life so yeah yeah it's awesome love God love people be who you
are there's also it's also part of being a leader is you know you is you think
you reflect so you're 28 what what's something that 28 year old Mitch might
tell 20 year old Mitch it's like there's a that's a big eight years you know I
look at my life there's a kind of it's kind of a big jump like I'll be 47 in a
week there's not a huge jump from like 40 to 47 but like from 20 to 28 there's
some space in there like what would you I would say my life I've like we all go
through valleys and hills and I would just try to help my younger self
realize that God is consistent through it all and that even though I'm
essentially feeling like I'm things aren't working out my way just to remain
faithful yeah just like wait hold on just a little longer like yeah and the
other thing is looking back at 28 years old my eyes have not seen my ears have
not heard yep my mind has not conceived what God has done when I was 25 yeah what
God is doing now I'm 28 and what he's gonna do when I'm 40 and when I'm 50 yeah
I just can't I would just tell myself just to hold on a little longer just
just pressing a little bit more yeah I love that yeah I love it anytime somebody
starts talking about grinding and persevering I just go yeah that's my
language I love it that's good so what so part of life being fun is like just
being curious how you doing um what are you what are you interested in right now
what are you curious about I mean I know you're fighting on Sunday night you're
boxing I should say yeah yeah Saturday night May 1st I've got has been through
this time of waiting he's been filling my life with like these new hobbies such
as surfing boxing things I and really honestly I haven't been playing
basketball at all and it's something I thought I could never live without and
so God has been filling it with these new skills and I feel like skills that
he wants to use when I go back down to Argentina but also like on the spiritual
side I feel like very very recently God has been speaking to me about spiritual
gifts and in all all types of spiritual gifts which I feel like and I've been
prophesied over that he wants to use in my life that he wants to use in your
life that he wants to use in our life as the body of believers and so I've been
really pressing into that and awesome trying to be open to that to the Holy
Spirit and what he wants to do is that I will definitely need him when I go down
there yeah and all the gifts that he wants me to have yeah so so you know we
we've become good friends we also have talked a lot about water yeah we've
we've talked about as much as people have talked about water being an issue
there hasn't been a whole lot of progress made so what we've talked about
is you know incorporating the the strategy of helping people source water
into the mission of a church and it's really fun it's really tangible it's
something people can understand and talk to them a little bit about some of your
some of your scheming and dreams to like start take surf trips over to Chile yeah
and start exploring over there like an old pioneer guy right so I'll first
start by saying when I was there there was a morning where I was praying for
the youth of San Martin and I remember later that day God had the gym of all
places there is and there's not a lot of people by the way that speak English
down there I bumped into somebody that spoke English and I was like all right
by the way you know both English and Spanish and Spanish yeah yeah and so her
name is Maria Grazia and she she is the CEO and founder of an organization
called Humanidad del Sol and they provide career education and discipleship
for orphans who have aged out of the system in Argentina yeah and so like
answer to prayers like God when you hit God's heart string he sometimes answers
prayers really fast and so but I've been having this vision and dream lately of
taking some of these orphans some of these kids that have never been to the
beach before and I feel like God has put surfing into my life for a reason and
Chile is just on the other side of the mountains from Mendoza Argentina it's
about like a six to eight hour drive but my vision is to be able to take some of
these kids do some camping and some surf trips and and then one day partner
with ocean water to help establish a church in a desal unit somewhere and I
just feel like God wants to do that yeah yeah there's a God works all things
together for those who love him so yeah it's exciting it's exciting how it's
good to talk about some of the nuts and bolts of all this stuff because a lot of
times when people think oh you know I'm gonna go to somewhere else to start a
church it's like all they can all they can think of is like what does that mean
like a 90-minute worship session in Spanish like no it's not it's like you
play basketball you serve you hang out like it's much like life here one one of
the ways one of the ways the world's changed or what the cultures become
smaller yeah you know so so because of technology so it's sort of a lot of the
activities are the same so it's gonna be it's gonna be really really fun for you
and I just want to say to you just how awesome it is to be your friend to watch
all of this happen yeah it's gonna be awesome I can't wait to see all the all
the crazy awesome stories I have a feeling it's gonna be a lot of them
because I've seen a lot of them already I mean when we told everybody last night
you were going to Argentina like the whole everybody clapped it was wild it
was just people were like down so it's really really exciting so what are some
what are some some last words that you'd like to leave with everybody about what
you're doing well I'd say and then the first thing I'll say is that one thing
that I've learned throughout this whole thing is and something you taught me is
it's all about relationships and I'm just excited that whatever God does in
Argentina that I'll be able to experience that with you you'll be by my
side the whole time yeah and I'm just excited for that we're gonna be friends
for the rest of our life into eternity yeah exactly and so one thing that has
been on my heart just relationships the other thing is that the spirit is
already working in Argentina the spirit is moving with in people's hearts we
just get to be a part of you just get to be a part of it and find out what God's
already working on and so I know I've received the call I've received
confirmation through the word through the Bible and then through other people
even people I've never met before yeah tell them what happened last night yes I
preached on Jonah 4 and last Tuesday night last Tuesday night at Sir Coffee
was great worship was awesome and after service some random guy just comes up to
me and he pulls me he says I really need to talk to you outside like all right
let's go talk what do you need talking about and he's he's saying well I woke
up at 5 a.m. this morning and I couldn't go back to sleep because I can only
think about one thing and that it was the Argentina flag and I felt like God
was calling me to pray for about a half hour for Argentina and then he came he
comes randomly to Sir Coffee that night he comes halfway through my service so
it doesn't even hear anything about Argentina and he asked somebody who's
that talking he's like oh that guy's gonna go plant a church in Argentina and
immediately he's like I need to talk to that guy so by the way the guy ended up
being the owner of my favorite hamburger place in California it's not in and out
so yeah another place but so that's that so what what we find is that you know as
we as we're following God that he's actually already moving and there's great
comfort in that so much comfort there's so much can't you know when you surf you
just you see a wave and then you just paddle for it and you ride it and
there's so much in there about how we live this kingdom life you know we don't
make waves we just ride them so you can see and and then God just gives us the
discernment to be in the right spot and so it's just awesome to watch really
really fun I feel like I'm really really excited big wave right now and I'm just
excited to be along and not just be on my on it by myself it's a party wave man
it's the party wave and you're on it and there's other people on it and it's just
gonna go for a long time I feel like so well this yeah one last thing is Mitch
has Mitch's church is gonna be called Chacarero's and that means farmers it's
like a slang word for for farmers in Argentina and you might be wondering
well why is Mitch wearing an ocean water church but he's calling hit the name of
the church that he's gonna start Chacarero's well there's a couple of
really important reasons why that's the case and why ocean water is a church
here in San Clemente but it's also a collective that revolves around a
strategy for water I want to break that down a little bit for you first of all
when someone leads something they naming it is very important and the reason why
is because people especially your 28 people want ownership they also want
autonomy the old way in my view the old way was you go out and you and you start
a bunch of things called the same thing I think the new way that provides more
ownership is allowing so and the idea there is if you want someone to parent
something they need to name the child and so I'm excited however we're also in
a collective together what that means is we share some things in common we both
love to teach the Bible we kind of go a chapter away we're both passionate about
being in homes and coffee shops and we also share water in common as sort of
a missions methodology so that's what it means for other churches name different
things to sort of be in our collective and I kind of wanted to teach that and
help people to understand it be a little confusing if they hear all of that right
but but it's important and yeah so just any any last words I just was watching
this just bless you know God loves you so much and know that your dreams that
sometimes your dreams start and you feel like they're supposed to go one way but
God sometimes will just flip your dream on its head and when he flips it over it
opens the possibilities for what he's already had he's had planned for you just
wants you to open your eyes to that and so and know that anything is possible
with him and at the end of the day as long as we seek first his kingdom is
righteousness then then all of the things will be added on to us so that's
all I gotta say and I love you love you too man all right Chaca
Eddowes when I put this out on particularly on Instagram I'm gonna put a
link to so that you guys can follow along Mitch's journey I know that you'll be
live streaming some of the stuff so we can yeah I can hear you teaching stuff
so thank you man awesome yeah all right love you guys