For a while, I had been searching for something else, something different. I had gone to Catholic conferences, heard many of the Catholic speakers, showed up to Young Adult events but I felt everything was just so surface level, so shallow. I had stumbled across a Catholic documentary about praying for physical healing and prophecy, and while watching it I felt like every personal theological box that I placed God in fell apart. I didn’t know how to reconcile what I had been told for so long about God. About Him not speaking, rarely healing, and manifesting Himself today. I knew I wanted to see the signs and wonders in my ministry, I knew God wanted to reveal himself to Catholics in this way. My Protestant friends would tell me about healings in their churches, but because they came from a non-Catholic environment, I refused to listen or learn more from them.

During that time I went to a conference called 1Witness in Azusa because a speaker from the documentary was going to be speaking and I just knew I had to be there to learn more and see healings happen for myself. That conference was run by Keith and Iwona (founders of Stone to Flesh) and they spoke about a new ‘school’ they were going to run and what they were going to be teaching. At first, I felt inspired to join the School of the Heart because I wanted to know more about healing and prophecy. However, I came to realize that I will learn so much more about God and myself than I ever thought was possible.

When I signed up for School of the Heart in the Los Angeles area, I was simultaneously moving to San Diego to study Theology at John Paul the Great Catholic University. I felt God calling me to both places. I knew that it was going to take discipline to be a full-time university student and still commit myself to drive 2-hours from Escondido to Azusa every week. I remember praying and telling God, “Lord, You have to make this happen. I don’t see this being realistic. I don’t see this being practical.  I don’t see this being sustainable. If this school is not for me you need to close this door, because I really want this.” And every week God showed up. Every week I left SOTH with my heart renewed, filled with fresh faith. I felt as if scales were falling off my eyes. I was slowly finding out who I really was, and what God was calling me into.

I remember the first time we had a teaching about “Hearing God’s Voice”, we were put into pairs and had to ask God to tell us something He wanted to say to our partner. I was so scared that I was the one person in the whole world that God did not speak to. I sat there nervous trying to think of any way to get out of doing this activation, when suddenly it was my turn to ask God for a word, image, or something He wanted to say. I closed my eyes and prayed. I prayed that I would get something that remotely resonated with the man I was partnered with to share so I would not look stupid. I can still remember the sudden feeling of shock and amazement when he said this word I got for him was true and accurate! I drove back to San Diego that night crying in my car because I couldn’t believe that God actually speaks today, and that He wants to speak to me.

Stone to Flesh has given me so many opportunities to see God differently and to meet people who really want nothing more than to dwell in the Lord’s house all the days of their lives, to gaze on the Lord’s beauty, to visit his temple (Psalm 27:4). There are depths of God that I would have never known if it wouldn’t have been for this community, wounds that would have never healed, people I wouldn’t call my brothers and sisters. I am thankful for the opportunity to serve in this community and I can honestly say, I have found my tribe.


Aldo is a graduate of year one of School of the Heart. He has been a part of the Stone to Flesh Community since the beginning and is now a Voluntary Missionary. He belongs to Diakonia Prayer and Fasting, leading Ministry Teams and Healing Prayer Online.

Aldo has recently been accepted to the Fire in the Night Internship at the International House of Prayer Kansas City, where he will be an intercessory missionary praying six hours, six days a week from midnight to 6am and building bridges with our Protestant, Evangelical, and Non-denominational brothers and sisters.

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