A Mother’s Story of Redemption From the Ocean to the Cross

Isabel Mathews is the kind of woman who lights up a room. Not because she seeks attention, but because she carries something eternal.

In a live yet intimate setting at SHARE Women’s Ministries, she shared her testimony with disarming honesty. It was the first time I, her daughter, heard her story in such depth and clarity. That day became one of the most impactful moments of my life. As it moved the women in the room, it also unlocked a new level of faith within me.

Raised in a large Puerto Rican family in New York, faith was a title but not a relationship.

She shares, “They called themselves Catholic, but I never went to church. They just had a title. I never believed in God because I was never introduced to God.”

Her childhood was marked by alcoholism, violence, and instability.

“Whatever’s been put on you, whatever you see, it characterizes you, and it becomes a habit. A habit you can’t stand, a habit that you hate.”

Before she knew it she became the very thing she despised.

“By the age of 29, everything I hated, I was. I became an alcoholic.”

Abusive relationships followed. Shame followed. Hopelessness followed. Until one day, after praying a salvation prayer with her closest cousin, Lucy, the despair reached its peak. On July 4, 1984 she took a train to the beach with a plan to end her life.

“I decided just to commit suicide, very intentional, a slow suicide. I started walking into the ocean. I told the Lord ‘I can’t win this battle. And since I can’t win this battle, just take me, I give up.’

Then something happened. As I blinked, He placed me back on the shore of the ocean. The water was hitting my ankles. I had a transport glory. It was a miraculous encounter.”

From that day forward, everything changed. A touch from Heaven altered the course of her life.

“From there on, I never went out. I had no desire to drink.”

The transformation was real, but it did not mean the transition was easy. There were many nights when she stood at the window of her New York apartment, watching cousins and friends laughing as they crossed the street to the club. She would cry. The pull of familiarity was strong. But the encounter she had with God marked her. A holy fear settled in her heart, along with a revelation of His deep love for her as His daughter. She knew she had been rescued. And she did not want to go back.

Her transformation became the foundation of how she raised her daughter. She separated from generational dysfunction, covered her child in prayer, and chose a life of devotion and purity.

“In John 6:63 He says, ‘The words I speak to you are spirit and they are life.’”

For 30 years she has chosen to stand at the feet of the cross, believing in a God who rescues, restores, and redeems.

This woman is my mother. She is the one who introduced me to my faith. She is the reason I know God is real. She is the reason this issue you are holding in your hands today even exists.

The New Jesus Revolution is not a concept to me. It is personal. It began in our home. It began with a mother who encountered Heaven, broke generational chains, and chose to follow Christ no matter the cost.

Her life is an undeniable testimony that God is real.

By Tricia Love Trujillo