[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/current-students\/jason-villas-journey-to-play-baseball-becomes-his-testimony\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/current-students\/jason-villas-journey-to-play-baseball-becomes-his-testimony\/","headline":"Jonathan Villa’s Journey to Play Baseball Becomes His Testimony","name":"Jonathan Villa’s Journey to Play Baseball Becomes His Testimony","description":"Jonathan Villa By: Acasia George From a young age, Jonathan Villa dreamed of playing professional baseball.  Villa was born in Ensenada, Mexico about 100 miles from the U.S. border. Growing up, his parents were often out of town on business,…","datePublished":"2019-07-10","dateModified":"2019-07-10","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/author\/rburylo\/#Person","name":"Rebecca Burylo","url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/author\/rburylo\/","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37a0c97fbd1eda89e38697defcaf0573?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37a0c97fbd1eda89e38697defcaf0573?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Faulkner University","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Horizontal-480x128.png","url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Horizontal-480x128.png","width":480,"height":128}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jonathan-Villa-1-2.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jonathan-Villa-1-2.jpg","height":2784,"width":1856},"url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/current-students\/jason-villas-journey-to-play-baseball-becomes-his-testimony\/","about":["Current Students"],"wordCount":633,"articleBody":"Jonathan VillaBy: Acasia GeorgeFrom a young age, Jonathan Villa dreamed of playing professional baseball. Villa was born in Ensenada, Mexico about 100 miles from the U.S. border. Growing up, his parents were often out of town on business, leaving him and his sister alone.\u201cI have great parents. I love them with all my heart. They were just trying to take care of my sister and me so we wouldn’t have to go through what they went through.\u201d\u201cBeing alone, I think it got to the point I just wanted something to fulfill me. I was immature and wanted some attention so I started doing all sorts of drugs.\u201d When Villa got the opportunity to play summer baseball in the U.S. he went hoping to escape his surroundings and change his ways, but the reputation he had made for himself followed him to San Diego.\u201cI was fine for about two or three months. Then, I started back partying,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI didn\u2019t understand how bad friendships could affect your decisions.\u201dHis opportunity for playing baseball was slowly slipping through his fingers. \u201cNo one wanted to offer me anything because they all knew I was a troublemaker, even though I wanted to change that. I was like, \u2018what do I do?\u2019\u201dVilla’s father advised him, \u201cGo follow your dreams. Whatever it is, go to try do it.\u201dVilla received an offer to play professional baseball with the Tampa Bay Rays, but when he fell back into his old habits, he was released by Tampa Bay. \u201cI got the chance to play professional baseball. I had money. I had everything at the time. And I was like, \u2018Why am I not happy? No matter what I do I just feel so empty.\u2019\u201dVilla went to Yavapai College and won a national championship. His sophomore year he came to visit Faulkner University, but received no interest from the Eagle baseball program. Back in San Diego, his friend Hosea asked him about Christ and invited him to a Bible study. \u201cAt first, I said, ‘Shut up dude. I don\u2019t believe in God. You know how I feel about that,\u201d Villa said, “but after the first Bible study, I kept saying, ‘I need a little bit more of this,’ so I kept going back.”Soon after he started attending Bible study, he and his friend prayed about his situation. The next day, Villa received a call from Mike Mendoza, assistant baseball coach at Faulkner. \u201cI started crying and I looked at Hosea and was like, \u2018There is only one problem. It\u2019s a Christian university. I don\u2019t want to go a Christian university. I don\u2019t fit in with those people.\u2019\u201dDespite Villa\u2019s reservations, he accepted Mendoza\u2019s offer to become a Faulkner Eagle. After two weeks at Faulkner, he still felt the emptiness. Then he was invited to Landmark church of Christ. “It’s not the typical church I always think of,” said Villa, whose religious background is Catholic.One day Faulkner baseball chaplain David Noles simply asked him, \u201cAre you ready to get baptized?\u201d\u201cNo. I don\u2019t deserve that. I\u2019m not worthy of that.\u201d Noles explained to him, \u201cThat\u2019s the beautiful part about this, none of us deserve this.\u201d It was a simple statement that changed Villa\u2019s perspective about Christ. Soon after, he was baptized. \u201cI think about how many times I messed up and how many times I denied the idea of God and how many times I denied Jesus in my life, and He was still working behind the scenes. How many people get that many chances? There\u2019s got to be a bigger purpose for me in life.\u201d"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Current Students","item":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/\/current-students\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Jonathan Villa’s Journey to Play Baseball Becomes His Testimony","item":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/current-students\/jason-villas-journey-to-play-baseball-becomes-his-testimony\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]