A Longing to Fit In

By Alex Di Matteo

This is the autobiography of a young mans journey of faith and how the issue of "fitting in" impacted every area of his life. It deals with his curiousity into spiritual things as a toddler and how he attempted to follow the leading of God's Spirit into a spiritual conversion even though he was raised in the Church, and had aspirations of entering the priesthood. It covers the every day struggles of a teenager as well as the difficulties of being a young man who felt totally unprepared for the tensions of the world outside due to hyper critical upbringing, and living in a home with an alcoholic parent. Lastly the author shares the grace and wisdom he obtained over twenty five years in the pastoral ministry, as well as his training in biblical studies. This book is for everyone who has a desire for God and the authors intent is that everyone would be drawn into a deeper walk with the Lord irrespective of their religious beliefs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479746866

Alex Di Matteo

Alex Di Matteo was born on Dec.8th, 1947, at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village, NYC. As a child and a young man he attended school in the Village. Our Lady of Pompeii Elementary School, Chelsea Vocational High School, and Eastern School for Physicians Aides where he trained as a Medical Laboratory Technician. Raised as a Roman Catholic he experienced a spiritual conversion after graduation from high school. He enlisted in the United States Navy and served as a Hospital Corpsmen, functioning as a Lab Tech and also performed work similar to an LPN. After his discharge from the military he studied and obtained Diploma’s in Bible and Doctrine and Ministerial Studies from the Berean School of the Bible of the Assemblies of God. He was Ordained with the Assemblies of God, served the Lockport Christian Church as Assistant to the Pastor and pastored three churches with the Assemblies of God in Middletown Connecticut, St. James NY., and Middleburg Heights, Ohio. He became a Licensed Practical Nurse after graduating from Parma School for Practical Nursing in 1987. He worked as an LPN for 23 years and later served as Pastor to the residents of the Groton Nursing Facility in Groton, NY five years before moving with his wife to Boca Raton, Florida in June of 2012. He has two children, Michele DiMatteo Anderson and Daniel Michael DiMatteo.

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Copyright © 2013 by Alex Di Matteo.

Library of Congress Control Number:          2012920962

ISBN:                     Hardcover                                978-1-4797-4685-9

                                Softcover                                978-1-4797-4684-2

                                Ebook                                      978-1-4797-4686-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1—Perspectives On Fitting In

Chapter 2—From The Beginning

Chapter 3—Turbulent Teen Years

Chapter 4—Fitting In Without A Dad’s Input

Chapter 5—Dad Entered The Kingdom

Chapter 6—My Dear Mom

Chapter 7—A Genuine Conversion

Chapter 8—What Do You Mean You Were Converted?

Chapter 9—Conversion Has Its Perks

Chapter 10—Surviving The Myths Of Marriage

Chapter 11—Conversion Affects Everything

Chapter 12—How Does Church Fit In?

Chapter 13—My Experience In The Church

Chapter 14—Music And Fitting In

Chapter 15—Life Beyond The Church

Chapter 16—All Things Work Together For Good

Chapter 17—To Be Or Not To Be

Chapter 18—Another Side To Fitting In

Chapter 19—Fitting In On The Potter’s Wheel

Chapter 20—Good Intention But Not Good Enough

Chapter 21—Fitting In Requires Work

Chapter 22—When We Don’t Fit In

Chapter 23—In Recall

Chapter 24—In Conclusion We Walk By Faith Not By Sight

DEDICATION

This book is first and foremost dedicated to my Lord God, Jesus Christ, without whose gifts and inspiration there would be no such book. I would also like to dedicate it to my wonderful wife, who has been more than helpful in encouraging me to believe in myself. She reminded me that I should stick with it even when the inspiration is little to nonexistent. She told me that the completed book would take more than a day and that I needed some downtime to gather new thoughts and with patience new ideas would come. She also helped me arrange the layout of the book in areas such as titles for chapter headings and page setup and format. Then last, but certainly not least, I want to dedicate this book to our friend and neighbor in Dryden, New York, Tish McGrath, for the initial push to go ahead and put my story on paper as well as reading several chapters and giving me pointers as to what could be added to create more appeal for readers.

Preface

As the author of this book, I have recently finished five years as a volunteer chaplain at the Groton Nursing Facility in Central New York. I have diplomas in ministerial studies and in Bible and doctrine from the Berean School of the Bible of the Assemblies of God. I was ordained with the Assemblies of God on May 15, 1979. I have pastored at least three different Assembly of God churches, and have served as assistant to the pastor of the Lockport Christian Church in 1972. This was was a congregation of the Christian Church of North America, an Italian Pentecostal denomination. My wife Anna and I have ministered together in music with our friends, Rev. Daniel Rowland, who is also an ordained Assembly of God pastor, and his wife Nancy. We sang as a Gospel quartet called the Vessels of Praise for several years of our ministry. We have two children: Michele and Daniel. Michele is married to Christian Anderson, and they have one child that is two years of age named Liam. Daniel lives in Willoughby, Ohio, and is currently quite busy with his music career as well as having a couple of other side jobs. We are currently residing in Boca Raton, Florida, as of mid-June 2012 where we moved to be close to our immediate family and our first and only grandchild.

Retirement is awesome, and God is very good, so we look forward with faith and anticipation to see how the Lord will lead us while we are here in sunny Florida.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the following people for their input and suggestions in the editing of this manuscript: my wife, Anna DiMatteo; my neighbor and friend, Tish McGrath; my brother-in-law, Donald Abb; my sister-in-law, Marie Abb; my other sister-in-law, Madeline Gould; my brother-in-law, Michael Rizzuti; my cousin, John Deglialberti; my dear friends, Bob Fehrenbach, Doris Jackson Fehrenbach, and Patty Wisniewski; my very dear friends, Vincent and Marie Defilippo Sr.; and my close friend and colleague in ministry, Rev. Daniel Rowland.

A special thanks to all the wonderful people that have been a part of my life and whose influence in my life have helped me become the man I am today, especially the members of the Christian Church of Woodhaven at Woodhaven, New York; the Lockport Christian Church in Lockport, New York; the Faith Church of the Assemblies of God in Middletown, Connecticut; the Full Gospel Assembly of St. James in Long Island, New York; and all the church members at the Groton Nursing Facility of Groton, New York.

Introduction

For a long while now, I have been toying with the idea of writing a book. In the past ten to fifteen years, I have been writing different articles or short papers on the Christian faith, and more specifically, doctrinal themes as well as inspirational articles and devotional materials. My purpose for these writings has been to aid Christians in their practice of faith. Lately for me, there have been lots of mental activities regarding different spiritual topics, and I have also been entertaining questions such as if I were to write a book, what I would write about? Just how would I go about writing it, and how would I go about getting it published? As destiny would have it, one day, as I was sharing with a neighbor about my conversion experience, she said to my wife and me that the topic of conversation I was sharing with her sounded like the substance for a good book. While this was a blessing for me to hear—and I was very grateful to hear it as well—it came as no surprise to me. The reason for that was, in the past, I have heard similar comments from other friends of mine. I took this particular incident as a nudge from the Lord that now is the time to write the book that I had for a long time desired to undertake.

At or about the same time, I received a book in the mail which I had ordered that was written by a former pastor of mine. What struck me was the notation on one of the pages that read, If you are writing a book and looking for a publisher, follow the link below. To me this was another indicator that God was giving me the go-ahead to begin writing. So with some fear as well as lots of excitement, I have begun forging forward and commencing to share with you what the Lord has placed on my heart. It is my earnest desire to be of use to God in every way possible so as to touch others in their times of need, whether those needs be physical, spiritual, or emotional in nature. I pray that the words I write are the very words that God alone has inspired me with in order to touch you and meet you in the place of your deepest, heartfelt need. It is not my intent to wow anyone with my opinions or my intellect, but I desire to be used as a mouthpiece for God in order that, as St. Paul said, That the power would be that of God, and that no one else but God would get the credit or the glory. It is His character and person, not my fame that is important here. I desire His name to be exalted in whatever I do. Therefore, as you begin to read these words, please pray that you receive only what God has intended for you to receive. In this way, we will both benefit from the blessings of God, which He so graciously showers upon us when we are obedient to His will.

Chapter 1

PERSPECTIVES ON FITTING IN

To begin with, I would have to say that fitting in has always been important to me. The need to be liked and to be a part of a group was something I always sought after. I do not believe that I am unique or alone in having this need, for it looks to me that everyone is looking for a place to belong or fit in. We all want to be able to make some kind of mark in society to show that we are important and vital members and serve a valuable purpose. I believe that all the different groups and organizations we find around us attest to this idea. For example, you have different teams in the world of sports,