Liberty University celebrates with its students and alumni around the globe who make the most important decision of their life — to follow Jesus Christ and live a life transformed for His glory.
Read these powerful testimonies from the Liberty family:
From the Ring to the King: Former WWE TV star finds her worth in God alone
After years of searching for her life’s purpose in circles of wealth and popularity, including stints in the WWE, TV, and modeling, Milena Roucka said she now stands confident in her worth as a child of God.
Roucka did not grow up in a Christian home. Entering her high school years in Vancouver, she felt a constant emptiness in her heart and desperately attempted to fill it any way she could. Dealing with her parents’ divorce, her wayward search for happiness led her to seek the company of unfavorable individuals. She entered an abusive relationship with a notorious gang member and dropped out of high school in 10th grade.
Six years later, the gang member was murdered, and she moved to Costa Rica. While there, she won a beauty contest and was featured in local newspapers but slunk into depression and a life of alcohol abuse. She attempted to take her own life once in Costa Rica and twice more after moving back to Vancouver. Her last attempt, on the Burrard Street Bridge, broke her from the cycle.
“I wanted to be done with my life,” Roucka said. “And while I was on the bridge, it was nighttime, and I was ready to jump. This guy on a bike comes, and he grabs me. He was waving down cars and calling for help. I went to the hospital, and that was the last straw. I wasn’t going to take my life anymore.”
She moved to Las Vegas to pursue modeling and in 2006 was selected to compete in WWE’s “Diva Search” reality TV show, where she finished fourth and received a lucrative contract to train with the WWE. Two years later, she was officially called up to the WWE under the stage name Rosa Mendes and became a permanent member on WWE’s “Total Divas.” While on the show, she became pregnant and moved with her boyfriend to a large house in Pittsburgh. Despite all her material wealth, she was still unhappy. When her daughter was born in 2016, her perspective changed.
“My daughter is what did it for me,” she said. “When she was born, and the doctor put her on my chest and I looked into her eyes, I felt true love for the first time. A few months after she was born, I was thinking about if she would be feeling the way I’m feeling. She’s born into money and basically on TV. And I could not bear the thought of her living a life with all this stuff and not feeling fulfilled.”
Roucka opened her Bible to John 16:7, in which Jesus promises His disciples the gift of an Advocate — the Holy Spirit.
“Right then was the first time; I didn’t know what Advocate meant, but I felt what the disciples were feeling,” she said. “I started crying. Now, as a more mature Christian, (I know) that was the Holy Spirit. I finally read Scripture without a veil and without being blind. I actually saw and felt what it meant.”
She left her fiancé, broke ties with the WWE, and began attending a small Baptist church in Pittsburgh. She started a wellness company and a protein bar company, but as the companies succeeded, she again felt the emptiness of her materialism. One night in 2019, she looked in the mirror and finally confronted her brokenness. Remembering the Bible story of how God allowed Job to lose all his possessions, she prayed for Him to take away her wealth.
“I fell on my knees and started crying and screaming to God, ‘If you exist, and it means taking this pain away, take everything — the fame, the money, the house — but don’t take away my daughter.’”
Roucka and her daughter
The next morning, Roucka’s Instagram was hacked, ruining her businesses. Shortly after, she received a foreclosure notice from the IRS. Taking all this as a sign from God, she got rid of all her designer clothes, cut ties with her ungodly friends, and fully committed to serving God with her life.
“I had everything everyone thinks will bring you joy, happiness, and fulfillment, but I was miserable,” she said. “My adolescence was a turning point for that, and I wanted people to know that money and status is nothing. Jesus is the answer. I felt this yearning that I needed to know more, and I wanted to be educated.”
Even though she left high school early and had a GED certificate, Roucka decided to attend college and chose Liberty University Online Programs because of its focus on biblical teaching.
While taking classes, she began serving with her church’s youth group. After sharing her testimony at a Youth for Christ Campus Life event outside of Pittsburgh, she was asked to do the same for other sites in the area. She started serving with Campus Life in Washington, Pa., and completed an internship there last summer.
“I felt that I had discovered my calling,” she said. “I love teaching. I love studying, but most of all just speaking to these kids. I felt His Holy Spirit speaking through me. Every time that I taught, I knew this is what I needed to do. Looking back in WWE, I never thought I would be teaching or in this position. A lot of people who aren’t believers would look at it and say I should be honored that I was in WWE, but the biggest honor is teaching kids and being used by God.”
Last summer, through Roucka’s internship and other Campus Life volunteers, 14 students accepted Christ and were baptized.
“I think they connect with my story,” she said. “When you come from a socio-economic background where you have no hope and no money for college, they feel like life is hopeless, especially when the world is telling them they need success, money, clothes, and cars to be important. But here I am telling them that the money is not going to do anything for you. There is hope that doesn’t cost anything.”
Roucka is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Christian ministries. She said she is learning to grow in her faith and share the love of Christ with the youth she serves.
“At Liberty, we are studying very deeply, and I’m able to translate real life to these kids by knowing and understanding Scripture in a very realistic way for them,” she said. “The way I can now interpret the Bible is night and day prior to being at Liberty.”
“The professors are always checking on me,” Roucka added. “My work is often late because of my daughter, as I am a single parent. They have been praying for me because there have been so many obstacles, almost like the enemy is trying to stop me from continuing these studies. (Their prayers) have been helping me so much. I wouldn’t be able to help these kids if I didn’t have what I’m learning at Liberty. And these kids are being saved. Seeing what God is doing for these youth with the knowledge I’m gaining at Liberty is incredible and humbling.”
BLESSED HOPE: ALUMNUS OVERCOMES DRUG ADDICTION, STARTS RECOVERY TRAINING PROGRAM FOR CHURCHES
During the intense darkness of his drug addiction, Liberty University alumnus Matthias “Matty” Ponce-de-leon never thought he would one day assemble and lead a recovery ministry.
His drug addiction started early. At age 14, Ponce-de-leon began drinking alcohol and shortly later started using cocaine and heroin. After high school, he earned the prestigious Peabody Scholarship at Johns Hopkins University, but he turned it down to attend a school in north Philadelphia, in a region that housed the largest open-air heroin market on the eastern seaboard.
He had checked into and failed 15 recovery programs, and when he attended his 16th in North Carolina in 2006, he hit rock bottom. After attempting to find drugs during his stay and being caught, the director didn’t scold or kick him out but encouraged him to pray. As Ponce-de-leon sat in his room, he remembered the many people who had shared Christ with him over the years. He then experienced what he called a “movement of God’s sovereign symphony.”
“I knew my hopelessness, and I knew who I needed to cry out to,” he said. “I prayed what I might describe today as a ‘theologically unsound’ prayer of salvation, but God knew my heart, and I’m grateful that it’s not dependent on me but dependent on Him and His grace.”
He was 29 years old and only five days sober when he gave his life to Christ.
“I didn’t have one of the miraculous events where my desire to do (drugs and alcohol) went away and never came back ever again,” he said. “When I got up from my knees in front of that bed, I was still dope sick. But, the Spirit of God had entered in my heart, and my desire to not do (drugs and alcohol) was stronger than the desire to do it.”
Ponce-de-leon joined Friendship Baptist Church in Elkin, N.C., where he found unconditional love, support, and guidance during his recovery journey. After hearing the messages at Friendship, he quickly discovered his calling to preach.
From 2012 to 2020, he pastored at two other churches in western North Carolina then returned “home” to pastor Friendship in 2023.
It was through this pastoral calling that he decided to enroll in Liberty University Online Programs, earning a B.S. in Religion: Christian Ministries in 2018, an M.A. in Christian Ministries (2020), an M.A. in Pastoral Counseling: Addictions and Recovery (2021), and a D.Min. in Spiritual Formation (2023).
While at Liberty, in 2019, Ponce-de-leon launched Blessed Hope Ministries to provide free training and resources to pastors and church leaders who are dealing with addiction crises in their congregations. He instructs leaders on effectively guiding individuals through alcohol and drug addiction recovery, finding rehabilitation centers, and understanding the world of addiction through a biblical lens.
“The more prepared we are to be meaningfully helpful in the front end of an addiction crisis, the more chances we’re going to have to disciple people through their recovery journey and be part of that long-term recovery process,” he said. “The recovery place is the body of Christ.”
Ponce-de-leon said Liberty gave him the education and support necessary to pastor and start BHM, since he began his journey with limited knowledge of running a church and starting a ministry.
“When I started at Liberty, I had sent five emails in my life. I had no use for computers. (Liberty) walked me through the whole process of getting started online and just helped me navigate the different things that I had to navigate. … I always had professors who were so encouraging, and I felt support every step of the way.”
Ponce-de-leon has now been sober for 18 years, and he is excited to be using what he learned at Liberty to guide others to recovery in Christ.
“Through my journey at Liberty, I felt so prepared for what God has called me to do. I know it’s God working through the university, the teachers, the professors, the material, the curriculum, the history — all of those things,” he said. “From the time I started, it was my dream to come all the way through the process and be equipped to help the church minister to addicts. I know I’ve got more growing to do, but man, it has been a blessing.”
