Testimony of Faith Deisy Alvarez
(Editor’s Note: Meeting Deisy Alvarez for the first time, you will be impressed by her innocence and sweet demeanor. As she speaks, her face glows with the joy and thankfulness that only a life fully surrendered to God can produce. One is taken aback, however, by her testimony, a story of how she was delivered from a life of drugs, alcohol, and gangs, surely bound for prison or death.) A Troubled Home
D
eisy was born in Modesto, California, to Emma and Alberto Alvarez. She was the only girl, the third born of four siblings. Her parents worked hard: her father in agriculture, driving tractor for a nut company; her mother, employed at the same nut company and seasonally at Del Monte cannery. Although her mother tried her best, she was unable to shield her children from a troubled home. “I had a very hard childhood because there was alcohol in our family, and it grieved me that we were not like other homes,” she said. There was a lot of family drama, and sometimes the neighbors would overhear the heated arguments emanating from their home. “It scared me,” she said, “when I saw my loved ones using drugs.” She was troubled by the physical abuse in her family. Deisy learned at an early age to deal with her troubles by turning to prayer. “My mother taught me to pray to the Virgin Mary,’’ remembers Deisy. Although she saw God as one God, she did not pray or praise Him. Instead she prayed to Mary as she was taught not to have direct access to God. Raised as a good Catholic, she learned all her catechism, but did not go to confession on a regular basis. When she got older, she rebelled. “I knew God was there,” she said, “but I lived life very lightly. I only went to church for special services like Christmas and Easter.” Soon Deisy would find herself being pulled into the life of a “chola”. 14 SPRING NEWSVINE 2016
A Troubled Youth By the time Deisy was a freshman at Downey High School, she started smoking marijuana, paid for by her part-time cashiering job. She also was drinking beer and even whiskey. The weekends were filled with partying. When her brothers joined a gang, she was drawn in as well. She admits she looked the part of a home girl or “chola”: Converse shoes, black clothing, heavy make-up, lots of gold jewelry and gelled hair. Deisy was tough and did not hesitate to fight when she sensed she was being disrespected by a member of a rival gang. In fact, she was kicked out of Downey for fighting and had to attend Elliott Continuation School. Even there, she was expelled as she was a discipline problem and had to earn her high school diploma through independent study. Her frightened mother would warn her again and again, “Mija, you must change your life or you will end up dead or in prison.” At that time she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl she named after her mother. Her mother’s words woke her up and encouraged her to go to college to make something of her life for the sake of her daughter. Deisy enrolled in San Joaquin College in Salida to train to become a pharmacy technician. She enjoyed the field as she was very good at math. Although she was still partying on the weekends and was involved in the gang, she was very careful not to commit any crimes. She knew if she were to be arrested, all her training would be for nothing, as a criminal record would prohibit her from becoming a pharmacy tech. She did not know it then, but God was about to step into her life. On the invitation of Mercy, one of her friends, she visited Revival Center a few times when she was 19, but it was so different from the way she was raised. These Apostolic Pentecostals taught not to pray to Mary or the saints. “I would cry in the service because I felt something, but I didn’t come back for months at a time,” she said. Things became serious for Deisy when Mercy’s daughter, Madeline, became demon possessed. Deisy realized the supernatural was real. There was a real devil, so there must be a real God. A Life Possessed Madeline was just a little younger than Deisy, and they were very close, so it was very frightening when this horrible event happened. A man who was involved with gangs recently had been killed. Some members of the gang wanted his spirit to go into Madeline, so
