Testimony of Faith - Julio Hernandez

from NEWSVINE Winter/Spring 2015

(EDITOR’S Note: As stated in the article on the previous page, the legacy of the Hernandez’s family has been phenomenal for God’s Kingdom. The following testimony was fi rst published in the THE NEWSVINE in the February 1994 Issue. Both Brother Julio and Sister Ana were interviewed, and since then, Sister Ana has passed into eternal life. Even though this is the testimony of Brother Julio, it is also enriched with the history of his wife and children. The sheer drama of lives delivered from drugs and alcohol, with the exception of his daughter Miriam, makes this testimony one to be shared. )

A BEGINNING OF POVERTY AND DESPAIR

Brother Julio Hernandez was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, in 1952. His mother, Blanche Lucy Garcia, was converted from Catholicism to the Assembly of God Pentecostal Church when she was 13. She was very religious and faithfully attended the local church. His father, Alfonzo Hernandez, was a man who followed no religion at all and spent much of his life in the bonds of alcoholism. Although Alfonso Hernandez came from a wealthy family, he became the black sheep and was irresponsible. His family forsook helping him and his numerous children and wife. Julio was a mixture of Mayan and Spanish ancestries. He was the oldest of 18 children-15 sons and three daughters-and due to his father’s drinking, he had to work hard to help support the family. “I never had the joy of childhood,” he laments as he remembers the years he spent raising goats on the family farm on the outskirts of Guatemala City. “My mom suffered much because of my father’s alcoholism,” he recalls. “We were very poor.”

“My mom,” Julio says with great love, “was a saint, always faithful.” His mother fought hard for her children to know there was a

God and compelled them to go to church every week with her. She had received the Holy Ghost when she was 13, a time when the Assembly of God movement believed you had to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues to be saved. “She prayed all the time, especially for us,” Julio remembers. His sisters received the Holy Ghost, but not Julio. One day when Julio was 16, he was praying at the altar and a minister asked him, “Are you praying to Jesus? Do you love Jesus?” Julio said, “Yes, please pray for me.” The minister said, “God is going to use you. You must be humble to God and God will use you.” Julio remembered these words all his life. But he still did not receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit after the minister prayed for him.

In Guatemala, primary schools are free to attend, but back then, if a family wished to send their children to secondary school, they had to pay tuition. Julio attended one year of secondary school then had to drop out because of the cost. He became a farm worker and later was trained to be a butcher. That is when the drinking began. At age 16 he started following in his father’s footsteps. “Drinking was my only escape from the poverty and misery,” he explained.

When he turned 17, Julio left the church along with some of his friends. “Going to church was a part of my life,” he explained. “But I did not have a relationship with God.” He drank heavily, lifted weights, and fought with knives out in the streets. He fathered a son and daughter from two of his girlfriends, one who was in the church his family attended. But then an event occurred which would change his life and lead him to the United States.

For the next several years, the nation of Guatemala in the 70s had a vicious civil war between civilians and the military. Many civilians wanted a more democratic government and used guerrilla tactics against the military supporting the dictatorial regime. The military and the government responded with a brutal counter-insurgency campaign that resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths and disappearances. The U.S. government suspended all military aid to Guatemala because of human rights atrocities. When Julio was 23 the notorious Death Squad came pounding at his family’s door.

The family was terrified when the soldiers entered the house and demanded to see Noah Jacob, Julio’s younger brother. They accused Noah Jacob of being a communist rebel, and Julio’s mother and sisters were horrified when they dragged his brother out of the house. For three days they heard nothing about Noah Jacob. Then the family was informed that they had found a body in a vacant lot. It was Noah Jacob. His mother screamed when she saw the brutal evidence that Noah Jacob had been tortured. There were deep cuts in his flesh, his teeth had been pulled out, his fingers and toes were missing, and they had poured acid on him. He had been shot 17 times. “We prayed that the first bullet had ended his suffering,” Julio says with much grief. His brother was only one year younger than Julio. “It was common to find 10 to 13 dead bodies left in empty lots throughout the city at any given time.” Brother Julio was very angry for his brother. “I wanted revenge,” he says, for he had loved his brother very much. “I wanted to get even! But revenge was a death sentence.” That is when Julio decided to leave Guatemala and never return.

A NEW BEGINNING

Julio obtained a Visa to come to Mexico and then rode up in a bus to the U.S.-Mexican border. America was his real goal. He came through under the water, running through the fields from Tijuana to Chula Vista. He made his way to Los Angeles, but this was only tem-

porary, for his real desire was to go to New York City. He worked in the garment factories to make money to go to New York City. He went from job to job in Los Angeles, as he was always coming in late and missing work due to his drinking binges. During this time, Julio never thought about God. “I never felt I needed God,” he states. “I didn’t care about God.”

But although Julio was not thinking about God, God had His all-seeing eye on him and many times saved him from death. In one instance, Julio got into a fight with a gang leader. The gang formed a tight circle around them, and when Julio struck the gang leader a resounding blow, the entire gang started beating him and left him for dead. But Julio came to, bloody and in great pain, but he was alive! Julio now says God in His mercy had preserved him.

One day when Julio was working at a company that made lamp shades, he met a very special woman—his future wife!

Ana Maria was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. Her family was Catholic, and she had been married once before when she met Julio. At first they were just friends, but they had a lot in common. They both were parents of two children, and more specifically, they both loved to party and indulge in drugs and alcohol. It wasn’t long before they fell in love. They moved in together, and that is when the fights began.

Brother Julio admits that it was a terrible life, a pitiful life of domestic violence, full of sin and misery. Anna became so disillusioned with what was real or not. She knew there was a God, and she had been raised in the Catholic Church believing as long as a priest said a mass at your funeral you would eventually end up in heaven. That is when she made a desperate attempt to escape her misery. When she was alone at their house, she poured Drano into a glass and quickly drank the caustic liquid. Her children found her later on the floor unconscious. She was rushed to the hospital and miraculously survived. She remained there for one month. She could only be fed by a tube inserted down her destroyed esophagus. The Drano had permanently damaged this vital passageway into her stomach. The doctors had to operate to remove most of the esophagus. Her stomach had to be moved up near her heart and lungs. For years afterwards her trachea would continuously constrict, requiring numerous medical procedures. Julio, ridden with guilt for the cause of his wife’s attempted suicide, drank even more.

Two years after her hospitalization, Ana became pregnant with their daughter Jennifer. It was a happier time as they become more compatible. Julio had become a cutter in a fabric factory. He was still drinking heavily, but Anna went cold sober during her pregnancy. After Jennifer was born, Julio suddenly had a desire to see his two other children in Guatemala. Politically, the country was in a shambles. He feared for the safety of his son and daughter. He wrote to his relatives and the mothers of his children that he would be coming. He was anxious to see Richard and Miriam.

A BITTER-SWEET REUNION

Julio had met Miriam’s mother Angelita in the church his family attended where Angelita’s father was one of the ministers. Julio and Angelita had sung together in the youth choir. Miriam was nurtured in a loving home, very pampered, but not spoiled. She was a good student and graduated from high school. Miriam remembers the great earthquake that hit Guatemala City in 1976. It happened at night. Her maternal grandmother was sick with cancer and was very weak. When the quake hit, Miriam and her mother ran to the outside patio. Another powerful tremor quickly followed, and they realized that her

grandmother was too ill to get out of her bed to escape. They ran back into the house to help their grandmother, and everything went dark. All around them people were screaming and buildings continued to fall even after the tremors had stopped. It was one of the most frightening nights Miriam had ever experienced, but her family survived. Miriam remembers sleeping outside for three nights. By the time it was over, more than 25,000 people had perished.

Miriam

When Miriam heard her father was coming to see her, she was overwhelmed with delight. She remembered him from her childhood, and now she was a young adolescent. She went to the airport, and when she saw him, she jumped into his arms and cried. Julio, with tears in his eyes, said, “I can’t leave you here in Guatemala. You’re coming home with me!” When Miriam talked with her mother about coming to America, Angelita told her, “I’ve raised you and now it is your decision to make.” Mariam decided to go with her father.

Miriam knew she had a brother named Richard, but had never met him until the funeral of their uncle Noah Jacob. Although her life was filled with much love and pampering, Richard’s life was quite different.

Richard was also born in Guatemala City. He was two years younger than Miriam. Richard’s mother met Julio while he was selfemployed, making leather purses to sell to the Indians who then sold them to tourists. Richard was raised by his mother Josefina who washed clothes to make money. Her family had been middleclass farmers until Josefina’s father died. The family sold the farm and moved into the city, and it wasn’t long before they were on the brink of poverty. Richard was a troubled youth since he was a boy. He fought a lot beginning in the first grade. He had started the first grade three times because of his difficulties and then became a truant when he was only nine years old. Not having a father figure in his life affected his self-discipline. Richard preferred the street life. As he entered his teen years, Richard began to drink, smoke marijuana, and even sniffed glue. He eventually became a juvenile delinquent. Because there were no jobs for many of the youth in the capital city, Richard began to steal for money. Many children without parents lived in the streets of Guatemala City. These became the comrades with whom Richard associated.

A few times Richard came close to death—too close! He remembers going to the store one day when he was confronted by 30 gang members loitering outside. They mistook him for a relative of a rival gang member they had recently beaten. One of them tried to kick Richard. Richard punched him. Then they all attacked him. Richard was hit in the back of the head with a baseball bat. He was knocked out cold. His mother found him lying in the street. He had a severe concussion. His family slowly nursed him back to health.

When Richard first heard that his father was coming from the United States, he didn’t want to see him. All his life if anything went wrong, he would blame it on his absent father. He would scream at his mother, “It’s all my father’s fault because he’s not here!” His mother would admonish him and say, “Be quiet. Your father loves you!” Now that Julio had arrived, Richard’s maternal uncles began telling him, “Richard, go with your father since you are making your mother suffer by the way you are living.” Right at that time Richard

had a friend who murdered someone and was sentenced to death. Richard knew if he remained in his present lifestyle he would end up like his friend. He finally decided to see his father. It had been a long time since they were in each other’s company. Their embrace was uncomfortable for both of them, but Richard said he was ready to go to America.

A DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY ENCOUNTERS THE ALMIGHTY

When Julio came back to the United States with his two children, Ana felt like she already knew Miriam and Richard because Julio had talked about them for many years. At this time the Hernandez family was living in Modesto. It was very hard for all of them to adjust to their new lives. There was a lot of jealousy. “We knew we had to be together,” Ana and Julio said, “but there were always fights.” Modesto was not what Miriam had hoped it would be, and she and Richard had to learn English. The children also discovered that Julio and Ana were both hopeless alcoholics. Julio admits that if he didn’t have any money, he would go behind the bars along Yosemite Avenue and search for the near-empty bottles the bartenders threw out the night before after mixing drinks. He would greedily sip the few drops left in each bottle. Richard wanted out. He knew he had relatives from his mother’s side in New Jersey and saw his leaving as an escape. It was hard for Julio to see Richard go, but Julio knew the home he had made for his family could not function properly with his and Ana’s addictions. All that would change because of a newspaper article in the Modesto Bee.

“Here Comes the Pentecostals” read the front page in the local newspaper on February 3, 1986. Below the caption was a picture of people walking to their new church, the United Pentecostal Church of Modesto. Julio remembered as a child in Guatemala going to a Pentecostal church and feeling something special. He recalled experiencing a little of the anointing of the Holy Ghost, but he had never spoken in tongues. He decided to check out this church that Sunday. When he got there, Pastor Keyes was thanking all the brothers who helped complete the new sanctuary. Julio came back to church again that night. He heard the sound of people praying and talking in tongues. “I want to feel this,” he remembers thinking. He went up to the altar and Brother Frank Rodriguez prayed and talked with him. But then Julio didn’t go back for another two years. When he saw that after two years the church had grown and they were having more revival, Julio felt he had lost two years of blessings. Those people are rejoicing and feeling good. He started having a hunger for God, but he and Ana were living together still unmarried, and he felt bad about that. Then suddenly, Brother Frank Rodriguez made contact with him again. When Brother Rodriguez came to visit him he would tell him, “You must be baptized in Jesus’ name,” but Julio could not believe or accept this. He still believed in the holy trinity. Brother Rodriguez kept reminding Julio at every opportunity he saw him of his need to be baptized in Jesus’ name. Finally, after the Hernandez family moved closer to the mall, Brother Rodriguez lost track of them. But God did not lose track of Julio and his family. He was just getting ready to do a miracle in their lives.

THE WITNESS OF ELDER CHARLIE BISPO

Shortly after they moved, Julio started seeing a bright yellow bus

in his neighborhood on Sunday mornings with the words “United Pentecostal Church” painted on its sides. It wasn’t long when one Saturday morning Brother Charlie Bispo knocked on Julio’s door and invited his daughter Jennifer to Sunday school. Julio agreed. Each Sunday Brother Bispo would pick up Julio’s daughter for church. Every Saturday morning Brother Bispo would knock on their door to make sure Jennifer would be ready the next morning. Julio would think to himself, “What does this man want? If only he knew what happened on the night before, he wouldn’t be knocking at my door.” Julio finally told Brother Bispo, “You don’t need to knock on my door anymore. Just come on Sunday—my daughter will be ready.” But Brother Bispo gently said, “I would like to ask you to come to Sunday school.” Julio declined and became annoyed every time he would see Brother Bispo approach their home during Saturday morning outreach. But Brother Bispo would not give up. Every week he would come by and invite Julio to church. Julio would become exasperated and think to himself, “I keep telling him no. Does this man not understand my broken English?” Julio would even hide and tell Anna to say he wasn’t home. But on the mornings Brother Bispo caught him, he would say, “Julio, God loves you. Jesus wants to save you too.” The words went straight into Julio’s heart. Finally, Julio opened the door one Saturday morning and invited Brother Bispo in. “See, God wants you back in church,” Brother Bispo softly spoke to him. When they were done talking and Brother Bispo was leaving, Julio stopped him and said, “Pray for me. I want to go, but something stops me.” After prayer, Brother Bispo said, “I will continue praying for you. Come and surprise me.”

But still Julio did not go. He was doing crank and drinking heavily. Then he entered into a season of deep depression. He felt like he was going to die. In fact, he started telling his family that his life was going to end. “I think God was telling me I would die,” said Julio. He felt that if he continued the life he was leading, death was soon approaching. Julio called his sisters in Guatemala and asked for their forgiveness, saying he was going to die soon. His sisters, who had the Holy Ghost, began praying for him over the phone. Right during the phone call, Julio got his knees. His sisters said, “In the name of Jesus, we bind that evil spirit.” They began binding Satan in the name of Jesus Christ. This happened on a Monday. That Wednesday, Julio began crying uncontrollably. No one was with him, but he felt the Spirit of God was witnessing to him. He went to Brother Bispo’s church that next Sunday and arrived there at 6:00 PM, which at that time was the hour of prayer before the 7 o’clock service. He went to the men’s prayer room and knelt saying, “God, if I confess my sins will you forgive them?” He began to weep and felt a true experience of repentance. That’s when he found Brother Bispo kneeling near him. He said to Julio, “Brother, this is home. You belong here.” Julio would never forget those words. “It’s beautiful when someone from church says I love you and tells you that you are part of us,” Julio says earnestly. “I felt so good in my spirit.” They prayed for him and then it was time for church service. Miriam and Jennifer had come with Julio that night. Pastor Keyes preached about the gift of the Holy Ghost. “I wanted that,” Julio remembers. “I couldn’t wait. I felt he was preaching just to me.” When Pastor Keyes finished his sermon, he asked if someone wanted to come forward to receive the Holy Ghost. Before Julio could get out of his seat, another man came forward and Pastor Keyes prayed for him and he received the Holy Ghost. When Julio made his way up to the altar, Brother Bispo, Brother Floyd Lozada, Brother Frank Rodriguez, and oth-

ers prayed for him. After Julio prayed for a short time, a brother near him said, “Stop acting like you are going in the rapture and tell God thank you for the gift.” Julio suddenly felt light. “God delivered me right there!” he says with excitement. “I believe that God delivered me from all those spirits. God cleaned me up, and I never felt like this in my life. It was beautiful to feel clean!” He had prayed through to repentance.

The next day, a drug dealer came over to sell Julio some crank. Julio refused him and told him, “I don’t need it!” The dealer was baffled and did not believe him. Then he left. The following day, Julio woke up feeling good, feeling clean. Before he went to work, he lifted his hands and said, “Good morning, Jesus. How are you doing, Jesus? I want to tell you how I am feeling. Every morning I felt terrible. Today I feel I have joy in my life. I want to thank You for dying for me, Jesus. And I thank You for the Holy Ghost!” Julio felt a very strong anointing, and suddenly, there in the hallway of his home, he began speaking in tongues and he couldn’t stop! He spoke in tongues that morning and afternoon. He called his sisters speaking in tongues, and they started speaking in tongues. He went back to church the next service and told the brethren, “I am one of you!” Brother Frank Rodriguez came over with Brother Bispo and said, “You must be baptized in Jesus’ name. That’s what it takes to get to be a part of the church.” Julio then was baptized in Jesus’ name for the remission of his sins. Julio was so hungry for truth. He started praying and fasting. God started showing him the scriptures, and he understood and believed that there was only one God, confirming his baptism. He told Brother Floyd Lozada, “Come tell my family about one God. We are so hungry.”

Although Brother Julio and his daughters were baptized, his wife fought it. She would purposely work on Sundays doing housekeeping jobs for an excuse not to come. She finally agreed to visit the church, and Pastor Keyes preached on that morning, “Things Worthy to Fight For.” She felt the pull of the Spirit and became convicted. She went to the altar and received the Holy Ghost. She also was baptized in Jesus’ name. Now all but Richard had received this life-changing experience.

SAVED FROM THE CLUTCHES OF EVIL

Richard was still living in New Jersey. When he got there he landed a full-time job, making good money. He started going to school as well, but all that ended when he began to party, drink, and do drugs. He especially became addicted to marijuana. He started working two jobs and using coke to help him

Richard stay alert. A long time passed.

He was arrested when he was caught with a bong. He was put on probation. He lost his job and his apartment. After his probation officer told him he did not have to come in to take drug tests, he resumed his destructive addictions. His aunt gave him ultimatums and finally made him move out. His unemployment checks ran out, and he had no more credit. Now he had no money for drinking or drugs, and he had no friends to help him. He was only 21 years old, and he felt his life had no hope for the future. Somehow he endured another four years.

On June 24, 1992, his 25th birthday, he was feeling very low. He felt his life had no value. Then he felt a horrible depression of suicide come over him. He decided to kill himself by throwing himself into the path of a commuter train. He went to the nearest train station. There were several steps to the top of the overpass above the approaching trains. As he neared the steps, he suddenly received a tremendous jolt which stopped him in his tracks. He suddenly felt an urge to call his mother in Guatemala to say goodbye, but he also rememberedshe didn’t have a phone. He then thought of his father in Modesto. It had been a long time since he had spoken to him. He walked over to a nearby phone booth and dialed his father’s number.

Earlier that month, Brother Julio had gotten a burden in his heart to pray for his son and to rebuke any devil who might be harassing him. On the evening of Richard’s birthday, Brother Julio sat down to eat but then pushed his plate away, telling Ana that he was not hungry. Suddenly, he felt that he needed to that to go and pray. He went into his bedroom, then was impressed that he needed to pray for Richard. He said, “Satan, I rebuke you. I pray that God will destroy your plans for my son.” He kept praying and only stopped when Sister Ana said Richard was on the phone.

They greeted each other and Julio excitedly began telling his son what Jesus Christ had done in his life. He told Richard how he was not the same anymore. He was a new man. He did not drink or take drugs anymore. Now his life was filled with great joy and peace. His son listened quietly. Brother Julio asked Richard to let him pray for him over the phone. As they prayed together, God touched and healed Richard’s broken heart. When they were through praying, Richard told his father how that night he was planning on killing himself. Julio immediately encouraged his son to come back to Modesto so he could come to church with him and receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Two months later, Richard arrived. He saw the incredible difference Jesus had made in the lives of his sisters, Ana and his father. He did not hesitate to go to the next church service.

The night Richard came, Brother Julio testified before the congregation the miraculous deliverance from death his son had experienced and wanted the whole church to pray for him. It stopped the service. Pastor Keyes had everyone pray. Brother Richard received the Holy Ghost with great joy and was baptized in Jesus name!

**Brother Julio and Sister Anna Hernandez with one of their grandsons give an offering at a past Stewardship Missions Conference.**

From here, the Hernandez family began their powerful impact on the Kingdom of Heaven!