Thank you for joining in and following our beautiful family on this adventure of a life time. I would like to share with you a little of our story and Gods faithfulness. My husband and I have been married almost 16 years with 6 children and 7 pregnancies. We have been clean from meth and cocaine for over 14 years and following the Lord since mid 2006. But all that said we did not start off with a beautiful life, no, I came from a broken home and an alcoholic/ abusive mother and father who divorced when I was very little. Through my life I experienced almost everything you could think of, gangs, drugs by 10, even pregnant at 15 (with my oldest son, Elijah, now 17). My first big life change came when I was in jail awaiting a 5 year prison sentence (after months on the run and addicted to cocaine and meth), 6 months pregnant with Elijah, and expecting my mother (now addicted to Rx medication) to take custody of my son. While sitting in jail I went to church and studied my bible and for the first time in my life I really heard who Christ was and how much HE loved me! One day the Chaplin came in to tell me my mom had passed away from a Rx drug overdose. WOW! That was hard and I had no one else. Praise God for soon after this my sentence was deferred and I was sent to a teen parent program as long as I did good. A year later I was released early at 17 and was already back into the drugs. Shortly after I met my husband who happened to be a dealer and together for over a year we made the best, worst team.
Now my husbands story is a bit different. He was born in California and deported with his mother at 10 days old to Mexico. His biological dad turned his mother in for fear of his wife finding out. So he and his mother and soon other siblings all lived with his grandmother there in Mexico. Sam was raised by his grandmother mostly as his mother was off looking for work in the states. He tells us all the stories of how his grandma worked so hard to save money as his grandfather (the musician of many instruments) played in bars every night possible to survive. They had beans everyday sometimes with cockroaches (considered extra protein) and how she would send him to the meat store to get the scraps of meat sold for animals to bring home and cook once a week. Now his father lived a few miles away and never saw Sam, except once when Sam was walking down the road with out shoes, (they were too poor and he would run and jump from shade tree to shade tree) and his dad saw him, stopped, showed him a picture of his new half baby brother and offered him a hot root beer in 120 degree weather. That was the just of his good paternal memories. None of the family wanted anything to do with him. So, he helped his grandmother and loved her so. Sam worked at 7 years old on the streets washing windshields of any passerby who would allow and sold candy on his bike at soccer games (which he loves soccer). When he was 13 he desired to cross to the states to have more work and found out then by his grandma that he was an American Citizen, that spoke no English. Now his mother and new step father decided to cross him and his siblings to the states and come to Colorado to work in the seasonal lettuce, a very hard job. During this time he began to hang with the wrong crowd and had always desired to follow family tradition of becoming a drug lord and living the life style as one. He was hooked on drugs by 18 and now facing prison as well. The judge let him off on probation and Sam began to attend church with his parents and had even gotten baptized. But the joy of the Lord was short lived as Sams young wisdom and lack of spiritual support strayed him back to the world again. He went through a lot. His grandmother passed away, still on drugs, working an 80 hour a week job and marrying on accident. He was on his way to the drug lord dream even as we met in July 20, 2004.
We together dealt more drugs and were our own best customers, all this while having my son with us the whole way. 6 months after having met we were married and 6 weeks later found out we were pregnant on a return trip from a drug run when I was so sick I thought I was dying of an overdose. I had almost quit the drugs for 3 weeks for the baby and we left on "1 more run" even though I begged my husband not to. On these runs he would tell me of a voice (he thought it was the drugs) telling him, "come to me my arms are wide open." but we ignored it. We left for the last run and upon returning we got busted trafficking over a pound of meth and cocaine across state lines. That's when Sam first realized it was the Lords voice he was hearing, but this time as Sam sat in the back of the cop car He said, " I told you to turn to me." He now sat in jail with 25 year prison sentence. BUT God still called him and had a plan. All of our charges were dropped in November when we went for sentencing. And like a dog to its own vomit, with in 3 months we were back into it again. This time I was 19 and had 2 boys and I threatened to leave my husband cause I could live like this anymore. But AGAIN God called us, (HE IS FAITHFUL). The very next day social services called us in, they had a tip of drug use and were demanding hair samples. We flew out of the office and drove down the highway throwing all of the drugs out the window, and have never touched them again! They threatened to take what God knew meant the most to us. Our kids.
So fast forward 14 years and WOW, What God has done! We both had great jobs, my husband at his for 14 years. Then the Lord called us to go on mission trip to Mexico (plus he was supposed to have left his job way before for health) but he held on as long as he could and God worked it out. So here we were returning from Mexico and saw that was not Gods plan for us for now, but his preparing our hearts. 2 weeks home and our oldest son ended up with major double hip surgery and in a wheel chair (now fully recovered). So we wondered and waited, prayed and fasted, listened and searched. We both agreed God was calling us to His service full time and that we needed the training. Then from a previous summer meeting with a missions trainer, we contacted WIM (World Indigenous Missions) and began the process of getting trained. Honestly, we didn't think they would take us with our back ground but on July 31, 2020 we joined them and their mission to reach the lost! We are now headed to Alabama for a 1 year training program and for the opportunity to work with rehabilitated addicts and ex convicts. We invite you to join our team and be a part of something huge, to share testimony so that some many may be saved (Rev 12:11) and to go out into all the world and share the love of Jesus Christ and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son an d the Holy Spirit, and to make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:19-21). Please join us in prayer for God to use us for His kingdom, if its on your heart you can support us financially once or with monthly donations with the Get Involved button on our page, you can also contact us with questions and more opportunities to serve. God knew our life and has chosen to take it and use it for His glory, For tHis Purpose! Praise be to God and our Lord Jesus Christ and we pray that he will bless all of you with a full cup that runs over till you drink off your saucer! Luke 6:38
Blesssings,
Hernandez Crew for Christ