My Testimony: Abe Anaya
By: Abe Anaya
Every story has a beginning, but the Christian story doesn't have an end. Our end is the beginning of life eternal. The beginning of my faith journey started much earlier than I remember.
In 1979, my mother was pregnant with her seventh child (that's me), and she was struggling through a tumultuous marriage, married to an alcoholic man who would physically hurt her. A sweet little Christian lady lived next door who would pray and minister to my mother. She prayed for me, my mother's unborn child.
As a first-generation Mexican American, culturally, I found myself stuck between two worlds. On the one hand, I wasn't Mexican enough for my family in Mexico, and I wasn't American enough for those I was surrounded by here in the US. I spoke broken Spanish and, even worse, English. I was sad, angry, confused, and always fearful. Too often, my house was full of chaos and loud screaming. I hated my life; I hated myself.
Like many broken homes, God would have to intervene before my behaviors would become so destructive that I would kill myself or end up in jail one day. Unfortunately, some terrible life decisions led to my arrest at 19.
Three months after my 18th birthday, my best friend and I decided to commit an unarmed bank robbery. We justified it because we wouldn't physically hurt anybody or take a natural person's money; it was a harmless note we wrote. The bank was federally insured, so we weren't hurting anybody. We got away with it until they came looking for me. I went on the run for 11 months.
On December 18, 1998, I was arrested by the FBI and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in a federal correctional institution nine months later. Unfortunately, during my incarceration, I went from bad to worse. I developed an addiction to methamphetamines, and by the age of 21, I was ready to come home, but I was a full-blown drug addict.
In September of the year 2,000, while in solitary confinement, I cried out to God and asked Him to cleanse me of my addiction and help me. I was two months short of coming home, and I was scared that I was being released as a worse person than when I first came in. Just days after Thanksgiving, I re-entered the "real world." With a new outlook on life and sober for the first time since I was 14, I knew I needed some internal change. While incarcerated, there was a Nigerian Pastor and other Christian inmates who had attempted to share Christ with me. I was so lost and broken that I could not decide to follow Jesus because I didn't want to be made fun of, and I was scared of what others would think.
After being released, I was sent to a halfway house in Hollywood to serve the remainder of my sentence. At this place, I would receive an unlikely visit from my childhood friends who grew up in a protestant church. Once I realized that I could see the streets of LA that I had grown to love by simply saying that I wanted to attend a church service and that I would be afforded a 3-hour church pass, I was like, "Hallelujah, I want to go to church, sign me up!" They took me to their new church, Shepherd of the Hills in Porter Ranch.
Jesus had a plan from the beginning. My unlikely friends who visited me at the halfway house and invited me to go to their church were a set of sisters that I had previously grown up with. We did not meet until middle school, but as it turns out, the sweet little old Christian lady who lived next door and prayed for my mother and her unborn child, well, that was their grandmother, Grandma Maxi. (Where my son derives his middle name)
While attending Shepherd Church, I learned who Jesus was and is. It was through the belief and encouragement of two sisters who loved me as their dearest friend. They loved me and believed in me, but even more than that, they believed in a risen King who could help their friend who was so lost and broken.
Some short months later, I began dating one of the sisters, and less than nine months later, we got married. Through this newfound relationship with my new wife, Desserie, I began to experience love from her and Jesus. You see, I had never shared this closeness with anybody, not my family of origin, not in sports, not my friends, not in prison, not at all. Any relationship I had previously experienced seemed conditional. Except for my oldest sister, Patty, I had never experienced unconditional love. Marriage and Jesus go hand in hand, and I was embarking on a new adventure of healing and truth. Through the Life Groups ministry at Shepherd and some mentorship from my small group leader and some of the pastors, I began to flourish. It is through community that God grows us.
Today, I serve as one of the pastors at Shepherd Church. My responsibility is to help gather people and connect them to Jesus and one another. No matter where you are in life, we have a place for you. No matter what you have done, there is forgiveness. No matter how far away you are, a Father is awaiting His prodigal sons and daughters. I am thankful that Jesus never turned His face away from me. I am grateful for the opportunity to share, teach, and preach His word to anyone I come in contact with. I may not have a pulpit in front of me at all times, but I have a message to preach about a crucified Christ who rose from the dead, conquering sin and death and offering all hope.
No matter how far along you are in your journey, share with anybody willing to listen about your relationship with Jesus.