From Gang Member to Anabaptist Pastor — José Sanchez — Ep. 041

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Anabaptist Perspectives. I'm here in Los Angeles, California, with Jose and his wife, and we're going to hear a little bit of your story of how you came to know Jesus and got involved in the church. And now you pastor this church, is that correct? Yes. Okay. So this is the backyard, really, of your house, and you have a church that meets here every Sunday. And can you go into a little of that process of where you were before you were a Christian and how you got to—because I honestly, I don't really know your story. I came from Mexico, you know, Jalisco, from Jalisco. And I was living there.

I already have a—I didn't know the Lord, first of all, but I already had a problem with alcohol and some violence in my house and family and things like that. So when I came here to the U.S. in 1993, for the next two years, I still struggled a lot with alcohol, and then I started using drugs and got together, and my life was a disaster, you know, for those two years after I came to the U.S. Thanks God that He always has a way for us, and He cares so much for us that I came to know Him in 1995. Well, He already has a purpose for us. I know that. Now I understand that part.

But back in 1995, I didn't know what's going on, other than that I have a tremendous problem with addictions. And I was living with my family in Orange County. After they tried to work with me and to, you know, to try to help me out, they don't know the Lord. Until today, they don't know the Lord.

But they tried to help me out in different ways and, you know, provide me different ways to help me out. But it didn't work out. They kicked me out from their house. Wow. So after living for, you know, a few days or weeks on the streets and getting more deep in alcohol and drugs is when I came to know the Lord on the street. Someone just talked to me about the Lord, and they invited me to a place. And honestly, what I was looking at that time, a place to stay. I didn't have no place to stay. You were homeless. Yeah. Pretty much, I ended up being homeless. Wow. Yes. They invited me to this place.

They offered me food and a place to stay. And what else, you know, that's what I was looking for: a place to stay and food. I was hungry. No money. I went to that place, and I didn't know what to expect.

You know, they started talking to me about the Lord, and God loved me, and John 3:16. And I didn't know anything about that. It's just, okay, well, you know. Wow. Had you had any interaction with Christianity before this time, or? No. Wow. No. No.

No. No, not really. I didn't know that they were Christians or that they were someone that they serve the Lord. If I knew, I might say, you know what, I'm not going to that place. To be clear on this, it was they took me to a rehab, a rehab where there were more people like me, you know, with problems, addictions. And time goes by, and the next few months, and I started feeling better, you know, like I didn't have no need to use alcohol or drugs. And I started doing some projects for that place and knowing more people and seeing people the way that they came to that rehab. And I said, wow, I was like that.

Wow, you know. And I started feeling that compassion for them and trying to help them out. And I started, instead of just going by myself, I started seeing the need and started kind of, you know, in my heart, feeling that I decided to serve them and to work with them and to see them change. And I stayed in that house for three years. Wow. Three years. Okay. So back in that time, the program that that house has was for nine months. After three months, I started feeling that call from the Lord to do something else. And I started, like I said, working with new people coming in and helping and doing whatever I could. And that was six months, nine months.

And the time came when I graduated, and they gave me a certificate. And they said, okay, well, you already finished your nine-month program, so you are free to go. I said, no, now I don't want to go. I want to stay. Wow. Wow. Okay. And then how did you meet your wife through all this process? I met my wife in church, in that church. Oh, that's a good place to be. Yes. After I think I was already two years and a half when I met her in church. So by that time, I already was praying.

One of the first prayers that I learned in that place is that if you want something, you need something. And if you desire something, you must pray. You must ask. And I said, well, Lord, I need a wife. I want to have my family. The way that I met her was in the church, yes. This is another big question then. What happened between 1998 to now, to where you're pastoring a church here behind your house? What was—I mean, I'm sure a lot of things happened there, but can you kind of walk me through some of that process? Like I said in the beginning, I felt the call from the Lord since I was in that house in 1995, 1996.

I don't see any other explanation why I stay in that house. Because I didn't get no pay. They didn't pay not even one penny, just to clarify. So I really was there because the Lord put it in my heart. Then from 1998, we live in Orange County in Anaheim, California, for a few years. I'm very bad at remembering exactly the days and years, but attending to the same church and getting involved and serving as much as we could and helping others there and doing whatever the church does, you know, preaching the gospel and evangelizing and all that.

And then when I moved from Orange County to LA is because I was working for a company. The owner of that company asked me, I said, do you want to work with me in LA? I said, yes. He says, I'm going to open a store over there. Do you come with me? I said, yes.

You and your whole family? I said, yes. We moved to LA. And the time that we moved to LA, we were a little bit struggling, a little bit. And then when we moved here, we started attending to the same church where I came to know the Lord. We attended that church for maybe four years, something like that. And then we walked away from that church.

We decided that we had the need to find a different church where our children, you know, have a better environment. Even though it was a Christian church, there were still things that we didn't agree on, we didn't like. Anyways, so for, I think, one year, my wife and I, especially my wife, she was praying and praying for a church where people really loved the Lord, where people really served the Lord with, you know, with their hearts. Thanks God, we found Pastor Ernest and family. That happened through his sons and my children because they were having a kids' club in the park. My children, they go to the park. They see that they were teaching art and doing things like that.

And they came back home, oh, we met Christian people in there, and they're teaching this and they're teaching that. And I didn't. And that time, I don't really, you know, pay so much attention, like, okay, if they're Christian, they might be good. But I didn't know who they... Then after a few weeks, we see my neighbor here, one of my best friends, too, Sam. They move, and then I see Marcel and Asher helping them to move. And I said, oh, that's interesting. These are the people that were in the park. And now they're helping here. What's going on here? I'm trying to figure it out. And we found out that it's the same people, same church, and that they loved the Lord and that they were doing this, serving here in LA and get my attention a little bit.

And sure enough, we started going and visiting Pastor Ernest and his house, and everything started from there. That's amazing. So you met them in the park. And then sometime later here, they're helping someone move in next door, and here it's the same people. Yes. That's amazing.

Do you know how long ago that would have been? That was like around, I would say, seven to eight years. And then the church began meeting here, I guess, behind your house at some point? Not right after that. I think after one year, a few months after that, yes.

And now you're the pastor of this church. Thanks to God, yes. And praise the Lord that He gave me that revelation and the opportunity to serve Him. And yeah, I'm very happy. Can you maybe tell a little bit of how you decided this was the church, this was the people that you wanted to join? I had the same question.

And one of the first ABC that we have or that we attend, one young man, I don't remember his name, he asked me the same question. And I said, well, that's a good question. One of the reasons that we can say that I have to come to this church is because, as I said before, I was praying, and we were praying to find a church that they loved God, a church that they were real, that they were really just pursuing the Lord. I'm sure that we found that church. Wow. I really like just the way that they are. Very simple, very honest. And I see a good opportunity to learn. And so maybe that was one thing then for this church that you found that you wanted to be a part of is because of that sense of community, right?

Yes. That sense of bond with. Yeah. Love and care. Yes, definitely. Yeah. So I'm going to ask you another big question. What would be your vision for the city of Los Angeles, for what you want to see happen in your neighborhood across the city? To plant churches and to, yes, open houses in the whole LA and just plant churches. Doesn't matter how big or in which area, but just plant churches as much as we can. And that's my vision at this point. That's my vision. And I don't see myself changing that vision because I see how beautiful it is to open the house and to open the house for whoever wants to come to church.

And is there a specific, like you talk about planting churches, is there a specific vision you have for church planting, like a specific part of LA? Or do you want to just keep serving here with the fellowship that you have? There's so much need in this community, and not only in this community around the area, but in the whole LA, you know. And it's not because it's not churches. There's so many churches. But those churches, there are so many questions there. I don't want to really go into detail, but I really want to see more churches like that one that we have here, churches like the thrift store that we have already, and some other fellowships where we don't need really to worry too much to pay rent, to pay bills, to really squish the church members to, you know, to give more and more.

But churches that they can just openly start. And that's why you choose to meet in homes or in a back patio like this. Yes. Well, yeah. That's one of the things that I learned in this church that it's possible.

Before, in my mind, was that I need to see those four walls, that big building, and the AC. The air conditioning. Yeah. If it's not that, it's kind of questionable. Maybe it's not a church. The Bible is clear with this. We're two or three gathering in His name. His presence is there, and He's there. So that makes me happy. Here, we don't need AC. We have AC all around.

So yes. Thank you for sharing that, especially your vision for church. Do more. Let's plant more churches. Thank you, everyone, for watching. Thank you for coming and sharing your story. Yeah, I really appreciate that. And yeah, let us know what you think about this video. Maybe leave a comment or send us an email. We release videos like this every week, new podcasts and new articles about what God is doing around the world and in people's lives like Jose and Ana. So yeah, thank you. If you enjoyed this episode, come back for more, and we will see you in the next video.