Testimony of Conversion
My name is Antonio de Jesús Hernández Correa, I am 43 years old, I was born on September 10, 1979, I am husband of Kellys Carolina Velásquez de Hernández since 2003, I am father of 4 children, Kellys 19 years old, Antonio 17 years old, Gamaliel 15 years old and Antonella 7 years old.
On June 22 of this year 2023 I will be 20 years since my conversion from the world to Christ, since my God had mercy on me and saved me by forgiving all my sins in Christ.
I was born in San Felix, Bolivar State, son of Antonio Rafael Hernandez Granadino and Gloria Coromoto Correa de Hernandez, I am the oldest of 5 siblings.
My Father a very honest policeman in terms of his work and moral issues with respect to his work but as a husband very womanizing and as a father very careless.
My mother was a woman dedicated to her home and her children, I remember her telling us many stories that are very dear to me thanks to her, but at the same time as a wife suffering from my father’s infidelities and neglect, she lived a life always aware of my father’s cheating and arguing with him most of the time.
I am thankful for my parents but how I wish they would have known my savior at that time first for the salvation of both of them, their marriage and us their children who would have grown up in a Christian home I am sure everything would have been different.
Vista Al Sol a neighborhood of San Felix was the place where we grew up was an environment of drugs, alcohol, parties and small gangs, by the neglect of my parents spent much time outside the house being influenced by this environment as I grew up I understood that to fit into this world where I grew up I had to over go out in all things so I fell into drugs, alcohol, parties and bad company of my sector, something that my dad as an honest policeman resented a lot to the point of not speaking to me, I also resented his neglect of us and cheating on my mom, alcohol, parties and bad company in my sector, something that my father as an honest policeman resented a lot to the point that he did not speak to me, I also resented a lot his neglect of us and the cheating on my mother, although my mother also began to suffer for the way I lead my life, which made me feel bad.
I became addicted to drugs, that caused me problems in addition to the problems I got to have with others, my mother made the decision to send me to live with a brother in the town of Mapire Anzoátegui State to see if I could change, but the problems with me continued and one morning after drinking at a party, I went to ask my mom for money because she was visiting me that day was my birthday, we discussed that made me feel very bad to the point of already being
Tired of getting into so much trouble and being a burden to all my relatives, besides arguing and saying very strong things to the person who had done the most for me, I decided to end my life and took many pills and went to a very secluded place and took all the pills in tears with the intention of dying, and I threw myself on the floor, closed my eyes and lost consciousness, but after several hours I woke up and began to reflect and cry about what I had done and I decided to make changes in my life.
So I began to make changes in my life, I eventually returned home with my parents, where I spent several years, I restored my relationship with my father, he encouraged me to read self-help books, I began to take refuge in reading these books, among those books I read a book called the power of thought by Norman Vincent Peale, in this book he recommended reading the bible, so I followed his advice and took a new testament and began to read it, In this book he recommended reading the bible, so I followed his advice and took a new testament and began to read it, as I read it I began to want to go to a church, so one Sunday I went out to look for a church to attend that day I arrived at the Baptist Church Christ For All Nations of Puerto Ordaz, that day in the morning they exposed Psalms 1:1-3, they spoke in light of this passage of man from Psalms 1:1-3 and they also spoke that to become that man I had to repent of my sins and believe in Jesus Christ, so on June 23, 2002 I repented of my sins and put my faith in Jesus Christ from that day, my God, turned me into a new Creature, I remember the change I experienced made my dad, The pastor preached the gospel to him and he repented, for me it was a joy but I regret that by that time he had already separated from my mother and was living with another woman, he has already died and my hope is that he is with my savior and his savior.
It was a day of great joy for me the day I repented and believed in Jesus Christ, I remember that when I returned to my mother-in-law’s house where at that time I lived with my current wife, I told her the news of what I had done, she told me that she was not going to become an evangelical, I replied that it was her responsibility if she did or not but the truth was that I had done it and nothing would discourage me to continue the path I had taken, for me it was a joy when the following month she also repented and put her faith in Jesus Christ.
Call to Ministry
When I converted to Christ on June 22, 2002, I spent a year in the church being discipleship, the church was in the work of planting a church in the town of Santa Fe Sucre State, several evangelistic trips were made with a view to planting a church. After a year of being in the church I began to get involved in that work and to travel also, that year as there were several young people opened a biblical missionary institute with the idea of preparing these young people to the ministry, the pastor of the church asked my wife and I to enroll in the institute, at that time I was studying computer science but we accepted at that time not for the aspiration to the ministry but to learn more about the bible.
We began studying in March 2003, at the end of the first semester I went into a vocational crisis because I understood that God was calling me to the ministry, but I was also studying something else and I was involved in other projects and I realized that I could not do both at that time, so I surrendered to God, I left my other studies and gave up the projects I was working on and I focused on studying at the missionary institute and serving in my church, At night I worked in a security company and in the day I was dedicated to the sales of a variety of articles and products, after two years of studying the church decided to profile me to be the candidate of the future church in the town of Santa Fe, they began to send us a year before our graduation so we could know the brothers, the people and their customs and they could know us.
Two weeks later our church dismissed us and sent us to the plantation in the town of Santa Fe, the elders and the pastor accompanied us for the constitution of the church, the first baptism of our church took place and I was ordained as Pastor with the imposition of hands of the elders on August 20, 2006.