Veronica and I were just a young couple, who met at a gang neighborhood party in the West Side of L.A. We met by a keg and connected immediately with each other. Little did I know that through her I would be connected to someone and something even greater. She was the one who introduced me to Jesus and brought me to Victory Outreach.
In the early 1990’s, an older home girl of hers who was from West Side Locos, and her sister who was from 18th Street, got saved, went to Victory Outreach and would minister to Veronica. Although Veronica was this beautiful party girl she was deeply hurting and would cry everytime she would visit the church. She found it hard to let go of her friends and that street life.
Unsurrendered to God, she did her best to tell me of the peace she felt at church, she spoke of God with such joy. I remember her telling me, “They’re just like us there.” I knew what she meant. Although I was not looking for God, I was only 16 years old, felt at the prime of my youth, caught up living that typical L.A. party street life, but I was empty, and was already expecting my first kid. Her words made me feel at peace. I asked her to take me and she did, and she was right, they were like us, except for one, Pastor Sonny Jr.
It was in 1993, when we walked through the doors of Victory Outreach, the mother church, and it was there where we were able to connect with Pastor Sonny Jr., whom we had met at a Victory Outreach evangelistic event in Downtown L.A. There was something about him that got our attention.
Veronica and I came from dysfunctional families. Drugs, alcohol, abuse, violence, guns, sexual immorality, mental illness, poverty, and chaos, were the norm for us. Everyone we met from Victory Outreach came from similar homes. However, with Pastor Sonny Jr., there was something different, something pure. He spoke to us with love and purity unique, from that of others. He was not raised in a dysfunctional home. His family experienced God breaking all those strongholds and dedicated themselves to seeing God do that for other families. Families like ours. We loved being under Pastor Sonny Jr. and his family.
Part of what has always been amazing about our ministry is not only do we believe God can save someone like us, but transform us and use us. I remember one time Pastor Sonny Jr. saying “I’m going to be doing the youth ministry and would love for you to help me there. Let’s build something for God!” He spoke to us as if we were leaders, and we were not that. We were still teenagers. Teenage parents that were still raw. He saw something in us that we didn’t see in ourselves.
He was very inclusive. We gathered constantly. Always strategizing. All of our opinions were valued. One time we were trying to brainstorm a cool name for our youth ministry. Veronica and I loved it when the name ended up being, the G.A.N.G. – God’s Anointed Now Generation. We had a desire to make it the biggest, baddest gang in the world.
I remember prior to Pastor Sonny Jr. taking over the youth ministry there were only about twelve people, and once he came in, a dramatic growth took place. It grew to 50 people, and then after a short time, it went from 100-200 people, and within a few years we saw 500-800 people. There was a mixture of bald gang members, party people, and church kids, all getting radically saved and on fire for God. It became a world-wide movement right before our eyes. We were in the midst of a revival and we didn’t even know it.
Despite all of us being very young, discipleship was a huge value. Not only were we being disciplined but everyone was encouraged to have disciples. We would constantly ask each other “who are you discipling?”
Veronica and I had a strong desire to help our pastor build what God had entrusted him with, we loved our pastor. Because the G.A.N.G. was functioning like a church within a church and the “the church” had ministry homes so we decided to open our home for young men. We packed it out with young gang members, church kids, and even had young drug addicts sent to us from other countries like Ireland and Colombia. We did our best to teach them to serve the Lord.
Later we also had an opportunity to direct a ministry home for girls, the Deborah Home. My wife was disciplined by Sister Doreen who saw something in her. She gave her a challenge, “reproduce yourself” and despite complexes, intimidation and insecurities, she said yes to the challenge. She was able to work with girls who wanted to go to another level in their walk with God by helping them develop in leadership and in character.
It’s amazing how one season prepares you for the next season. In 1999, we were asked to be part of a team to help start the West Coast Urban Training Center. We witnessed the provision of God in the establishing of this U.T.C. We had a short time to not only promote this new training center but to fix the broken down property. The entire team was young, with little money and even less construction skills. Pastor Tim Arguinzoni had a vison and mobilized many people from everywhere to come and help. Every day on that property before working we exalted Christ. “I exalt thee” became the theme. The more we exalted the more God provided the material, and the people with skills from various Victory Outreach churches. It was a United We Can effort and it became our generation’s modern day Hacienda.
Despite so many who helped see the Los Angeles Toberman Campus come to pass we had the honor to be prayed in as the directors. A year after that, we were asked to be the Directors of the Training Center in Manila the Philippines and it was there God gave us a burden for the world. He specifically gave us a burden for Asia and later for Island people. At World Conference 2007 we got launched out, along with our 5 amazing kids, to pastor a church in Hawai’i.
I love the spiritual lineage we have the honor to be part of. We come from a lineage of warriors. We have warrior D.N.A. We were just a teenage couple that walked into Victory Outreach looking for hope and purpose. We were birthed in revival, and because of that we won’t settle for anything less. We want to see the vision continue, churches planted, and to see every generation won! We are products of the G.A.N.G.
