Philippians 4:13
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Never in a million years would we of had ever imagined that our life would be so peaceful and hearts so content. The past 4 years have been a struggle and a learning experience for all of us, but with God as our leader, all of these struggles were so easy to go through. It might make no sense but there is no other way to explain. We are the Tovar family. We are originally from Brownsville, TX. My husband and I were born and raised there. We met when I was 14 years old and he was 17 years old. When I turned 15 years old I decided to run away from my house after a huge argument with my mother. I went to go live with my now husband at his mother’s house and began our married life. I became pregnant shortly after with my first born son. He was born 4 days after my 16th birthday. Being that we lived so close to the Mexican border my husband got a “job” in the drug cartel. Having access to so much money at the mere age of 19 years old led him to abuse drugs and throw all this money in material things. I remember being in high school and having all this money and cars and brand name clothes for me and my child and basically whatever we wanted my husband was able to get. There were times that he would ask me to go with him across the border to pick up his pay and thinking “WHOA!!!! That sure is nice!” He would give me packets of money to put in my purse and him putting some packets of money in his shoes and taping baggies of drugs to his legs as well so we would not get caught. I could go on and on about so many things that we did together and things that he did on his own that I still dare not ask him what they are as I don’t want to see my husband as a “monster”. Little has he told me about some stuff and I told him to stop because in my eyes he is this caring husband and father. That life did not last long as my husband was being tracked by law enforcement. Everywhere we went there was always an undercover cop following. He soon decided that he had to get out of there if not he was going to get caught and he did not want to go to prison. He decided that he was going to go to Florida and let things cool off and then he would come back. He left for a whole year and left me and the baby behind. During that year we stayed at my parents’ house. He finally came back and was able to get a real job as an electrician’s helper. He still kept on smoking marijuana on a daily basis and would once in a while go out and drink with his work buddies. This went on for about 3 years and I then came out pregnant with my 2nd child. A couple of months after our daughter was born he was incarcerated for 6 months in state jail for possession of a controlled substance. He was pulled over one night and he had cocaine in his possession and that caught up to him. He was put away and I was left to provide for these 2 kids. At the time I was going to college full time and working full time. I soon had to get a part time job as well to make it financially. While incarcerated, my husband made ties with a known prison gang and became classified as a gang member in the Texas State Department of Corrections. He was released after he completed his 6 month term. That did not stop him from using drugs or hanging out with his bad influence friends. He then got hired with an electrical company that required for him to travel to different states. He was placed in Florida and we all moved there for 1 year. He was then placed to work back in Texas so we moved back. He kept on travelling throughout the state coming home once every 2 months or so. While working away in West Texas he met someone else and he decided to call our relationship off. That was a big shock to me as I never expected for him to ever hurt me that way. I remember talking to a friend of mine crying and asking her if she would go with me that weekend to where he was staying and I was going to beat the daylights out of him and her if she got into it. My friend was down for anything I just had to wait till Friday when he got paid to take the money out of the bank and take off. Well, did not work out as his money never got deposited into the account as he had already gotten another account and he only sent me $100. My plan did not come out as I wanted it to come out. Now I go back and thank the Lord for not allowing my ways to go through. In order to keep myself from thinking about my pain I started to go out with my old friends from school to drink. Once in a while I would smoke marijuana with them and that helped to ease my pain for a while. I would cry myself to sleep almost every night thinking what I did wrong for my husband to run off like that. Well 2 months after he ran off he was in a major car accident where he and his passenger were injured. He ended up in the ICU with a cut on his head that required staples and caused bleeding into his brain. His passenger got broken bones and minor cuts and scrapes. The state picked up the case and they pressed charges on him. He was free for 1 year before they decided to run court and since he did not appear, a warrant for his arrest was issued. He decided to come back and try to make our relationship work again 2 weeks after his accident. It was very hard for me to accept him again and to forgive and forget about all the pain I was put through. Because of what he had done, my oldest son grew so much anger and hate towards his father. My son was in 8th grade at that time and he began to hang out with a bunch of kids that were up to no good as well. He began experimenting with drugs and alcohol at a very young age and was soon a victim to all of that garbage. Our lives at that point of time were just breaking apart. My husband began using crack cocaine on a daily basis and seeing him deteriorating was so sad and upsetting at the same time. We soon lost our house that we were renting and had to go stay with one of his uncles. I would cry every night as I did not know what to do to make my husband stop using drugs. I eventually could not take it any longer and I decided to go back to my parents’ house. I soon found out that I was pregnant with our 3rd child. Feeling desperate for help I called a good friend of mine that I had met in college and that she was in church. Me and the kids started going to her church and started liking it. I told my husband about it and he did just not want to go. Finally, in March of 2011 he decided that he was tired of living the way he was and came to Corpus Christi and put himself in a Christian drug rehab institution. He stayed in there for a couple of weeks and decided that he was good. While going to church back in Brownsville, TX we met this lady that gave us her grandson’s phone number. She told us that he was building an Apostolic church here in Corpus Christi and to give him a call. My husband called him up and we attended our 1st service at Christ Apostolic Tabernacle on May 29, 2011. My husband did ok for about 3 months and then he started doing crack cocaine again. I had our 3rd child in August 2011 and it was just so hard to keep up with a newborn and having to deal with a drug addict. 3 weeks after having the baby, my husband and my oldest son got into a fight where I thought they were going to kill each other. They were chasing each other down the street with studs and some family members had to hold them apart and they had to take my son so they could calm down. I kept on going to church and praying to God to do a miracle. My miracle came in October 2011 when my husband was picked up on his blue warrant for the pending Intoxicated Assault with a motor vehicle causing serious bodily injury charge he picked up in that car accident he had. Mine and my kids’ financial and spiritual struggle began. God began working in our lives. There were days where I had to drag my oldest son to church and then hear him saying all these negative things about God on our 20 minute drive home from church. I was unemployed at the time my husband was locked up; it was not until 1 year later that I was able to find a job. My Lord was our provider for that entire year as I had to live off of about $800 monthly. I had a mortgage and all the bills to pay. Not once was our services disconnected! Praise the Lord! There were times I would go to church on an empty gas tank and knew that I was not able to make it back home and every time that would happen, someone from church would come up to me and give me $25, $30, or $40. At that point of time I knew God was showing me that he had everything under control and all I needed to do was let go and have faith in Him. And so I did. He blessed me with a good State job where I got benefits. My church family was so helpful and if it had not been for them encouraging me it would have had been twice as hard. The Lord blessed my children by giving them the gift of the Holy Ghost. He did not only work on us but worked on my husband in prison as well. After spending 2 years in there this time around, he was released on parole. All of our family lives for the Lord now and it is just a wonderful way of life. There is just so much peace in our home now. If I had only known that living for God would bring so much joy and peace to my heart, I would have had done this since the beginning. Seeing my children worship God in church and at home is just an awesome view! Hearing my little one singing the hymns from Church is just unbelievable! I would never change this for anything in this world! The only thing I can say is THANK YOU JESUS for your wonderful mercy and for shedding that precious blood on that cross so that our sins could get washed away!
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Never in a million years would we of had ever imagined that our life would be so peaceful and hearts so content. The past 4 years have been a struggle and a learning experience for all of us, but with God as our leader, all of these struggles were so easy to go through. It might make no sense but there is no other way to explain. We are the Tovar family. We are originally from Brownsville, TX. My husband and I were born and raised there. We met when I was 14 years old and he was 17 years old. When I turned 15 years old I decided to run away from my house after a huge argument with my mother. I went to go live with my now husband at his mother’s house and began our married life. I became pregnant shortly after with my first born son. He was born 4 days after my 16th birthday. Being that we lived so close to the Mexican border my husband got a “job” in the drug cartel. Having access to so much money at the mere age of 19 years old led him to abuse drugs and throw all this money in material things. I remember being in high school and having all this money and cars and brand name clothes for me and my child and basically whatever we wanted my husband was able to get. There were times that he would ask me to go with him across the border to pick up his pay and thinking “WHOA!!!! That sure is nice!” He would give me packets of money to put in my purse and him putting some packets of money in his shoes and taping baggies of drugs to his legs as well so we would not get caught. I could go on and on about so many things that we did together and things that he did on his own that I still dare not ask him what they are as I don’t want to see my husband as a “monster”. Little has he told me about some stuff and I told him to stop because in my eyes he is this caring husband and father. That life did not last long as my husband was being tracked by law enforcement. Everywhere we went there was always an undercover cop following. He soon decided that he had to get out of there if not he was going to get caught and he did not want to go to prison. He decided that he was going to go to Florida and let things cool off and then he would come back. He left for a whole year and left me and the baby behind. During that year we stayed at my parents’ house. He finally came back and was able to get a real job as an electrician’s helper. He still kept on smoking marijuana on a daily basis and would once in a while go out and drink with his work buddies. This went on for about 3 years and I then came out pregnant with my 2nd child. A couple of months after our daughter was born he was incarcerated for 6 months in state jail for possession of a controlled substance. He was pulled over one night and he had cocaine in his possession and that caught up to him. He was put away and I was left to provide for these 2 kids. At the time I was going to college full time and working full time. I soon had to get a part time job as well to make it financially. While incarcerated, my husband made ties with a known prison gang and became classified as a gang member in the Texas State Department of Corrections. He was released after he completed his 6 month term. That did not stop him from using drugs or hanging out with his bad influence friends. He then got hired with an electrical company that required for him to travel to different states. He was placed in Florida and we all moved there for 1 year. He was then placed to work back in Texas so we moved back. He kept on travelling throughout the state coming home once every 2 months or so. While working away in West Texas he met someone else and he decided to call our relationship off. That was a big shock to me as I never expected for him to ever hurt me that way. I remember talking to a friend of mine crying and asking her if she would go with me that weekend to where he was staying and I was going to beat the daylights out of him and her if she got into it. My friend was down for anything I just had to wait till Friday when he got paid to take the money out of the bank and take off. Well, did not work out as his money never got deposited into the account as he had already gotten another account and he only sent me $100. My plan did not come out as I wanted it to come out. Now I go back and thank the Lord for not allowing my ways to go through. In order to keep myself from thinking about my pain I started to go out with my old friends from school to drink. Once in a while I would smoke marijuana with them and that helped to ease my pain for a while. I would cry myself to sleep almost every night thinking what I did wrong for my husband to run off like that. Well 2 months after he ran off he was in a major car accident where he and his passenger were injured. He ended up in the ICU with a cut on his head that required staples and caused bleeding into his brain. His passenger got broken bones and minor cuts and scrapes. The state picked up the case and they pressed charges on him. He was free for 1 year before they decided to run court and since he did not appear, a warrant for his arrest was issued. He decided to come back and try to make our relationship work again 2 weeks after his accident. It was very hard for me to accept him again and to forgive and forget about all the pain I was put through. Because of what he had done, my oldest son grew so much anger and hate towards his father. My son was in 8th grade at that time and he began to hang out with a bunch of kids that were up to no good as well. He began experimenting with drugs and alcohol at a very young age and was soon a victim to all of that garbage. Our lives at that point of time were just breaking apart. My husband began using crack cocaine on a daily basis and seeing him deteriorating was so sad and upsetting at the same time. We soon lost our house that we were renting and had to go stay with one of his uncles. I would cry every night as I did not know what to do to make my husband stop using drugs. I eventually could not take it any longer and I decided to go back to my parents’ house. I soon found out that I was pregnant with our 3rd child. Feeling desperate for help I called a good friend of mine that I had met in college and that she was in church. Me and the kids started going to her church and started liking it. I told my husband about it and he did just not want to go. Finally, in March of 2011 he decided that he was tired of living the way he was and came to Corpus Christi and put himself in a Christian drug rehab institution. He stayed in there for a couple of weeks and decided that he was good. While going to church back in Brownsville, TX we met this lady that gave us her grandson’s phone number. She told us that he was building an Apostolic church here in Corpus Christi and to give him a call. My husband called him up and we attended our 1st service at Christ Apostolic Tabernacle on May 29, 2011. My husband did ok for about 3 months and then he started doing crack cocaine again. I had our 3rd child in August 2011 and it was just so hard to keep up with a newborn and having to deal with a drug addict. 3 weeks after having the baby, my husband and my oldest son got into a fight where I thought they were going to kill each other. They were chasing each other down the street with studs and some family members had to hold them apart and they had to take my son so they could calm down. I kept on going to church and praying to God to do a miracle. My miracle came in October 2011 when my husband was picked up on his blue warrant for the pending Intoxicated Assault with a motor vehicle causing serious bodily injury charge he picked up in that car accident he had. Mine and my kids’ financial and spiritual struggle began. God began working in our lives. There were days where I had to drag my oldest son to church and then hear him saying all these negative things about God on our 20 minute drive home from church. I was unemployed at the time my husband was locked up; it was not until 1 year later that I was able to find a job. My Lord was our provider for that entire year as I had to live off of about $800 monthly. I had a mortgage and all the bills to pay. Not once was our services disconnected! Praise the Lord! There were times I would go to church on an empty gas tank and knew that I was not able to make it back home and every time that would happen, someone from church would come up to me and give me $25, $30, or $40. At that point of time I knew God was showing me that he had everything under control and all I needed to do was let go and have faith in Him. And so I did. He blessed me with a good State job where I got benefits. My church family was so helpful and if it had not been for them encouraging me it would have had been twice as hard. The Lord blessed my children by giving them the gift of the Holy Ghost. He did not only work on us but worked on my husband in prison as well. After spending 2 years in there this time around, he was released on parole. All of our family lives for the Lord now and it is just a wonderful way of life. There is just so much peace in our home now. If I had only known that living for God would bring so much joy and peace to my heart, I would have had done this since the beginning. Seeing my children worship God in church and at home is just an awesome view! Hearing my little one singing the hymns from Church is just unbelievable! I would never change this for anything in this world! The only thing I can say is THANK YOU JESUS for your wonderful mercy and for shedding that precious blood on that cross so that our sins could get washed away!