Testimony of the Formation of of the Church in California

God had a plan for me, even though I did not know it. I always felt emptiness in my life, and deep inside of me, a longing desire to know God. I wanted to find out more about Him, to really know Him. I held the belief that working in the business world. I would be satisfied. It was not so.

In the beginning, when I first arrived in this country I worked at a restaurant. One day when the restaurant was full, and I was waiting on customers, an elderly lady who had white hair and a very white complexion approached me and said in a very loud voice, "Look how I get the goose bumps (showing her arm) because of this man. He will be used by the Holy Spirit of God. "The words spoken by that lady penetrated my heart and made my body shiver. Then, I did not understand or know anything about the Bible. I had never seen this lady before that day, and did not know who she was or what she did for a living; maybe the Lord used her to bring His message to me. The restaurant patrons, who witnessed her outburst, looked at each other. After a moment of silence, everything went back to normal. I stood still for a moment, thinking about what had happened and what she had said. A moment later I went back to work.

A few later, I do not recall if it was one or two years later, my wife and I met a man who was of the Christian faith. He was not active in his faith and had separated from it. His life was not being lived according to God’s way. He knew the Bible. He began to show us about it and to tell of a church that kept the word of Christ as it is written in the Bible, to which he also belonged. My wife and I enjoyed hearing the word of God. We were full of joy and happiness while learning the way of the Lord. We began to learn obedience to the Ten Commandments and to renounce the world and its pleasures, according to the Book of Exodus 20:3-17, Matthew 4:18-20, 19:28-30, Luke 14:33 and I Corinthians 9:14. This is how we got started learning the Bible. Those were great days. We had also learned about the responsibility of making a vow to God, according to the Book of Deuteronomy 23:21. Searching the Scriptures, we learned of the Doctrine of Christ, and our friendship with this man grew stronger.

One night, while in bed but not asleep, I had real vision: I heard someone knocking at the front door of my house. I got up from bed and opened the bedroom door, walked into the living room and across the hallway towards the outside door. I opened the door, and to my surprise, I could not believe what I was seeing! My legs were trembling with fear; I was not able to control my emotions. What is this? What am I seeing? It was the Lord, with Peter and John! In my mind I was told who they were. The Lord looked at me, deeply and sweetly. His eyes were blue, but I could not look him directly in the eyes, it was impossible. I was emotionally moved. Two other men were with him: Peter had extremely white hair and a calm and joyous expression, as that of a saint. Their dress was as they wore in ancient days. They all came into my house! As we walked toward the living room, I noticed that their feet were not touching the floor - it was as if they were walking on air. I was walking in front of them and I would turn my head to look at them. These were very special moments for me, and I felt in my heart something big. Once we were in the living room, I took a chair from the dining table and pulled it out so the Lord could sit down. Peter and John also sat down. I could not resist anymore, and I threw myself at the Lord’s feet and began to cry. I could see the nail marks on His hands, and the wound in His side; they were both dry. He put His hands on my head and said, "Tell Orlando that I am in your house". (Orlando was the man who taught us about the Bible).

In the morning when I woke up, I could not believe what I had seen. I ran to the dining room and saw the chair that I moved for the Lord to sit on the night before. It was still in the same position I had left it. For me, it was a great testimony, for me to serve Christ. This was something very big and very real.

My wife having had testimonies and revelations from God, we decided that we both needed to preach the Gospel in our home. It was there that we began to bring souls, about 40 of them, to Christ. Helping and praying for them after work, and in the restaurant, we began having revivals and teaching the doctrine of Christ. Sometime later, we decided to serve God completely, and we were baptized and dedicated our lives to the Lord. We were firm in our decision, and God provided for our bare necessities. We were able to open the word of God in Brooklyn, New York, bringing many souls to Christ.

In the year 1970, both my wife and I felt the desire to come and preach the Gospel of Christ in the State of California. This is how it was: we had no money, only a 1968 Chevy station wagon. I went to the bank and asked for loan of $400.00, giving my car as collateral. Our children, my wife, a sister in Christ and I began the trip to California. (There was another person who came along to help me drive, who went back as soon as we arrived in California). During our trip we had a portable kitchen, where I used to make hamburgers and cook our meals. For that we would stop in rest areas. Once, thank God, we stopped in a milk dairy, and they gave us free milk. That was how we made it to Los Angeles in 1970. I do not recall the month, but I do recall that seeing the big city I said to the Lord, "Help us, help us". I had only $75.00 left from the original $400.00. We had milk for our children, and our clothing was in the station wagon.

Driving around in circles through the streets of Los Angeles, I stopped. I do not remember where, but I believe it was West Los Angeles. My wife and I got out of the station wagon, along with our crying children. We made quite a scene, in spite of our trust in God. We had no place to stay, and had only $75.00 in our pocket.

After a while, a woman passed by. My wife suggested that I ask her for information regarding apartments for rent in the area, but I did not feel we could afford one, with only $75.00. I gave it a try anyway, and called to the lady, "ma’am, we are missionaries, we preach the Gospel of Christ. We are new in the area and are in need of a place to stay".

She asked us to follow her to her home, and we did. Once there, she picked up the phone and called a friend who was manager of an apartment building. As I listened to the conversation, I heard her say, "I know these people; they are very nice". At that moment I glorified the Lord, and took that as a testimony from the Lord that everything would be all right.

The man on the phone continued asking a lot of questions of this lady, and said, "How many are there?" She in turn turned to me and asked the same question. "Seven," I replied. He said that we were too many, and besides, the apartments that he had were too small for us. The woman kept insisting on our behalf and finally the apartment manager gave in and said, "OK! Tell them to come." She gave us directions on how to get to Witmer and 3rd; I believe that the apartment building was located at that address. This happened 20 years ago.

Now my question was...how much would the rent be? Because I had only $75.00. When we met manager, he gave us the impression that he was a very courteous person. We saw the large room with a bathroom, a kitchen, the hideaway beds in the wall-after sleeping in the car for so many days and traveling so uncomfortably, this seemed like a palace to us. There was one exception: the building allowed no children, so he urged us to keep them quiet. I told him not to worry and promised him silence and order on behalf of our children.

I still did not know how much the rent was, so I asked. He showed me to his office and I sat by his small desk. He then decided that the rent would be $70.00 per month. "And you do not have to give a deposit on it," he added. I was moved, because I saw the hand of God working on our behalf. My eyes filled with tears. My wife reacted the same way when I told her what had happened, for she too thought it was a great blessing and another testimony from the Lord that we finally had a bed and a place to stay.

With the remaining five dollars I bought eggs, bread and milk; we were able to eat. In fact, we had a tremendous meal, thanks to God. Since there was only one bed, we considered it a blessing. Some of us slept on the floor, some on the bed. We bought old pies, breads and cakes from the downtown Grand Central Market. We had to heat the bread first, otherwise we could not eat it. We had it with milk, rice and sardines. We thought this was a blessing, even though it was a little rough. At night, we had to put cotton balls in the children’s ears while they were sleeping, to keep the roaches and other insects out of their ears. All this we endured because of the faith and a great desire to do God’s will.

We started to buy our clothes from a second-hand store. Thank God we could afford it, and to this day we sometimes still do.

Sometime later, the Lord placed a gentlemen in our path who brought us food for six consecutive months! That was a great blessing!

Now we began our biggest task. The purpose of us being here. We preached on the streets, announcing the Gospel of Christ. We had Bible studies in homes that would open their doors for that purpose. I did this for five years with no success. We had not brought a single soul to Christ. We were beginning to lose hope.

One evening while participating in a devotional, the Lord visited us, giving us testimony that we WERE going to bring many souls to Christ. We felt urged to stay, because we had considered leaving this area.

After this, the Lord brought souls unto Him, and the church multiplied in a marvelous way.

The Lord helped us to multiply our work by augmenting the souls that converted and dedicated their lives to Christ. This is how we saw this place grow spiritually and materially. It was not easy, we went through much difficulty and a great number of sacrifices. I remember that in the beginning my family and I, along with those who started off with us, slept on the floor and how food shortages were part of the economic setbacks. We are grateful to God, because we were suffering for the Lord’s cause.

After that, the Lord impressed me to open a Rehabilitation Center, a place where we could help the youth to get away from drugs and alcohol addiction. The two centers still in operation are in Baja California and Bell Gardens, California. We started to take food to the homeless, to those who had no place to eat.

Since then , thousands have been helped through this plan, filled with blessings. Thanks to the efforts of the Lord’s servants and to the Grace of God. The Lord gave us a name for this center, which is My Father’s House. We have placed our motto there, which is, "When you feel love, you will do the job completely".

May the Lord bless you, and we hope this testimony will help you understand and help this beautiful work of God.
 

Your servant in the path of the Lord,
BISHOP R. GONZALEZ W.