“I did a lot of things from the age of 13 to 19 that some people don't do in a lifetime. And it was dangerous. And there were times where I felt like I should have been dead and I was spared for some reason. And so yeah, my past was rough to say the least.”
Considering Julian’s lifestyle in his teen years, you might not imagine him becoming a church planter and lead pastor.
(Rather listen? Here's our full encouraging interview:)
“Yeah, so I grew up in the west Texas town of San Angelo. It's actually the biggest U.S. city without an interstate. And when I was growing up, it was the early nineties and a lot of, I would call it gangster rap era is what I got caught up in and just, there was a lot of gangs in our town and stuff like that. So, I really had just this affinity for doing that kind of stuff.
My home life wasn't the best. I had both parents, but my dad was an alcoholic and a drug abuser, and he and my mother were on the verge of divorce most of my early childhood years. And so, I guess I found solace in some of these other things, started experimenting with drugs at a very early age just because that's what everybody else was doing. And so yeah, probably from the age of 12, 13 is when I started doing some of these things, sneaking out at night and that kind of stuff.”
Birds of a feather
“And so, I got involved with just some people who were like me. I was probably the bad influence on other people, sad to say. And so that just led to doing drugs and selling drugs.
And so, I grew up in church in a way from when I was born to nine years old. But then we stopped going to church. My mom kind of had this falling out with God over this situation that happened. And so, we didn't go back to church. So, growing up I knew there was a God, but I had never been to youth group or nothing like that, never surrendered my life to him and stuff. So, there was always that kind of in the back of my mind, I know God is real and he's watching me, but I didn't really have any respect for it and all that to say.”
Life gets very serious
“My girlfriend got pregnant when I was 15 and we got married and then we had another child back-to-back. And so yeah, I was running around selling drugs and stuff, trying to, I dropped out of school because you can't make money while you're at school. And plus, I was in alternative schools anyways because I was always getting in trouble or whatever. So yeah, I was real tumultuous to say the least in my early youth. And I got involved in some illegal human trafficking as a coyote. That's people who cross illegal aliens over the border and bring them north (into the U.S.), stuff like that. And so, I was doing that for a while, making a lot of money doing that with money, easy come, easy go, kind of thing. So, yeah, I did a lot of things from the age of 13 to 19 that some people don't do in a lifetime. And it was dangerous. And there were times where I felt like I should have been dead and I was spared for some reason. And so yeah, my past was rough to say the least.”
Today, that’s all behind Julian, he's forgiven and knows it
And it seems pretty clear why God spared his life – and delivered him from a lost life to a life serving God as a church planter and lead pastor in Port Arthur, Texas.
“Yeah, it is humbling. It's amazing. For a long time, early on in my salvation, I struggled with the fact that God could forgive me. I did some pretty bad things and even I was very ashamed of my testimony until I learned God can use that for his glory.”
We have details on how that came to be, and how Julian became a pastor. It's in our complete podcast interview.
But how did street tacos play a role? That tasty factoid is further below.
God, guidance, and tacos
But what really caught our eye about Pastor Julian is the time God delivered a definite message to him while he was eating tacos al carbon at his favorite restaurant.
“So, I'm Hispanic and I love a good street taco … and we start frequenting this taco place a lot. We are down there all the time eating these tacos. And me and the youth pastor start kind of talking about, I'm asking him, ‘what's the deal with Port Arthur? Why does it look so desolate?’ It is just been through a lot after storms and everything else. And it was at that moment. We were eating tacos, obviously, where he said, ‘Man, I always had this dream of planting a church in Port Arthur, and that would be so cool.’ And I was like, ‘wow, yeah, that would be cool.’ And I think that was the spark that led God to start working on my heart because after that moment I couldn't stop thinking about Port Arthur. In that moment, God broke my heart for this place in a way that I can't explain because I'm not from here.
I have no connection to Port Arthur whatsoever. And so, I remember getting back to the office immediately and I started Googling churches in Port Arthur and kind of doing this search of churches like ours and finding nothing. And so yeah, as I was eating tacos, it wasn't a voice or anything like that, but it was God prompting my spirit, I think, to kind of open my eyes to say, ‘Look at this place. I want to be in this place.’ And I felt that deep inside my soul. So, it was really interesting. We still go to eat tacos there a lot, right? It's two blocks from the church now," he smiles.
That church is now alive and thriving
Port Arthur City Church is just over a year old. “We're right in the middle of the city where there's a lot of homelessness and things like that, but we started out services having 20, 30 people, and now we're just over a hundred. And our biggest thing is evangelism and discipleship. We go out and we do outreach with everybody. We go outside of the doors of the church often and reach people. And we've seen some amazing stories of God transforming people's lives to people who have never stepped in the church one day in their life to tattoos all over their face and whatnot, to being saved and discipled. And it's definitely been a whirlwind for sure.”
