One Journey, Many Crossroads
By John Newton
Many people can identify a time when their lives were at a crossroads, a place where the right or wrong decision led them down a path from which there was no return.
Looking back today, Jose Velasquez, pastor of the historic 150-year-old Mizpah United Methodist Church in Effingham County, recognizes several such turning points during his 42 years on earth and marvels that God’s prevenient grace saw fit to plant a Chicano from the barrios of Los Angeles into the middle of a farming community steeped in the traditions of the Old South.
The first crossroads occurred when Jose was growing up in Los Angeles, California. A first generation American, Jose’s mother was born in Tecoman, Colima, Mexico and his father was from Jalisco, Guadalajara. They met and married in Los Angeles.
“My Dad got very sick when I was 8-years-old but he refused to see a doctor,” Jose said. “He told me he was going back to Mexico, a place I had always wanted to visit. When he refused to take me with him, I got so angry I told him I wished he was dead. A few days later he died in Mexico and my 8-year-old brain reasoned that I had caused it to happen. The truth is he had gangrene in his leg which had poisoned his blood but I blamed myself.”
Jose discovered at a very early age that guilt is a heavy burden to bear.
“I made a lot of bad choices in my life because of that guilt,” he said. “After my Dad died, Mom became a Jehovah’s witness and used to dress me up and carry me around like a little preacher during her door-to-door visits. But what she didn’t know was that I joined a Chicano gang in my neighborhood when I was 10-years-old. I fit the profile- no father, a mother always at work. For the next six years I led a double life and became very adept at fitting in with whatever group I was a part of.”
Jose says his gang sold drugs and fought with neighboring gangs to protect their local turf but did not participate in the more violent activities associated with later groups.
“Today I thank God that this was before drive-by-shootings became so common,” he said. “That gang was my family. I was absolutely loyal to those guys and I would have done anything they asked me to.”
The next crossroads occurred when Jose graduated from high school.
“I had skipped too many classes in regular school so they put me in this program called Continuation High School,” he said. “I was in there with all the pregnant girls and other bad guys who rebelled against authority. But I praise God today because that school had the best teachers I ever had in my life. I went from making Ds and Fs to graduating as valedictorian of my class.”
After graduation, his best buddy convinced Jose to join the Army with him so they could receive special forces training like their movie hero, Rambo (Sylvester Stallone).
“But when the recruiter comes by to pick me up, my friend is not with him,” Jose said. “He had changed his mind and bailed on me. I thought about my other two choices- going back to the gang or getting a dead-end job in some factory. So I got in the car with my recruiter. Jehovah Witnesses don’t believe in violence- so I left my Mom in bed crying. ”
After eight years of military service and tours of duty in Germany, Korea, and Kuwait, Jose’s horizons had expanded far beyond anything he could have imagined growing up in Los Angeles.
“I would definitely recommend military service to any young person unsure about their future,” Jose said. “It was one of the most important decisions I ever made. Military life gives you everything- discipline, purpose, ability, opportunity, and a sense of belonging.”
When Jose returned to civilian life, he got a job as a truck driver in Savannah and married a girl he met in a nightclub. Then life took a wrong turn- he wrecked his company truck and divorced his wife after he caught her running around on him. Suddenly, he had no job, no money, and was living on the streets.
Becoming homeless brought Jose’s life to yet another crossroads.
“I knew I could pick up the phone and my mother would send me money for a bus ticket back to California,” he said. “But my older brothers and sisters did that when I was a kid- coming back home and mooching off of her when things got tough. I had too much pride for that. A buddy gave me an old beat-up car to drive and for about six to eight months that old car became my home.”
Each morning, Jose would drive to Garden City and pick up day labor jobs, then drive to a truck stop in Richmond Hill in the evening where he would sleep in his car overnight.
His luck changed drastically a short time later. He found full-time employment, a friend offered him a place to live, and most importantly, he met his future wife, Lori Ann.
“For me it was love at first sight,” Jose said. “But she set two conditions before we could be together- we had to get married and I had to start going to church with her.”
Jose agreed to both conditions but the early months of their marriage were rough ones. “Her parents rejected me because of my ethnicity,” Jose said. “They basically disowned their daughter after she refused to walk away from me.”
But that relationship thawed with the birth of Jose’s daughter, Rebecca.
“We had chosen that name because we liked the way it sounded,” Jose said. “It wasn’t until later we discovered that Rebecca, in Hebrew, means ‘to reconcile and bring together.’ Today our families are very close. My father-in-law is very big on his Civil War heritage and I’m a member of his 8th Georgia reenactment regiment- I’ve got the uniform and everything.”
Then life led Jose to his most important crossroads thus far.
“I don’t want to say my wife was dragging me to church, but I really didn’t want to be there,” he said. “ In the military, I had taken an interest in Eastern religions- things like Buddhism and Bushido, a Japanese faith that gets your mind and body focused through martial arts.”
Then, in church one Sunday morning, Pastor Andy Brownley at Goshen United Methodist was describing the biblical concept of agape love and his message touched a chord inside Jose.
“Pastor said that as much as your wife or husband loves you, God loves you 1000 times more and suddenly it hit me,” Jose said. “I turned to look at Lori who had been willing to give up her family for me. And here the preacher was saying that God loved me more than she ever could. How could he say that? I needed to know more about this kind of love.”
And for the first time in his life, Jose started asking serious questions about Christianity. He began reading his Bible and praying.
“A couple of months later a singing group came to Goshen and the leader said ‘If you’ve been hearing our message in song, you need to come down and pray about it’,” Jose said. “I literally ran over my wife trying to get down to that altar. The need within me was so powerful that I didn’t even realize I was doing it – and I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior then and there.”
Today, Pastor Jose Velasquez looks back on his life and sees God’s hand guiding him through each of those crossroads.
He has worked with church youth, with missions, and even spent several years using his Spanish language skills helping to start Hispanic congregations in Metter and Statesboro.
“Today, I’m very thankful that the congregation at Mizpah has accepted me,” he said. “There are people in this church who have worshipped here their entire lives. people like Mrs. Leona Jones, who is 97-years-old, and they have welcomed me with open arms. The Apostle Paul says we need to meet people where they are in life and I am thankful that God has blessed me with an ability to adapt and relate to people no matter where he places me.”
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