﻿Thank you for joining us today! Why don't you start by telling us your name and uh where you're
from! My name is Ivonne and I currently live here in Tri-Cities but I'm originally from Moses lake.
I am the oldest of four daughters. I, my parents are Mexican um my parents weren't really ever
affectionate, so I feel like that's something that I missed out or not. I missed out on a lot
growing up um that's definitely something that I needed. I at 15 or 16, I had my daughter. I was in
high school and I had my daughter and I was in a very abusive relationship with the father of my kids.
At 18, I graduated high school was pregnant with my son : graduated with honors. And
the relationship just started getting more and more abusive.
I knew that if I didn't leave soon it was just going to get worse and I knew that that's not
what I wanted for my life & for my kids. I was very fortunate enough to grow up with both my
parents, so I feel like I worked really hard to try and mend the relationship because I didn't
want my kids to grow up without a dad : I know what it's like to have a dad. And he's a great dad but
that's I just always held on to hope. When my kids were really little, we got in a car accident.
The accident was really, really bad : it was a double impact, a truck t-boned us and then we hit
a telephone pole. The airbags were defective in the car um by the grace of God, we were all okay.
They had to saw the top of the car to get us out. We spent our thanksgiving
in the hospital. My sister was really, really hurt : she's my twin sister, she's like my better half.
So in the midst of all of this, Did you know the LORD at all ? So, we grew up catholic
and if anybody has been catholic before : we never read the bible. I
got baptized like in Mexico, I baptized my kids but only because I felt like
it was out of guilt my parents would always say, if I didn't my kids would go to hell so I was scared.
And then we got in that car accident, so I felt like I needed to. So, I didn't really know
God the way that I do now. So, what happened ? I guess you're going through all of this, you went through
the accident and then what happened in your life that kind of made you realize that you
needed God ! So, my mom used to say because these things were happening that we were cursed right :
so I felt like we were cursed and I was like always living in fear like I said, I was in this
abusive relationship and I needed to get out. So, finally I had, had enough and I packed up my kids
and I moved, I left everything. I still lived in Moses lake but I moved to a whole different place.
And my kids dad started manipulating my kids: they were really little, so they would come
home and they would say things like daddy misses you, daddy wants to be with you, daddy
says you're the reason why we're not a family. And so slowly all those things started getting to me,
eventually my heart became weak and so did my soul and the enemy got a hold. My kids dad
used to say that nobody was ever gonna love me, that I was never gonna be good
enough for anybody and I believed it. So one day, from one day to another
I woke up and I decided that was the day that I was going to commit suicide. Took my kids to
school I texted my kid's dad and I said, I need you to pick up the kids : I'm going to the gym when
I get off of work. He picked up my kids, I went to work like a normal day, nobody knew anything
and then went to the gym for like five minutes and I was like, I need to go home, I need to do
this. So, I went home : I had a lot of like pain medication, muscle relaxers sleep from the accident
years that I had like not been taking but I just had had it. So, I knew that's what I was gonna do.
That morning we had inventory at work, so we had razors : so I had taken a razor from
work just in case my first plan didn't work. So, I went home filled up my bathtub
and I started playing music on my phone, I sent this huge message to my sister telling
her how much I loved her, where everything was up for my kids: how I had left everything,
passwords to everything telling her, that I was sorry that I wasn't good enough.
And I put my phone on airplane mode, I started playing pandora and if anybody has listened to rap
russ is who I loved right. I played, I started playing that radio station and so this is rap
music, Okay ! I'd never come in contact with any type of Christian music or worship music of any sort.
And so this rap music is playing, I take the first like a handful of pills and then I'm just sitting
in a bathtub and it's like not working as fast as I want it to : so I go to grab the razor
and I go to reach for it and on my phone a song comes up ; And it's Oceans by Hillsong.
I'd never heard that song before ever in my life, so that the beat was like or the you
know the beginning of the song, I was like what the heck is that ! So, I got up to turn off the song or
change the song and I couldn't move. It was like, God like stay there you need to listen to this!
So, then it started like the song the word started and I just cried and I so, I finally
got up. And I looked at the song and it just froze and I was looking at my phone and I'm like why is
that song playing, so I opened my phone and it's Russ's station why is the song playing !
So, it was my first encounter with God. God had saved my life that day. Amen, Wow! wow!
It's always, so encouraging when you see people here even if they like cry or they stop
it : it's so amazing because someone took the bold step to share what was hidden in their
heart, before what no one knew about and they take the step to declare the goodness of God. And so,
from this moment on : how was it that you've got to the place where you are now? So, weirdly enough the
next day go to work and I worked for Verizon wireless, so some clients came in and
I've never seen them in my life they just were like very beautiful people
and I said to the wife you're so beautiful, you look like you could be a disney princess.
And she's like thank you, like all like weird I'm like sorry. So, I get to know them, they start
talking they had no idea that the day before I was gonna commit suicide, right! So, the husband asks '
Ivonne, do you go to church' and I said honestly, I don't : I grew up catholic, I don't go to church
but I do want to get my kids back into that because God is important. I didn't really know
that God had made that first like step to me yesterday the day before. So then I said,
'he's like well, you should come in and join our church, come this Sunday and I said okay I'll think
about it. So we end up moving like, I said the relationship even after separating it was still
so toxic. I knew that if I didn't leave and I knew that I wasn't going to live in moses like forever.
I knew, I wanted to move, I didn't want to be stuck. And if you really don't aren't rich it was like
you're not going to go anywhere. So, you either move out and move away and grow. And I was always scared
to for change. So, this was like something really bold : I came to visit my sister, I applied for an
apartment. She said that day if you don't get this : it's not meant to be , if you get this that's God.
I went home they called and they said it was approved. So, I packed everything up, I didn't tell
my mom, I didn't tell anybody until two days before I moved and because I didn't want anybody to talk
me out of it. So, COVID happened and everything got shut down, my kids went to school for four days ;
It was the worst transition ever. I thought, I had made a mistake. For a year, I was working at BMW and
Audi ; for a year, I had been searching for a church. I wasn't sure what church I wanted to go to but
I knew that when I went to the Christian Church in Moses lake that the couple had invited me to
that was something that I wanted to go back to. I wasn't going to commute back to Moses lake, so I
needed to find something here. A lot of my clients that I built really good relationships with :
I would say so, 'do you go to church, what church do you go to' and some of them would tell me and
others were you know, every single person that I had an encounter with that came to HungryGen
was always so welcoming and said, I go to HungryGen, you should join us.
I did that for a year, I didn't come. So, then finally this year, I decided like back in
December, I decided that I that I needed to get plugged in. I have an 11 year old daughter and
an eight-year-old son who's about to be nine and my daughter's going through a lot of emotions. She
feels a lot of abandonment because her dad stopped showing up for her. And I knew that I needed,
I now wanted to get closer to God and in order for my kids to do that as well I need to do it .
I went to visit my sister : she works at a bank. And there's somebody else that attends here, that goes
there. So, they said, 'I walk in and she goes, do you see that guy! I was like what guy and she's
like no don't look. I was like okay, so I'm like trying to look can't really see. He goes to that
Church. I'm like what church! That church that they do like exorcisms and I'm like, I'm like okay!'
So, she goes, 'I don't know what it's called, I think it's HungryGen and I said, okay,
all right! So, I was like actually I've been wanting to go to the church, so
many people have told me about it. She's like no, no you don't and I said Yes I do'.
So, I went home. I didn't follow the HungryGen page, Okay! Went home opened up my Facebook the first
thing that came up was please join us this Sunday at HungryGen. So, I come it ends up being that
the guest service like that they did in February. So, I was like it's a perfect day it's meant to
be and I've always, I've always known, since I was little nothing happens as a coincidence;
you're exactly where you're supposed to be : whether it's a rough patch in your life or
whatever you're at, your highest you're exactly where you're supposed to be.
So, sorry I have to finish this! So, Okay! So one thing that I do, that I did was I
got saved, I joined a life group. I got saved in Bereniz's group.
And ever since then my life has been so much better. My daughter joined a life group,
they've helped her a lot with um with um like the feeling of feeling abandoned and stuff. She
actually went to the camp. I'm plugged into life group, I'm serving and I removed
every toxic relationship and friendship that no longer served me. So! Amen. Why don't we give
God some praise for this testimony! Amen. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us.