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While Pastor Jhonny González’s children were playing and laughing in the family’s backyard, a woman suddenly approached from the alley behind the house. Her name was Debra, a neighbor who decided to come over after hearing the children.
As Debra walked, she seemed to carry a great weight on her shoulders. Depression and fear had consumed her so much that she walked hunched over. She barely left her house and relied on medication to get through the day.
As she approached, Debra saw the children she had heard and then she saw Violeta, Jhonny’s wife. Debra began asking about church meetings, showing interest in attending. In turn, Violeta began talking to her, taking the opportunity to share God’s Word and the gospel with her.
“I approached her because I was desperate under this burden,” Debra recalled. “Hearing the children playing so happily, I wanted to have that joy.”
Debra grew up Catholic. She took her children to catechism, taught classes at church, and was well-versed in religious language. She had heard the word “grace” many times, but never really understood it. In fact, she remembers that in her desperation for emotional healing, she recited the traditional prayers she had learned and followed every religious practice she had been taught. Yet nothing in her life ever changed.
In Hebbronville—a small town in South Texas where Pastor González estimates about 90% of the population comes from a Catholic background—that is not unusual.
“Many have heard of salvation, but they don’t know grace,” he said.
The church González pastors, now known as First Baptist Hebbronville, began as a bilingual church plant called True Hope Bible Fellowship. The congregation, which for a time was supported by Retama Park Baptist Church, Send Network SBTC, and other partner churches, faced difficult years in a community resistant to the gospel.
For a long time, it seemed that nothing was bearing fruit.
“There were times when we were just four or five faithful people,” Pastor González said.
Violeta remembered that she began asking the Lord why He had led them there. They tried different methods to reach the community, but growth never came.
Then something changed.
Violeta began to feel a deep burden for prayer. Starting in June 2025, she called the women of the church to meet every week to pray and intercede for salvation, spiritual maturity, and a move of God in the town.
At first, the prayer meetings consisted only of Violeta and Debra, who became a faithful prayer partner. As Debra studied the Word and grew in her faith, something began to change in her as well.
“Over time, even her demeanor changed,” Violeta said of Debra. “You could see the hope in her.”
After giving her life to Christ and being baptized, Debra began sharing the gospel with others, including those in her own family. Her daughter, who at first refused to hear about God, eventually put her faith in Christ and now shares the gospel with others.
“They come here feeling unworthy, and we show them how in Christ they are worthy, loved, and accepted.”
The gospel message Debra shares is the same one proclaimed by First Baptist Hebbronville throughout the community—that salvation is not earned by works, but a gift of grace through faith in Christ.
“They come here feeling unworthy,” Pastor González said, “and we show them how in Christ they are worthy, loved, and accepted.”
That message is prominently displayed outside the church, where a sign bears the inscription of Titus 2:11: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people.”
“Catholics have heard the word ‘grace,’” Pastor González said, “but they often think they have to earn it. Here we show them that it is an unmerited gift.”
Little by little, the church is beginning to see fruit. New families have arrived. The congregation has grown to an average of about 40 people, something that seemed impossible years ago. They hold bilingual services that serve Hispanic families and young people who speak mainly English.
A woman from the congregation has also started Bible studies to reach out to Catholic women in the community, and Pastor González and church members visit nursing homes to share the gospel with people experiencing distress and loneliness.
Even so, many needs remain.
The congregation meets in a multipurpose room because the main church building was closed due to deterioration. Their prayer is to one day be able to demolish the damaged structure and build a new space. But after years of seeing little fruit, they now look back and recognize something different.
“It’s not about us,” Violeta said. “God is the one who does the work.”
Every week, Violeta, Debra, and other women continue to gather to intercede for Hebbronville—for salvation, for families, and for a town that still needs to hear that God’s grace is not earned. It is received.
