At the age of seven, I wanted to give up on life. I was tired of seeing my mom cry. I didn't know of a loving God who was with me even when my life seemed to be at rock bottom. This is my story.

My name is José Antonio Rivera Jr. I was born into a rapidly growing family on January 11, 1989. I had a mother, a father, and three older brothers. Later that year, my twin sisters, Vanessa and Bianca, were born, bringing our family to eight. Tragedy struck, and Vanessa suddenly died of crib death.

My father was a drunk and a gang member. A couple of months after Vanessa and Bianca were born my dad was shot by a rival gang. He was found a couple of days later, lying in a puddle of blood on a street corner, only a couple of blocks down the road.

At this point things went from bad to worse. My mom couldn't work; she was an illegal alien. She moved from guy to guy so we would have a place to sleep and live. She eventually married Tom,* who raised us from the time I was four to about age seven. Tragedy struck again—Tom contracted HIV when he went to the hospital for a routine check-up. For some reason, he didn't tell my mom until after she contracted it from him.

When Tom died, my mother sued the hospital for $400,000. We were left with no dad and a mom who didn't know how to manage money. Tom's family came from Detroit, Michigan, to stay with me and my mom for a couple of weeks to help us decide what to do.

Finally, the decision was made to move to Michigan. My mom and Bianca flew to Michigan while the rest of the family traveled there by train. It was so hard to say good-bye to all of my friends. The memories of trips to the park were all I had left.

In Michigan, we stayed with Tom's mother. It was so hard for them to find a school where our little family wouldn't be separated and where my brothers wouldn't get into trouble. My brothers were also in a teenage gang. They seemed to follow our dad's footsteps. Finally, they found us a school. But this didn't last! We bounced from school to school because we were always moving to a different family member's home. After many moves, we settled down into a house that Tom's dad let us have, but Tom's brother lived with us to help keep the house together. That now was our home.

Things didn't seem too bad at that point. However, the neighborhood could have been better. Living in the middle of Highland Park in Detroit was not the best place to live, but to have someone give us a house was better than nothing at all.

After a couple of months living in that house, my mom decided to take my two oldest brothers back to California so she could pick up things in storage in San Diego. She left us three younger children in Detroit. She planned to be gone about two weeks.

About a week after my mom left, Tom's brother said we would be going to the zoo in a few days. We were ecstatic! My siblings and I hoped the zoo in Michigan would be bigger than the San Diego Zoo.

The night before we were to go to the zoo something strange happened. Before we went to bed, Tom's brother took us driving for no apparent reason. He stopped at a house and told us to wait. A couple of minutes later he came back with a brown paper bag. At home, we took our showers and got ready for bed. Tom's brother told me and my brother to sleep downstairs and said my sister was going to sleep upstairs. On my way down the stairs, I said goodnight to my sister and told her I would see her tomorrow.

I woke up to police officers and paramedics running up the stairs to the room Tom's brother stayed in. They wouldn't let me up the stairs, so I told them I had to go to the bathroom, located right across the hall from his room. I glanced in the room, and saw my sister on the ground unconscious, with blue lips—she was dead. He had fed her some drugs that night in a cup of orange juice. Her young body was too small to take that kind of a dose—let alone any kind of drug. My brother, Anthony, and I were sent to foster care that very same day. This place is hell with a fence, and we need to get out! was the thought that ran through my head. Once again, I had no stable home.

My mom came back from California as fast as she could when she heard the news. Anthony and I were not allowed to see our mom right away for some reason. Eventually, we got out of foster care because Tom's dad took us in. Tom's brother was not convicted.

With some of the $400,000 that we still had, Mom bought a house and she let Tom's brother move in. A couple of months later the FBI arrested him, and he was convicted on numerous accounts including murder, sexual assault, and rape. He only got ten to 15 years in prison—that was it.

We were sent to a shelter because my mom was not able to support me and my brother. There was a kind lady named Kathi at the shelter who helped me and my brother with homework. Then my mom met Bill.* Another move for us, and we lived with Bill in his home.

Unfortunately, Bill was a smart man. Out of the $400,000 that we started off with, we had about $300,000 left. My mom and Bill got married, and that worked out perfectly for Bill because in the process of getting married, she signed some papers stating he had the right to withdraw money out of the account with the $300,000 in it.

Bill told us he had a hard time living in Detroit, so he moved to Florida. Once there, he withdrew all the money from my mom's account and moved to Canada, knowing that as an illegal alien my mom couldn't chase him for the money.

Bill bought us an apartment because we got evicted from the previous house. But the location of the apartment was bad. There were shootouts at least three times a week.

I struggled in school, and temptations were thrown at me—sex, drugs, alcohol, smoking, and basically whatever the streets had to offer. But there was a small voice in my head that told me to resist. James 4:7 says to "resist the devil, and he will flee from you." He was on the attack, but God was slowly getting me to be part of His army.

Kathi, the kind lady who helped me and my brother at the shelter, continued to stay in touch with me, and I talked to her through this whole ordeal. She invited me, my brother, and my mom to her house. There, I met her neighbors, the Sawyer family. They were Seventh-day Adventists, and my friendship with them changed my life forever.

A year after going to Kathi's house, the Sawyers invited me to come to church with them, but I said, "No." I felt Jesus working on me. So the next week when they invited me again, I said, "Yes." I started going to Bible studies held at the Metropolitan Church every Wednesday night.

But I had a decision to make, because I was struggling so much in Detroit. An opportunity came for me to move to California to live with my oldest brother, Cliff, who was able to support both of us. In Detroit, I was just becoming a Christian and learning about Jesus, but my brother Cliff was a devil worshiper.

I told my church family about the possibility of moving to California to live with my brother, and that he was a devil worshiper. They came through like a true family and asked me to not make a decision for a week so they could pray about it. The next week they told me they would like to send me to a boarding school called Great Lakes Adventist Academy (GLAA).

Through many prayers and lots of financial support, I was able to go to GLAA. What a difference to live in a place like GLAA, with Christians who share my love for God. Since I arrived, I have learned more about Jesus, and the summer after my freshman year I was baptized—June 4, 2005.

I went through my sophomore year at GLAA knowing that God loved me. During my junior year, I was AYBL (Adventist Youth for Better Living) secretary and treasurer, so that I could show how God changed my life. That year I also made the Aerokhanas gymnastics team. Witnessing opportunities have been awesome, traveling around and sharing about Jesus. It is now my senior year. I am sergeant-at-arms for my class and an R.A. for freshman hall, and I am still on the Aerokhanas. This year, just like the last, I hope I can change lives.

Even though my homes changed many times in my life, I have found a home at GLAA with a school family. I have also learned that God is preparing a home in Heaven for me where I will never again feel as if I want to give up. I have a purpose now—to share God's love and prepare for His coming. I hope that as you read my testimony it will draw you close to Him, so that you will be ready to go home with Him, also.

Joe Rivera is a senior at Great Lakes Adventist Academy.

*Not his real name.