In this behind-the-scenes look at the first pilot episode, *Giants Among Us*, episode one delves into flashbacks that compare my time overseas with my civilian life. While the circumstances were different, they share common themes like life, death, and the deep yearning for home. These experiences have instilled in me a profound appreciation for the sacredness of life, a truth that still resonates deeply within me. These waves of memories surfaced as I prepared for the *Giants Among Us* pilot episode.
To think, the day I sat down to write the Pilot Podcast all of these thoughts ran through my mind. They did. I spent a lot of time in the Brooklyn Central Public Library. Backpack, laptop charger and military notepad to jot down inspirational moments. I was ready to go. But it was while I was at home in the living room preparing the message that these waves of memories came through. There has to be something between the hours of 0100 and 0500 am.
I gave a little more insight on the road marker experience. Very memorable. Very moving moment in my life. Christ always kept me together and helped many go through some rough times. We're all vessels in the Lords hands. Remember that we are ambassadors from the Lords Kingdom holding all authority on our travels representing a Holy and Awesome God.
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The True North Life Broadcast aims to show, through scripture, real-life experiences, and personal testimony, that while living a Christian lifestyle can be challenging, it is absolutely possible. By embracing the power of the Lord’s teachings through the Holy Spirit, and with the support of community and personal accountability, we are empowered to thrive. These elements guide our lives, keeping us on a steady pateh in Christ and grounding us in His strength.
Welcome to “True North Life” broadcast, “This behind-the-scenes to the very first Pilot Broadcast, Episode One, “Giants Among Us,” consists of flashbacks that contrast my time overseas with that of my civilian life. Yet, share similarities like life, death and the longing for home. These experiences have given me a great appreciation for the sacredness of life that continues to resonate in my soul and always will.”
I pray that I can be an inspiration concerning what true ministry is as you seek the Lords face. He is always willing to use you no matter where you find yourself in your walk with Christ. He’ll use you in very special ways.
When we open ourselves, in total surrender to His will true miracles happen. Yet, that’s the challenge for many, however, as we, daily, walk with Christ it becomes natural to do so. Because His abiding Spirit, that leads us to all truths, will also teach us all truths.
Welcome back to True North Life Broadcast and todays “Behind – the – Scenes Episdoe to “Giants Among us.”
03:00am flashed on the digital clock. Sounds of Ambulance, Police sirens, and Fire department horns faintly knock upon the living room window as I toss another five times positioning myself in the hopes I will get some sleep. My eye lids slowly scramble to open, squinting in the low-light lit living room. Slowly.
“My cheerful Christmas welcome to Brownsville. My beloved Brooklyn. My beloved New York.” I thought to myself, as I laid on the sofa bed. Laptop on my stomach. Barely opening my eyes to see clearly enough to finish the rest of the message “Giants Among Us.”
I heard mom’s room door creek open. She was up. Quietly sneaking into the bathroom, trying not to wake me. The fan blew hot air as the heat from the steaming pipes overpowered the floor fan. Instead of the house being nice and cozy warm, it was scorching hot. I had to open the windows to let the cold air in and cool it down a bit. Guess the buildings boiler unit doesn’t have temperature control.
A decade of overseas contracting came to an end after moms second heart failure. I was with her for three months helping her recover for the first one. No amount of money is worth my mother’s attention and health. Not even overseas money.
The image of my mom walking to the bathroom seemed like a slow-motion film playing back in my mind as I remembered the day the camps quietness was filled with co-workers grilling stakes instead of the sound of air assault sirens and incoming rockets.
Mom called me after trying to reach her without response for several days. Worried after she told me she had fallen twice, bruising her face and knees. Here I was, eight-thousand miles away. It broke my heart.
“Hola cariño, llamándote para dejarte saber que después de seis días, me dieron el alta del hospital Brookdale.”
“Hi baby. Just calling to let you know, that after six days at Brookdale Hospital, I’ve been discharged.”
I can still smell the aroma of grilled ribeye steaks. My mouth watering yet thinking about how to respond to moms news. A couple of seconds passed. I spoke.
“¿Mamita, y si hubieras Muerto en el Hospital? ¿Tal como papi y Sonya? ¿Y Luego que?”
“Mom. What if you would’ve died in the Hospital? Like dad and Sonya did? Then what?”
I kinda of knew it was much more serious than what she had told me. Immediately made a call and was flown to the departure site to wait on a flight to New York. I was headed home. As always, she was keeping things from me.
Pieces of my soul ripped away when I recalled my dad and sister’s passing. Me being eight – thousand miles away and helpless. I was a Pall Bearer for both funerals. Sonya was my mother’s chosen name for my sister. It was changed on Sonyas birth certificate by one of the attendees, naming her Sonia instead of Sonya.
“Como una de las muchas Sonias alla fuera. Y no como la quería llamar, Sonya.” “Like one of the many Sonia’s out there, and not like I wanted to name her, Sonya.” Upset as she waved her hand away from herself as if to say, forget about it.
These days mom goes back in time sharing many moments she recalls from her younger years. Mom has shared many things I wish I would’ve known in my younger years. Like Mom and dads plans to marry were cut short, after dads life was snuffed from him in the Bronx. I was four at the time. I believe the perpetrators spent the rest of their lives in prison. I found his death certificate in one of moms drawers while looking for my immunization records. It was a violent death.
This is all part of my make up. Part of what has made me who I am. Yet, I’m not defined by my past but by that which Christ has regenerated in me through His Eternal Spirit.
“Mom,” as I looked back on that day once again, I said, “I call you every day because things aren’t great out here. And I don’t know when our last talk will be if anything should happen to me.” I kindly scolded.
But then, things went quiet. She sadly replied,
“Yo no quice que te preocuparas, mi cariño. Ademas, tu estas a tres días de viaje de casa.”
“I didn’t want you to worry, baby. Besides, you’re three days away from home.”
I quickly replied, “Mamita, yo estoy de catorce a veinte – y – dos horas de Brooklyn. No tres días de viaje. No tan lejos de ti, mamita.”
“Mom. I’m fourteen to twenty-two hours away from Brooklyn. Not three days away from you, mom.” Slightly frustrated, yet respectfully addressing the situation.
As that memory faded somewhat from my mind, I got up from the sofa, peaked from the edge of the wall to ensure Mom was alright as she walked to the bathroom ever so slowly.
Suddenly the image of mom asking me to help her take her sweater off came up…
“Ayudame quitarme la camisa porfavor. No lo puedo hacer.”
“Can you help me take this sweater off, please? I can’t do it.” She politely asked. With a childlike face she smiled and blew me her kisses. Kinda letting me know she’s alright. My eyes swelled up. They kind of got a bit sweaty.
Mom stopped at her bedroom door for a few seconds. She slowly turned around and said, “I love you.” She looked tired. As the glare of the bathroom light shun on her beautiful smile. I watched as she closed the door behind her.
I laid back down on the sofa. Placed the laptop on my stomach and typed away.
Caleb, at the age of 80, forty years after the spies bad report to the people of Israel, when the land was still being partitioned, spoke to Joshua,
“I am as strong as I was forty years ago when Moses sent us out to spy the land and our brothers melted the hearts of the people with their bad report.”
Only if mom were as strong as Caleb. I thought. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to have her. I want to fill her days with smiles and laughter. It’s time for me to take care of her. She took care of me well over my eighteenth birthday.
These thoughts caught me in a wave of memories of mom and my time overseas. I don’t have much to finish this message as I typed away.
Suddenly, the air assault sirens are screaming. My thoughts went back overseas just months prior. Laying on my bed inside a makeshift room made from a Connex box, twenty-foot container, eight feet high, ten feet wide. A convenient coffin for any incoming the radicals would shoot at our direction. If it hit, it would rip through these shelters like a hot knife through butter. But I was immune to this kind of life from my Marine Corps years.
Though what my eyes may see be overwhelming, my heart remains settled. For it is the home of my Creator filling it with peaceful calm. I shall not be shaken. No matter what may fall from the sky and how far it may travel from, I remain undaunted, focused, resolved, keeping a calm demeanor through uncertainties.
Ever watchful over those who would lose their cool under such circumstances.
It didn’t help those holding onto their very souls like a strong fortress under fierce attack.
I understood I was always one rocket from eternity, ready to cross over and meet my Creator. I know what He has done for me. I know with certainty my Fathers ways.
“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent[1].” John 17:3.
This is the reason behind “Giants Among Us.” Overcoming obstacles that would fill one’s heart with fear, but knowing that we have an awesome, mighty God, that will protect us under any circumstances. He would even protect our loved ones at home. While we’re afar.
Psalms 91 and 23 are my comfort scriptures in times of uncertainties. Keeping the soul at ease, peaceful and calm.
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.” [2]
I will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
A thousand may fall at my side,
ten thousand at my right hand,
but it will not come near me. [3]
-Psalms 91:1-2, 5-7
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” [4]
- Psalms 23:4
When I remembered the story of the road markers I used as an illustration for “Giants Among Us,” it was an unforgettable moment in my life. Because the day I had moved to the Red Bank Marine Reserve Unit in New Jersey, from the Brooklyn, RIIS Park Reserve Unit, all my brothers attached to our active-duty unit during Desert Shield Desert Storm, were there. The guys from the Road Markers story.
The day I arrived, I was pointed to the Motor Pool. I walked in between two rows of vehicles as the hard chargers turned and looked at me.
Suddenly, one screamed,
“Guys!!! It’s Hernandez!!!!”
I instantly recognized them. We ran towards each other. Held each other in our arms. Bouncing up and down intertwined within each other’s arms, elbows, banging each other, laughter and joy, like kids in a playground after a big win. Moving in a spiral of celebration.
That was the day I will never forget because we acknowledged our brotherhood. We were aware of who we were to one another. It didn’t matter if they were reservist, and I was active duty. That Road Marker day, writing it down on paper, visualizing it, was one of the most beautiful events of my life. Very emotional moment.
Yet the day came when the XO gave his speech about the “Rumors Have it,” news. We were headed to Bosnia. Something about genocide going on. When I looked at my brothers eyes they told me I had to go home. No words were spoken. We understood. I understood. “Your baby boy was born three months ago.” I held back the tears.
These are my dear brothers. They knew exactly what it meant to die for one another.
We understood the consequences. We understood our reasons and the cause. Thinking about this day, I thanked God I remembered the Road Markers. I had to. Our lives depended on it.
I continued typing away on the “Giants Among Us” message.” Mom peeped her eyes from the corner of the wall looking into the living room while I was typing and asked me what I was doing. I replied, “Mamita, te adoro. Tu sabes exactamente lo que estoy hacienda. Estoy trabajando en la misma cosa que estaba trabajando ayer y el dia anteayer– intentando de conquistar el mundo.”
“I love you mom. You know exactly what I’m working on. I’m working on the same thing I was working on yesterday and the day before – trying to conquer the world.” I said with a smirk on my lips.
She looked at me and smiled, “Silly Rabbit.” “Mom,” I giggled, “that’s what I do every day.” She silently turned her back to me as if to say, “I’m going to bed, and you can conquer the world all you want while I sleep.” Her slippers dragged on the linoleum carpet floor as she faded into the darkness of the hall leading to her bedroom.
Nothing really matters but mom. I put the finishing touches on the Pilot Broadcast, “Giants Among Us,” or “Lions and Grasshoppers?” I couldn’t decide on the title.
I wiped my tears thinking about mom and how time will come when I will no longer have her with me.
I shut the laptop and prayed. Just thinking about Mom brought back all those memories and the strength and endurance I had to bare and overcome.
Moments in my life I will treasure for always. The brotherhood of my companions and how we would lay it all down for one another.
Now…I’m laying it all down for the Lord Christ Jesus the Father of lights.
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”[5]
-John 3:8
Thats the end of this Bonus Clip Episode. Until our next Bonus Clip…I don’t know where that will take me but I will say that this is going to be something beautiful and exciting.
I’m thinking of sharing a little bit of my neighborhood. I was born and raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn New York. Now I’m back in Brownville, Brooklyn, New York.
I’m thinking about interviewing mom, she’s got an interesting life to talk about. Or maybe investigating my dad’s death in the Bronx.
Keep your soul pure before our Lord and Savior. He’s always a breath away. God bless you guys and…thanks for your support.
You’ve been listening to “The True North Life” Broadcast” with your host Freddie Hernandez. The Mission of this ministry is to demonstrate through scripture, life events, and personal testimony that living for Christ isn’t a science nor is it difficult to learn. For there is power in the Lords Teachings via His Holy Spirit, community and personal accountability. These chart our lives towards a constant course in Christ. Anchoring us in the power of His Strength.
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Until our next broadcast, God bless and keep on course with Christ.