Audio Tape
Restrictions: None
Biography
Full name: Jose E. Hernandez
Birth date: December 13, 1952, in Havana, Cuba
Family:Conversion: Late teens
Education:
Other significant information: Rev. Hernandez was born in Cuba. His family immigrated to the United States in 1961. Parents divorced in 1971.
Scope and Content
Jose Hernandez was interviewed by Paul Ericksen on January 13,1993, at the offices of South Florida Jail Ministry. The events described in the interview cover the time period 1961-1993.
T1 (75 minutes). Recollections of his family leaving Cuba; Jose's search for meaning as a teenager in marijuana and LSD; hearing about Christ from a friend who was saved in prison; testing God for seven days; call to be a missionary to university students in Granada, Spain as an independent missionary; development of a mission work among Spanish college students; the nondenominational aspect of his mission; leaving Spain because of lack of financial support; difficulty of Spain as a mission field; Franco's government's support of the Catholic Church as state policy; lessons of Jose' experiences in Spain; Jose's wife's experiences in Spain and her support of him; the background to Jose's becoming a religious coordinator in Dade County jails in 1981; "it was a scary responsibility," description of the prison and jail populations; development of the position; winning the confidence of guards and staff; learning how to get volunteers involved; description of his program and its activities among inmates, families and parolees; crisis in the Evangelical church because they have become too comfortable and cold-hearted in their faith; administrative responsibilities; the necessity of multiplying himself through community involvement; combining the requirements of his duties as a county employee with his desire to lead people to Christ; demographics of the jail and prison population in metro Miami; influence of alcohol and other drugs on crime; demographics of the South Florida Jail Ministry volunteers; presenting the Gospel without raising denominational issues; friendly reception volunteers receive; ethnic groups in the jails; development of the Agape Women's Homes; turnover rates in prisoners; difficulties caused by lack of funds for the South Florida Jail Ministry; the Christian love volunteers have for inmates; hopes for the future of SFJM; attitudes of prison staff toward the ministry; the need to love Christ and love the message; the difficulties of therapy for women addicts and ex-inmates; failure and apathy of the church in making the Gospel real; jealousy and burnout in Christian ministry
Provenance
The materials in this collection were given to the Archives of the Billy Graham Center by Jose Hernandez in January 1993.
Accession: 93-5
September 11, 2000T1 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips, 75 minutes, one side only. Interview of Rev. Jose Hernandez by Paul Ericksen on January 13, 1993, at Rev. Hernandez's office in Miami, Florida. Original was recorded on a cassette tape which was then transferred to a reel.