From La Vida Loca to a Life of Service

When Albert LaQue’s mother dropped him off for his first day of first grade, he cried. Sitting at his desk sobbing, he was approached from behind by a group of boys who began beating him with their textbooks.

“That’s when La Vida Loca started for me,” he says.

LaQue went home, got his brother’s banana knife, and began carrying it. One day he sliced one of the boys in the arm. Later, he and the boys became friends. They ran around together and formed their own little gang.

At age nine, “Lucky,” as he was known, spent a year in juvenile detention for stealing a car. At 13, he used heroin for the first time. The addiction followed him into adulthood.

Then, in early July 1999, LaQue found himself sitting on a curb, stoned. He had been missing for ten days.

He decided he needed to turn his life over to the Lord.

It did not happen all at once. LaQue went to San Antonio for Christ, where the pastor allowed him to stay in a house open to anyone who needed a place. He left, got high, and came back. He did it twice.

Then he stopped.

LaQue made the decision that he was not going to live that way anymore and began attending the church’s worship services. By then, his family had not known where he was for about a month.

As his faith grew stronger, LaQue began telling his story. He completed The Miracle Center’s “School of Ministry." He witnessed to others, preached in prisons, and wherever he went told about the life he had lived and the God who had changed it. 

He has now been sober for 27 years.

LaQue left a successful career as a carpenter—“It was too hot outside,” he said—and went to work for Funeral Caring USA. Starting in maintenance, he worked his way up to office manager at the BT campus site. After the funeral director and others have completed their work, the responsibility for making sure the funeral runs smoothly falls to LaQue.

The families he meets are grieving. LaQue tries to make a difficult day a little easier.
He deals with death every day and sees nothing good about it. But he finds meaning in being able to reduce some of the burden families carry at one of the hardest moments of their lives.

LaQue remains embarrassed by his past. He also knows he is a living example of what God can do with a life. God can turn a hurt into a halo and transform tears into testimony.