In this riveting episode, Angie Austin speaks with Larry Hutch, a once troubled soul who faced the dark alleys of life but emerged into the light of hope and faith. Discover how Larry’s tenacity and belief turned a tumultuous past into a testimony of divine intervention and spiritual awakening. From running the streets of South St. Louis to encountering life-altering events in Colombia, Larry’s story is a testament to the transformative power of faith, offering a beacon of hope to those who feel lost.
In honor of Military Appreciation Month, Verizon thought of a lot of different ways we could show our appreciation, like rolling out the red carpet. Giving you your own personal marching band. Or throwing a bumping shindig. At Verizon, we’re doing all that in the form of special military offers. That’s why this month only, we’re giving military and veteran families a $200 Verizon gift card and a phone on us with a select trade-in and a new line on select unlimited plans. Think of it as our way of flying a squadron of jets overhead while launching fireworks. Now that’s what we call a celebration. Because we’re proud to serve you. Visit your local Verizon store to learn more. Welcome to The Good News with Angie Austin. Now, with The Good News, here’s Angie.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey there, friend. Angie Austin here with the good news. You know, always fun to have new people on the show. Larry Hutch is joining us, and he is the author of From Junkie to Jerusalem. I don’t even know what to expect with you, Larry.
SPEAKER 02 :
I know. You know, Angie, I’ve thought about writing. I’ve had so many people say you ought to write. a book on your testimony of what God did, because it’s so unique, so rare. And, you know, I finally just decided to do it. And I wrote it for two reasons. One, to tell the story, and I tell quite a bit about the darkness that I was in with drugs and violence and drug smuggling and all those things. And I wrote it, one, Angie, to let people know that no matter what, Maybe it’s them. Maybe it’s somebody they love, a child, a grandchild, whoever. And you look at it and you go, you know what, is there any hope for me or is there any hope for my child, my grandchild? And so I wrote it to let people know no matter how deep of a hole somebody may be in, God’s love is deeper still, or no matter how dark it may seem, God’s light is brighter. And, you know, there’s a, you know, my mother told my wife a few years ago, she said, when Larry left South St. Louis and ran to Arizona, she said, I never thought I’d see him alive again, because she knew of the, she knew I was a drug addict. She knew I was using heroin and cocaine. And she knew the violent people that I was involved with in drug dealing. And, you know, there’s a saying on the streets, once a junkie, always a junkie. There’s a saying that, you know, you’ll never change. You’ll never change. But that’s what the world says. But the word of God says, who the son sets free shall be free indeed. And so I wrote it to give people hope that if God, God is no respecter of persons. If God can do this for me, he can do it for anybody. But then I wrote the Jerusalem part to share that, you know, when you give your life to the Lord, when you surrender your life to Jesus, it’s a journey that is amazing. God said, if all the Lord did, Angie, was die for us and forgive us our sin, we can make heaven our home. We couldn’t thank him enough. We couldn’t praise him enough. But he said, Jesus said, I’ve come to give you life and life more abundant. And so who would have ever thought that somebody like me from inner city, South St. Louis, drug addict, drug dealer, would end up sitting with President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu. And so that’s why I wrote the whole story from junkie to Jerusalem, that God has a destiny for all of us that is amazing. Just give your life to Jesus.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, besides the book, From Junkie to Jesus, you’re a pastor, and your church, New Beginnings Church in Texas, non-denominational, but you’ve pioneered seven different churches, I understand, in America and Australia. Is that right?
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s correct, yeah. We pastor here in Bedford, Texas, right in between Dallas and Fort Worth. And my wife and I have a television program that’s on every day around the world. And we teach our Jewish roots of Christianity. We go all the way back to the Hebrew, what the word says. And through that, we teach people to love and stand with Israel and the Jewish people around the world. And so it’s an amazing journey. We have just great, great partners from all over the world. And it’s been a fun ride so far.
SPEAKER 03 :
So you went from being a talented football player to a drug addict and dealer to a pastor who was, you know, touching the lives of millions through, you know, radio, your TV show, and now your book from Junkie to Jerusalem. So let’s get into that journey a little bit of how that all went.
SPEAKER 02 :
I mean, that’s quite a journey. You bet. So, well, I grew up in inner city, South St. Louis, you know, in the hood. We all grew up, I think it was like a 750, 800 square foot home. We were pretty poor and, you know, grew up, you know, and I say this, my father’s gone on to be with the Lord. My mom just passed away at 97 about two weeks ago, three weeks ago now. I was actually in Jerusalem when my brother called and she passed at 97 years old. My mom was an angel. My mom was just the sweetest, kindest woman. most giving, loving person. My dad, not so much. And I don’t say it to put him down. He didn’t know the Lord. And, you know, one of the things I teach Angie in the book, and I’ve written in other books on breaking family curses, breaking generational curses, is, you know, my dad was a pretty violent guy. He was a pretty mean guy. He beat us. He beat my mom. And I don’t say that to say bad about him. You know, before he passed away, he received the Lord. But the thing, one of the, you know, we talk about being a junkie and a drug addict, but Probably my biggest problem was not the drugs, although I was totally addicted. My biggest problem was my violence. I was extremely violent, angry guy. I fought all the time, got in trouble with the police all the time. And I would watch my dad, you know, my dad, my dad. I heard my dad on the phone one time and I’m and I talk about this in the book, trying to get put me in a home, give me away. And saying, I don’t want him. And I can remember hearing him say that. I was probably, I think, probably eight years old, seven, eight, nine years old. And I remember going into my room and I just broke down and cried. I said, my dad doesn’t want me. And then I gathered myself as a little kid. And I said, nobody will ever make me cry again. And I just became really hard and really angry. My dad, you know, one time I came in about five minutes late for supper, and he just ambushed me and knocked me down, punched me, knocked me down. And, you know, I almost knocked me out, and then he kicked me through the – through the house. And, um, my mom came in and was getting the car keys and he said, where are you going? She said, I’m taking him to the hospital. You broke his ribs. And, uh, and he said, I’m not spending one penny on him. And, you know, and I don’t say that to, to blame the Bible says we battle not with flesh and blood, but I would look at that And I would say, I will never be like that. But I became that very thing. I became the very thing that I hated. And so, you know… I went from, I went from, uh, inner city, South St. Louis. And like I said, you know, I tell the story, I just did a, I just did a TV interview and I was telling the story of when the snow cone guy came around and I think the snow cone was five or 10 cents or something. And we would have to come in the house because there’s no way my dad’s going to spend, you know, five or ten cents on us. I was the first Huck to ever graduate from a university. First one ever. And my graduation gift was a white shirt that I could wear for graduation. And so I looked at that and I said, you know what, I’m going to get out of inner city. I’m going to figure out a way to make money. And I went away on a football scholarship to play football in college. And I started selling drugs. I started dealing drugs and, uh, It just escalated from there. And I thought, well, you know, making money and not being poor, that’s going to change me. And, of course, it didn’t change me. It made things only worse.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, when you were on that football scholarship, you’re starting to deal, you’re making money, you think the money is going to be life-changing for you. And then I understand then, you know, into the dealing after graduation, you know, selling drugs, setting up pipelines into the U.S. for the drugs. I understand. Did you feel like you had progressed to putting your life really in jeopardy at that point?
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, I didn’t think about that. I really didn’t. I know that sounds insane. That sounds crazy. But, you know, we were making money selling drugs, and I thought, I’m going to cut out the middleman. So I just got on a plane and went to – moved to Columbia, South America, started meeting certain people. And just a bizarre set of circumstance, I started to do a deal with this guy that was kind of a famous guy down there for a certain reason. I won’t say what he did, but he was kind of a famous guy. And all of a sudden, people that I’d met knocked on my door and said, you got to come with us. And next thing I know, I’m in a village, outside of Medellin called Embigado. Uh, they put us in a ranch up on the top of the mountains. And the next day I’m meeting a guy that wasn’t well known then, but he became well known by the name of Pablo Escobar. And, uh, I’m living in an Embigado. I’m living in his village. We’re instructed only take his cabs. And, um, we began, uh, dealing drugs and setting up drug deals to smuggle cocaine in the United States. But the problem on top of that was we had pure drugs as much as we wanted. And I started doing cocaine several times a day. Then I started, uh, using the needle and hitting up cocaine. And then I started doing cocaine and heroin together. And, uh, it wasn’t long. Yeah. When I left, when I left, uh, the States, uh, Yeah. I played football. I was, uh, uh, doing Olympic weightlifting. I weighed 212 pounds. I was a very fit athletic guy. And, uh, by the time I got back to the States, I weighed about 140, 145 pounds. All I was doing, all I was doing was drugs. And, uh, and I realized, uh, uh, I’m addicted and the long, long story, long story short, um, This sounds totally crazy, Angie. It all sounds totally crazy, Larry. Yeah, I know. Every time I do one of those, this ought to be a movie. And I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the series… Oh, shoot, what’s it called? On the drug dealing from Columbia, South America. Oh, I’ve watched a lot of it. Oh, yes, yes, I have. Well, you know, I’ve been sharing my testimony for years and years. My family knows my testimony, most of it. They don’t know all of it. And we turned on when Narcos first came on, and Piz and I turned it on, and we’re sitting there watching it. And I think it’s the first episode. It’s been a year since I watched it. And they show… Escobar’s people meeting a contact in the U.S. down in Miami in a high rise parking lot. And the U.S. Wait, hold on.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hold that. We just have to take a break. I’m so engrossed in your story. All right. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 05 :
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SPEAKER 06 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, my goodness. Larry Hutch, we are doing an interview with Larry, and I’m so engrossed in the story that I just lost track of time. So we took a break, and we’re talking to Larry about his book, From Junkie to Jerusalem. And he is a pastor. He is on TV every day. He’s on the radio. He’s written this book, From Junkie to Jerusalem. And I’m just I can’t even believe your story, but it should be a movie. So you were a football player. You went you were the first Hutch to graduate from college. You started dealing and doing drugs while you were in college. Then you graduate. You’re in Columbia now. This is long before you’re a pastor and you set up all these churches and you’re doing a daily Christian TV show. And you’re talking about how this is like the show Narcos on Netflix. And tell us about this. Jump back into the story, Larry. Give us a recap.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, so if you’ve seen the series Narcos, like I said, I think it’s the first episode. I’m not sure. And they show the contact in Miami and the American contact with Pablo Escobar’s people. He’s standing next to a yellow 1969, 1970 Mach 1. And we’re watching this, and my wife Tiz goes, that’s your car. And that as you watch that, a lot of that is me. That’s that’s I found out when I came back to the United States that I had been selling to an undercover agent and working undercover. in the drug smuggling with an undercover agent for a couple years. And so a lot of that story is stuff that they had recorded on me. And when I got back to the United States, I found out that there were seven warrants out for my arrest. And so I was meeting a shipment of drugs and got back to our home in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. And the place was torn up. And so I thought, well, somebody tried to rob us. So we had another place. We went there. That place was torn up. And a friend of mine got a hold of me. His dad was a bail bondsman in that area. And he said, Larry, they just arrested, I think it was 48 drug dealers in the Cape Corrado University of Illinois area. They made a mass bust at 10 minutes to midnight. He said, you’re number two on the list. They are looking for you. And so I said, man, this is the prime time. Let’s get out of town. And so we loaded up our hippie Volkswagen van and headed out to Flagstaff, Arizona. And Angie, this sounds bizarre. The whole time I’m going through this, from the time I was a little kid running the streets, staying out on the street, we’d stay out on the street all night long. We’d just stay out and get in trouble and break into places. And the whole time I’m doing this, I know there’s got to be a God. But I never even thought of going to church to see if I could find God. It just wasn’t in my thinking. And so I’d read this book about spirituality in Flagstaff, Arizona. And so I said, let’s go there. Let’s head there. And long story short, I’m hiding from the police. My mom is not telling anybody where I’m living. I’m sitting on my porch. I got long hair, needle marks up and down my arms. I’m just a stone cold drug addict. And I’m sitting on my porch. We’re living in kind of the red light district, the bar area in this little place. And I’m smoking dope. And I’m watching this young Mexican kid by the name of Bill Trujillo. And he keeps walking back across the street, down the street, and they turn around and come back. And Angie, I’m thinking he’s trying to get the nerve to come over and buy some drugs. And finally, I see him get to the end. I’m just watching him. I’m thinking this is hilarious. And he takes a deep breath and just crosses the street, makes a beeline for me. And I’m thinking he’s going to say, do you have anything for sale? And the first words out of his mouth were, I’ve never done this before, but I couldn’t leave until I told you Jesus is who you’re looking for.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, my goodness. I can’t even wrap my head around it. So this guy just walks across the street, and he says, you know, Jesus is the guy you’re looking for. Yeah, I know that. You’re blowing my mind here.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, so keep going. Just out of nowhere. I mean, you know, and I love to tell people don’t look. I love the scripture, Angie, where God says man looks on the outside, but God looks on the inside. And that had to be the case. I mean, you got to pick. I was wearing earrings before earrings were in. You know, I’m definitely a drug addict. And yet he walks up to me, first person he’s ever witnessed you. And, you know, it wasn’t that long later that Bill had a strange accident and died from the complications of that. And so I love telling people his name. And I know every time I win somebody the Lord or I do something for the kingdom of God, Bill’s getting another crown in his, another jewel in his crown. I know that. And so he said, I don’t know. And so he kept coming over and talking to us. I’m living with these two girls who both became, then she became pastor’s wives. And I’d sit there and roll joints in front of him and, you know, do drugs in front of him. And he just kept telling me how much Jesus loves me. So long story short, he won’t, you know, we’d see him coming and we’d hide behind the curtains. And he’d keep knocking. He’d go, I know you’re in there. I know you’re in there. I saw you moving. So we’d open him up, and he just wouldn’t stop. And he wasn’t condemning. He wasn’t telling us we’re going to burn in hell or anything like that. He just kept telling us about the love of God. And so finally they were showing a movie at the church called The Gospel Road, and it was by Johnny Cash and Chris Christopherson. Wow. You know, it was the story of Jesus where Johnny Cash and they’re singing it and they’re narrating it. And June Carter played Mary Magdalene. And I like Johnny Cash and Chris Robertson. I said, OK, I’ll go with you to the church. There’s a church about 50 people, 40, 50 people. And I said, I’ll go with you if you promise to leave me alone with this Jesus stuff, man. Come on, get off of it. And he said, well, I can’t promise you, but you’ll like the movie. And so I went with him, myself and Donna, one of the girls that was my friend. And I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it. It’s not a really well done, but it tells the story of Jesus that I didn’t know. And at the end, obviously, Jesus with the music and the drama dies on the cross. And I’m looking at this, and it’s touching me. But then the next scene of that movie is Jesus once again, same motion, same drama, same music, and boom, he dies just the same way on the cross, but this time the cross is in Times Square. And then it shows the same exact thing, boom, he dies, and this time it’s in the streets of East L.A. So he’s dying amongst drug addicts and prostitutes and street people. And somehow I knew… I didn’t understand it. I didn’t know what born again was. I didn’t care anything about hell or heaven. But I knew he was what I was looking for. I can’t explain it. I just knew. And so the pastor, as we do, gives an altar call and has people raise their hand. And I didn’t raise my hand. to receive the Lord. And then he had people come forward and he, that became my church. He became my pastor. And he said, I, he said, I’m looking at you. And he just kept going with the altar call long and long and long. He said, and I knew, I knew God was dealing with you, but you weren’t budget. And Angie did this day. Nobody came and said anything to me. Nobody come and, you know, ask me anything. I didn’t raise man to this day. Before God, I don’t know how I got down to that altar. I don’t remember getting out of my seat. I don’t remember walking down there. Next thing I know, Don and I are kneeling next to each other amongst these church people. And here’s a great lesson that I’ve kept all these years is nobody came up to us and prayed with us. I mean, I had no shoes on. I had no shirt on. I had a poncho from South America, had earrings in my ears and rings on every finger, you know, those hippie spoon rings. And we laughed about it later, but learned they looked at me and they’d walk around and pray for somebody else because they’d look at me and say, that guy will never make it. And so I didn’t know what I’m supposed to do or anything. I don’t know why, how I got down there. And I just said, God, if you’re real, be real to me. And all of a sudden I just burst into tears. And you go back to all the time when I was eight years old and I said, nobody will ever make me cry again. And I just burst into tears because I felt like a million pounds lifted off of me. And all of a sudden, the pastor who became my pastor, dear friend, he puts his hand on my shoulder and he said, God’s really touched you, hasn’t he, son? And I shoved his hand away because I didn’t trust people. And I said, well, somebody did. And so then, you know, everybody went back to their seat and nobody in the church said hi to us. Nobody said anything to us. And we all use that as a lesson to learn. Don’t look at the outside. Don’t look at what people look like. Let God move and know that he said, come unto me, all you that are heavy laden. And Angie, I know this upsets a lot of Christian people. I didn’t get saved because I was worried about going to hell. I didn’t give my life to that. I’m from South St. Louis. We’re pretty tough guys. You know, I didn’t care anything about hell. Didn’t even believe in hell. Didn’t know anything about heaven. I got tired. I gave my life to the Lord that night because I realized somehow that I was tired of living in hell. And that something, by looking at this actor playing Jesus, that this Jesus they’re talking about was going to bring me the peace that I’ve been looking for all these years. Wow. And we were so naive. And, you know, Donna got saved. I got saved. Our other friend, Gail, who became a pastor’s wife, she was a nurse, and she was working as a private nurse for a guy who had cancer at his home. And so we went and picked her up at about midnight, And we felt when Donna and I got in the car, she goes… what was that man i don’t know but did you feel that and she had and we felt so good we went out and bought a bag of a bag of dope and a bottle of whiskey to celebrate to celebrate being saved yeah that’s how i mean we knew nothing we knew nothing about church and so we went picked up gail now the thing we didn’t know about gail is she was raised in church now she was doing drugs with us and everything but she was a backslider she She knew all about. She was spirit-filled. And so we picked her up, and we’re smoking dope. She gets in the car, and we hand her a joint. And we said, man, I said, you’re not going to believe what happened today. She goes, what? I go, we got born again. She goes, you got what? I said, you know, you’ve heard of this guy Jesus? Yes. I said, well, he died for all of us. I’m not sure why, but he died for all of us. And seven days later, he rose again. And she goes, you’re not born again. I said, no, no, we are. We prayed and we’re born again. And she goes, you can’t be born again and smoke that. And we go, why not? And she goes, we knew nothing. And so people say all the time, you didn’t really get saved. No, we got saved, you know.
SPEAKER 03 :
You didn’t fully understand it yet, but you’re saying, oh, Larry, I’m going to have to have you on again because I’ve only gotten through about a quarter of the questions that I want to ask you. You bet. We’ve got about a little bit less than a minute left. I want to make sure that people can find you, Larry, and from Junkie to Jerusalem and also your program, New Beginnings, that is watched and followed by thousands and thousands of people that’s on every day. So how do we find you?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, you can go. We’re on several channels, but the main channel we’re on is Daystar. And it’s under Larry and Tiz Huck. And it sounds like H-U-C-K, but it’s H-U-C-H. And you can get… And your website? Our website is Larry Huck Ministries. And you can get that on there. And you can go to New Beginnings in Bedford, Texas. And you can get the book on Amazon.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, what a pleasure.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’ll have you back, Larry. Thank you. God bless you. Thank you so much. I sure appreciate talking to you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.
SPEAKER 01 :
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