Testimony Tuesday: Living out of right fear of the Lord

By Bella Agnello

The first time Hugo Cerrato came to Cedarville University was also the first time he flew on a plane, the first time he came to the United States and the first time he left home. At 17 years old, with only two bags to his name, he watched Honduras disappear into the corner of the plane window and dreamed of what God had in store for him in the cornfields of Ohio.

There was no going back.

A junior Economics and International Studies major, Cerrato knows that every opportunity and every blessing in his life came because God desired to surprise him and grow him in true fear of the Lord.

Cerrato grew up in Honduras with Christian parents who placed him in Sunday school and Christian school, and who taught him what it meant to have fear of the Lord. They taught him that having a right understanding of who God is shapes the way he thinks and lives, which sets him apart from everyone around him. He knew that he needed to obey God but did not know he could have a relationship with him.

“I was just living my life knowing that there was a God, a powerful God, a God that took care of me, a God that loved me,” Cerrato said.

In fourth grade, Cerrato learned on a school retreat that God does not have spiritual grandkids who have a relationship with him because of their parents. Everyone must decide to have a personal relationship with him, to see him as both father and friend. It prompted him to ask if he had a relationship with God. During that retreat, he made a declaration of faith and realized that fear of the Lord includes having a personal relationship with God.

“After being saved, I knew I could have a personal relationship with God,” Cerrato said. “It is in him that I find my identity. I’m here because of him.”

That night, he was given a wristband with the letters “WWJD,” which stand for, “What Would Jesus Do.”

“That’s something that impacts me even today,” Cerrato said. “With every big or small decision, ‘Would Jesus do that?’”

Cerrato began to pursue a relationship with God and learned not to be ashamed of the Gospel. Many of his friends were Christian, but he motivated them to go deeper in their faith and grow more passionate about the things of God.

In middle school, Cerrato got to lead worship and led a lesson in a small group of neighbors from his church. His confidence to talk about the things of God increased as he pressed into 1 Timothy 4:12, which says, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”

“You’re never too young to follow the Lord,” Cerrato said. “Come back to the example of David: he was called to serve the Lord when he was very young.”

Cerrato and his small group occasionally went door to door in the community trying to tell their neighbors about Jesus and his love for them. Through moments like these, he learned how a community of believers could display the love of God as they pointed others to him. As they shared the truth about God, they also shared how they realized their purpose through knowing God on a personal level.

In high school, Cerrato reevaluated his priorities when COVID-19 struck the world and shut everything down. During the pandemic he also lost his grandmother. His grief and confusion at the chaos of life propelled him to seek wisdom from God.

“We weren’t allowed to go to places, just be home,” Cerrato said. “So knowing that and knowing that we were also created to be a community, it definitely taught me to be close with my family. There’s great value in loving people. Loving God, but also loving people. When you strive to serve people and to love them, that changes the way you live.”

As Cerrato grew in his love for God and others, he knew he wanted to go to a college that taught students to go deeper in their relationship with God and fostered a community built on the Gospel. His older sister attended Cedarville, and from what she said about it and from the research he did, Cerrato decided to apply. He loved the community, daily chapels and emphasis on God as the center of everything Christians do.

Applying took a lot of faith, and Cerrato learned to depend on God more than before. Being an international student is expensive, so a lot of prayers went into his decision to submit his application. And when he took a step of faith, God began to make it clear that he was supposed to attend Cedarville.

Once Cerrato got accepted, little by little family and friends gave him gifts that would go towards his tuition. Then, he got accepted for several scholarships. His visa got approved. By May, he found his roommate who, in July, flew to Honduras for a week to meet him and fly with him on his first flight.

When saying goodbye to his family, Cerrato clung to Joshua 1:9, in which Joshua charges Israel to “be strong in the Lord.”

“That was one of the verses I thought of when I was leaving home,” Cerrato said. “It comforted me because I was leaving home, leaving everything behind and the only things I had were two bags.”

Now a junior, Cerrato is living in the fear of the Lord as a student on a Christian campus. He has been involved in Model UN, where he researches and debates policies as well as learns how to share the Gospel by living differently than his opponents. He is also working as the Student Government Association (SGA) vice president, where he is using his platform to encourage students to shine their light and live passionately for God.

Cerrato is learning how to practice the fear of the Lord in the world of economics and international affairs. He hopes to work at an embassy in another country, where he can serve his country and be an ambassador for both Honduras and God in a foreign country.

“I’m passionate about economics, I’m passionate about international relations and just using those two things to serve others and bring change to the world in a way that motivates people to live in the way the Lord created us,” Cerrato said. “He created us to work, he created us to honor him.  You don’t need to have a Bible major to reflect the law in what you do.”

No matter what happens, no matter how many honors he receives, no matter how his life turns out, Cerrato rests knowing that he will always have a personal relationship with God and will keep learning how to love him and service him before anything else.

“He’s never let me down, and I trust that he never will,” Cerrato said. “And because of that, I strive to be obedient and follow his commands and his ways. He has been good.”

Bella Agnello is a junior Broadcasting, Digital Media and Journalism major with a concentration in Journalism. She enjoys thrifting, listening to records and reading classic Russian literature in her spare time.