Speaker Series: AJ Casillas

AJ Casillas career has always involved speaking the Gospel message in front of a crowd, whether that is a crowd of pre-teens during his five years of NET ministry, a crowd of teens at numerous youth retreats, or—today at his current job—to high schoolers in religion class. 

But AJ has a deeply personal reason for wanting to speak out on life issues in particular. 

When AJ’s mother was pregnant with him, her doctors thought they noticed signs of dwarfism—and wanted to conduct further tests to see (in their words): “If this is a pregnancy that you’d want to keep.” 

Luckily for AJ both of his parents were adamant that another test was completely unnecessary.  “They said, ‘We don’t want to take the test because it doesn’t matter to me. My child is my child regardless of how he comes out.’”

A NICU team was on hand at AJ’s birth in case of complications—but the precaution turned out to be unnecessary. AJ was born healthy. 

“I’m very grateful for my mom and dad’s complete reliance and faith in the Lord,” AJ says. “And that they were going to give their ‘yes’ no matter what happened.”

This moment of unconditional love from his parents has made AJ eager to use his talents as a speaker—a craft he honed through hours of public speaking classes in college—to defend the unborn. 

“I think it’s important to speak for those who can’t speak for themselves or for those who don’t know how to,” AJ says, adding that he loves the message of OneLife LA and that the theme of “One Family, One Mission” particularly speaks to him. 

“We are one body,” he says of the church, “and that includes those from the womb to the elderly, no matter where you come from or what difficulties you have, we make up the one Body of Christ.”

He adds, “Every part of the body is necessary, and we should always take care of and protect what makes us whole.”

Meet AJ on Jan. 18 at OneLife LA when he co-hosts the welcome rally with Gia Chacón!