Born in a gang and drug riddled area of St Louis, Missouri I learned to live and prosper on the streets. Before my eleventh birthday I had already earned a nice chunk of change selling drugs. I quit school at 16 and filled all my free time shooting dice and selling crack-cocaine, marijuana & PCP.

In 1980 me and my buddies were shooting dice in the corner of the local schoolyard when a neighborhood thug robbed me at gunpoint. Then one evening, I stepped into a crowded tavern looking for my enemies. When the screaming stopped, the other man lay in an pool of blood, five bullet holes in his body.

The police found me the next morning smoking crack on my front stoop. I served three years for manslaughter, then moved to Los Angeles. When I finally ran out of money, I turned to robbery and bought myself a second tour behind bars. On the road again, two years later, after being released, I fell in with my old friends and started the same cycle of drugs, dice and women. It didn't take long for the cash to dry up so I committed another robbery because "crime was the only thing I knew." I moved to Wichita & met up with friends I had known in prison. They quickly set me up in an apartment and gave me drugs, a gun and a car. I was back to my old lifestyle. One evening my friends left me alone in the house while they went off to a gang-fight. I had nothing else to do so I smoked their crack. Even in my drug induced stupor I realized my friends would probably kill me when they discovered what I had done. Bone-chilling, mind-numbing fear suddenly gripped me, Fear so real it nearly sobered me. For the first time, I prayed.

Now terror wrapped itself around my gut and I looked toward heaven. "God, if You really exist, help me to get out of this mess." I made my way to the bus depot and bought a ticket going to San Diego. I boarded a bus with two zip-lock bags of cocaine, a nine-millimeter handgun and $3,800. Within a month I smoked all my coke, lost all the money and had no place to live. I walked downtown. I saw a rescue mission. "If you need help, come on in." I went in. At the mission I met the pastor and heard the Gospel in a way that revolutionized my life. I never heard someone speak about God with that kind of authority. The pastor showed me the Scriptures about sin and salvation and I wrote them all down. A few days later I said one of the pastor's prayers that he'd given me. I received Christ. I attended worship services at my new church and my faith and understanding of Christ grew.

I gave my testimony and the men and pastor sensed the hand of God on my life and offered me a new job as maintenance man at their church. I accepted.

To comply with state law, I was fingerprinted. I knew I'd be fired once the state got my prints because state law mandated that convicted felons cannot work around children. As expected, a few weeks later the pastor received a call from the licensing bureau. They asked, "Do you know you have a twice-convicted felon working for you?" When I learned about the call, I told the pastor I'd quit. But the church leaders would not give up so quickly. They appealed! During the hearing the attorneys for the state repeatedly challenged the church. Don't you know what Mr. Nolan has done, they asked? Each time, the church responded, "Yes, we know all about Nolan's past. But Christ has changed him. He's a new man." The pastor added, "If a man, saved and changed by the power of God can't work in a church, then where can he work?" Nolan's support also surged among more than 60 parents and community leaders who flooded the chambers to defend their friend. A local attorney told the judge, "I'd trust Nolan with my life---and with the lives of my family." The hearing lasted seven hours. Six weeks later the judge rendered his five-page decision. It concluded, in part: "The list of witnesses who testified on behalf of Calvin Nolan is impressive both in number and in caliber---The court has heard many licensing discipline cases, but has never encountered such an outpouring of support (Therefore) there is substantial and convincing evidence to support a reasonable belief that (Calvin Nolan) is of such good character as to justify an exemption to allow (him) to retain his position at the church and all its related duties." My friends and I could almost hear heaven rejoice. I started life in the ghettos of St. Louis and wended my way through the darkest corners of drugs, death and prisons. God reached from heaven and took me, a lawless man, feared by friends and foes alike, and gave me much more than a change of address. He gave me a change of heart. II Cor. 5:17.