TESTIMONY OF JOHN

       I started thinking after I got to jail.  I had been supplying more drugs to the west side of Chicago than anyone else, and I was the leader of one of the largest gangs in the city.  Why couldn’t I set up the same kind of drug supply network in jail that I had on the streets? My friends inside helped me get started. The hard part was getting the drugs from one wing to another.  My cellmate was always encouraging me to go to chapel, so one night I did.  And I became a regular.  Chapel solved my distribution problem.

      People say that God can use anything to work out his plan for us.  I know how true that is.  To get my drugs to all the wings I had to listen to God’s Word.  One night the chaplain told us we were too old to be involved in gangs anymore.  But we were too young to die. His guest speaker said that our minds were the devil’s playground, that it was a war with an invisible force. He said that the devil came to rob, steal & destroy, but that Jesus came that we would have life & have abundance. It felt like he was talking right to me.  He scared me. He said God knew my heart & I could not fool Him. Man, I felt convicted. He also said that we could not serve God & mammon. Yes, money was my god.

        I still continued supplying drugs throughout the prison, but I didn’t enjoy it anymore. I was feeling shame & guilt. I was ready for my life to change.  I made my decision a few weeks later.  I got down on my knees and asked the Lord to come into my life.  I flushed all my drugs down the toilet. The preacher said that I would become a new creation, not recycled & God would forgive me. How great is that! I knew that I was finally changing.

       I avoided my old partners when I got out of prison. They were waiting for me to pick up where I had left off, but my life had changed too much.  Don’t get me wrong; I still miss the $25,000 to $30,000 I was making every weekend.  But there’s no question between God’s value and money’s. Now I do ministry in the same area where I used to sell drugs and shoot people.  When I took over as head of my gang we had 1,500 members.  By the next year we had 10,000.  I’m praying that God will let me have the same kind of impact for Him that I had as a gang leader.  When the way you live pleases the Lord, things that are really valuable to Him become valuable to you too. I am dressing for each day’s battle with the Arsenal of Protection. I also received His gift of love that was so hard for me to do. He really is an awesome God. With Him, I know I can make it.