By the time my husband was 13 years old he was already getting involved with gangs, drugs & women. By the time he was 17 he was convicted of murder & spent the next 9 years in prison. After that he committed numerous other violent crimes in & out of prison–giving him a total of 17 years. He was never out longer than a year, sometimes only days upon a release he’d find himself back in there.
In 2010 God began speaking to him after he started reading the Bible one day behind bars. He knew God was calling him to serve Him, but he just didn’t see how it was possible beings he was pretty entangled in the prison politics & gangs. His heart began to soften & remorse started setting in for the first time ever over the crimes & sins he had committed. Shortly after, while facing a life sentence he was released much to his surprise. Within months he gave his life over to Jesus, received deliverance from demons & began serving him.
We had been going to the same church for a year and never knew it! We met after he gave his testimony in December of 2011. We talked several times after. Three months later on March 21, 2012, he fell 25 feet from a scaffold onto concrete resulting in a hospital stay of a month from broken bones, a brain injury & numerous other complications. I found out 2 days after the accident & joined other sisters from the church to pray for him at the hospital.
I was amazed at his spirit! He was still praising the Lord! Throughout that month I began visiting him regularly-we’d pray, read the Word and fellowship for hours. God began drawing us both by Spirit to one another in a way neither of us expected!
Just weeks after his release from the hospital he began joining me in a street ministry. We both had the same passion, which was to reach the lost, broken, addicted, incarcerated, gangsters, and more! We were doing ministry almost daily in between church services & doctor appointments.
On December 28, 2012, just 9 months later we married. The ministry grew and God began opening more & more doors to reach those entangled in gangs, drugs, homelessness and crime. We have now been married almost 15 months and it has been an awesome journey! God has blessed us so much. I have watched my husband grow so much.
It was hard for him to accept that someone genuinely loved him with the past he had. I lovingly tell him if God Almighty has forgiven and forgotten it who am I to look at him in that way? I have never seen a man give 100% like my husband. He often says if he was willing to die for a color, number or neighborhood he is certainly willing to die for Jesus Christ.
My husband, along with myself are new creations old things have passed away—that include ALL OLD THINGS, ALL things become NEW. We praise God every day for His death that set us free! My husband & I serve on a Community Care ministry-taking Christ to the gang areas, a jail ministry, an elderly/hospital ministry and homeless outreach. We also lead a 6-month discipleship class in our homes for couples, usher at our church and host couple events often.
We love to share the wonderful things God has done for us, but most of all our salvation; where we came from & where He has brought us to now. All I can say is there is NO greater joy than to serve Jesus & having a spouse to do it with is an extra, extra blessing!
Thank you for taking time to read our testimony 🙂
