When I was just twelve years old I shot a white kid for calling my sister a nigger. By the time I was sixteen years old I was in complete control of the six duce crips in South Central Los Angeles. To police of the precinct this was one of the worst street gangs in all of Los Angeles. Drugs, guns, gang wars - this was my way of life. Day after day and night after night I saw many of those who followed me to the grave. I saw crack babies born to mothers who left them to die. I saw young girls giving their bodies to street thugs in order to belong. This is the way we lived and this is the way we died.

Prison after prison is where I found myself. No matter how hard I wanted to escape this circle of violence, for me there was no escape. The killing of other gang members, the rape of girls from other gangs, beating men until they cried to be killed - this is the life I had been dealt. I tried to drown myself in drug money and sex, but nothing worked. I worked harder at being more and more violent, and still my life was empty. I hated all white people, Hispanics and even blacks. No matter how many bullets flew around me, I could never get one to hit me and end my misery.

I soon found myself in a Texas prison. This caused me to lash out even more against the white inmates. Fear was the name of the game for me, but I could not rid myself of the misery, anger or loneliness. I thought that the only way for me was to take my own life. I made a knife and with less than 24 hours to go before I was to commit suicide a white man walked up to my cell door and started smiling at me. Who was this white man and why was he smiling at me? Then he asked if he could share the word of God. I stood there and listened to this white man. The words he spoke cut right through my heart and convicted my soul. This white man led me to Jesus Christ that day. As he prayed with me something in my life changed. I knew it. Before he left I asked him if he would help me be the kind of man that God wanted me to become. He said that as long as I meant business with God, he would do all he could to help me. The next morning I went to all the white inmates who were in fear of me and told them I no longer would be taking things from them. I told the Hispanics that there would be no more gang wars as long as I could help it. However, Satan had other plans. Later, in an altercation with white officers, I was stabbed in my right eye and lost sight in that eye. At the same time they hit me over the head with a club and caused damage to my optic nerve in the left eye leaving me 90% blind.

I wrote to the white man, Mr. Henry Sorelle, who led me to Christ, and he did not wait. He came to the prison to see about me. He accepted me as if I was his own son and walked with me to the cross. Because of his love and teaching I began to learn more about God and his word. As I began to grow in Christ I was convicted to reach out to other gang members around the prisons in the hope that we could stop this violent life style we had been living. This is where God stepped in again. He put a white chaplain on my prison unit and this man has bent over backwards to help me grow and mature in the lord. Due to the love and guidance of my teacher, Mr. Sorelle and the dedication of Chaplain Jack Wilcox I have given myself over completely to God. Now I am writing what is in my heart to all men and women behind prison walls to let them know that if they seek to know God above through Jesus Christ, he will give them the strength to soar on the wings of eagles. They will learn what it is to live in light instead of darkness.

If any Brother or Sister is living a life filled with misery, frustration and bitterness, or feels that their life is not worth living, please let me encourage you to look to the cross of Jesus Christ, for it is at the cross where you will find God's Grace.

To receive more articles and poems by Alonzo Dixon write to:

From Pain to Joy Prison Ministry — 14 Canyon Creek Village # 44 — Richardson, TX 75080 — 1502

Left in a Dustbin

Hi there, my name is Dave Flynn and I would like to share my story with you. I was born in the mining town of Ashington, Northumberland in 1962. On the day my mother brought me home to her parents, my grandfather had a heart attack and died. This caused my mother to fall into depression and after a while my mother simply could not cope with me and ran off leaving me in a dustbin. I spent a short time in foster care as a child due to family problems. As a youth I led a wild existence, often running away from home and finding myself in trouble with the police. This carried on way into my teens. Like most young lads in Ashington, I got a taste for strong drink and started to drink in pubs from 13 years of age! On leaving school I ended up working in the mines for a while and then, aged 17, I joined the army. During my basic training I began to box. I enjoyed it and soon found myself in the junior army team, but because of the drinking, this led to more fighting out of the ring and I found myself locked up in the army prison.

Falklands War

I saw action in the Falklands and the Gulf War in 1992, Bosnia, and other hot spots during my 17 years in the army, but I spent most of my time in Northern Ireland. During these times I saw a lot of casualties and friends killed, and this caused me to become hard inside and emotionless. I got married to a girl, we lived in Londonderry and I joined the Ulster Defence Regiment. After a while I was sick of army friends being killed by the IRA and found myself drawn into the UVF paramilitary organisation after becoming a member of the Orange Order. My life became a mess. I was ordered to carry out punishment shootings and other serious offences. I was living in a state of siege during this "Terrorism" war. I was shot in the leg during this time and also found two car bombs under my car, narrowly escaping death. Around 1999 I decided enough was enough and decided to leave after I was ordered to carry out an assassination in a church. I returned home to England in 2000, and because I was short of money, found myself in the unlicensed boxing ring — my life was meaningless and going nowhere.

Salvation

Some of my family were born-again Christians, and one night at my brother's house I heard a testimony of a notorious reformed gangster. I heard that you could have a personal relationship with Jesus and that I could have my sins washed away. I also heard that God loved me and had a plan for my life, but that I needed to claim it. I realized that this was what I needed in my life, and give my life to the Lord. Shortly after that, I was baptized in water and in the Holy Spirit. I am now at peace with myself and God, and I attend Lakeshore Family Church regularly. For a long time I was dogged by back problems; a hospital x-ray showed that I had a crumbling spine. However after some prayer during a church service, I was healed and the hospital could no longer find any problems! My life has changed and so can yours. Not long after I was saved, God showed me a vision of the plans he had for me. God had begun to help me in my daily life, sometimes providing miraculous help. I never cease to be amazed. Day by day he is changing me. I know I have His love and forgiveness and I know that I have a wonderful future ahead. You can have Jesus in your life too; I promise that you will never look back! God Bless You!!

Hello! My name is Julie and I live in Caerphilly. For years I took drugs and drank bottle after bottle, smoked 20-30 cigarettes a day and had no problem getting what I wanted from shops without paying.

Every day I would let these things control my life, thinking that these things would fill that empty space in my life. I was in and out of relationships looking for love and never found what I was looking for. My family could not cope with me. I was a wild woman. Sometimes I would take so many drugs I would not remember what I had done or where I had been. Drugs ruined my life and the lives of my friends. Some of them died on drugs thinking that they were enjoying themselves.

Depression came in and I started to become violent until I was locked up for attempted murder. From that prison cell I cried out to God, "Save me oh God, give me another chance." Again I cried out, "save me", and then suddenly I heard a voice say "the truth shall set you free." So I said again, "if it is you God, send a man that I may know the truth and that it is of You. I spent the next few days thinking about my life. Where am I going? What am I doing? I did not want any more of that life I was living - I wanted out. God had another plan. He did just what I asked, He sent a man, This man was sent from God to tell me what God wanted to do with my life because there is a plan for our lives.

So I cried out to Jesus and He heard me, and yes Jesus did set me free, so now I am grateful that God chose me and I know for sure that the truth sets people free.

The Bible says, 2 Corinthians 5 v.17 "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new." The desires, habits, lust, worldly ways are behind me, something draws me to the friendship and support I had received from the church. My friends may think I am strange, But I have found Jesus Christ and am now seeking the things of God and his Kingdom, I have this free gift of Eternal life through Jesus Christ. I know for sure that when I die I am going to Heaven for ever.

"If the son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8 v.36), so someone told me the truth and now I want to tell you the truth, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." (John 3 v.3) And we do think that our good works will get us to heaven.

But the Bible says .......

"There is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." (Proverbs 14 v.12)

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me," (John 14 v.6)

"For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life," (John 3 v.16).

We need to make a U-turn away from sin in our life and repent.

"Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish," (Luke 13 v.3)

Call out to Jesus. He will always be there if you really believe in your heart. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." (Acts 16 v.31)

"Behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6 v.2)

"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement." (Hebrews 9 v.27)

"That if you shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

"for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness: and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Romans 10 vs. 9-10)

Brother, you mentioned that the healing prayer was given to you by the Lord directly. What exactly happened? Was it in a dream or vision? At this point I wish to share a very beautiful testimony of a young inmate who had been blind for almost 2 years. This happened a few days after I had posted the other three testimonies. This was on 7th February 2005. It was believed that this young man was bewitched by the person from whom he stole some property and money. While here in prison some people tried to pray for him using false doctrines, where they could buy some milk and wash his eyes, but this did not work at all. He remained completely blind. On the 6th February 2005, he was led to me by somebody. I was surprised at the question that he posed to me. He asked, "Have you failed to heal me?" then I said, "I have never healed somebody, it's the Lord who heals," then he went on to say that he had seen a vision and the Lord was going to discharge him from prison the following day. Then I immediately made an arrangement to pray for him the following day, which was 7th February 2005. Then that day we took him to a cell were me and a Brother in Christ prayed the Healing Prayer. As we were praying, we noticed some tears coming out from his eyes and realised that the Lord had healed him! We asked him if he could see anything and he said he could see. A few seconds later, his eyes opened and his sight was restored! About 5 minutes later news of this miraculous sign filled the whole prison, and a crowd of inmates came in the doorway to see what had happened. The young man had by this time been fully healed and was in such a perplexed state that he seemed frightened of everyone who came to greet him! I can assure you Brother that I have never seen the Lord manifest his power the way he did. News of the miracle has spread to all the nearby suburbs and townships and a few days ago this was aired on the radio.

Like most males from a slum area, I had been an unscrupulous kleptomaniac from childhood. Concisely, while we were committing robbery at a certain liquor store in 1997, I got shot and arrested by the police. Having been sentenced twelve years in prison in 1998, I realised a dire need to turn a new leaf. Then, I attended school and graduated in 2001; and obtained a diploma in 2003. However, I was never content with my academic achievements because I always felt that I needed something more than that. Fortunately, God introduced me to various Bible Correspondence schools such as: Bible Way Corr School, One Nation Under God and World Bible School which blessed me with the word-based doctrine derived from the first century church (the New Testament pattern of following the way of Jesus Christ) that led me to accepting Jesus Christ as my Saviour and obeying God's word. As a result, my faith in God and Jesus Christ is growing tremendously. I would recommend every new-born Christian to study the word of God (Acts 17 v.11). I focus my attention on seeking God's kingdom and his righteousness (Matthew 6 v.33) not on material things. For example, my fellow inmate once asked me, "Mzwandile, now that you have repented and you will probably no longer employ unlawful means to earn a living, where are you going to find a job? And where will you stay? I convinced him that I was less interested in knowing about my future because God knows what is suitable for me. It is my responsibility as a Christian to seek His Kingdom and his righteousness. To me, that was success. Christians do not necessarily need material things to be successful people. Obeying the word of God is success itself. Finally, I praise the Lord for saving my soul!

FAITH IS A CANDLE - by Trevor McCandless 28/09/04

UNEXPECTED VISITOR

The evening service was about to start. Tonight it was going to be a guest speaker. The church was full and everyone eagerly awaited the speaker.

As we began to sing our first hymn, a tramp made his way into church and found an empty seat. Others moved from his direction, as he was a bit smelly and reeked of alcohol.

The minister arrived onto the platform but he was alone - maybe his guest has taken a rain check. Anyway he stood at the pulpit and said a few words. He then went on to say, "what you are about to see now, you will never forget. Tonight's message is all about Grace. I would like you to welcome our guest speaker Pastor Jim Jones". Meanwhile the tramp gets out of his seat and heads towards the pulpit. As he does so he removes his old clothes. To everyone's shock, beneath he was dressed in a suit. Everyone got the message that night.

My name is Ben Alafuonye. I was born 16th June 1973 in a good Christian home. I was 19 years old when I started living a bad life, smoking, drinking and committing all kinds of evil. I have had sickness and diseases in my body due to my bad life style. Today I ended up in prison as a result of my bad life style. I had been living the bad life style for over 12 years, thinking I was living the best way, not knowing I was living in serious darkness and sin. I had a bible but refused to read it because my life style did not permit me to know God or read his word. I think now it was because the devil was at his work trying to lead me to destruction and total darkness. I thought money was everything in life and that is why I got involved in illegal things like drugs etc. which has landed me in prison. I have found that there is more to life which brings me more happiness than money, and that is Jesus. The devil wanted to destroy me in Hell but thank God for who He is, for He does not want any soul to perish but to come to repentance and have eternal life. I have accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour here in the prison through my brother in Christ who told me the good news. He told me even though I was a sinner Jesus still loved me, and he read the bible and prayed for me, I began to feel the presence of God in my life. Today I believe Jesus died for my sins setting me free from the bondage of sin and death, and rose from the grave three days later destroying the power of death, which gives me eternal life. Jesus is my personal Lord and Saviour, I have asked Him to come and take control of my life. I want to thank God for His mercy and to help me in prayers for His strength and guidance, that I may turn away from my old life style and live a holy and acceptable life unto our Lord Jesus my Lord and personal Saviour. I am willing to obey his commands — thank you and God Bless — yours faithfully - Ben. A.

Read John, Chapter 4

1. What is God?
2. How should we worship Him?
3. Who did Jesus say He was?
4. What was Jesus' food?
5. Did the woman's testimony have a reaction?
6. How long did Jesus stay with them?
7. What was the result of having Jesus around?
8. Why was Jesus welcomed in Galilee?