Participants: Aaron Chancy (Host), George Whirley, Vera Whirley
Series Code: TNJ
Program Code: TNJ000001
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00:10 Welcome to The New Journey:
00:12 the program where we meet real-life people 00:14 where real-life testimonies 00:16 where real-life work and ministries for Jesus. 00:18 Have you ever heard of the many secular biker clubs 00:20 of the world? We're going to meet a man 00:22 that was an associate of one of the biker clubs 00:25 but now serves and rides for Jesus Christ. 00:27 I'm your host Aaron Chancey. Come join us on The New Journey. 01:00 Our guests today are George and Vera Whirley. 01:03 Now ya'll are both involved in a very exciting ministry. 01:07 Can you tell us a little bit about your prison ministry work 01:09 that you're involved in? Well I'm the national vice president 01:12 for Unchained Ministries, and I've been involved in prison 01:15 ministries 23 years or so. 01:17 I say 23 years or so... 01:19 I started ministry while incarcerated 01:23 so I just... It just filtered down me because I knew 01:28 that I needed to do something. And right away 01:30 I knew that I was saved in prison and I knew 01:34 what a struggle men had while they were incarcerated. 01:37 So I knew that that was really going to be my ministry 01:40 because I started ministering right away. 01:42 As soon as I gave my life to Jesus 01:44 I began ministering the Word of God. 01:46 OK. And Unchained Ministry is what gave me a start. 01:50 And they're the ones that actually led me to the Lord. 01:52 OK. Now another entity that Unchained Ministry has 01:55 is a biker club. Can you tell us a little bit about the 01:57 biker club ministry? 01:58 Well, the biker ministry is... we... we do a lot of, 02:03 uh, parties with secular motorcycle clubs 02:07 and we work with an organization called Abate of Indiana 02:10 which is American Bikers Aim for Education - OK - 02:13 which now... ABATE is all over the world. 02:16 But we do that type of thing. We... I have a big tent. OK. 02:20 We set up a big tent. And I say big tent: it's 40x40 02:24 and I set it up. We give away free coffee, water. 02:26 Minister to folk throughout the weekend. Those type of things. 02:31 OK. So your biker ministry you utilize 02:34 to minister to the secular bikers... biker clubs, correct? 02:38 Absolutely. And now we minister to all type of folks - 02:42 OK - as far as the motorcycle thing goes. 02:44 You know, you may find us at just a typical poker run. 02:50 OK. You may find us even at a clubhouse. 02:53 All right. But our whole focus is to see that 02:57 Jesus is proclaimed no matter where we're at 03:01 or what we're doing there... what setting we might be in. OK. 03:05 If we're at the clubhouse, we're sharing Jesus. OK. 03:08 That's what our whole goal is is to let people know 03:12 about Jesus Christ and what He has done in our lives. 03:15 Amen. So that's the number one thing for us. 03:18 Now you told me that your ministry was basically two fold 03:22 where you work inside of the prisons as well as you work 03:24 outside of the prisons. What's some of the work that you do 03:27 inside of a prison? Well inside the prisons, 03:30 uh, our focus there is 03:33 we service 47 jails and prisons 03:36 throughout the state of Indiana. 03:38 And now I have 200 parishioners or so that work under me 03:42 that work in the different jails and prisons and stuff. 03:46 But what we do there is we do a lot of counseling. 03:50 We do a lot of church services, that type of stuff. OK. 03:56 So Ms. Whirley, you're also involved in prison ministries. 03:59 And can you tell us a little bit about the involvement that you 04:01 have with prison ministries? 04:03 I attend a local, small jail in our county 04:08 and I go once a month. Our ministry has someone 04:12 there once each week and I go in once a week - 04:17 OK - or once a month and we do a church service. 04:21 And then we try to also... 04:25 Here recently we had an opportunity to place people 04:30 in a half-way house that we've been able to open up, 04:33 and we try to direct people there. 04:36 We just try to be one-on-one with the people and help them 04:40 with the needs that they have that we know 04:41 that we can help them with. OK. 04:42 So the work that ya'll are involved in is 04:44 in both male and female facilities. 04:47 Can you tell us a little bit, Ms. Whirley, how it is 04:49 going into... as a female... going into both male facilities 04:53 as well as female facilities because there may be some 04:57 viewers that are interested in getting involved 04:59 in prison ministries... some ladies that are interested 05:01 in getting involved in prison ministries 05:03 but they may have a fear of going inside a male facility 05:07 or female facility. Can you tell us a little bit about that 05:10 experience? Well I've been going into the 05:13 jails and prisons since 1995. 05:16 I have never been incarcerated, so my first 05:20 time visiting was a little different. 05:22 But I knew in my heart that God had placed me there. 05:25 OK. And I passed any concerns by just trusting in Him. 05:30 And once I got there, your mind isn't on where you're at... 05:35 it's on what you're doing. 05:37 And I always had a peace, and I've always had a peace 05:40 and there's never been... no complications. 05:44 I just know that if you know that's where the Lord 05:47 is leading you, just trust in Him and it'll all be OK. 05:50 So it's a great experience being involved in prison ministries? 05:53 Yes. Well, you know, viewers, if you're interested in getting 05:55 involved in prison ministries you need to get involved. 05:58 If you feel that the Lord is calling you to prison ministry, 06:01 get involved. Mr. Whirley, you yourself 06:04 have been on the other side of the fence per se. 06:08 Prison work... you were incarcerated before. 06:11 You've done time before. Can you tell us a little bit 06:13 about your early life - your early home life - that 06:16 may have led to being incarcerated. 06:19 Well you know, early in my life, 06:23 uh, my father was in the armed services. 06:26 And he was transferred out of the house a lot, 06:29 so that just left my mother at home. 06:32 And my mother got tangled up in some 06:37 unlawful deeds and it led me into the same thing. 06:41 OK. And she had, because of her and my father's issues, 06:46 she had taught me that this is what I was going to have to do - 06:50 OK - as a survival issue. And, you know, that was to 06:53 sell drugs and that type of stuff in my life. 06:57 And that's how I was going to actually make a living. 06:59 OK. And you know I was encouraged that way, 07:02 you know, so even at an early age it stopped me 07:05 from trying to seek an education - OK - 07:09 and doing the right stuff in life, you know, because 07:11 I was following after my mother's footsteps. 07:14 OK. And I say it like that... I'm not giving any blame 07:17 to my mother. I believe that it was always the sin 07:20 that was in my life that detoured me from being able 07:24 to, uh, have a real life. Because the devil's trying to... 07:27 trying to affect my life in the very beginning. Yeah. 07:30 And he did a good job at it, you know, 07:34 of detouring me from being able to be... 07:36 You know, 'cause at 8 years old I was incarcerated. Yeah. 07:39 Wow. And being 8 years old I was obviously a real little child. 07:44 Um-hmm. And to be incarcerated in any place 07:46 other than the home where you were "growed up" at 07:49 or raised, you know, is a great change in your life. 07:52 But you know, through that... I mean it was just 07:54 an ongoing process that just led from one incident 07:59 to another incident to another incident 08:01 in and out of jails and prisons, you know, till I got to the age 08:05 of about 27 years old. 08:07 So that had to be a pretty difficult experience. 08:09 You said from about 8 years old 08:11 to 27 years old you spent time in the penal system. 08:14 That had to be very difficult. 08:16 Oh absolutely! I mean I thought... I thought that was 08:19 a way of life. Yeah, OK. 08:21 You know, because even early in life I had 08:24 one of these thoughts and goals because everybody has 08:27 a thought that something... You know, there's... 08:30 I believe that there's children that wakes up 08:31 in early life going like: "I want to be a doctor. " 08:34 "I want to be a nurse. " Well my thought 08:36 was "I want to go out like Machine Gun Kelly or, uh, 08:40 you know, Bonnie and Clyde. " You know, and that's what 08:45 because of the way I was being raised 08:47 that was the train of thought. 08:50 The people that I associated myself with, 08:52 the lifestyle that I was leading, the people that I 08:55 was there with being incar- cerated in different places - 08:58 OK - you know, that's just the way that I... that was the 09:00 train of thought that I had going on in my mind. 09:02 OK. So with wanting to be like the Bonnie and Clydes and the 09:06 Kelly, you kind of gravitated to this life of crime. 09:10 Can you talk a little bit about some of the charges that... 09:13 that you were convicted of from time to time? 09:15 Well I was convicted of 09:19 possession of a controlled substance which was drugs. 09:24 OK. You know, cocaine, marijuana, 09:26 pills, that type of thing. 09:29 Were you involved in using drugs and alcohol? 09:31 Oh yeah, I was a user 'cause I was a cocaine freak - 09:34 OK. And I use that term... I was a "junkie" 09:36 and I lived on the street most of the time. 09:38 OK. There was a time in my life where I felt that I had it 09:42 all going on and my pockets were lined with a lot of cash. 09:46 I drove nice cars. OK. 09:47 That type of thing, you know? And I thought that 09:50 that's the way everything was going to be. 09:52 And it came to a point where my using 09:56 put all that selling to a stop, 10:00 you know, because I was using more than I was selling. 10:02 So that just ended up causing me to be incarcerated. 10:07 You know, it's interesting that the Bible said 10:09 in Hebrews 11:25 that sin is pleasurable 10:13 but it's only for a short season. We have fun with it; 10:17 we delve into it, but the Bible says it's only for 10:20 a short season. Can you testify to that? 10:22 Oh absolutely, you know. And you use the term 10:25 "a short season. " I always had a thought in my mind 10:27 if I didn't get my life on track by the age of 27 10:31 that I would never reach any goal that I could ever 10:34 set for myself. Not that I had any goals 10:37 but there was a point in my life 10:41 in the last 2 years... about the age of 24, 25 years old... 10:46 that I had begun realizing I was raised in a house 10:49 with 13 children. And I had... One of my brothers said 10:53 "If you don't reach the goal at about 27 years old 10:56 you're never going to be successful in nothing. " 10:59 And that always stuck with me. 11:00 So about the age of 24 I started thinking about 11:04 the way my life had been run. OK. 11:06 Different motorcycle clubs that I may have run with. 11:10 Different situations that I was tangled up in. OK. 11:14 I was tangled up in prostitution. 11:17 I was tangled up in drug use, selling drugs. 11:20 I'd been busted several times for driving while under the 11:24 influence. In the state of Indiana I was the very first man 11:27 to ever get charged as a felony for drunk driving. 11:31 And they made an example of me. Before it was over with 11:34 I got a 12-year sentence for just drunk driving. 11:37 So you know there was a lot of things that played in my life - 11:40 that... a lot of sin if I can say... that was 11:44 in my life that was totally trying to take me down. 11:48 OK. The devil tried early, continuously, 11:51 to take me out of this world. OK. 11:53 So you said that you were in- volved in different biker clubs. 11:57 Now I've heard a little bit of information about biker clubs. 12:00 And, you know, many people have the idea that 12:02 the biker clubs are some infamous, hardened biker clubs. 12:06 Could you give us a little insight into these 12:08 various biker clubs? How it is to be involved 12:11 in them. Some of the things that may go on. 12:13 Can you talk a little bit about that? 12:14 Well you know, all these different clubs - secular clubs 12:17 in the world - they all have goals. They all have bylaws. 12:22 And each individual has to deal with whatever laws 12:26 in the specific clubs. OK. I mean, for instance, 12:30 number one in a club is the patch that you have 12:33 on your back. OK. Your family is secondary. 12:36 OK. Your number one family is the club itself 12:40 and your colors are your most valuable responsibilities. OK. 12:45 But, you know, to say that they are all notorious? 12:49 You can't say that each and every one of them are 12:51 because I have seen so many great deeds that some of these 12:55 individuals have done. Toy rides. 12:59 OK. You know, to draw toys for children at Christmastime 13:04 or to raise money for this certain cancer project or... 13:09 You know, and I've seen a lot of things out of these young men 13:13 that you just don't... young and old men that you 13:15 just really don't expect. OK. 13:17 But yes, in the all, yes they're all... they all have a goal. 13:21 You know, that's interesting that you should say that 13:23 some of the biker gangs they do things like toy drives 13:26 and things like that. I guess for most people 13:29 on the outside looking in we don't see all of that 13:32 that goes on. We just see... we hear of the crime 13:35 on the news or we see 50 bikers riding down the road on their 13:38 Harley Davidson's with their leather jackets on. 13:41 And in our mind because of what we see we tend to think 13:44 "OK, these are some hard... some real hard people. " 13:47 But we don't see on the outside looking in 13:49 we don't see all the good that they do. 13:50 But you just testified to the fact that some of them 13:52 actually do have good ministries and things like that. Correct? 13:56 Sure, and they all have 13:59 a lifestyle that's so much different than the regular... 14:05 I should say the "regular people" of the world. 14:07 Obviously. But we know for a fact 14:10 that they're all reachable. 14:12 You know, the Word of God has taught me... 14:14 I've been saved about 23 years or so now 14:16 and the Word of God has taught me that every man, woman, 14:20 and child is valuable to the kingdom of God. 14:23 You know, and this is a class of people... OK. 14:27 You know, the class of people that I deal with is 14:29 I want to call "the forgotten world. " 14:32 OK. And the forgotten world to me is motorcycle people, 14:35 OK, guys that's locked up, men and women that's 14:37 locked up that's in the penal system that nobody 14:43 has anything to do with. You know my family... 14:46 I got saved in the last year of my incarceration - 14:50 OK - at the Indiana State Farm. 14:53 And my "family" right off the bat they said that I was 14:57 "going through a fad. " Uh-huh. 14:59 And the fad that I was going through was I accepted Jesus. 15:02 And they've heard so many different wild stories 15:05 about that type of thing. Uh-huh. 15:06 That I had jailhouse religion. 15:08 Well that jailhouse religion now has gone on for 23 years. 15:10 Oh yeah. And I still probably have some family members 15:13 that's standing on the outside saying: 15:15 "Something's going to happen. He's going to snap 15:17 and he's going back to the same old way. " 15:18 Well I don't have anything to turn back to. 15:20 Yeah. You know, my life now is to serve Jesus 24/7. 15:25 OK. You know, no matter what I'm doing. 15:27 You know, we do motorcycle ministry. 15:29 We do jailhouse ministry. 15:34 But you know, we do even more than that. 15:37 Back when Katrina hit I remember many times in my life 15:42 when I went to bed hungry. 15:43 You know, 'cause at home I had five sisters and they ate first. 15:47 OK. I always seen to that every meal. 15:49 And if there was anything left over then it was all right. 15:52 OK. But I went to bed hungry several nights 15:55 you know throughout a month. So what I would do... 15:58 what my number one goal in life is to make sure that children 16:03 don't go hungry. OK. For several years 16:06 I would gather up food and I would have food drives. 16:09 I would set up a tent... a 60 by 40 tent - 16:13 wow - and have tent revivals and I would have people that 16:16 had clown ministries. OK. And I had this buddy of mine that 16:19 had a hot air balloon. OK. We would just sit all this stuff 16:22 together. I have another buddy that has a catering service. 16:25 He would bring groceries and food 16:28 and different food banks would give me groceries 16:30 and we'd take 50, 60,000 pounds of food. 16:32 And we'd bag them up. Get a whole bunch of volunteers 16:35 and bag all that stuff up and go to a low rent district - 16:39 OK - you know, in Indianapolis or a surrounding place 16:43 and we'd just put all this together. 16:46 And we'd make it a one-day thing but it usually took just about 16:49 6-8 hours from the time we started to the end 16:52 of the program for that day. But it would take us 16:55 a month to get everything to- gether to make all this happen. 16:58 But our number one goal was to feed somebody - 17:01 OK - give them a sack full of groceries and most of all... 17:04 You know Jesus, when He was out in the desert, 17:06 the Word of God said He fed 5,000 men plus - yes - 17:11 Are you saying women and children? 17:12 Yeah, He still had women and children. Oh, yeah. 17:14 And you know back in those days some of them had 2 or 3 wives. 17:17 But the whole story is every one of them got something to eat. 17:20 Oh, yeah. And when it was all said and done there was 17:23 enough to fill five baskets. You know what I'm saying? 17:25 Oh, yeah. So that's what we're all about. 17:28 OK. Ministering to the needs. 17:30 Ministering to the needs. It doesn't make any difference 17:32 if it's motorcycle people or jail people. 17:34 OK. My goal is to see families joined together 17:39 in the Word of God. And without... You know, some people 17:42 don't understand what this Word - the true Word of God - 17:47 can do for a whole household. That's right. 17:49 That's the gospel. You know one little thing I used to do 17:52 in Johnson County where I'm the chaplain at 17:56 was my goal was to see families come together - 18:00 OK - and hear the Word of God. 18:02 So I started a little program in a work release center. 18:05 And this is what they told me, said: "Well as soon as you fill 18:07 this room we'll give you a bigger room. " 18:10 And what I was wanting them to do is let me take 18:11 the families to a local church and get everybody involved. 18:16 Well, there were 110 people in this work release center 18:18 and they wouldn't... they said "Well they won't all attend. " 18:21 OK. Well anybody that's incarcerated is going to find 18:24 a moment. If he can find a moment to get free, 18:27 he's going to get free. That is true. 18:29 So we started with just a handful of people. 18:30 The first night was 11 people. OK. 18:32 And that was on a Friday night. 18:34 And then the second Friday night we had about 45 people. 18:37 So the third Friday night they said: "You need to find 18:39 a church. " Wow! So we found the church 18:41 which was right next door - um-hmm - 18:44 and we started having services. 18:45 And a woman that was with our ministry, she said: 18:49 "You know, we ought to start feeding these folks. " 18:50 OK. And before we realized it in just a few weeks 18:54 we had gone from 10 or 11 people in a little bitty room 18:57 to 165 people every week. OK. 19:01 That was maybe mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles 19:06 and babies that would come to those services - Amen - 19:10 thinking that the reason they were coming was to 19:13 fellowship with the spouse or their mother that 19:17 was incarcerated or their father. 19:18 But what would end up happening was... 19:20 I had this one man that followed me from institution 19:23 to institution. And he would always come to me and say... 19:26 You know, he said... They call me midget. 19:28 OK. Said: "Midget, I didn't come tonight to get saved. " 19:33 OK. He said: "But I just came to see if you're still doing 19:35 the same work. " And he did that in 5 or 6 19:39 different facilities over about an eight-year period. 19:41 OK. Well one night in Johnson County 19:44 at this work release center where we were having this church 19:47 he came to me and he said... 19:50 He said: "Midget... " He said: "You know... " 19:52 he said "still again I didn't come to get saved. " 19:54 OK. He said: "But tonight my whole family's here" - 19:57 Amen - "and it's the first time we've had an opportunity 19:59 to be in church. " Amen. The next Friday night 20:02 when an altar call came, 20:04 the song was over and all the words were sung 20:08 and all the words were preached, 20:09 this man... and he had two daughters and his wife... 20:13 OK... they all got up and walked to the front - 20:17 Amen - with a group full of other individuals. 20:19 OK. He looked at me and he said: "Midget... " 20:21 he said "I'm ready. " 20:22 You know, and from that day to this day 20:25 which is about 11 or 12 years, I have never seen that man again. 20:29 OK. So I believe in my heart 20:31 that the Word of God pierced his 20:33 and his mind opened and his ears became clean 20:36 and he heard the true Word of God. OK. 20:38 And something inside of him snapped and he said: 20:41 "I need what that guy's got. " 20:43 OK. And we were capable of sharing that with them. 20:46 Now you have been involved in ministry for about the last 20:48 27 years. And actually your last charge 20:53 kind of led to you changing your life. 20:55 Can you tell us a little bit about your last charge? 20:57 What ended up happening? 20:59 Well my last charge was attempted murder. OK. 21:02 And I didn't pre-plan to take anybody's life - 21:06 OK - or attempt to. 21:08 I was... Early in life I had been incarcerated 21:12 in a prison that was a hard-core prison. 21:17 And when you would go in A and O. And A and O was 21:20 admission and orientation. OK. 21:23 And when you would go in there there would be a setting of 21:25 maybe 165 to 225 men. 21:28 And they were all going through the same thing you were. 21:31 You just arrived at the prison. You were real nervous 21:34 and had a lot of anxieties about what was going on. 21:37 And there were always problems and issues. OK. 21:40 And they were already mad about being there 21:43 and they didn't think it was their fault. Nobody was guilty. 21:46 Everybody was innocent. Everybody blaming somebody else. 21:48 Everybody blaming somebody else. 21:50 But there were always a lot of scuffles going on - OK - 21:52 so you were always real nervous. 21:55 You know, there were individuals talking about taking 21:57 people's lives, and there were some lives taken. 22:00 OK. You know, where I was at all the movement was underground. 22:04 OK. There was no movement above the ground whatsoever. 22:06 It was all underground. 22:08 So by being in that place and being incarcerated there 22:11 I was real leery about everybody. 22:14 Uh-huh. One night I'd come home... I say "come home, " 22:16 I was in work release - OK - and I had an individual 22:18 told me he was going to take my life when I went to sleep. 22:21 Hmmm. And I didn't just challenge him. I just 22:24 handled the situation - OK - and it caused me to receive 22:28 a charge of attempted murder. 22:31 OK. So attempted murder charge which was actually later 22:33 reduced to a lesser charge, correct? It was. 22:35 It was reduced to assault and battery - 22:38 OK - with the attempt. And you know I ended up 22:41 only doing two years of incarceration on that charge. 22:44 OK. And I use the term "only. " 22:46 But you know the fact is there were 27 years of my life 22:52 that were lost and were gone. 22:57 So the two years kind of seems like small 22:59 compared to the 27. Right, absolutely. 23:01 But you know, that 2 years is where the life changing began. 23:06 Because actually when you got sentenced you did two years. 23:09 When you got to the prison you actually had an intention... 23:12 You went to a meeting of Christians and you had 23:14 an intention to do something. What was that intention 23:17 that turned out to be a blessing? 23:19 Well you know, and it was really before I knew God. 23:21 I had an encounter in the regional diagnostic center 23:27 and that's where they put you in a 5x8. Yeah. 23:29 You're all alone, and then they do some tests and see 23:33 where you're at, where your mind's at, 23:34 where your physical body is moving at. 23:36 And I had a vision of God, 23:41 and I had no recollection of that at all. 23:44 But the only thing they would give you there for the first few 23:46 days was a Bible. OK. And it was like it was laying 23:48 over there in the corner and it was all glowing. 23:51 Well I'd pick it up and read it and it just didn't make sense 23:54 to me whatsoever and I would just throw it down. 23:56 I did that several times and then they sent me 23:58 to Indiana State Farm. 23:59 And then I saw this bulletin or saw this flyer 24:02 on the bulletin board. OK. It said the bikers 24:04 are going to be at the chapel, and I just began to laugh. 24:07 I said: "I can have myself a hey-day there. " 24:10 So you went with the intention of making fun of them. 24:12 I was like Paul! I went with the total intentions of 24:15 bringing them down, you know. I wanted to persecute them 24:19 really bad. OK. But you know, I got over there 24:21 and I began to look at these guys 24:24 because the first thing you think about is gold wings 24:28 and suits and ties when you talk about bikers in church. 24:31 Well I got over there, and they were guys like me. 24:33 They had black boots on, blue jeans 24:35 and rags hanging out of the back pockets 24:37 and cut-off sleeves. And you know, I'm thinking 24:40 "You know, these guys could almost be my brothers. " Yeah. 24:43 And I began thinking: "What do they have in common with 24:45 the church? " OK. And then I began finding out 24:48 they were the preachers! They were? Wow! 24:50 So I began to sit down and listen. OK. 24:53 But every time they'd have an altar call I'd cut out. 24:57 OK. I mean, I would just split. 24:58 I was done. I said: "This is over... 25:00 I know what's up now. I done sat through one of these 25:02 I ain't sittin' through another one. " 25:03 OK. Well they had six services that weekend. 25:06 That was November the 6th of 1988. 25:09 OK. And I remember it because the last service was 25:13 November the 7th at 2 PM. OK. 25:17 They had an altar call. All right. 25:19 And as I began to cut out as normal 25:22 when I got to the double swinging doors 25:24 they had these brutes standing in front of the doorway. 25:27 Wouldn't let you out? Great big guys. Nope, 25:29 they wouldn't let me out. OK. 25:30 They said: "We have people here wants to talk to you. " 25:32 OK. And I hear the pitter-patter of a woman's feet 25:35 coming up the aisle. And it was a long aisle, 25:37 so they seemed to last for a long time. 25:39 The whole time I kind of like in the mode of wanting 25:41 to struggle to get out and these guys are holding me. 25:43 "Calm down a minute. " OK. 25:45 And they came up and this woman began telling me how much 25:47 she loved me. OK. She began sharing Jesus with me. 25:50 So in that the Lord began working on your heart. 25:52 You went with a different intention than being changed 25:55 and in that God was working on your heart 25:58 and actually changing your life at the same time. 26:00 Now when you were younger did you ever think 26:02 that you would actually come around and change your life? 26:05 Or did you think that what you were doing was just going to be 26:06 a way of life forever? 26:08 No, I thought it was going to be a way of life forever. 26:10 I thought that I was going to be selling drugs 26:12 and selling women and all that kind of stuff my whole life. 26:14 I thought that was my goal. 26:17 OK. So you thought that was your goal. So you really 26:19 didn't have any intentions... What year was it 26:21 that you actually changed your life? 26:23 In 1988. 1988. November the 7th 26:26 at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. OK. 26:28 So you've been involved in ministry work for quite 26:31 some time now, correct? 26:32 You know, it was like the Holy Spirit entered me 26:35 that moment and I began ministering the Word of God. 26:38 OK. Because... you know, the Word of God 26:40 says "Go and tell somebody. " Oh yeah, oh yeah. 26:42 So that's what I did... I took the Word of God. 26:44 By not knowing it, the people that led me to the Lord said 26:48 "Hey, now you've got to go tell somebody. " 26:50 Yeah, oh yeah. You know, people got tired of hearing it. 26:52 Oh yeah. I mean they really got tired of hearing it. 26:54 And they got to a point... I lasted 8 more months 26:57 after gettin' saved in prison 26:59 and in that 8 months I was probably the only individual 27:05 in that dorm that got a standing ovation when he left. 27:08 Let me ask you a question: how would you compare 27:10 your Christian life now compared to the lifestyle 27:15 that you were living? 27:16 Oh, there's no comparison whatsoever 27:17 because the Word of God has filled my heart. 27:20 OK. There's no more crime. 27:22 There's no more hurting people, 27:24 and my life is what it needs to be today. 27:27 What I want you to do right now is look into the camera 27:30 and talk to the viewers. Talk to the many bikers 27:32 that are struggling out there, that are wanting something 27:36 better than what they have. Can you give them a word? 27:39 Share a word with them that will encourage them 27:41 to choose Jesus. Well you know, the word 27:44 today is in faith, and it says "take God at His word" 27:47 when the circumstances seem to deny the truth that He has 27:50 promised. And what God has promised each and every one 27:52 of us is life and life abundantly. And that's what 27:55 we have to have right now is we need to know that 27:57 beyond what we've been taught in life 27:59 Jesus went to the cross for all of us. 28:02 I want you to provide your website. 28:03 Give us your website so that people can get in contact with 28:06 your ministry. It's unchainedministries. org 28:09 unchainedministries. org 28:10 I encourage you all to get in contact with this ministry 28:14 so that you can learn more about it. |
Revised 2014-12-17