Prison Inmates Serving Jesus Share Their Testimonies from the Inside
In this inspiring (sometimes tear-jerking) 44-minute video, several inmates currently incarcerated in the Marshall County (Mississippi) Correctional Facility share their stories of coming to Christ and being transformed by the truth of His love and the power of His Spirit. If you need encouragement — regardless of your background or experiences — this is a must-watch.
Says one, “I have lived my best life in prison because God saved me. For the first time in my life, my mother looked at me and said, ‘I’m proud of you.’ That’s God.
“We’re not here because of the crimes we committed against the state of Mississippi. We’re here because of the crimes we committed against God.”
Editor’s Note: A transcript follows the embedded video; it was automatically generated and lightly edited, so please be aware there could be typos or other small errors. The Stream is working toward a transcription service that does fast, accurate, and reliable work; thank you in advance for your patience!
00;00;00;00 – 00;00;28;01
Speaker 1
Mark chapter one, verse 15 the time was fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. I love it. I love it. Because without it we have nothing. Absolutely nothing.
00;00;28;04 – 00;00;38;04
Speaker 2
I went from a hopeless, dope fiend to a penitentiary hope dealer.
00;00;38;07 – 00;00;48;16
Speaker 3
Well, I know that I have been transformed, not reformed. Truly transformed.
00;00;48;19 – 00;00;56;20
Speaker 4
I came to prison, but yet I’m free.
00;00;56;22 – 00;01;17;02
Speaker 5
Well I’m glad I’m here. Because God put me here for a reason. To get me right. And I thank him every day for it. If I got to stay here the rest of my life getting me right, I’ll be here.
00;01;17;04 – 00;01;50;14
Speaker 1
I was a maniac. And, I got extradited to Mississippi for two counts of capital murder. And I was facing and ultimately received two death penalties. And I was, I think, because I was from up north, and, my charges were so severe, I was kept in absolute solitary confinement. Everything was contraband to me. No books, no radio, no television, no visitors, no human contact.
00;01;50;16 – 00;02;15;14
Speaker 1
And, I had a Bible and there was a guy that would come in and I can’t remember his name, but he would come in on Tuesdays and he had to sit way away from my cell, couldn’t come near me. And, he would tell about Jesus. And I was so unsaved and so wicked. And I thought, all right, well, I’m going to read the Bible then, and I’m going to tell you about yourself.
00;02;15;17 – 00;02;47;06
Speaker 1
And so I read it cover to cover, over and over and over again and, looking for contradictions, looking for mistakes, looking for a way to tell this, this preacher, that I didn’t need him and I didn’t need God. Well, after probably the. 12th time of reading the Bible, cover to cover, I thought, wait a second. If this is, in fact true, then there’s a decision to be made here.
00;02;47;09 – 00;03;17;29
Speaker 1
So then I begin reading it like it was true. And it didn’t take long after that. And again, I’m completely isolated. No one to teach me or to guide me or anything like that. Just the Holy Spirit. And I got to a point where I realized I’m in so much trouble. I began to see myself as God saw me.
00;03;18;00 – 00;03;46;19
Speaker 1
You know, I would see the, the, the the sins of Israel as a whole, you know, they’re there. Just the rebellion and Adam’s disobedience and and the way that God would deal with them. And, and I thought, man, I’m I’m all of these people combined. You know, I’m an I’m the word I, I would, challenged Paul for his, title of chief of sinners.
00;03;46;21 – 00;04;07;09
Speaker 1
You know, I was man, a murderer. I mean, just everything. I was terrible. And so I think that it was just the totality of everything and the Holy Spirit just working on me, working on me, working on me to reveal who I was. In fact, in God’s eyes. And it crushed me. It absolutely crushed me. And so then I begin to read again.
00;04;07;14 – 00;04;30;25
Speaker 1
Now I have no hope. Right? There’s I’m. I deserve everything that I get. So I begin to read. Then to find hope. There’s got to be something in here. There’s got to be. God is so much bigger. He’s holy. There’s got to be some mercy here somewhere. There’s got to be something. And remember, I had nothing else. I had a blanket and a Bible.
00;04;30;26 – 00;04;58;25
Speaker 1
That was it. Total isolation, which is what it required for me to be broken, I suppose. But so I began to read the Gospels and begin to understand that there was a price that I could never pay, that I deserved exactly what I thought I deserved. And then I began to learn about Jesus, the Holy Spirit again. I had no outside teachers, no commentaries, nothing like that.
00;04;58;25 – 00;05;40;11
Speaker 1
It was just the Word of God. And, I, began to understand the gospel, the life and the ministry and the sacrifice and, ascension. You know, it wasn’t until way later in seminary school that I began to understand the, the fullness of what all of that meant. But, my my faith, my coming to Christ was simple and pure, and and I, I almost feel sorry for people who don’t have such a similar experience, honestly, because it was just just the Holy Spirit. And it was lovely.
00;05;40;13 – 00;05;49;17
Speaker 3
I was going to church in the world. I was I was always going to church only to make sure you see my Cadillac and my children in church. Well far as
00;05;49;18 – 00;05;51;29
Speaker 3
Remember anything about the Word of God?
00;05;51;29 – 00;06;14;15
Speaker 3
I really didn’t know, but I was at church every Sunday. Every time the door was open, I was there. But no real change, no conviction or anything like that. And then I ended up in a situation where I was in prison, by myself. In prison, I was in one of the worst prisons at the time. It was just going through a riot when I came in and there was this younger guy.
00;06;14;15 – 00;06;42;00
Speaker 3
He had a Bible study in during his Bible study, I was there, but I never near. We never brought my Bible or anything like that. And I was, I was, I was just coming in a prison, but I couldn’t read. So I believe I started to believe everything that he was saying at the Bible study. And he asked me one day he said, hey, you want to give your life to the lower house like I knew I did, but I just didn’t want to do it in front of nobody.
00;06;42;00 – 00;06;43;16
Speaker 3
I wanted to make sure that I.
00;06;43;16 – 00;06;44;25
Speaker 3
Knew that this was.
00;06;45;01 – 00;07;05;02
Speaker 3
What God wanted. So I get in a cell, was December super cold in the cell when you could hear, you’ll see your breath. So I’m praising the worship of God. And the more I praise and worship him, the warmer the cell became. And then I get on my knees and I ask God to save me. And that’s when I got saved.
00;07;05;02 – 00;07;23;05
Speaker 3
And that was like ten years ago. And but the first beginning of it was rocky because I couldn’t read the word. I just believed the word. So knowing what he expected out of me was a real hard thing when you couldn’t read the word, you know? So me and, God had brought me to Christ. We split, we split up.
00;07;23;05 – 00;07;44;11
Speaker 3
So. And I wasn’t around other Christians for a while, so I kind of found myself falling back a lot. So I ended up getting into all with two officers. They ended in maximum, like now, as when you only and you can come out one hour a day every time you out, you were you were in handcuffs. So that’s why I found myself for over a year.
00;07;44;13 – 00;08;07;21
Speaker 3
And then one day I was coming off the yard and, I did hear the Holy Spirit speaking like, hey, you need to read your Bible. And I’m like, not like I can’t read, you know, I can’t read. And we’ve been going through this for about 30 minutes. And I picked up the Bible and I open it, and I immediately I knew I could read no literacy glasses, no, nothing like that.
00;08;07;23 – 00;08;29;17
Speaker 3
I never went to a class when I came to prison. I’ve never been to school in prison because I couldn’t read anyway. So. But from that moment on, for six months, I never read anything else but the Bible because I thought it might go away of our read. Anything else? So when I’m on the yard, I used to take cards out that I wrote and I’m trying to read and memorize scripture.
00;08;29;24 – 00;08;48;21
Speaker 3
It’s still hard for me. Remember, we memorize scripture now, but I wanted to remember it just in case it just went away one day. I have some lock thing in, but I never went away. God started to transform me in His word. You know, like being on a potter’s wheel and he kept me there.
00;08;48;21 – 00;08;51;05
Speaker 3
He kept molding me and shaping me. And.
00;08;51;08 – 00;08;52;10
Speaker 3
You know, prison saved me.
00;08;52;10 – 00;08;52;24
Speaker 3
Because in.
00;08;52;24 – 00;09;22;20
Speaker 3
The world I wouldn’t listen. I was going to church every day. I was going to church every time the door was open when I wasn’t listening. But now that is, I can’t get out this way. I can’t get out this way. Like he was saying that I can’t get out this way. Now I know how I can only look up and I know it was only freedom there. That’s the only freedom there was and still is. Like a seed, a bar like a field of fences now. But I’ll swear than I ever will. Ever, ever will in the free world.
00;09;22;23 – 00;09;31;26
Speaker 2
I’ve been in and out of prison since I was 19 years old. It’s always been crystal meth and Barbies. And Scott Walters was a chaplain for Rowan County Jail.
00;09;31;29 – 00;09;48;03
Speaker 2
Brought me a life recovery Bible up there, and I started reading it. I was I was like, Lord, I said, I’m going to jail. I’m going daughter. I mean, I’m just totally living in sin. And I said, God, I can’t do it no more. I said, I’m tired of being sick and tired. I’m at my rock bottom.
00;09;48;11 – 00;10;13;12
Speaker 2
My nephew lost his derriere. Awesome brother in law. My sister lost her husband. So when my drug addiction was just about, I thought it was just bothering me. It was funny, but now it’s affecting the people around me. So I got hungry for the word. So I started reading the word and I’m facing two natural life sentence and being our convicted of a one charge already, and the violent offender now facing two life sentences.
00;10;13;14 – 00;10;37;14
Speaker 2
As I’m reading the Bible, I put on my heart that I would do over ten years in prison. So I get ready to go to court. I remember it was January the 1st, the, 23rd of 2022 when I gave my life to Christ. When I got to the new, when I got to the New Testament and I was reading in Matthew and I just broke down, confessed all my sins to him, nothing happened right then.
00;10;37;16 – 00;11;03;11
Speaker 2
But that night when I lay down, I started crying so hard I couldn’t catch my breath and I didn’t know. I will say then I just knew something inside me was changed. So when I went to court, there was a bird singing outside the window. But the strange thing was it was coming up. Thunder and lightning. Storm is right and it’s something you’ll hear every day is a bird in a thunderstorm.
00;11;03;13 – 00;11;21;02
Speaker 2
I looked at the guard. This is. I’m looking at you right now, I said. Sir, do you hear that? He said, hear what? I said, that’s God. He saw I was crazy. As I get up and go into the courtroom, they look at me and said, Mr. Marchment, this is your lucky night, Penny. We’re following a sexual matter.
00;11;21;02 – 00;11;42;22
Speaker 2
Charge out because the doctor papers are forged. We can’t find the doctor, I said, but we’re going to give you ten years since that day. Right there. I gave my life to God, and he has changed my life tremendously. Jesus Christ is my Lord and personal Savior. My mom asked me about a year and a half ago. Well, about two years now.
00;11;42;22 – 00;11;59;12
Speaker 2
And this he said, well, she said, son, what do you want for Christmas? She says, do you want me to put money on your books, or do you want me to buy you some books? I said, what I really want, mom, is for me to go to church. What? See us? My sister and I’m 41 years old and I never knew my mom to go to church.
00;11;59;12 – 00;12;21;05
Speaker 2
He’s not a religious woman, he said. I don’t know about all that, that. So I called my sister and she said, I don’t know what you said to mom, but she called me last night and asked me what we’re having for dinner at church. I’m not promised to see. My mom’s been going to church every Sunday since then.
00;12;21;07 – 00;12;46;10
Speaker 2
I’m not promised to see my mom again outside these walls because she’s going. But I am promised that she signed. And will you, my client that no one that God use me in my brokenness to get to my mom, to get her to sign. And now I went from a hopeless, dull thing to a pill to entry how they were. That’s what I do now. I’m a mentor. Home depot counseling people with drug and alcohol problems. So he he used me.
00;12;46;13 – 00;13;17;13
Speaker 6
I was raised in a home that was, Christian. All my work, I was with a single mother. And she raised me as a child, following the scriptures, going to church. I knew about Jesus, but I can’t say that I really just, gave my life over to Jesus.
00;13;17;13 – 00;13;40;14
Speaker 6
I do recall at every church service you could probably go to, going down to the altar and giving my life to Jesus. Right. Saying all of the Jesus prayers over and over and over. But I just never had an assurance that I was saved. I think that’s probably the reason why I was constantly going down to the altar to get saved all over again.
00;13;40;17 – 00;14;01;13
Speaker 6
But it wasn’t until I came to prison, go figure, that I really kind of found Jesus in a real way and not like a prison religion. I have a friend, my best friends. Matthew, who really sit down with me and really began to answer a lot of deep questions about the faith, just the deep questions about who Jesus is and.
00;14;01;15 – 00;14;02;01
Speaker 6
What is this.
00;14;02;01 – 00;14;17;18
Speaker 6
Movement that he has going on, and how is it possible for him to live in me and to, die for me? And what’s the significance of that? I remember my friend just one time he was talking and I said to him, so what? That Jesus died on the cross? What does that matter? What is that? All of the matter.
00;14;17;23 – 00;14;48;06
Speaker 6
And it was only through just a really intellectual conversation, just talking about all the different things that I kind of figure that this is true. It’s all true. Everything that it’s being said is true. And so Jesus says the truth. They will know the truth, right? And the truth will set you free. And I believe it was only through the knowledge of the truth that I was able to gain from this person, really sitting down with me, talking to me, and answering a lot of deeper questions that really led me to Jesus.
00;14;48;09 – 00;15;05;22
Speaker 7
I hated church. I couldn’t wait to get out of my parents home so I could just live my life the way I wanted to live it. No church. And while. So at about 16, I moved away from home from Alabama, Mississippi, back to Alabama. Still got a grandmother who let me do just about anything I wanted to do.
00;15;05;22 – 00;15;33;05
Speaker 7
Came home when I got ready, left when I got ready. Girls, whatever. Then I got involved in drugs, started off smoking marijuana when I was 12 or, started smoking crack cocaine by the time I was about 17, 18 years old. And when I started doing crack cocaine, that’s when my life just went upside down and I didn’t know what to do, how to overcome.
00;15;33;05 – 00;15;51;02
Speaker 7
I was in such a bad situation to where I wanted to kill myself. I was so sick of the way that I was living, so I thought that if I would just change scenery, that that would make it okay. So I left Alabama, moved back to Mississippi, got involved with a female there, and then she had a brother that was strung out on drugs.
00;15;51;02 – 00;16;15;28
Speaker 7
So that led me back down the drug path. And again, life went up in turmoil, mess around, got some trouble, went to jail and set in jail about a year. Got out on probation, went out a year later. Got locked back up again. Did five mandatory years, came back out back on drugs. The law was dealing with me while I was in prison for all five years.
00;16;15;28 – 00;16;41;05
Speaker 7
But I wasn’t thinking about the Lord. I was just thinking about doing my thing. When I got off in 2002, after doing five minutes, four years, I just wasn’t happy. Drugs was just a storm, a life, the storm. Our relationship. So I tried to commit suicide. I sat in my truck one day with a loaded 38 bill for some reason, just couldn’t pull the trigger.
00;16;41;07 – 00;17;06;15
Speaker 7
Got in a little more trouble after that. Try to make about seven state troopers kill me because I was so sick of the way I was living. Try to hang myself in the hospital or opera or hospital examination room one night that didn’t work. And finally, because of drug use, I got caught up in another charge robbery and attempt to rob one and ended up getting a life in prison without the possibility of parole, probation, early release.
00;17;06;18 – 00;17;24;15
Speaker 7
And when I got sentence, I went to my county jail and cried like a baby. And I asked the law, why would you allow this to happen to me? And I realized that for a long time I had been playing on someone, on God’s mercy. And that’s one of the things my mom always told me to not assume on God’s mercy.
00;17;24;17 – 00;17;48;19
Speaker 7
And I did that. But yet God was still faithful to put an obstacle in my path to save my life. And when I realized that it was God dealing with my heart one night, I just confessed, Lord, I’m a sinner. I cannot do this on my own, I need you, I need your help. I’m sick of the life I’m living.
00;17;48;19 – 00;18;11;26
Speaker 7
Please, Lord help me. I can’t do it by myself. And so I began to go to church, which I love now. And God has done such miraculous work in my life. And there was some times that I struggled offense, and the Lord may will he chastise you? And he did that for me and I. That’s just the love of God that he showed me.
00;18;11;26 – 00;18;32;15
Speaker 7
And so I had to make a decision. And that decision was, am I going to continue to straddle the fence or am I going to get serious about what God is doing in my life? So I decided this series, and when I did that, God, God’s story, elevate me, started learning his words, studying all Greek language, how to how to exalt Jesus, the scriptures, just all kind of stuff.
00;18;32;15 – 00;18;57;06
Speaker 7
I had a mentor that taught me how to study the Word of God, and it has such an impact on my life to even to this day. I’m teaching others now how to study the Word of God, verse by verse. And man, I’m just it’s it’s amazing how God can take a poor, wretched sinner like me, strung out on drugs, cared about nobody but himself, no matter who gets hurt.
00;18;57;08 – 00;19;28;00
Speaker 7
And God will shed his love abroad in my heart and saved me. What a death it’s been the best life I have ever lived. Even in prison. I have lived my best life in prison because God saved me. And man, I’m telling you, it is an amazing thing. I can’t begin to explain in words how God is just so awesome in how he could change the life of any individual, no matter what you’ve done.
00;19;28;02 – 00;19;34;01
Speaker 7
It’s just awesome. And that’s all I could say. I don’t know what else to say, man.
00;19;34;04 – 00;19;35;02
Speaker 2
00;19;35;04 – 00;19;59;10
Speaker 7
Now, for the first time in my at that time, 40 something years, the living, I heard some words from my mom I always wanted to hear. And that was, proud of you. I heard that for the first time. And can you imagine, after living for 30, 40 years and never having your parents say, I’m proud of you because you never done anything that your parents could be proud of?
00;19;59;12 – 00;20;03;02
Speaker 7
She looks at you and tell you, son, I’m proud of you. That was,
00;20;03;04 – 00;20;03;26
Speaker 7
That was so.
00;20;03;26 – 00;20;29;07
Speaker 7
Amazing. But that’s, that’s. God. So that’s my testimony. I teach different classes, but I also teach a Bible study class, preach the techniques of hermeneutics. And I always tell the guys here that we’re not here because of the crowds we committed against the state of Mississippi. We’re here because of the crimes we committed against God, because that’s where it all starts.
00;20;29;10 – 00;20;38;19
Speaker 7
And if you can, see God’s grace and mercy and your being in prison instead of God taking a life out on the streets, and you open your eyes and he’ll then.
00;20;38;27 – 00;20;39;26
Speaker 7
Bring you.
00;20;39;28 – 00;21;07;09
Speaker 7
This is your messed up. You’re confused. This is God’s mercy. And one that pastor, one Pastor Paul Washer, was preaching about sin today, and he was telling us about those obstacles that God puts in our lives to save us. He gave an example illustration of Jacob and Esau where he said, Jacob, I love Esau, I hate it. But he wasn’t talking about an effect of God just hating Esau.
00;21;07;11 – 00;21;31;22
Speaker 7
It was the fact that he just let Esau just go and live his life, accomplish whatever he wanted to accomplish in life and just let him go. But Jacob, he was in every aspect of Jacob’s life. And I can see throughout all my 55 now years of living that God has always been there, always trying to call me and draw me unto himself.
00;21;31;25 – 00;21;59;20
Speaker 7
But because of my rebellion toward God, I always ask him this question Lord, why me? Why would you be so long suffering? Why would you be so loving? You’re so kind toward me. What have I done to deserve your grace and mercy? Your love? And I began to realize that even if I have to do life in prison, this is where God saved me.
00;21;59;20 – 00;22;22;20
Speaker 7
And this is the instrument that God used to finally get my attention. And this is where I surrender. And I committed my life to God right here in prison. Now, it took me a long time to get to that point where I can say, Lord, whatever your will is, if it’s to release me, Hallelujah! But if not, Hallelujah, in a way, I’m still going to live for you.
00;22;22;20 – 00;22;43;26
Speaker 7
I’m still going to do your will. I still want to fulfill your purpose for my life. Will you and fulfill your purpose here at this facility or wherever you send me? Lord, that’s my heart’s desire to serve you. No matter what. Because I know that at the end of my life’s journey, this is not it. There’s a heaven and there’s a reward waiting for me.
00;22;43;28 – 00;22;50;28
Speaker 7
So that’s why I can say that this is God’s grace toward me here at Marshall County Correctional Facility.
00;22;51;00 – 00;22;54;17
Speaker 7
I really like man.
00;22;54;19 – 00;22;59;28
Speaker 7
Who y’all got me stirred up of here.
00;23;00;02 – 00;23;29;06
Speaker 8
Some of the guys several years ago that were major in the, security threat groups, they were involved organizations, violence. Basically bad inmates. That really caused a lot of trouble. Some of those guys now are later. So you, But that’s the change in their life. Some of these guys, the or the the life sentences, the have no hope.
00;23;29;06 – 00;24;04;09
Speaker 8
Now are some of the the instructors and educational programs, vocational programs, the leaders in churches, deacons and churches. It’s just phenomenal to see the turnaround in these guys. And, honestly, you know, I’m four years past my when I kind of retired. And that’s one of the things that keeps me going is the fact that I get to see this change.
00;24;04;12 – 00;24;38;17
Speaker 8
But if that don’t motivate you, nothing will. It’s a sincere movement. It’s a God led movement. He’s involved. If he wasn’t, none of this stuff would be happening. Yesterday. One of our guys is, battling a terminal disease, and we had to move him out to get him a higher level of care. And there was a line in medical of other inmates.
00;24;38;17 – 00;25;08;04
Speaker 8
They wanted to come by and pray with him, speak to him, tell him they loved him before he left, and that shows the closeness, the, respect they have for one another based off their behavior. He’s got his life. He gave testimony in church not too long ago, lived a real life, but he’s a different man.
00;25;08;06 – 00;25;18;26
Speaker 8
And last thing he told me was, I hate. I’m not going to be able to wire up to chapel for you.
00;25;18;29 – 00;25;34;01
Speaker 8
I mean, the man that is in. And he’s worried about serving others to. So to me, that’s the best example of real you can get. That’s the change we see.
00;25;34;04 – 00;26;00;12
Speaker 9
I told you that I suffer from a dual diagnosis. I’ve been on, medication since the time I was seven years old, diagnosed PTSD, mood disorder, ADHD. Was it, admitted into the hospital one time from a suicidal, homicidal suicidal tendencies at the age of 13. Had a lot of things going on and up here, I couldn’t I just I didn’t process things as I should with that night.
00;26;00;12 – 00;26;23;08
Speaker 9
I was like, Gideon, I didn’t even know about the story of Gideon. But that night I was like, God, if this is real, me, you just gotta. You gotta allow me, please, to to know these things. And so my my pastor, I gave me some scripture. It was, John 14 through 16, and he told me to read.
00;26;23;10 – 00;26;49;00
Speaker 9
And as I started to read, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me, and. There was, double back. But there was a change from that moment on, I felt it. The next day I woke up. I didn’t do a shot and no, I felt guilty for smoking a cigaret. I still remember, and,
00;26;49;03 – 00;27;11;15
Speaker 9
Yeah, all that day it was just like, I’m on this high and I’ll find myself in the middle of the hood and the very hood that I’m so gone. And I’m so dope in all these years. And I’m actually pulling the guy. Well, then I got to meet. And then the stopping the drug dealer. Right right there. Like, seriously.
00;27;11;15 – 00;27;31;08
Speaker 9
And that was so odd of me. Normally. Is me enticing people to to buy this. Gone buy these drugs. Come on, man, let’s party. Let’s have fun. At this moment, I knew there was a change within me because I’m sitting here stopping the drug dealer. Like, totally being disrespectful to the drug dealer and trying to pull this God to this meeting with me.
00;27;31;08 – 00;27;43;02
Speaker 9
And, at that moment, I knew that there was a change in my life and, I won’t ever forget it.
00;27;43;04 – 00;27;55;03
Speaker 4
I was raised in a Christian home, giving it all my life. Father’s a preacher himself and, knew about the law, but it wasn’t until I got my my charge. You know, I.
00;27;55;05 – 00;27;55;25
Speaker 5
00;27;55;28 – 00;28;15;01
Speaker 4
Was convicted of a crime that brought me to prison, and they were there, you know, moments and doing my, waiting to go to trial and everything that the Lord began to deal with my heart. A little rebellious life, would’ve been all, like I said, with a pastor father and mother Minister is a well lived, a rebellious life.
00;28;15;01 – 00;28;29;07
Speaker 4
And the one and it this morning the, the law. And then it’s the church this Sunday and heard the gospel preached by my father, heard the message preach to spirit of the law, came to my heart and drew me to the altar. God.
00;28;29;10 – 00;28;32;23
Speaker 4
Yeah.
00;28;32;26 – 00;28;34;19
Speaker 4
Child.
00;28;34;21 – 00;28;51;06
Speaker 4
And they they are so into my life. To the Lord. I might have said that. Well, you know, shacking up. Lilith, I allow you shacking up with that day that I should renew my life to the Lord, and everything changed. I want not a different man. My mom and dad. And that didn’t happen to me.
00;28;51;06 – 00;29;07;13
Speaker 4
The bishop. That they just didn’t have the time. That I had to change my way of living on my lifestyle. The Spirit of God is in me. Let me know that. Look at. These were different now that I had to change how I was living. And they they I walked away from a five year relationship and start living my life the way they.
00;29;07;14 – 00;29;27;16
Speaker 4
I feel like God had called me to live in there before him. So that they did not end up coming to prison. But yet I came in a new way, and I didn’t come into the same, mindset of the saying that I, that I had before. I was it because I wouldn’t learn it. I can’t get to heaven on my parent’s coattails.
00;29;27;16 – 00;29;36;02
Speaker 4
And then I had to have a personal relationship with myself. And that day.
00;29;36;05 – 00;29;58;19
Speaker 4
Changed the rest of my life. But when? I came to prison. But yet I’m free. I still had to deal with the consequences of my sin in the decision that I made. But now that I’m in Christ, I can deal with it not by myself, but I got the Lord to deal with it, to walk me through the journey.
00;29;58;19 – 00;30;15;12
Speaker 4
So, my, set about how I will because I thought I was good, I thought I was alright the way that I will, but I found out that I wasn’t. That I was deeply steeped as seen in evil and wickedness. The Lord saying that saved my life. And I now see different that I’m in need of Christ.
00;30;15;13 – 00;30;25;01
Speaker 4
Even now, as a believer, I still need the.
00;30;25;03 – 00;30;40;20
Speaker 4
Was it was all about me. I was self sin and I thought only of myself that which would lead me to prison. But now I have new meaning. I have a new purpose that is not about me, but it’s about the meaning God has placed me around me. Who are those who don’t know why I see him just like I was?
00;30;40;22 – 00;30;49;26
Speaker 4
He’s giving me a position to reach out and preach the gospel to the enemy. To help them in every way are key. To help lead them out of the darkness into the light, where I now stand.
00;30;50;02 – 00;30;53;26
Speaker 10
The the my testimony is.
00;30;53;26 – 00;30;59;25
Speaker 10
Galatians 220 and well, I haven’t been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live the life I now.
00;30;59;25 – 00;31;10;25
Speaker 10
Live in the flesh. I only live out of faith with the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. And from that point on he he put scripture in my heart.
00;31;10;25 – 00;31;16;16
Speaker 10
And I’ve been trying to, live my life graciously, gratitude to the.
00;31;16;16 – 00;31;18;01
Speaker 10
Lord and all he’s done.
00;31;18;01 – 00;31;19;26
Speaker 10
In my life.
00;31;19;29 – 00;31;42;13
Speaker 5
And I’m a I’m a banger now, I’m a Christ gang member. I want to be a Christian gang member. And all that other stuff. I mean, Michael got me killed, got me put in prison for 30 years. You remember? I got three more years to go. I have, and now I’m going to be lost down there.
00;31;42;16 – 00;32;03;13
Speaker 5
Well, I’m there. I ain’t been out there so long. We love, but I’m never a bunch of good people right here. And, I this place, and I think I’m going to stay with them. You know, when I give out, they got a little halfway house thing going on, brother Kevin. And then he got faith to be good people.
00;32;03;15 – 00;32;20;26
Speaker 5
And I’m going to surround myself with good people, because if I don’t, I know where I’m at. I know, I know what the devil is going to do. Same thing and be glad to put me right back in that gutter. And I’m, I’m, I’m glad I don’t want to go back in the gutter. My I.
00;32;20;28 – 00;32;21;26
Speaker 5
Heard Jesus.
00;32;21;26 – 00;32;43;22
Speaker 5
Pull me through it several times cause I, I don’t know, I’m like, I’m, I’m 56 years old. I’m on my time. I grabbed after there. And probably if I wouldn’t have been in prison. I have been buried a long time ago because he changed me. We could change in our. I just hope I can talk to some people when I get out to help change them from going abroad.
00;32;43;22 – 00;33;06;28
Speaker 5
I went, but I’m glad I’m here because God put me here for a reason to give me right? And I thank him every day for if I got to stay here the rest of my life getting me right, I’ll be here cause I’m will get right. I’ll get back out there. But, every time I’m in class, I got, I’m doing, I’m taking that,
00;33;07;01 – 00;33;42;20
Speaker 5
They’re growing the glorious gospel. Paul was. And I got all that in there every every one of. And I wrote this down long time I was back. And then that in that year, that year, no longer hearing this going on and I didn’t know about Paul was the divine dilemma for our saint, our Savior is Lord. I took the sin away from me and all that I do.
00;33;42;27 – 00;34;08;21
Speaker 5
Every time I think about what he did for me. We grow up so close that there’s so much dirt and guilt and if not died for me, and I’m just really revived and really done from nowhere and the break from the ground, every farmer we really got. Because I wasn’t there, but a rancid farmer broke.
00;34;08;23 – 00;34;31;15
Speaker 5
Nothing I was doing don’t of here. I’m going to hell. If I didn’t know this, I’m going to hell. And everybody through they knew. I’m not talking to everybody. I look around and remember the dead bodies everywhere. And I’m trying to tell them right, know God, we’re getting ready. Class, when you go to church with me. And again, like, man, you probably didn’t mean to go to.
00;34;31;18 – 00;34;53;27
Speaker 5
Yes. His people being changed when you when you went to Lord May. He changed your heart because I wouldn’t be sitting here. Come right back. I I’m not going I it didn’t didn’t matter if he made back. I didn’t care but not the city and know what he really did for me.
00;34;54;00 – 00;35;00;13
Speaker 5
How could I not?
00;35;00;16 – 00;35;22;01
Speaker 5
Them. But but like I said, I ain’t perfect and God will still working on me. And I hope he does a lot of things through me. You know, I hope I could change somebody else right from going on the road that I went down. And, and hopefully God changed some other people just listening to my testimony and what I haven’t been through in my life.
00;35;22;01 – 00;35;25;23
Speaker 5
Maybe. Maybe not.
00;35;25;26 – 00;35;53;20
Speaker 11
Christ is faithful and and, we are seeing, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of God, the, the kingdom of God transform and men’s lives in this place. Some of the, some of the darkest places in the prison, some of the most violent men, some of the worst of the worst. Just to see them put in their faith in Lord Jesus and to literally see men that you knew for years, they were just terrible people that you wouldn’t want anything to do with you.
00;35;53;20 – 00;36;20;29
Speaker 11
Be scared to death, to be around to to have an encounter with Christ through His word, through his gospel, and, and and to become some of the most loving and some of the most, wonderful men of Christ and godly men hunger and thirst for righteousness and live in their lives now as servants, to bring the rich young man to bring others out of out of darkness, out of gang life, out of destruction and into into into the light and into Christ.
00;36;20;29 – 00;36;48;01
Speaker 11
It’s just a, an incredible thing to have. The Lord has given us purpose in this place, even in this prison system, to, to serve serve him and help others to come to know him.
00;36;48;04 – 00;37;08;18
Speaker 12
My name’s Daniel Wilder. I’m here with George Bell. We grew up together. He was actually my brother and is my brother’s best friend. And so I was kind of like a little brother to them growing up. I can remember play in and doing all kinds of stuff together. But there was a scene in our life where I’d drifted off drugs and alcohol, really had some insecurity in my life. And I never the same thing happened with George. Fast forward a little bit.
00;37;08;20 – 00;37;27;19
Speaker 12
I was facing life in prison. God met me in my cell. I gave my life to Christ. I ended up going to a faith based discipleship program where my life got transformed. And, God sent me back to my hometown to launch an extension of the ministry that’s out in Dallas, Texas, called Care Center Ministries and Hilltop Church.
00;37;27;22 – 00;37;56;22
Speaker 12
I did, in the meantime, George was dealing with drug addiction and crime and ended up, getting off, a life sentence and Mississippi Department of Corrections. But just a few years back, we were doing some ministry in the streets of Jackson, doing a street outreach called Soul Centers, where we cook hamburgers and hot dogs, and we’ll hold signs on the corner of Northside Drive, and, we’ll we’ll preach the gospel and minister to people.
00;37;56;25 – 00;38;17;03
Speaker 12
And, there was a gentleman who drove by name Juan Cloy. He was running to be the sheriff in Hinds County, and he said something pulled him into the parking lot. He was inquisitive of what we were doing, and he came and asked, who’s running this ministry? God brought me into this man, into this parking lot, and you kind of see what you guys were doing.
00;38;17;05 – 00;38;37;09
Speaker 12
And we started talking and sharing and, he was telling me his history and why he’s running for sheriff. And I was telling him what happened in my life and how God met me and transformed my life. And somehow we brought up George’s name because I was just sharing, like, how God will take the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and how he’ll save anybody.
00;38;37;11 – 00;38;55;18
Speaker 12
And he just kind of paused for a minute and he was like, I remember George clearly. I mean, it was kind. And he was blown away. He said, I was the sniper who had the gun with the red bean face and on his head, and George was at a gas station, and he had his mother, held captive.
00;38;55;18 – 00;39;29;29
Speaker 12
And then he was holding a gun to his head, and his mom said for a few hours, and Juan Cloy’s sergeant released him to go ahead and kill him to to pull the trigger. And he said something wouldn’t let me. And when he said that, we both just started crying, right there in the parking lot because we understood the reality of of God and how he kept him, for a season like this, to use him. And so, it’s been how long? 20 something, 25 year, 24 year
00;39;30;01 – 00;39;54;06
Speaker 11
Since we’ve seen — since I’ve seen you and, God is, sovereign. We say it all the time, but he just there’s moments when he proves it to us. So all these years we prayed for, Brother Paul to come here. And for years, Danny’s been trying to to, to come in and begin to support ministry and to be able to preach here in the system.
00;39;54;06 – 00;40;19;17
Speaker 11
And so but it’s just never worked out. And so, for him to be able to show up today, during the Paul Washer conference, he’s been wanting to hear, meet brother Paul for so long, too. And, and to be able to come today first time I maybe, you know, 20 years I’ve got to see him. And then for him to be able to share this, testimony, man, it’s, it’s just been an incredible thing to, Yeah. See, the Lord put together.
00;40;19;19 – 00;40;24;20
Speaker 12
Yeah. I’m excited to see what God’s going to do next.
00;40;24;23 – 00;40;42;26
Speaker 11
You know, maybe 2012. We started to pray one day that, that that Paul would come be able to come to the seminary and speak and come to the prison and preach. And, a couple of years later, we found out about some of the gospel books that he had that he had authored and, gospel studies.
00;40;42;26 – 00;41;15;27
Speaker 11
The workbooks Discovering the Glorious Gospel and One True God and the Light of Man. And, began to, to, to get some of those sent and start teaching classes and, and began to see, the Holy Spirit use, his teaching on the cross and on the person and the attributes of God and the person and work the Lord Jesus Christ, who were to radically transform lives and, doctor, John Schneider, pastor of Christ Church, not too far from here in New Albany.
00;41;16;00 – 00;41;46;10
Speaker 11
He helped us get in touch with Brother Paul and, and so, began to, to, talk to him on the phone and talk about the gospel and, and, he began to support us field ministers as sort of inmate, missionaries and heart. Crossman been sending, Bibles, all his gospel workbooks and books and materials for, for several years now, large print Bibles, ESV Bibles in a NASB Bibles.
00;41;46;12 – 00;42;10;03
Speaker 11
And, and so we around Covid, I remember Paul wanted to to read before Covid. He was trying to make a plan to come and to preach. And then Covid hit and shut everything down. And I know he’s had a lot of terrible health problem sets and, was never able to make it. And so now, even this this week and the reason that we’re here, we spoke a couple of months ago and he, he said, man, I’m ready.
00;42;10;06 – 00;42;51;10
Speaker 11
And, and so the superintendent, the chaplains, worked it out with him and Ras to come and and do this, three day, gospel conference here in Marshall County. And so we’re at this in the middle of getting toward the end of day two right now, about 360 men, attending morning, afternoon and night services and, the, it’s just been incredible, unbelievable to us to experience the presence of God and the power of the gospel and just to witness, these last few years, the Lord answering things that we prayed for, fasted for the men in this prison, in the churches, praying and beg.
00;42;51;10 – 00;43;01;14
Speaker 11
And God crying out for this change, in this transformation and the support and everything, everything that’s happening now, is just all answered, answered prayer.
00;43;01;16 – 00;43;25;08
Speaker 13
If you are Christian, your only boast is this Jesus Christ died for wretches like me.