From Prison to Pulpit

I was born on Wednesday September 9th, 1959 in Tagiuria, Libya, Africa to American parents.
My Dad was stationed at the Wheelus Air Base in Tripoli, Libya. On Christmas day of 1960 my father drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while trying out a new scuba diving outfit that his
buddies in his barracks had bought him for Christmas that year. By January 1961, mother brought me, my twin sister, and my three brothers to the United States. We lived for a period of time at my aunts and uncles in Oakton Virginia. In 1962, we moved to Manassas Park Virginia. We lived in Manassas Park for three years and then moved to another suburb of Manassas. By 1968, we were back in Manassas Park in a different house. We remained in that house until 1977 during that period of time I was somewhat of a misfit around the home. On my ninth birthday, my oldest brother who was 17 gave me a bowl of hash to smoke, and also introduced me to cigarettes. Through the next several years I tried several different drugs but found no pleasure in them. From hash, to marijuana, to speed, to kilo weed, acid and later cocaine.

Although I tried those many drugs I never felt that I was actually addicted to them because I could pass them up for weeks without accepting them. It was more of a social thing for me, but that's what most people who are addicted to these drugs say.

From the age of nine when I was first introduced to these drugs I would disappear from home for two and three days at a time without telling mother where I was. This went on until the age of 13.

At the age of 13 I moved to Pennsylvania with some Mennonite friends of mine. There I was made to go to church every Sunday which was an odd experience, seeing as it was a Mennonite community. I had been raised in the Assemblies of God movement. It was unusual to see the man sitting on one side of the church and women on the other during services. Also, they had foot washings, which I had never seen before in the assemblies. The Mennonites seemed to be stricter than the Pentecostal’s. I stayed with the Mennonite family for almost a year before returning to Manassas Park Virginia. And then it was back to the same old thing, I’d stay home one or two days a week, and be gone the rest of the time. Even though I was not home as much as I should have been, I still knew that I should be in church and stayed in church.

At the age of 14, I made a homemade bomb and placed it in a water drainage pipe in Manassas Park. The bomb went off, and Fire Company #9 was called to extinguish a huge fire. When the bomb went off, I was standing in the middle of a 50 foot wide road. The bomb was so powerful, it blew an 85 lb. manhole cover in the air about 4 feet and shot fire clean across the road and up an embankment. I ran in a friend’s house before the fire department got there.

After the fire was extinguished, the Fire Marshall and Chief of Police began knocking on doors to see if anyone had seen what happened. My friend answered the door, and before the police could finish asking the question, my friend told the police I did it. The Fire Marshall took me down in the drain pipe and told me he wanted me to see the damage I had done. With a little geologist pick, he tapped the concrete wall and it crumbled.

Just 2 feet from the wall was a gas line. I was told by the Fire Marshall that that line supplied gas to around 5,000 homes in Manassas Park and if the fire company had not extinguished the flame when they did, it could have blown up over half of that park; killing nearly 3,500 people in the fire, including my self. I was then taken to the police station and my mother was called. I had a court date, and received 6 months probation.

At the age of 16 a circus came to town. I saw the African elephant and several lions and knew immediately that I had to join. Upon talking to the manager of the circus, I learned that in order to join the circus I would have to get my mother's permission giving them custody of me since I was a minor. I immediately went home and told mother my plans to join the circus. Mother was adamant about the fact that I was not leaving home. I was rebellious. I climbed up on the roof of our home and told mother I was not coming down until after she signed the papers giving me permission to leave. After several hours mother came out of the house and told me I could leave. She said she would rather see me gone than to see me fall off the roof and break my neck. At that age I did not realize how much I hurt mother in my rebellion.

At the age of 17, I was told by an eye doctor that I would be totally blind in ten years time due to Retinitis Pigmentosa and retinal deterioration. Since then, my I have gone blind in my left eye and my right eye has lost all but a 4.5° peripheral field.

I traveled with the circus for four years as an assistant animal trainer. During my first year in the circus I met and fell in love with one of the high wire walkers. Judy was also a contortionist. Her family was from South America.

In October of 1977 my son was born in Jacksonville Florida. Three days later, his mother was killed in a car accident when she was broadsided by a drunk driver. One the measly pay of $75 a week I could not take care of my child. And so, I gave him over to his grandparents and aunts that were with the circus. They left the circus that week for Judy's funeral, and I never saw them again. I've heard stories from other circus members who say that my son Juan is walking the high wire like his aunts and mother did.

Upon leaving the circus in 1979, I was arrested in Manassas, Virginia and charged with grand larceny, a crime which I did not commit. I was convicted and sent to prison with a five-year sentence.

Prison was the best thing that could have happened to me here on this earth. For it was in that prison that I realized that I was lost and in need of a Savior. A born-again Jewish chaplain, Charles Steinberg, and a Pentecostal Evangelist, J. Robert Wyatt, would come to the jailhouse twice a week and share from the Word of God with those who were interested. For the first couple weeks, I was bitter. I would just sit in my cell not wanting to hear a thing. After a while, I decided I could not do anything else so I may as well participate in the Bible study. As I would dig in the Word the Spirit would convict me more and more. I gave my heart to Jesus Christ there in that dirty jail cell. With Brother Steinberg's help, I got into a correspondent's Bible study outside the jail. Three weeks later, I was sent to the prison to serve the rest of my sentence.

Upon my release from prison, I continued in the Word of God and study. I went to live with my Pastor and stayed with him and his family for three and a half years. During that period, I attended minister’s meetings in Berkley Springs, West Virginia and Grantsville, Maryland twice a month.

I have been preaching the gospel since my release from prison. God is so good.

At MorningStar Fellowship I served as an assistant pastor in Manassas, Virginia for two years before moving to Greensboro, North Carolina where I opened a satellite fellowship by the same name. I pastured in North Carolina for 6 years until I had to step down due to health problems that put me in the wheelchair. Doctors at that time told me I would spend the rest of my life in that chair. What was happening was this… When I would stand up, my blood pressure would drop and I would pass out within 8 – 10 seconds. Doctors tried several different medicines to bring my BP up, but to no avail. After four months of being in the chair, trying to stand only to fall to the floor and have to be picked up again, I told the Lord that I did not want to be in that chair any more. I told Him that I could not stand on my own and was depending on Him to keep me up. I stood that day and have not been back in that chair but a couple times since then; and that was because I was needing rest and other chairs were taken. I still have problems with my health to this date, but God has brought me out of the chair. I can walk into the doctor’s office today and the blood pressure will be ‘astronomically low’, as one nurse put it. On the average, it is around 97/61. When they scratch their heads and say, ‘I don’t know how you are standing’, I tell them, ‘I know!’ I am able to witness God’s hand upon my life!.

In December of 2004, God brought a very special woman into my life and on June 11th, 2005, we were married in a little church on a hill in New Market, Virginia.

All praise goes to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!