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Testimonies
Through the Fire
My name is Andre Wilson. I am a resident at Midwest Challenge on the work release program, and I want to tell you a little bit about what God has brought me through. I grew up in North Minneapolis in a household with just my mom and one of my younger brothers. My mother was addicted to drugs and alcohol, and because of this, I received beatings and other harsh punishments over the course of my life, and my “father” has been in and out of prison my whole life.
Being an unruly teen, my mom told me I had to leave her home at the age of 13, so I went to live with my grandmother. I felt unwanted and so I found “fun” in the |
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street life of North Minneapolis. I began to sell crack cocaine and marijuana at the age of 13 to get the things that I needed and wanted, along with carrying a gun for protection. I’ve been in plenty of street fights…no one cared. I’ve been shot at, and have shot others…and still no one cared.
No one cared if I lived or died when I was young, so I started not to care either. I was already drinking alcohol at 13 since the liquor store never carded me, and I also smoked marijuana, but then I started to do acid (L.S.D.) and became even more reckless with my life. I knew of Jesus, but I didn’t KNOW Jesus. My life was going down the drain fast, and though I needed help, I had no one to turn to…No one who cared what happened to me… No one who had the love of Christ in them to come along side of me, and show me the love that Jesus had shown them.
On September 23rd, 1995 my whole life changed. I went to meet my best friend and his brother at a mutual friends’ house, and my best friends’ brother decided that he was going to rob me at knife point. I saw a chance to grab his right forearm which held the knife, and we began to wrestle in a struggle to push the knife away from ourselves. We finally fell to the ground, and my best friends’ brother landed on top of the knife. He bled out and died from losing too much blood. I took a “Plea agreement” for 228 months (19 years).
Inside of prison, I survived several attempts from my victims’ family to kill me. I have seen other guys who were incarcerated with me hang themselves, just because they couldn’t take the pressure of being in prison. I endured the mental and physical strain of incarceration, and the fact that I couldn’t help my family when they needed me the most. And I also lost many of my loved ones whose funerals I couldn’t attend.
For ten years inside the prison walls, I lived an ungodly life. I climbed up the ranks of my gang affiliation, and was doing well…so I thought. I got kicked out of the medium facility prison in Faribault, MN, and ended up in the Lino Lakes facility. I was sent there to do mandatory chemical dependency treatment. I refused it, though I needed to get that mandate met in order to have the chance to come to a great place like Midwest Challenge. A friend mentioned to me that I could still get my mandate met another way by going through an 18 month faith based program called InterChange Freedom Initiative(I.F.I.).
“Faking it to make it” at the time, I entered the program and conviction fell upon me during a Bible study that I was invited to. I became serious about my walk, graduated from I.F.I. and sought to come to the work release program, which would allow me to enter the community and find employment. The first place that I wanted to reside in while on work released, was a place that was not faith based but I was denied.
I then had a chance to come to Midwest Challenge and I took it. It has been quite a different experience, because I’m not used to the loving and caring people that work for Midwest Challenge, or the people that volunteer to help alongside those in the program. I look back and I see that it wasn’t me that got me to this point…It was GOD! GOD knew that I would turn down the mandate to go thru the treatment program at Lino Lakes. He knew and knows his plan for my life. He determined my steps, and learning experiences even though I was still of the world.
GOD refined me, and is still doing so by sending me through the fire…burning off impurities through my circumstances and life choices. Refining me like the process of gold refinement, but the only difference is that I mean more to GOD than gold. Freedom after 12 years of incarceration, is sometimes overwhelming, and it is a blessing to have people to help those of us who need help, but don’t always know how to ask for help.
I am SO GREATFUL for those who help Midwest Challenge, because without it, I would have no other choice than to go back to my old lifestyle. GOD takes us through the fire to refine us, because we are more precious than gold.
GOD BLESS…
- Andre Wilson
Steve’s Testimony
My name is Steve. I have spent the last 30 some years as a practicing alcoholic. I practiced so well, the law finally caught up with me. I was sentenced to three years in prison for DUI. While in prison, I turned to God. I believe he had a hand in my life because it was the only way I could slow down and think about the havoc I was creating.
Everything about my stay fell one after the other. I once again became involved with the world and people around me. When it was time to leave custody and go on work release it was suggested that I go to Midwest Challenge. At first, I balked and then decided to give it a try. I went because I was willing to change and listen to what others who had succeeded by going through the program.
My first day was scary. People were shaking my hand, hugging me, and calling me “brother!” I decided when told to do something or go somewhere to spread the word - even though I did not know what that meant - I would go. That said, I was longhaired, and bearded; but I was welcomed into the community at Hosanna Lutheran Church in Lakeville during an event. What really threw me was that people knew I was a convicted felon and still wanted to talk to me and remembered my name! How strange after coming out of prison.
Two days later, we had people in for dinner. I was still looking rough. Gary Parker the President of MWC encouraged me to mingle and talk to these people. I met the most amazing man - Paul Ridgeway our speaker for that evening’s Holy Spirit Night! He and I had friends in common; I talked to him like an old friend. Later that night, he took the time to bring Christ into my life. I was raised in a Christian home, so I was not ignorant. After his story, Paul came over and invited me accept Christ. I was hooked! This was God’s will - not “Hail Mary, Save Me, I screwed up again and won’t do it again.”
I have learned to ask for and receive help. To have faith. To accept whatever is His will, not mine. To get off my seat and ask for forgiveness. To stand up in the Light and never be alone again. To be grateful for all things, great and small. I am so blessed; not all things work but I can look for the message in that. I deal with my alcohol affliction every day. But I now believe He is there every day to help give me courage to live each day and stand strong. And live life once again.
I would like to go into Chemical-Dependency Counseling. I believe I can help those that are like me. The missing part all along was the faith that I never trusted. The people who opened my eyes and soul gave me the needed peace. God bless them, all, from the bottom of my heart!
- Steve
Journey into Light
My name is Sammy, I am 58 years old and a resident at Redemption House. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and came to Minnesota in 1999. I was an only child, and was raised in a prosperous family never wanting or in need of anything growing up. I was brought up in the Catholic faith, and participated fully in my youth as an alter boy, choir member, and commentator. I also attended Catholic school all the way through High School.
I began straying from the path at age 12 when I began to drink alcohol, and by age 15 had begun to work for an organized crime family as a bookmaker in my high school. By age 17 I was married, had a child, and was living on my own. I was totally unprepared to be a husband, father, or a provider and my slide into addiction became more rapid. |
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I continued to work fulltime for the mob as a bookmaker, and worked in a hospital part time. As a result of my hospital work, I had access to prescription medication and became a full blown drug addict and alcoholic.
I was divorced by age 21, was allowed no contact with my son, and my drug addiction and illegal activities with the mob continued for 29 more years. During those 29 years, while I continued to attend church on a regular basis, I was literally spiritually dead. I was making enough money from my illegal activities to support my growing addiction, and it wasn’t until 1996 that it seriously affected my work. In 1999 I was so high that I lost a very valuable betting sheet, and got in serious trouble with the mob. In fear for my life, I fled town one night buying a bus ticket with the last $100 I had to my name. I said to take me far away from Cleveland as it would go which turned out to be Minneapolis.
At that point my addiction had become so severe that in the last prior 3 years I had burned through a quarter of a million dollars and was broke, and broken. Spiritually, emotionally, and financially bankrupt, and physically sick from full blown opiate withdrawal I landed at the doorstep of the Fairmont Hotel which was a flophouse in Minneapolis. It was at that point that my recovery process began and I checked into MetroHope, and for the first time in 27 years was sober and began to realize and feel the love of Jesus Christ.
From my graduation in 2000 until early 2007, however, I struggled with sobriety. It was able to function and held numerous jobs to support myself, but had rekindled and began feeding my growing addiction. In June of this year I hit bottom yet again, lost, broken, and homeless. But I heard about a place called Midwest Challenge, where lives were being transformed so I reached out for help. My prayer for deliverance was answered and I was accepted as a resident of Redemption House. I am currently, and thankfully, clean and sober. I’ve reclaimed my life, my faith, my dignity, and my self respect. I’m fully involved in all of MWC activities, and volunteer and enjoy serving wherever I can contribute. I was also elected house officer, and am actively enjoying being a leader and a mentor to younger residents.
I’m not sure where the Lord will lead me in the future, but I intend to stay involved actively working in a service capacity helping others like me who are suffering and in pain. I thank Midwest Challenge for helping me reclaim my life, and I thank God for leading me here to the support of this amazing ministry. People like me are being helped here every day. If you put your faith in Jesus, miracles can happen…I stand as a living testimony to that fact. My entire life has been a long but thank God, a successful journey from darkness into light.
God Bless,
- Sammy
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