I grew up in Flint Michigan; we moved to Chicago when I was a teenager. I had been involved in some gang-related incidents for a while in Michigan, then continued it in Chicago.
My Mom brought me up in a Christian home but I pretty much did my own thing most of the time. I got arrested at the age of 13 but it was dropped. That made me think I could outsmart the cops and that was where I messed up a few times, I had been arrested 7 times before I turned 18. At age 20 I was convicted in a Federal Court of drugs, weapons and an assault on an agent. They dropped the driving off in a stolen car. So there I was, 20 years old facing 20 years in prison! I can say that my Mom and Grandma kept praying for me and that God sure enough is alive and at work. One day I woke up, looked at my Bunkie (it was not a nice sight) and headed to the Chaplains office to pick up a bible. My Bunkie saw me walk in with a bible and started to call me a SON OF A COTTONPICKING BIBLE THUMPER. I soon moved in with a white guy who was a Christian, we had many good discussions.
I’m not a small brother. I’m 6 foot 2 inches and weigh 250 pounds and none of it is fat, I use to work out even in the gang years.
This one day I went to the gym to shoot some basketball and some brothers I knew were there. We decided to lift each other since there were no weights available. I put Damon on my shoulders and did a few squats; he weighs a little over 260 pounds. I felt good; I was not straining at all, my body felt really good. After a few more squats with Damon on my shoulders I asked “Red “what he weighed, he said 270. I got him on my shoulders and stood up, no problems, squatted down, no problems, went to get up and I felt like my whole body on the inside exploded. It seemed like every muscle and tendon just ripped apart in a huge explosion. I fell to the floor and was in so much pain I could not move. The nurses were called, they asked if I could walk, which was really impossible for me to even move. There is a lot of stuff I don’t really believe in, like on TV, the so called “healers” that “heal” people of all kinds of disease and such, I do believe God can heal though.
Within a few minutes a brother I knew from church services, Ray, came into the gym, he saw me in pain on the floor and came over to me. Damon told Ray what happened and that we were waiting for a wheel chair to get me to the nurse. Ray asked me if he could pray for me…..all I could do was look at him, I hurt so much I could not speak. Ray was from a Baptist church so I knew he was not a “healer” either. Ray sat on the floor next to me, put his hand on my stomach area, and began to pray. He asked God, in Jesus Name, to heal my body so I would not have to go to the hospital. He told God that men in the prison witnessed and even heard something in me snap and it would be great if they would see God heal me then and there. I have no idea what happened, there was no lightning bolt, no trumpet sounds, not even a glimpse of an angel. All of a sudden I just sat up, stood up, and was not even sore. Damon saw the pain in my face, he heard the snapping sounds inside of me, the others in the gym also saw there was REAL PAIN, and I could hardly breathe. Like I said, I do not believe in the so-called “healers” on TV, but even more now than before, I know that God CAN heal when He wants to. This was of God. No TV cameras, no thousands of people watching, no neon lights to advertise it, but God did certainly heal me in front of a few and those few now attend church too. May our Lord God be glorified in Christ Jesus name.
Dwayne J
CON-TRACTS
Editor: Paul Bero, Michigan Prisoner #192686
Artwork: “Red” Federal Prisoner
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