Once upon a time there was a gangster. He lived on the streets of Cape Town getting into trouble and rising up in the gangster ranks. He was powerful. He was a badass.
One day this gangster and his friends were robbing a car full of cash. He and a friend moved toward the vehicle, dodging bullets and firing guns. He watched his friend’s body, riddled with bullets, collapse to the ground. He was shot in the head.
The gangster recovered from his head wound. He continued in his life of robbery, murder and drugs. He was in and out of prison. He got shot in the head again and lived. He was captured by the police. They told him he was never going to get out of prison again.
He stood in the courtroom to be convicted and knew he was guilty of all this crimes. He knew he deserved the 54 year sentence on his head. He had said goodbye to his family. He prayed to the Lord. He knew he was a sinner, he asked the Lord to show up in his life.
Then the judge said to him “God has a plan for you. I’m not going to send you to jail.”
The gangster walked out of the courtroom and was no longer a gangster, he was a child of God. He had been transformed into a new creation. From then on he would dedicate himself to telling other people of the God that changed his life.
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And once there was a prostitute. She had grown up in a home with bad influences and silent parents. She was molested at the age of 12. She felt worthless.
She abandoned her family. Sold her body for drugs and alcohol. She lived her life believing she wasn’t worth it to be anything other than gangster and drug lords property.
One day she was laying in bed and so sick. She could sleep without drugs, she couldn’t keep anything down. She went to the doctor for help. He shook his head. There was nothing he could do. There were too many holes in her stomach. She was dying.
Her brother, now a believer in Christ, came over with people from his church to pray over her. She listened to their testimonies but all she kept thinking was,
“I am a whore and a drug addict. How can this God love me?”
When she was alone again she shakily kneeled on the floor by her bed. She prayed that God would reveal himself to her. She felt overwhelming peace and fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning she woke, her urge to do drugs was gone, she was hungry for the first time in days. She ate and kept everything down. In that moment she knew God had healed her and she would spend the rest of her life dedicated to Him.
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Now Pastor Ruben and his wife Sam (formerly a gangster and a prostitute) lead a church and preach their story of how God changed their lives and how He can change others too.
They stopped in a little church in Ocean View and told their story of depravity and redemption to a small group of missionary girls who really needed to hear it. They were inspired by their level of faith and the fire in their hearts. They left that night in awe of a wonderful God who finds us in our lowest of lows and raises us up to live in communion with Him.
And they all lived happily ever after.
