Terry, Russell

“When you’re brought up in the church and you become a teenager and go to high school, you start getting away from your faith. I ran into some trouble and anytime I ran into trouble, I would pray and God would deliver. I ended up going to the penitentiary and it got my attention. I had gotten a five-year sentence for the illegal sale of drugs. I obeyed the law when I was locked up and I made parole the first time up. I came out and kept doing the same thing.  

Thirteen years later, I got into it with a guy. You know when you hang in the streets, you act like the streets. It was an altercation, he hit me and I shot him. He didn’t die but I ended up back in the penitentiary and did seven years.  I did seven but this time, God got my attention and I came out a better man. I’m sixty-nine, now, and since then, I’ve been thinking about what God has been doing for my life. I’m grateful. He brought me out and I didn’t get trapped in the streets. 

You gotta take the world little by little. You can’t eat an elephant with one bite. What God delivers you from, he cleanses you and sends you back into it. So now, I minister to prisons in and outside of Kentucky. God has also led me to minister to the young people in the youth detention center. It’s prevention. Whoever would listen, I got something to say. Some people just love what they’re doing, so I have to have wisdom and discernment and know what and when to say things. I’ve been through a whole lot but God helped me overcome and I’m grateful to be alive.

Our church was out here and we walked this community. We prayed and anointed it with oil. We had these guys that came here from out of town, talking about they’re going to burn our city down - they can’t do that. This is our city. If we pray, God moves.

We can build new buildings and new stores but the only way that we’ll be able to build our neighborhood is if we’re giving our lives to God. But right now, we just got new stuff with the same mentality. We’ve got to change. I can’t blame somebody for what I’ve done. We need to take responsibility and God will help us and he’ll lead through danger, seen and unseen. That’s the way we can rebuild our neighborhood.” - Terry, Russell