Richard was raised in a Klan family in Alabama. His face is covered in offensive tattoos: devil horns over his eyebrows, a swastika on the side of his head.
Not only that, he led the pagan rituals in the prison yard!
Richard applied to a Prison Fellowship pre-release program, expecting to cruise through unaffected by the emphasis on Christ. But, as Richard will tell you, “God had other plans.”
Here is Richard’s graduation speech, telling his story of God’s powerful transformation in his life:
I started this class a year ago for all the wrong reasons. All I wanted was for Prison Fellowship to help me out of prison so I could go on with my old life of drugs, alcohol, gang activity, and violence. But God had other plans.
I wasn’t a Christian, nor did I plan to let any of you change me. Not only was I not a Christian, but I led pagan rituals here at Four Mile and had been deeply involved in paganism on the streets for years. I was going to continue on in the pagan religion … But God had other plans.
For months I dreaded going to every class. I wasn’t going to listen to anything any of the instructors had to say … But God had other plans.
Through my toughest resistance, little things did make it through and I heard, “Richard, God sees you through the filter of Christ.” God worked on me through you. You saw us for what we could be and not for what we are at this moment.
Thank you for giving me a chance and thank you for not giving up on me. You were able to break down the walls I had been building for years. You were able to reach me and show me the truth.
Because of you all, I’ve made some genuine lifelong decisions and changes. I dedicated my life to Christ, and I was baptized here by Chaplain Walker.
I am a different man because of you all.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Thank you all!
A New Creation
At the prompting of his mentor, Richard met with his pagan group, turned all his books and leadership symbol over to them, renounced his paganism, and told them he was going to follow Christ.
They were angry and some wanted to retaliate, but in the end, they relented and let him go.
“I could not imagine why he would want to be in the program,” says Jan Quick, director of this Prison Fellowship reentry program. “But the Lord let me see Richard without the tattoos. He let me see Richard as one of His children who had been seeking in all the wrong places, looking for acceptance and never finding it. The Lord impressed on my heart to take Richard into the classes. And I did. I truly believed God had a plan for Richard and His hand was upon him.”
Richard was granted parole and was released from prison to one of Prison Fellowship’s transitional homes. An organization called “Rethink the Ink” has even agreed to help remove his offensive tattoos.