Luis Rodriguez shares his story.
My name is Luis Rodriguez, and I grew up in Harlem, New York, with my mother. She raised me in the Pentecostal Church. However, I got caught up in addiction and violence and was in and out of jail from the age of 16.
In the ’70s, the streets where I grew up were flooded with marijuana, heroin, and, eventually, crack. My older brother gave me some marijuana to smoke when I was 7. I went to jail on my 16th birthday for selling marijuana to an undercover police officer.
In 2001, after moving to Florida, I was arrested on charges of attempted murder of a police officer, and I was looking at spending the rest of my life in prison. Immediately, I felt God tugging at my heart, so I decided to repent of my sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior.
My charges were later dropped to aggravated assault, and my sentence was reduced to five years in prison and 10 years of probation.
Ministry Begins
While in prison, I began sharing my faith with my fellow inmates. I had access to a library of Bible dictionaries and concordances, so I was able to prepare for the ministry work I wanted to continue when I returned home, too. I attended church services and looked forward to special events that were listed on the calendar. Words can’t describe how elated my fellow inmates and I were when we knew Prison Fellowship® was coming to do a program.
While I was incarcerated at a maximum-security prison in Everglades, Florida, I ended up taking part in three consecutive Prison Fellowship weekends — two in English and one in Spanish. The weekends were awesome. There were at least 20 volunteers that spent the weekend sharing their testimonies and studying the Bible with us. They were times of inspiration, love, and encouragement. What an experience that I will never forget. I still have my certificates of completion for the programs.
The mentoring and fellowship that took place at these events was so inspirational that it had a life-changing impact on me. It filled me with so much hope that I looked forward to giving back or just sharing Jesus with others, whether with other inmates that couldn’t attend the program or my family and loved ones.
Luis and Timothy have become friends.
Unexpected Forgiveness
After I was released in 2005, I went straight into ministry with St. Petersburg Calvary Chapel feeding the homeless every Friday. A woman who worked with me happened to be a friend of the officer I had assaulted, Sargent Timothy Montanari. She introduced me to him, and he was amazed at the changes in my life. He gave me his phone number and we became friends. I found out he was a follower of Christ, too.
A few months later, he and another officer went to court for me to request that the remainder of my 10-year probation be terminated. And after two and a half years of probation, I was completely free.
A Life Redeemed
In the past nine years, I have gotten to go to Ecuador and the Dominican Republic to minister to prisoners and orphans. I’ve studied human services in addiction at St. Petersburg College and worked for several different organizations in prison ministry, drug rehab, medical detox, and case work for prisoners, ex-prisoners, and the homeless. I’ve visited thousands of prisoners all over Louisiana and assisted many ex-prisoners in transitioning back into their communities. I’ve written a book called “Being Transparent” that tells my life story. I speak in churches, schools, prisons, and on radio, and I’m currently working on taking a discipleship team into a Virginia jail to mentor the men there.
There are so many ministry opportunities that God has opened up for me and continues to open that I am speechless. I am grateful and take every opportunity to share Christ and glorify His name. I hope that I can visit more prisons around the world to share with the inmates that if they repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ, they too shall be saved.
