Prison Fellowship

  • DONATE
    • One-Time
    • Monthly
    • Angel Tree
    • Other Ways to Give
  • GET INVOLVED
    • Volunteer
    • Subscribe
    • Angel Tree Christmas
    • Start a Fundraiser
    • Pray With Us
    • Justice Action Center
    • Share on Social
  • STORIES
    • Stories
    • Blog
    • Videos
    • The Restoration Series [Videos]
  • WHAT WE DO
    • Why Help Prisoners?
    • What We Do
    • In-Prison
      • Prison Fellowship Academy
      • In-Prison Programs
      • Hope Events
      • Inside Journal
      • Women’s Ministry
      • Create: New Beginnings
    • Angel Tree
      • Register your church or group for Angel Tree
      • Prison Fellowship Angel Tree
      • Angel Tree Christmas
      • Angel Tree Camping
      • Angel Tree Sports Camps
    • Justice Reform
      • Justice Reform
      • Second Chance Month
      • Sign the Justice Declaration
      • Get a Copy of Outrageous Justice
    • Warden Exchange
    • Church Partners
    • Corporate Partnerships
    • Preparing Prisoners for Reentry
  • RESOURCES
    • Subscribe to Our Email
    • Support for Friends and Family of Prisoners
      • Resources for Friends and Family of Prisoners
      • Coping with Incarceration
      • Resources for Prisoners
      • Resources for Children of Prisoners
      • Supporting Successful Prisoner Reentry
    • Resources for Churches and Volunteers
      • Resources for Churches and Volunteers
      • In-Prison Ministry
      • Reentry Ministry
      • Family Ministry
      • Justice Reform
      • Mentoring Ministry
    • Resources for Angel Tree Coordinators
    • Resources for Chaplains
    • Resources for D.O.C.
    • Justice Reform Resources
    • Share on Social
    • For Media Outlets
  • ABOUT US
    • Leadership
    • Chuck Colson
      • About Chuck Colson
      • The Charles Colson Hope Awards
    • Our Beliefs
    • Financials
      • Financials
      • 2022 Annual Report
    • Employment
    • Contact Us
    • In The News

Trading in a Prison Gang for the Family of God

September 26, 2018 by Emily Harris Greene

Prison can be a scary place. You need Someone to watch your back.

Montreal Major was just 14 years old the first time he tried crack cocaine.

"My fellow classmates pulled out crack and [were] like, 'Do you know what this is?'" Montreal recalls. "I had seen it on TV, but I had never seen it in real life."

It was a defining moment in the young man's life. "It took me for a twist," he says. "I was like, 'Wow, this is my reality.'"

CULTURE SHOCK

Montreal was one of five children born to a single mom. When he was a teenager, his mother moved the family "from a two-story home in Missouri City to a one-bedroom shack house in Fifth Ward," Montreal says. "And that cultural experience—that kind of did something to me. I went from a second-class family to a very low-class family. Poverty was all around us."

In Fifth Ward, Montreal found drugs and gangs waiting to take him in. "Everything that I had learned in my old environment, it had to get altered in order for me to survive."

Montreal learned to adapt. He began skipping school and gave up on basketball. Instead, he threw himself into the street life and joined a gang. When he was 17, he was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery. He faced up to 99 years in prison. He was sentenced to five.

"I put on a hard façade. I had to. I had to survive, I had to adapt to my environment to get back to my family."

FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL

"I can remember getting off of the bus, shackled down, walking through the gates," Montreal recalls, "and I could feel a cold shiver take over my whole body."

Afraid of what he would find behind prison walls, Montreal felt the pressure to survive—and to find a community so he wouldn't feel alone. He quickly sought out a gang to join.

"The same way that the gang rules apply in the free world, in real life, they apply in the prison system as well, so I immediately joined a gang. I already had a little rep—people knew about me from the streets."

Being part of the gang meant he had protection, but his life was far from being a comfortable. At such a young age, the experience had a traumatic effect on him. On the outside he tried to be tough, but inside he was full of fear.

"I put on a hard façade. I had to. I had to survive, I had to adapt to my environment to get back to my family."

THE FAÇADE CRUMBLES

While in prison, Montreal began attending church services. He and his gang members would deal drugs in the back of the chapel. The other prisoners would eventually leave and go back to their cells or the yard, but Montreal often stayed. He liked to listen to the music.

Montreal started out sitting in the back row, but week after week he found himself moving forward until one day, three months after his arrival at the prison, Montreal found himself sitting on the very front row.

When the guest preacher that day gave the altar call, Montreal responded.

"He was preaching, giving a sermon about forgiveness and redemption. When he asked, 'Does anybody want to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?' I didn’t even stand up. I just fell to my knees and grabbed his legs and started crying."

His hard façade had crumbled before the name of Jesus Christ. Montreal had spent his whole life learning to acclimate to the culture around him. But now he had the chance to be the man God had always intended him to be.

Today, Montreal is a college graduate with a degree in business who has dedicated himself to serving his community.

TRADING IN HIS GANG FOR A FAMILY

After his conversion, Montreal realized that he couldn't follow Christ and still be an active gang member. He was terrified, knowing the repercussions that often follow when someone leaves a gang, but God intervened and provided a way out. With the support of his new Christian brothers, Montreal left his old life behind and never looked back.

Just before his release, he was transferred to the Carol S. Vance Unit in Texas, a pre-release facility. It was there that Montreal enrolled in the Prison Fellowship Academy™.

"Walking off the bus to Carol Vance and being greeted with hugs from inmates was strange, I can honestly say that," he says with a chuckle.

Located in select prisons across the country, the Academy takes men and women through a holistic life transformation spanning weeks or months where they are guided by Prison Fellowship® staff and volunteers to lead lives of purpose and productivity inside and outside of prison.

"Once I got out [of prison], I knew I really had to put the rubber to the road, and I had to be about everything that I was saying I was going to do," Montreal says. Today, Montreal is a college graduate with a degree in business who has dedicated himself to serving his community. The scared, rough young man is gone. God has restored Montreal and given him a bright future.

"I know that as a man it is my God-given ability to teach others and to build up the youth in my community. It's just all about giving back and making sure that the next person is good."

Story Disclaimer
Prison Fellowship is founded on the conviction that all people are created in God's image and that no life is beyond God's reach. To that end, we often share stories of lives that have been impacted by our work in prisons around the country. Prison Fellowship does not condone – or require full disclosure of - the crimes committed by those enrolled in our programs, and we take the repercussions of those crimes seriously. It is our sincere goal to present our content in a way that is sensitive to all concerned parties, while presenting examples of men and women who once broke the law, and are now being transformed and mobilized to serve their neighbors. If you have concerns about the content we share, please feel free to contact us directly.

WE CAN END RECIDIVISM

You can be a part of the Prison Fellowship Academy today and help end the cycle of incarceration! Academies are present in 26 states, with plans to expand to all 50 states by 2026. When you give monthly to the Academy, 100 percent will go toward changing lives. Let's give hope to prisoners as they prepare to re-enter their communities as redeemed individuals.

SUPPORT THE ACADEMY TODAY!

LEARN MORE


OTHER STORIES YOU MIGHT LIKE

THE 'HEAVEN OF PENITENTIARIES'
How James found a life of peace and purpose in prison.

FINDING FREEDOM: WILLIAM JONES CELEBRATES HIS RELEASE FROM PRISON
"It's time! This is my season! God told me this would happen if I trusted Him, and I trust Him. I’m going home!"

Filed Under: Prison & Prisoners, Prison Fellowship Academy, Prison Fellowship News & Updates, Video Tagged With: Carol S. Vance Unit, Texas

SELECT A TOPIC

  • Advocacy & Reentry
  • Angel Tree
  • Families of Prisoners
  • Feature Stories
  • From the CEO
  • Hope Events
  • Inside Journal
  • Press Releases
  • Prison & Prisoners
  • Prison Fellowship Academy
  • Prison Fellowship International
  • Prison Fellowship News & Updates
  • Reentry
  • Second Chance Month
  • Uncategorized
  • Video
  • Warden Exchange

MOST POPULAR

Prison Fellowship Responds to Inaction on Crack Cocaine Sentencing at Close of the 117th Congress

December 20, 2022

Criminal Justice Reform Achievements

December 16, 2022

Prison Fellowship Applauds Congressional Lawmakers for Passage of Law Enforcement De-escalation Training Act

December 15, 2022

LATEST VIDEOS

WATCH ALL VIDEOS

JOIN OUR ONLINE COMMUNITY

FACEBOOK
TWITTER
INSTAGRAM
YOUTUBE
LINKEDIN
PF®
PFM®

RECOMMENDED LINKS

  • Ways to Donate
  • Inspirational Stories
  • Angel Tree Program
  • Prison Fellowship Academy
  • Justice Reform

RESOURCES

  • For Families & Friends of Prisoners
  • For Churches & Angel Tree Volunteers
  • For Media Outlets
  • Warden Exchange

JOIN RESTORATION PARTNERS AND WITNESS GOD RESTORE LIVES

Restoration Partners give monthly to bring life-changing prison ministry programs to incarcerated men and women across the country.

 

JOIN NOW
  • CONTACT US
  • EMPLOYMENT
  • PRIVACY
  • FINANCIALS
© 2023 PRISON FELLOWSHIP®

Angel Tree®, Angel Tree Camping®, Angel Tree Sports ClinicTM, Angel Tree Sports CampsTM, and Warden Exchange® are programs of Prison Fellowship®.