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A NEW IDENTITY, A LIFELONG JOURNEY
Boanergez left behind a life of violence to embrace a new identity in Christ.
By Lou Haviland
When Boanergez first encountered a new way to live, it seemed both alien and attractive. And he discovered it after a lifetime of violence in the least likely place: behind bars.
While there were many men in prison he could relate to, they differed from him in an important way. Those other men were part of the Church inside prison. They possessed something Boanergez knew he was missing: hope, peace, and an indescribable joy.
He adds, “It came to the point where it was like, ‘Man, how do you get that?’”
THE WRONG KIND OF REFUGE
When Boanergez was 5, his father walked away from the family, leaving Boanergez’s mother to care for him and his three siblings. She worked hard to feed her children but was rarely home.
With the absence of both their parents, Boanergez and his siblings were in dire need of guidance, support, and protection. Unfortunately, his older brother found refuge in one of the many neighborhood gangs in their southern California neighborhood. His brother looked to them for the sense of belonging he lacked at home.
His brother’s gang involvement brought alcohol, drugs, and violence into Boanergez’s home, and he and his other siblings felt pulled into that way of life.
“He exposed me to a lot of criminal activity and the things that he and his friends used to do,” Boanergez recalls. “Basically, he turned my mother's house into a hangout place where everybody did most of their crimes.”
His brother had become addicted to alcohol and drugs and physically abusive toward Boanergez. Despite this, Boanergez looked to his brother for the direction he needed.
“He became like a father figure and showed me a lot of negative things pertaining to how a man should be,” Boanergez says.
Ongoing bullying at school only added to the instability in Boanergez’s life. When he opened up to his mother and older brother about it, he was simply told to stop crying.
“As an 8-year-old kid, I had to learn to cope with these things the way I could, any way I could,” he says.
Boanergez confronted his intense powerlessness and isolation in the way he knew best: He joined a gang. He determined to never be hurt by anyone ever again.
“My best way of dealing with it was having violent behavior,” he says. “I took all these unaddressed issues into my adulthood.”
FINDING FREEDOM BEHIND BARS
Boanergez mimicked the violence he witnessed in childhood until it became part of who he was. Soon, like his brother and other gang members, Boanergez was steeped in a life of crime which led him to serving time in prison.
Eventually, Boanergez was incarcerated, serving a life sentence. For the first few years, he continued living as he had been, with the gang mindset of violence.
“I didn’t have any hope. I was selfish,” he says. “I felt like nobody cared about me, so I didn’t care about nobody else.”
For so long, Boanergez had hidden his emotions behind a mask. That coping mechanism was challenged by former gang members from his neighborhood who started inviting him to church services in the prison chapel.
“I was just like, ‘No, I’m good,’” Boanergez recalls. “It was that fear of leaving something that I knew my whole life, which was the gang. If I left that, then who am I now?”
As much as he wanted to dismiss the invitations to church, Boanergez could not ignore the real change he began seeing in men he had known for years. These fellow gang members and neighbors—who had been raised as he was, looked like him, and with whom he shared similar backgrounds—were different now that they followed Christ.
“I could see they had joy, and they had peace behind those [prison] walls,” he says. “That’s what interested me, attracted me to that. I wanted to learn about their faith.”
Boanergez chose at that point to begin making his own decisions—no longer living for what his gang required him to do, but instead living for Christ.
“I could see they had joy, and they had peace behind those [prison] walls.”
—Boanergez
CONNECTING THROUGH ANGEL TREE
During his sentence, Boanergez missed his two daughters, especially during the Christmas season. When he learned about Prison Fellowship Angel Tree®, which delivers Christmas gifts to the children of incarcerated men and women in their parent’s name, along with a personal note from them, he signed his children up.
Angel Tree helps fill in the gap of a missing parent during the holidays.
“It's a bridge to be able to connect with your kids, with your family,” he says. “A lot of times when we leave our kids out there, and we make choices that are separate from our kids, in their minds, they feel like their parents don't love them because they just left them. To be able to have that opportunity to [send them a gift], it's a beautiful thing.”
“[Angel Tree] is a bridge to be able to connect with your kids, with your family.”
—Boanergez
A FUTURE TO LOOK FORWARD TO
Once the time came for Boanergez’s release, after serving 13 years, bringing Jesus home with him was a priority. He had seen too many men leave their faith behind when they walked out of prison.
“I always told myself that I wasn’t going to leave Christ in prison, because I’ve seen it before; when it’s time to go home, they leave their Bible on the table in the day room,” he says. “For me, this is a lifelong journey.”
Boanergez kept his commitment and now works as a reentry specialist at The Prism Way, helping formerly incarcerated people navigate life after their release.
“All the things that I needed help with and I experienced, I'm actually helping individuals getting out … to support them so they can have a successful transition,” he says.
He is eager to be a positive contributor in the town he once knew only as a gang member.
“My community, I destroyed it for years, with my lifestyle of crime,” Boanergez adds. “My goal is to be the best person I can be in order to help others. I know I can't change the world, but I can do my best to just keep serving people and to encourage them that change is real, and it's possible.”
“My goal is to be the best person I can be in order to help others.”
—Boanergez
