My God Encounter

Melvin’s encounter

I came up with pushers, convicts, gangsters. At an early age my father walked away from us leaving my mom to raise us boys up between Puerto Rico, The Bronx & Chicago during the 70’s. We lived a life of poverty filled with despair, evil, witchcraft and wickedness. In Chicago during the 80’s I was exposed to all kinds of negative activity. I was surrounded by heavy drug trafficking, drug abuse, gang violence, shootings, murders, & death threats. I was brawling with gang members, running drugs, selling alcohol at schools, etc. It was the survival of the fittest. What kept me in a somewhat positive state of mind in the midts of this chaos was sports and the Hip Hop culture. I was determined to get a scholarship in basketball to get a college education. In the 90’s we moved  to Orlando, Florida away from all the turmoil but also away from my dreams of a basketball scholarship. We found ourselves in deeper despair and poverty than in Chicago. With hopes & dreams of sports gone, and a discontentment with the Hip Hop culture I became depressed. I felt I was no good and became suicidal. On a trip back to Chicago I visited many of those who I used to run with and found a miraculous thing! They were talking about this Jesus dude. Many of them, who were losers and the scum of the earth, had a complete turnaround in their life and were now going to college, following dreams and ambitions, putting the crazy life behind them, and were making a positive impact in their communities and around the nation. I got angry and thought to myself, “When is my time? My time for my dreams to happen?” After months of depression and refusing to come to God I finally surrendered my life. I bumped into a friend who invited me to church and said, “The time is now!”. I went to church with him and completely broke down and ran to God. I completely surrendered my life into the arms of Jesus. In Christ today I have found a great peace and joy in my heart. Many dreams have come to pass and I have great vision, passion, and hopes for my future. I have come to believe and experience what the scripture says, “anyone who trusts in him, will not be disappointed”. - Romans 10:11

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