My prayer life went on this way for five years until at the age of 18 years I killed a man while in a drunken fight over 20 dollars. For the first time in my life I felt the fear of the Lord. (Prov. 1:7) As I ran from my crime I ducked under trees in an attempt to hide myself from God. (Genesis 3:8)

A few months later I was walking along a roadside with my dog whose name was "Church." As I walked I noticed a movement just off the roadside. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a picture of Jesus walking on water. (Matt. 14:25) As I picked the picture up from the ground it felt like a heavy load had been lifted from my shoulders. It was my habit to take all things as signs from God. So I now considered the idea of there being a Son of God. Suddenly God was no longer this great invisible power over my head, but He was now a man standing right beside me in the form of Jesus Christ.

For two years Jesus was constantly at my side. It took most of that two years for me to finally trust Jesus as a friend.

One day my half brothers talked of killing me. One of them said "we can't kill him, after all he is our brother." They didn't like it that our dad treated me better than he had treated them. I was the youngest born to my dad in his old age and he tried to avoid making the same mistakes with me as he had made with them. When our dad started having heart attacks the brothers blamed me and had me put in jail for drug abuse. They themselves had introduced me to these drugs!

In jail I opened up the Bible to read wherever it opened to. It opened to (Genesis Chapter 37) I was so excited by this sign from God that I read the entire Bible in four days.

It was Jesus' words in (Matthew 5-7) that made me see how wrong I had been when considering my family life. I knew I had failed my dad who was now in a coma at the hospital. As I lay on my bunk in jail I wept while praying, "Dear Lord please go into my dad and minister to him while he is still alive that you can save him from hell." Just then a tingle came upon my head and went over my body down to my feet and back to my head again. No longer was Jesus just a friend "beside" me, he was now my master "inside" me. The next day I was allowed to go see my dad in the hospital. As I walked into his room I found my sister and her husband standing over my dad. He was moving his hands in response to touch and voice. I said to him, "Dad? Can you hear me dad? I'm here, it's R.G." At that moment he moved his hands, his feet and his head. My sister's husband said "Wow, He's moving a lot since you got here." I was then escorted back to jail where I thanked Christ for yet another sign that my prayer had been answered.

My dad died before I got out of jail. My brothers did all they could to hurt me. They were now in control of the house and I was no longer welcome. They even went so far as to get rid of my beloved dog whose name was "Church."

For two weeks I lived with my sister. I started to drink and use drugs again and one day I drank from noon to midnight. I was sitting on my sister's sofa when I suddenly heard the devil say, "Now that you've lost your loved ones you can instead love me. We'll get drunk and high and keep your secret forever."

At that moment I knew I was free. I no longer had reason to keep my crime a secret, since the only reason I had been holding it in was for my beloved dog whose name was "Church." Although I had long since confessed to God, I now would confess to man. (1 John 1:9); (Prov. 28:13)

Three years have passed since I stood before the judge and heard him say, "25-50 years!" I looked up at him and said, "I thank the court for fair judgement and Praise the Lord."

RG Dunn 211917
777 W. Riverside Drive
Ionia, MI 48846