By Nile Hosni –
Unlike other kids when their aunt asks what they want to be when they grow up, Jose Herrera* said he wanted to be a gangster.
“I didn’t want to be a police officer or a football player or a fireman,” Jose says on an Israel Media Ministries video. He was 8. While his aunt was filming, he said, “I want to be a gangster.”
Jose didn’t come from a broken home. He grew up with both parents and a pretty good childhood. He attended a Catholic private school.
At an early age, he wanted to dress like a gangster at school. He stole clothes from stores and changed once he got to school. “I was living a double life,” he acknowledges.
Initially, he was a good student and athlete, but in middle school, his peers began to influence him. In high school, he began smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol. Eventually he got introduced to cocaine and methamphetamines and dropped out of school.
He couldn’t hold a steady job and began dealing drugs to support his habit. He liked to fight. He started getting arrested and doing time in jail, and this became a regular feature in his life.
At 26, he got invited to church. He was drunk during the service, but that didn’t stop the Holy Spirit from touching him. “I cried like a baby during the service,” he says. He gave his life to Christ.
The devil sent a girl into his life to drive him away from church. He started missing services slowly and wound up completely leaving. He dove back into drugs – both consuming and selling.
The thing that brought him back to Jesus was running a red light.
A cop initiated a pursuit. Since Jose had drugs and guns in the car, he fled. What would have been a ticket turned into a 32-mile high speed pursuit that ended when Jose crashed into a telephone poll at 45 mph. He paid his bail bond and was released, only to be arrested again for another crime. God was not letting him get away with his sin.
The prison sentence was serious this time. During Covid, the jail imposed a contagious disease lockdown – a lockdown inside of being locked up!
Jose had no alternative but to sit and listen to his cellmate, Chopper, who talked nonstop about Jesus. Jose started reading a Bible.
He left the prison gang and was eventually transferred from maximum security to minimum security. His 6-year-sentence was changed to 3 years. Today Jose is living for the King outside jail.
* Not his real name.
About this writer: Nile Hosni wrote this article as part of his studies at the Lighthouse Christian Academy in Santa Monica.
