“I wanted to kill my family when I was 13 years old”. A year prior to that, I entered the drug dealing mafia world and I wanted to be the most notorious drug dealer in the streets. I remembered my desire to rise up to power among the gangsters and I almost killed my mother to prove my worth. Drug trafficking, theft, fraud, prostitution, you name it, I did it. I went in and out of prison and the courtroom on a weekly basis. Fast forward to the age of 16, I was sent to reformatory school where I finally met God. One year into that, I told God I would serve Him if He’d let me go home early. He did. I forgot about my promise and went back to drugs. I was renowned in Mossel Bay as one of the most fearsome drug dealers. One night, a desire suddenly came into my heart to go to church with my sister. ‘God wouldn’t want a gangster like me’, was the response in my heart when the altar call came. However, I was so overwhelmed by the Spirit that I ran towards the altar, telling God that I surrender all to Him. As soon as I got home, I destroyed all my drugs. Woke up the next morning, I had no desire for them, and I have been drug-free since. My family was restored to me. I left my gang and have been on fire for Jesus for the past 13 years. God’s hope was my reality. No matter how deep in the darkness I got myself into, His hope reached into the murky darkness and took me out of it.”
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Rudi, South Africa
Student of Sound of the Nations ’17 DTS 2017