In today's troubled
world people are wondering,
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where are we headed?
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Revelation Today
presents the answers.
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Bible prophecy reveals
what the future holds in store.
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Revelation Today.
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Good evening again.
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You know God is good
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and He's been good
to every last one of us.
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Every child of God
has a story to tell,
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a testimony of God's goodness
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and leading that
person to a place of faith
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and security and
hope and salvation.
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Now God has been
good to Ron Halvorsen
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and Ron has a story to tell.
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Ron was raised on the
mean streets of New York City.
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He hasn't always carried a Bible
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and preached the Word of God.
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Tonight, "Gangs to
God", the Ron Halvorsen story.
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Now before you leave tonight,
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you want to grab
this DVD presentation
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of Ron's story
from Gangs to God.
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You can get it on your way up.
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Now the office didn't
send a lot of these to sell it
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so you need to be
quick to get to the table
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if you want to get it.
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Also there's a
second bonus program
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on here an interview I
did with Ron Halvorsen,
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that you just
won't want to miss.
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And if you can't get it
from our for you tonight
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get it at itiswritten.com.
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Go to our web store
and get From Gangs to God,
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the Ron Halvorsen's story.
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So now, please welcome
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the presenter of
Revelation Today,
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Ron Halvorsen.
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Good Evening.
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Good to see so
many young people here
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because really I want to talk
to the young people tonight.
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Now you older ones can listen,
but and you better listen,
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but we want to talk to
the young people tonight.
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I want to tell
them that Jesus Christ
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is the answer to
the human problem.
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And so let's bow our
heads in a word of prayer
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from Gangs to God,
story of my conversation,
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how I found Christ
or Christ found me.
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Gracious Father, I pray in
a very special way tonight.
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I pray, Lord, You'll help me
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as I present this testimony
that everyone, young and old,
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will realize that God
is powerful, God is great.
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And that I might
uphold the Lord Jesus Christ
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in what said and
done and we pray that
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lives will be
changed by this testimony.
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And so I offered up to
you in the name of Christ.
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Amen. And Amen.
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It was David the Psalmist
looking down to our day,
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till this day
which you and I live,
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and David the Psalmist said,
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"The fool had said in his heart,
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'There is no God.'"
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And we hear from
a lot of fools today
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but I want to testify
tonight that God lives
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and God loves and God saves.
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And this Christ who
healed then heals now.
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The Christ who
saved men and women
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back then saves
men and women even now.
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And I heard the
footsteps of Christ,
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I heard the
footsteps of Christ echoing
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and reechoing in the
streets of the asphalt jungle.
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I felt the hand reach out
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and touch the
hardened heart of a young man
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who had gone
berserk in his own mind.
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I believe in God
because I felt His touch.
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I believe in God
because it was Him
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who pulled me out of the gutter.
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I believe in God because God
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must be the
solution for mankind,
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because He was a
solution for my mixed up,
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crazy, depraved life.
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Jesus said unless
you're born-again,
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you cannot see
the kingdom of God.
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I want to say to every
young person here tonight,
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unless you've been born-again,
you will never get to heaven.
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You won't get to heaven
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on the merits of
your family, your parents.
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You won't get to heaven
on the merits of your church.
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You can only get to
heaven by experience the rebirth
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that Jesus Christ talked about.
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I had to come to a
place where I was born-again
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that I would
become a new creature,
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a new person, a new character.
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I was a character before
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but a new
character, a new character.
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And the only one who can
change the direction of a life
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is none other
than Lord Jesus Christ.
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The only one
that can bring about
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a desire in human
heart to seek repentance,
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to say you sorry,
to say you're sorry
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for what you have done,
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and now to seek
the presence of Jesus.
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The Bible says, all who sinned,
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then come short
of the glory of God.
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And so everyone's a sinner
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and the only way
we can ever be saved
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from our sins is
by a sinless savior,
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and that's none other
than the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And so we need to
come to that experience,
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conversion in scripture.
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The thief was
hanging on a cross,
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hanging between
heaven and earth,
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between life and death.
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And they're
hanging on the cross dying,
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hanging on the cross dying.
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The Bible says, that
he reached out to Jesus
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and Jesus reached out to him.
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And he said, if
you be the Son of God,
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take us down from the
cross, the first thief,
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he wanted salvation
from pain and suffering
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but not salvation from sin.
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And then the other thief
lifted himself up and said,
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"Remember me when you
come in your kingdom."
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And Jesus says,
"Every drop of blood
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that pours from my veins,
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you shall be
with me in paradise."
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That became the promise of God,
that's God's promise to you.
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It happened for Peter
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by the turquoise
waters of Galilee,
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it happened for Saul
on the road to Damascus.
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It happened for
the thief on the cross.
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One thing was evident.
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Their lives were changed.
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Their lives were
drastically, powerfully changed.
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And so it happened for
me in a Brooklyn street,
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it happened for
me in New York City.
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You see New York City
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is the melting pot of the world.
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I mean people come
from all over the world
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to my city, to New York.
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It has its opera
houses, its universities,
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its theaters, its
museums, its Wall Street,
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but there's
another side to that city.
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I mean there's a city
where death waits in many ways.
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A knife in the ribs
where death waits in many ways,
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a needle in the vein
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where death waits in
many ways, that's my city.
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I mean a bullet in the brain.
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I mean New York houses
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more than 475,000
drug addicts, that city.
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I mean over 250,000
homeless people in that city.
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It is one of
the three epicenters
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of AIDS epidemic in
the world, that city.
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And it has the most brazen
brash corporate prostitutes
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on planet earth in that city.
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Two thousand people are murdered
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that they know of, in that city
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each and every
year, that's New York.
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I was born there in that
city and by the grace of God
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I would be born
again in that city.
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I mean, I was born in a place
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and brought up in a
place called Coney Island.
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Coney Island is in
Brooklyn, New York.
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Brooklyn at one time
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was the fourth
largest city in the world.
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I mean in the United
States fourth largest city.
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Brooklyn, nothing like Brooklyn,
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not the Bronx, not Manhattan,
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but Brooklyn
and I was born there
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in a tenement
section of Coney Island.
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Now I can't
describe that tenement,
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it's hard to describe.
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In fact I don't even
want to think about it,
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but my dad, he
was a very hard worker
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but he had five kids and
then came along his girl.
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By the way he
wanted the girl first
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but he had a boy
and a boy and a boy
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and then twin boys
and we were sure glad
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when the girl came
along he has now ended it.
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And Gandhi said that
poverty-- Gandhi said poverty
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is man's worst kind of violence
and poverty leads to violence
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and that was my world.
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I mean, hate
festered in my heart,
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in my mind and it
oozed out in violence.
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I mean, I blamed, I
had the big blame argument,
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I blamed my
teachers, I blamed the police,
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I blamed society,
I blamed everybody
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I could blame, I blame
but I never blame myself
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when really I was a
great part of the problem.
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It was there in that tenement
and festering in that poverty
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and growing in
hatred towards life
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and towards people.
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I mean I became antisocial,
that's mildly speaking.
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This was a city
where major crime was,
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murder
incorporated functioned there,
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when I was a young teenager
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murder
incorporated in Coney Island.
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And for some bit a money,
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you could have someone
murdered in my neighborhood.
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I've seen it many times,
car come around the corner
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a body thrown out on the street.
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Going to school the third grade,
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a man was laying in the
gutter, newspapers over his head
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when the wind blew
away a hatchet in his head.
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And this was
daily, weekly, monthly,
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I would see death
in a terrible way.
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And there I was
growing up in that
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and hate festering in my mind,
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but there was not only
crime in the organized level,
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the Mafioso not only
crime in the organized level,
00:09:20.19\00:09:23.11
there was crime on
the unorganized level.
00:09:23.14\00:09:26.53
Well, crime
among the young people,
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the young people of that city.
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I mean juvenile crime,
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I hot wired, stolen my
first car when I was 14,
00:09:33.74\00:09:37.74
breaking, entering by
the time I was 15, 16,
00:09:37.77\00:09:41.60
mugging, snatching pocketbooks,
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anything that wasn't
fastened down, I would take.
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Because I reasoned
why should they have it?
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Why shouldn't I have it?
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I reasoned poverty is
the worst kind of violence.
00:09:54.17\00:09:59.38
And so I entered into the
world of the big blame argument,
00:09:59.41\00:10:02.55
blaming everybody, everything,
00:10:02.58\00:10:04.18
blaming my
parents, blaming the law.
00:10:04.21\00:10:06.75
I mean Coney
Island, it was a bad place,
00:10:06.78\00:10:11.48
the little people of that city,
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the violent people,
the violent streets.
00:10:12.98\00:10:15.90
I mean, there were teenage gangs
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and violence everywhere
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you went even as
a little kid you,
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you was worried you're gonna get
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killed on the way to school.
00:10:24.90\00:10:26.19
I mean, this was
a bad neighborhood.
00:10:26.22\00:10:29.32
Every day I plan
in the different way
00:10:29.35\00:10:31.23
to get to school
00:10:31.26\00:10:33.45
because they were
waiting, they were waiting,
00:10:33.48\00:10:36.33
and that violence came out.
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As I was growing up,
I joined a boxing club.
00:10:38.79\00:10:41.89
My father was a
professional fighter.
00:10:41.92\00:10:44.84
He had, I forgets nine fights
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and won so many fights
and lost one or whatever
00:10:47.75\00:10:51.74
and my mother wanted
him to quit fighting,
00:10:51.77\00:10:53.86
so he quit fighting
00:10:53.89\00:10:54.94
because he didn't
want to fight with her
00:10:54.97\00:10:56.61
and but my dad had the idea
00:10:56.64\00:10:58.28
that it would be
nice to have someone
00:10:58.31\00:10:59.86
who'd become a
professional fighter,
00:10:59.89\00:11:01.77
and you know how a father is,
00:11:01.80\00:11:03.97
if he was a football player
00:11:04.00\00:11:05.20
he wants his son to
be a football player,
00:11:05.23\00:11:06.79
so he put helmets
on these little kids
00:11:06.82\00:11:08.42
and I'm running around
00:11:08.45\00:11:09.80
getting beat up
all over the place.
00:11:09.83\00:11:11.50
So he could fulfill a
dream or my dad had a dream
00:11:11.53\00:11:14.41
that one of his boys
would be a prize fighter,
00:11:14.44\00:11:17.71
and I was big when I was born
00:11:17.74\00:11:20.30
and my father decided I should.
00:11:20.33\00:11:23.24
He had a heavy bag down in
the basement of our tenement
00:11:23.27\00:11:26.52
and I would hit the
heavy bag and then light bag
00:11:26.55\00:11:28.63
and my dad would try to train me
00:11:28.66\00:11:31.10
and then I joined the
Ocean Avenue Boxing Club
00:11:31.13\00:11:33.43
in Brooklyn, New
York in Coney Island,
00:11:33.46\00:11:35.99
the Ocean Avenue Boxing Club.
00:11:36.02\00:11:37.66
And we had other
fighters and I was training
00:11:37.69\00:11:41.52
I was into Pee-Wee boxing
00:11:41.55\00:11:44.14
and they hand little
gloves were bigger than the kid,
00:11:44.17\00:11:46.53
you know and you
start out that way
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and going up and going up
00:11:48.52\00:11:50.17
and getting into
higher weight class,
00:11:50.20\00:11:53.72
and five days a
week, three hours a night,
00:11:53.75\00:11:56.85
I trained to be a fighter.
00:11:56.88\00:12:00.18
And I remember
kept after my coach,
00:12:00.21\00:12:01.85
kept after the
coach all the time
00:12:01.88\00:12:04.02
trying to get
him to let me fight
00:12:04.05\00:12:06.41
and he says,
you're not ready yet
00:12:06.44\00:12:07.55
and I said, oh no,
I'm ready, I'm ready.
00:12:07.58\00:12:09.38
And he said no,
you're not ready yet
00:12:09.41\00:12:11.01
and I said, no I'm ready
you know I'm tough and yeah.
00:12:11.04\00:12:16.69
Now remember our
first tournament fight
00:12:16.72\00:12:20.36
the Police
Athletic League came in,
00:12:20.39\00:12:22.00
the Catholic Youth Organization
came in from all over the city.
00:12:22.03\00:12:25.44
We're fighting
down at a gymnasium
00:12:25.47\00:12:27.76
down in Bedford Stuy
00:12:27.79\00:12:30.28
and I represented the
Ocean Avenue Boxing Club.
00:12:30.31\00:12:33.37
By the way good
fighters came out of there.
00:12:33.40\00:12:35.15
Floyd Patterson
came out of there,
00:12:35.18\00:12:37.03
the great heavyweight
champion of the world.
00:12:37.06\00:12:39.13
And Marie Glazier,
00:12:39.16\00:12:40.26
light middleweight
heavyweight champion,
00:12:40.29\00:12:41.88
a middleweight
champion of the world.
00:12:41.91\00:12:43.99
And so I was training
and getting ready in finding
00:12:44.02\00:12:46.40
and my coach said well, I
will let you in this tournament.
00:12:46.43\00:12:49.89
Now we were poor kids,
00:12:49.92\00:12:50.99
we didn't have
these fancy robes,
00:12:51.02\00:12:53.08
you know, boxing shoes, we
had sneakers that you taped,
00:12:53.11\00:12:56.07
so they
wouldn't flap up and down
00:12:56.10\00:13:00.55
and we had
bathing suit with that,
00:13:00.58\00:13:02.09
you know, none of
these fancy trunks
00:13:02.12\00:13:04.53
and with poor
kids and we would come
00:13:04.56\00:13:07.46
and we'd sit in the front row
00:13:07.49\00:13:08.52
and would each wait our turn
according to our weight class.
00:13:08.55\00:13:11.30
By the way they don't go
age, they go by weight class.
00:13:11.33\00:13:15.47
And, I remember, I'm
waiting, I'm anxious, you know,
00:13:15.50\00:13:19.92
they named me Killer Halvorsen.
00:13:19.95\00:13:23.68
Come on picture this, come on.
00:13:23.71\00:13:27.96
Killer Halvorsen, and I
was ready for this fight
00:13:27.99\00:13:34.93
and I remember the
bell rang and I came out
00:13:34.96\00:13:37.45
and you know, I'm fighting
00:13:37.48\00:13:39.40
and I feel like
Paul the apostle's fight,
00:13:39.43\00:13:41.53
don't know if you
read about it in the Bible.
00:13:41.56\00:13:43.32
I'm beating the air
00:13:43.35\00:13:45.43
and this kid's
beating up on my head.
00:13:45.46\00:13:47.36
By the way he was from the--
00:13:47.39\00:13:48.42
he was from the
Catholic Youth Organization
00:13:48.45\00:13:51.21
just before he
stood up to fight me,
00:13:51.24\00:13:52.94
he said a prayer, I said oh no,
00:13:52.97\00:13:54.65
he has something going for him
that I don't have going for me.
00:13:54.68\00:13:59.83
This kid man, I mean
the prayer here I am.
00:13:59.86\00:14:05.16
And now I'm
looking for an opening,
00:14:05.19\00:14:07.53
he's finding the
opening and I'm punching around,
00:14:07.56\00:14:11.41
you know, just
beating in the air
00:14:11.44\00:14:13.76
and finally the bell rang
00:14:13.79\00:14:19.63
and I came back to
the corner and sat down,
00:14:19.66\00:14:21.92
my manager says,
you're doing great.
00:14:21.95\00:14:23.59
I said great?
00:14:23.62\00:14:26.83
I said man he has
the purple trunks.
00:14:26.86\00:14:30.32
I have a bathing suit on,
00:14:30.35\00:14:31.47
and I know what
this guy's doing.
00:14:31.50\00:14:33.59
He said no,
remember everything I taught,
00:14:33.62\00:14:35.84
you know, now, if any of
you have ever fought in a ring,
00:14:35.87\00:14:37.39
you know what that means.
00:14:37.42\00:14:39.69
Remember
everything he taught you,
00:14:39.72\00:14:42.47
when they're
throwing punches at your head,
00:14:42.50\00:14:44.58
you're not trying to--
what was that Wednesday,
00:14:44.61\00:14:46.66
he was trying to
teach me about boxing.
00:14:46.69\00:14:49.89
You know, I mean
you're fighting for your life,
00:14:49.92\00:14:51.51
you're trying to stay,
you know, you're moving back
00:14:51.54\00:14:53.88
and moving around and
hoping he doesn't hit you.
00:14:53.91\00:14:56.69
And, so there I
am the second round,
00:14:56.72\00:14:59.30
I feel like Paul
the Apostle's fight,
00:14:59.33\00:15:00.81
I'm beating up on the air
00:15:00.84\00:15:01.87
and this kid's
beating up on my head.
00:15:01.90\00:15:03.61
Finally he hit me
with a left hook, or right,
00:15:03.64\00:15:05.42
doesn't matter when
you're hit you're hit.
00:15:05.45\00:15:07.92
Your legs go one way,
your body goes the other way,
00:15:07.95\00:15:11.20
and all of a sudden,
everything's spinning around
00:15:11.23\00:15:12.81
and I'm flat on my
back Killer Halvorsen.
00:15:12.84\00:15:16.73
And then this guy, one,
00:15:16.76\00:15:22.01
someone told me
you'll have a fast count
00:15:22.04\00:15:24.50
I never had a fast count.
00:15:24.53\00:15:26.39
Two.
00:15:26.42\00:15:30.01
I said, I wish
this guy get this thing
00:15:30.04\00:15:31.68
over with come on and, three.
00:15:31.71\00:15:35.69
And then the bell rang..
00:15:35.72\00:15:38.76
Now, in those days
when you were fighting
00:15:38.79\00:15:40.30
when the bell rang,
00:15:40.33\00:15:41.78
they could drag
you to the corner,
00:15:41.81\00:15:44.86
and you were
called Saved by the Bell.
00:15:44.89\00:15:48.23
I didn't want to get saved,
I wanted to get out of there,
00:15:48.26\00:15:54.46
and so he says
saved by the bell,
00:15:54.49\00:15:56.99
sat me down in the corner,
he got out the smelling salts,
00:15:57.02\00:16:00.98
waved it under my nose
00:16:01.01\00:16:02.60
and then he ask
the dumb questions,
00:16:02.63\00:16:04.46
how many fingers
do I have on one hand?
00:16:04.49\00:16:06.71
Ten?
00:16:06.74\00:16:11.22
What's your name?
00:16:11.25\00:16:12.31
Who cares?
00:16:12.34\00:16:17.21
And then he said
something, I'll never forget it,
00:16:17.24\00:16:19.38
and it's helped me through life.
00:16:19.41\00:16:21.45
He said you want me
to throw in the towel?
00:16:21.48\00:16:24.45
That means give up, surrender,
00:16:24.48\00:16:27.35
I said no man, no man,
00:16:27.38\00:16:30.18
I've taken enough
punishment from this guy.
00:16:30.21\00:16:33.39
And went out the third-round
00:16:33.42\00:16:34.56
knocked him through the
ropes got the gold medal.
00:16:34.59\00:16:38.57
Light heavy-- they gave me
light heavy weight champion.
00:16:38.60\00:16:40.88
I knocked out the
Eastern Golden Gloves champion.
00:16:40.91\00:16:43.47
I was 15 years old
00:16:43.50\00:16:44.54
I couldn't fight
the Golden Gloves,
00:16:44.57\00:16:45.90
I had to fight in
another tournament
00:16:45.93\00:16:46.99
he was 27 years
old, I knocked him out.
00:16:47.02\00:16:49.69
I was a fighter,
I was Ron Halvorsen,
00:16:49.72\00:16:51.99
Killer
Halvorsen, man I'm a boxer.
00:16:52.02\00:16:54.16
Hey, you know I
learned a lesson.
00:16:54.19\00:16:56.11
I learned a lesson,
00:16:56.14\00:16:57.81
when you're
knocked down in life,
00:16:57.84\00:17:00.74
when I was knocked down
00:17:00.77\00:17:01.80
the manager came
through the ropes picked me up,
00:17:01.83\00:17:03.76
brought me to the corner,
took up the smelling salt.
00:17:03.79\00:17:06.41
You know, you see,
00:17:06.44\00:17:07.55
when you're
knocked down in life,
00:17:07.58\00:17:08.85
listen to me kids,
when you're knocked down,
00:17:08.88\00:17:10.69
the devil knocks you down,
remember you have a manager
00:17:10.72\00:17:13.88
and that manager is Jesus Christ
00:17:13.91\00:17:15.81
and He came through
the ropes to lift you up.
00:17:15.84\00:17:22.06
He came through the
ropes to lift you up
00:17:22.09\00:17:24.97
and the smelling salts
is His grace, God bless you,
00:17:25.00\00:17:28.18
the smelling salts is the grace.
00:17:28.21\00:17:29.73
So there I was
fighting in the ring,
00:17:29.76\00:17:32.21
wanting to learn
how to be a fighter.
00:17:32.24\00:17:34.48
You had to fight
good in the ring,
00:17:34.51\00:17:35.80
and fight good in the street.
00:17:35.83\00:17:37.92
And I was going
through become a champ,
00:17:37.95\00:17:41.63
thought I was
tough and cool and,
00:17:41.66\00:17:44.36
you know, I want to
fight and I lived to fight.
00:17:44.39\00:17:48.14
And my brother
Billy, he was my example,
00:17:48.17\00:17:51.35
we would wake up in the morning
00:17:51.38\00:17:52.42
and say let's go
look for a fight.
00:17:52.45\00:17:57.52
And if any Halvorsen got
in trouble got in a fight
00:17:57.55\00:18:00.44
and he was outmanned,
all the other Halvorsen's,
00:18:00.47\00:18:04.28
they came, they came to help
00:18:04.31\00:18:07.21
and that was my life growing up.
00:18:07.24\00:18:12.17
I didn't know God,
didn't believe in God.
00:18:12.20\00:18:16.12
I said where's
God in the ghetto?
00:18:16.15\00:18:19.26
Come on, if
there's a God who cares,
00:18:19.29\00:18:21.76
why doesn't He care for me?
00:18:21.79\00:18:24.34
I mean why am I taking
such a bad ramping life?
00:18:24.37\00:18:27.86
I mean, but the young
people really don't succeed
00:18:27.89\00:18:33.04
until they get a
gang, get in a gang.
00:18:33.07\00:18:35.93
I knew many gangs in the 50s
00:18:35.96\00:18:37.46
there in New York
the 60s the Mau Maus,
00:18:37.49\00:18:41.26
the Puerto-Rican gang,
00:18:41.29\00:18:43.80
they wore their blazer,
their red scarlet blazer
00:18:43.83\00:18:46.45
and fedor with a little feather
and when you saw a Mau Mau,
00:18:46.48\00:18:49.95
he had a cane, you
watch if he'd open a cane,
00:18:49.98\00:18:52.49
you never let them open a cane
00:18:52.52\00:18:54.07
because he had switch--
00:18:54.10\00:18:55.18
he had a blade in
there about like this
00:18:55.21\00:18:57.65
and sometimes we
would be walking down
00:18:57.68\00:18:58.98
you will knock him down
the ground, step on his face.
00:18:59.01\00:19:01.74
So will you do that for me?
00:19:01.77\00:19:02.81
And I said, well, I
don't like your cane.
00:19:02.84\00:19:07.24
There were the swords,
00:19:07.27\00:19:09.30
the Amboy Dukes in
Hell's Kitchen, Bishops,
00:19:09.33\00:19:14.14
the Chaplains from Bedford Stuy,
00:19:14.17\00:19:16.24
which about 400 strong.
00:19:16.27\00:19:19.31
You talk about,
you talk about danger,
00:19:19.34\00:19:23.33
you talk about, I'm
growing up in the streets
00:19:23.36\00:19:26.15
and you want to be in
the gang because you don't--
00:19:26.18\00:19:28.73
you know, you can't
fight, you can't survive,
00:19:28.76\00:19:31.07
you got to survive
and you want to be cool,
00:19:31.10\00:19:35.22
you know, it's cool to be
00:19:35.25\00:19:36.61
and you pressured on every hand
00:19:36.64\00:19:39.53
and the pressure to
become a gang member.
00:19:39.56\00:19:44.36
I joined the Beachcombers.
00:19:44.39\00:19:48.19
The Beachcombers
they had their territory,
00:19:48.22\00:19:50.14
every gang has its
territories called its turf.
00:19:50.17\00:19:53.26
Coney Island,
00:19:53.29\00:19:54.47
from Neptune
Avenue to Surf Avenue,
00:19:54.50\00:19:57.01
from Ocean Parkway to
16th, it was our territory.
00:19:57.04\00:20:03.36
I was initiated into the gang,
you don't just join a gang,
00:20:03.39\00:20:05.80
you're initiated into the gang.
00:20:05.83\00:20:07.21
And what they did
00:20:07.24\00:20:08.30
since it was at
the Coney Island beach
00:20:08.33\00:20:09.82
they rolled me in the water,
they rip took off my jacket,
00:20:09.85\00:20:12.91
they rolled me in the water,
00:20:12.94\00:20:15.76
and then they
rolled me in the sand
00:20:15.79\00:20:18.21
and tied me to a piling
00:20:18.24\00:20:20.65
and each member would take off
00:20:20.68\00:20:22.65
their Garrison
belt with a big buckle
00:20:22.68\00:20:24.40
and they'd whip
you and you couldn't,
00:20:24.43\00:20:25.88
you couldn't cry out,
because if you cried out,
00:20:25.91\00:20:28.40
there was a soldier on each side
00:20:28.43\00:20:29.53
with the switchblade,
00:20:29.56\00:20:30.59
they come up under your
arm or else they would carve
00:20:30.62\00:20:32.98
a "C" in your back
or "C" in you forehead.
00:20:33.01\00:20:37.32
So I was initiated
to become a Beachcomber.
00:20:37.35\00:20:42.45
Now, those gangs
were well organized.
00:20:42.48\00:20:45.37
There was a president, right,
00:20:45.40\00:20:46.82
there was a president,
right up man, right up man,
00:20:46.85\00:20:51.84
there was a
treasurer, council war,
00:20:51.87\00:20:55.69
and whenever there's a trouble
00:20:55.72\00:20:56.75
between the
gangs the council war
00:20:56.78\00:20:58.25
with the president
would meet with the gang,
00:20:58.28\00:21:00.23
and then they would
go through the steps
00:21:00.26\00:21:02.07
in order to be
prepared for the gang.
00:21:02.10\00:21:04.23
And when they discussed
where the rumble would be,
00:21:04.26\00:21:06.82
where the fight
would take place,
00:21:06.85\00:21:08.22
whether they would
be armed or unarmed,
00:21:08.25\00:21:10.13
whether it be just fists
or rocks or baseball bats,
00:21:10.16\00:21:14.93
drilled, filled with
lead called Billy clubs,
00:21:14.96\00:21:17.84
whatever that's the way it was.
00:21:17.87\00:21:19.97
And the president and
the council war would go
00:21:20.00\00:21:22.86
and they would tell the
time, I can't describe a rumble,
00:21:22.89\00:21:25.87
I mean they last
about 10 minutes.
00:21:25.90\00:21:29.66
And you see boys
laying all over the gutter.
00:21:29.69\00:21:31.95
I can't explain what
it's like when a young boy
00:21:31.98\00:21:33.78
has switchblade shoved
in his gut and ripped up
00:21:33.81\00:21:37.19
and he's lying
stomach hanging out
00:21:37.22\00:21:40.28
and he's crying for his
mother. I can't describe that.
00:21:40.31\00:21:43.53
I don't know
what to say about it,
00:21:43.56\00:21:45.16
I don't know what
its like when you fight,
00:21:45.19\00:21:46.97
you're fighting
for your life and you,
00:21:47.00\00:21:48.70
you usually have a
buddy, he is behind you
00:21:48.73\00:21:50.76
with the ash
barrel cover over his arm
00:21:50.79\00:21:53.36
and you have it over
yours protecting yourself,
00:21:53.39\00:21:56.16
and when he goes down,
00:21:56.19\00:21:57.97
you feel the knife
switchblade stick in your back.
00:21:58.00\00:22:00.69
To see young boys,
their heads split open
00:22:00.72\00:22:04.37
from Billy beaten
them and I had no,
00:22:04.40\00:22:07.71
I had no feelings, I'd beat up
00:22:07.74\00:22:09.59
and run them down a
brick wall on the face
00:22:09.62\00:22:11.43
and throw them in the
gutter and not feel anything.
00:22:11.46\00:22:17.65
Poverty is the
worst kind of violence.
00:22:17.68\00:22:21.73
So there I was going
from problem to problem.
00:22:21.76\00:22:27.29
I went to school,
00:22:27.32\00:22:29.33
they pushed me
through every grade,
00:22:29.36\00:22:30.68
I couldn't read,
00:22:30.71\00:22:32.15
I could-- I
would functionally read
00:22:32.18\00:22:33.21
but I couldn't read anything
00:22:33.24\00:22:34.30
but comic books when
I was in high school.
00:22:34.33\00:22:38.68
And here's the
heartbreak of America,
00:22:38.71\00:22:40.26
I remember one time,
00:22:40.29\00:22:42.72
my mother had to
go into the schools,
00:22:42.75\00:22:44.30
in fact, she spent
more time in high school
00:22:44.33\00:22:46.48
for she is than I did.
00:22:46.51\00:22:50.72
I had my own truant officer,
00:22:50.75\00:22:53.51
they ain't call them
truant officers here?
00:22:53.54\00:22:55.39
There supposed to be in school,
00:22:55.42\00:22:56.45
they have an officer that
goes chasing around for you
00:22:56.48\00:22:58.34
and yeah, anyway,
my momma was there
00:22:58.37\00:23:01.02
and the principal
said to my mother,
00:23:01.05\00:23:03.04
I will never forget it.
00:23:03.07\00:23:04.19
He said Mrs.
Halvorsen your boy's a bum,
00:23:04.22\00:23:07.19
he's no good, he'll
never amount to anything.
00:23:07.22\00:23:10.36
It's a terrible thing to
hear for a mother, isn't it?
00:23:10.39\00:23:13.32
And on the way home
my mother started crying,
00:23:13.35\00:23:15.22
and she says
Ronny, I don't know,
00:23:15.25\00:23:16.49
my mother's trying to raise
six kids in the inner city,
00:23:16.52\00:23:19.31
you can't, don't wait
till you walk in their shoes.
00:23:19.34\00:23:24.41
Walk in their shoes.
00:23:24.44\00:23:26.82
Why don't they
drag themselves out?
00:23:26.85\00:23:28.47
How do you drag
yourself out of quicksand?
00:23:28.50\00:23:32.26
What do they know about it?
00:23:32.29\00:23:35.00
What do they know about it?
00:23:35.03\00:23:36.07
My momma said I don't
know what I can do, Ronny.
00:23:36.10\00:23:39.38
I don't know what
I could do for you.
00:23:39.41\00:23:40.52
If I had only known
then, I would have said,
00:23:40.55\00:23:41.67
mom, you can't help
me, only Jesus can help me.
00:23:41.70\00:23:43.95
But I didn't know that,
00:23:43.98\00:23:46.38
the only time I used the name
of Jesus is in a curse word.
00:23:46.41\00:23:49.91
I was preaching
at the Spanish church
00:23:49.94\00:23:51.20
the other day, and I said
00:23:51.23\00:23:52.27
I don't know any Spanish,
00:23:52.30\00:23:53.34
the only words I know in Spanish
00:23:53.37\00:23:54.68
I can't say in church.
00:23:54.71\00:23:56.46
I went to a high school called
00:24:02.79\00:24:04.19
William E. Grady
vocational high school.
00:24:04.22\00:24:06.51
They wrote a book
called the Blackboard Jungle
00:24:06.54\00:24:08.14
from the juvenile
crime in that school,
00:24:08.17\00:24:09.66
it was all-boys school.
00:24:09.69\00:24:11.65
It was a preparation
school for reform school.
00:24:11.68\00:24:14.43
Describe what it
was like in that school,
00:24:14.46\00:24:16.05
let me tell you.
00:24:16.08\00:24:18.15
We want a minute more for lunch
00:24:18.18\00:24:19.49
and the whole guys
would get up and walk out
00:24:19.52\00:24:21.46
and surround the
building stamping their feet.
00:24:21.49\00:24:23.59
We want a minute
more for lunch and--
00:24:23.62\00:24:26.21
held the teacher
out the fifth floor
00:24:26.24\00:24:28.76
out the window,
and said no homework.
00:24:28.79\00:24:33.15
We had no homework, that night,
00:24:33.18\00:24:34.63
that week, that
month, that year.
00:24:34.66\00:24:39.13
I want to tell you
how dumb those kids were.
00:24:39.16\00:24:43.36
You supposed to say, how dumb?
00:24:43.39\00:24:44.84
I don't know this
group. Are you real?
00:24:44.87\00:24:46.76
Do you live in a
world or what're you doing?
00:24:46.79\00:24:48.19
You must be in another realm.
00:24:48.22\00:24:49.45
But anyway,
00:24:49.48\00:24:53.94
can I tell you how
dumb were those kids?
00:24:53.97\00:24:56.10
Yes.
00:24:56.13\00:24:57.39
Okay, thank you, I will go on.
00:24:57.42\00:25:00.01
I'm mean, they were so dumb--
00:25:00.04\00:25:02.02
we had a lot of
Puerto Ricans in our school,
00:25:02.05\00:25:03.77
so they would give
out a Spanish test.
00:25:03.80\00:25:06.21
So they gave us all a
Spanish test by mistake,
00:25:06.24\00:25:09.81
and we took it.
00:25:09.84\00:25:14.07
And, you know how it is,
my friend looks at me strange,
00:25:14.10\00:25:17.55
he is looking at
this, turning it upside down
00:25:17.58\00:25:20.15
and trying to figure this
out and so you know what you do,
00:25:20.18\00:25:23.99
I said, it was multiple-choice.
00:25:24.02\00:25:28.13
One first
question, what is that?
00:25:28.16\00:25:31.62
C.
00:25:31.65\00:25:35.82
Went through the whole test.
00:25:35.85\00:25:37.72
Teacher collects the
test he looks and says
00:25:37.75\00:25:40.11
oh know I gave you the
wrong test, it's Spanish.
00:25:40.14\00:25:43.34
We all failed English that
year but we passed Spanish.
00:25:43.37\00:25:50.75
Now then, you
talk about a school,
00:25:50.78\00:25:53.72
you go up the down staircase
00:25:53.75\00:25:55.29
and find a boy lying on this
stairwell stomach's slit open
00:25:55.32\00:25:59.21
and they robbed him
for his cookie money.
00:25:59.24\00:26:03.03
You talk about drugs,
nothing pretty about it.
00:26:03.06\00:26:06.28
By the way don't
let them tell you that.
00:26:06.31\00:26:09.12
I know, down the street.
00:26:09.15\00:26:11.59
They used to
shoot up on the roof,
00:26:11.62\00:26:14.64
heroin was the drug then,
00:26:14.67\00:26:16.28
and they'd shoot up on the roof,
00:26:16.31\00:26:17.98
and once in a
while kid would overdose
00:26:18.01\00:26:20.28
and they'd rob him of his stuff
00:26:20.31\00:26:22.49
and then they'd
throw his body of the roof,
00:26:22.52\00:26:24.24
that's William E.
Grady Vocational High School,
00:26:24.27\00:26:26.55
Brooklyn, New
York, I was going there.
00:26:26.58\00:26:30.49
And I was getting into trouble
00:26:30.52\00:26:31.64
with the gangs one
night in the gang rumble,
00:26:31.67\00:26:34.22
was fighting in a gang,
fighting someone from Red,
00:26:34.25\00:26:36.90
a gang from Red Hook
00:26:36.93\00:26:38.84
and there was a
blast of a sort of shotgun,
00:26:38.87\00:26:41.70
and my friend
Johnny, 16 years old
00:26:41.73\00:26:43.97
had his head
blown off his shoulders,
00:26:44.00\00:26:45.36
he died in a pool of blood.
00:26:45.39\00:26:48.89
That was my world.
00:26:48.92\00:26:50.76
There's only
three ways you get out.
00:26:50.79\00:26:54.89
You fight your way out,
00:26:54.92\00:26:57.63
they carry you
out, or by some miracle,
00:26:57.66\00:27:02.79
the miracle of God, you walkout.
00:27:02.82\00:27:06.54
My neighborhood,
00:27:06.57\00:27:07.63
that's my world,
that was my world.
00:27:07.66\00:27:09.53
Talk about God, didn't
want to hear about God.
00:27:09.56\00:27:12.40
My mother sent
me to Sunday school,
00:27:12.43\00:27:14.02
didn't want to hear about God.
00:27:14.05\00:27:16.06
My parents never
went, they went one day,
00:27:16.09\00:27:17.84
you know, Easter
Sunday or whatever,
00:27:17.87\00:27:21.42
but I had a wonderful
mother and a wonderful father.
00:27:21.45\00:27:25.08
My father was a
hard working man.
00:27:25.11\00:27:27.07
He was an alcoholic
until God saved him,
00:27:27.10\00:27:29.23
but listen to me,
00:27:29.26\00:27:30.99
it was a tough world
to try to raise kids.
00:27:31.02\00:27:34.11
And boys especially, come on.
00:27:34.14\00:27:36.36
We're into everything.
00:27:36.39\00:27:38.42
You can't leave your car in my--
00:27:38.45\00:27:40.24
I mean, you can't--
don't turn your back.
00:27:40.27\00:27:44.39
I'd go to this ball
park and my brother say,
00:27:44.42\00:27:47.45
hey, you don't have
glove, I said, yeah I have one.
00:27:47.48\00:27:50.48
And I have a glove
before you know it,
00:27:50.51\00:27:53.09
and I always
carried a black marking pen,
00:27:53.12\00:27:55.68
always put my name
on it quick, Halvorsen.
00:27:55.71\00:27:58.92
Isn't that my glove?
00:27:58.95\00:28:00.01
I said, no that's
my glove, Halvorsen,
00:28:00.04\00:28:01.75
what're you talking about.
00:28:01.78\00:28:02.88
Baseball bats you know
00:28:02.91\00:28:04.00
and we're
ripping everybody often
00:28:04.03\00:28:06.26
and but I can't
describe the fear you have.
00:28:06.29\00:28:11.04
Every time the police
car comes you, you fear,
00:28:11.07\00:28:13.25
every time--
00:28:13.28\00:28:15.81
I mean you ducked down
alleyways, close as I can,
00:28:15.84\00:28:19.63
they were bring
me to an alleyway
00:28:19.66\00:28:21.10
with a switch
blade ready to kill me,
00:28:21.13\00:28:22.92
and a cop car came, lucky,
00:28:22.95\00:28:24.51
I never was so happy to
see the cops in my life.
00:28:24.54\00:28:28.53
It was my world.
00:28:28.56\00:28:30.53
No matter how
tough you think you are,
00:28:30.56\00:28:32.09
you're afraid, you live in fear
00:28:32.12\00:28:34.83
and that was my life.
00:28:34.86\00:28:36.58
Living in the violent world,
living in a violent world,
00:28:36.61\00:28:39.05
ripping people
off, stealing cars,
00:28:39.08\00:28:40.93
made my first zip gun,
Robert and I made a zip gun,
00:28:40.96\00:28:43.85
we were 14 years old,
00:28:43.88\00:28:45.46
couldn't shoot far, very far,
00:28:45.49\00:28:46.78
but you hit someone on
third block down the road.
00:28:46.81\00:28:51.29
That was
switchblade in my pocket,
00:28:51.32\00:28:53.09
hate in my heart, I hated,
00:28:53.12\00:28:55.97
I hated you
because of your color,
00:28:56.00\00:28:57.21
I hated you
because of your culture,
00:28:57.24\00:28:58.63
I hated you
because-- I hated you
00:28:58.66\00:29:00.15
because you were
rich and I was poor.
00:29:00.18\00:29:01.62
I hated you, hate
just festered in my mind.
00:29:01.65\00:29:06.72
Jesus is the only
answer to this problem,
00:29:06.75\00:29:08.99
don't you see that.
00:29:09.02\00:29:10.15
Now I love
everybody, I love everybody.
00:29:10.18\00:29:15.61
But God began to
work in my neighborhood,
00:29:15.64\00:29:17.61
right in the
middle of the ghetto,
00:29:17.64\00:29:18.78
right in the
middle of this pollution.
00:29:18.81\00:29:20.61
God began to work in the heart
00:29:20.64\00:29:22.18
of a young
teenager 14 year old boy
00:29:22.21\00:29:25.91
and this boy was converted.
00:29:25.94\00:29:28.55
His grandmother
shared faith with him,
00:29:28.58\00:29:30.20
he was converted.
00:29:30.23\00:29:31.33
And everywhere he
went he carried a Bible
00:29:31.36\00:29:33.45
and he was always
trying to share his faith.
00:29:33.48\00:29:35.37
Hey listen to
me, share your faith,
00:29:35.40\00:29:38.01
what're you afraid of?
00:29:38.04\00:29:40.94
He's sharing his faith.
00:29:40.97\00:29:42.00
He wanted me to
go to Bible study.
00:29:42.03\00:29:43.13
Bible study?
00:29:43.16\00:29:44.27
I don't even
believe in the Bible.
00:29:44.30\00:29:46.02
And then, you know, I'm
a friend he wants me to go
00:29:46.05\00:29:49.33
and so finally he got me
to a Bible study one night,
00:29:49.36\00:29:52.16
it was on the second
coming of Jesus, I remember.
00:29:52.19\00:29:54.51
And I walked out of that study
00:29:54.54\00:29:56.46
and he said, what do you think?
00:29:56.49\00:29:57.56
I don't believe in that stuff.
00:29:57.59\00:29:59.50
You see, the carnal
mind is enmity against God,
00:29:59.53\00:30:01.55
it's not subject
to the Word of God
00:30:01.58\00:30:03.46
neither indeed can be.
00:30:03.49\00:30:05.05
If you hate God's law,
00:30:05.08\00:30:06.40
it's because you
have the carnal mind.
00:30:06.43\00:30:08.20
If you have a spiritual
mind, you gonna love His law.
00:30:08.23\00:30:10.33
I couldn't understand
this and so I went my way,
00:30:10.36\00:30:13.67
there at William E
Grady Vocational High School.
00:30:13.70\00:30:16.34
But Jim would try
to share his faith
00:30:16.37\00:30:18.76
and what we used to
call him, Isaiah the prophet.
00:30:18.79\00:30:22.67
Here comes,
Isaiah, make fun of him,
00:30:22.70\00:30:27.35
but he was faithful to God.
00:30:27.38\00:30:29.82
He's wanted so
much for his friend
00:30:29.85\00:30:31.39
of this faith to find God.
00:30:31.42\00:30:33.20
And he'd share his faith
00:30:33.23\00:30:34.51
and, one day I was playing hooky
00:30:34.54\00:30:37.25
from William E Grady
Vocational High School,
00:30:37.28\00:30:40.06
and I was on my way.
00:30:40.09\00:30:41.52
I started for school, but
I got as far as the front,
00:30:41.55\00:30:43.73
I turned around, I
was walking and Jimmy,
00:30:43.76\00:30:47.75
I was thinking
about Jimmy and about God.
00:30:47.78\00:30:50.90
I said, I don't
know this guy is crazy,
00:30:50.93\00:30:53.54
and just then, I
saw a friend of mine
00:30:53.57\00:30:55.23
coming toward
school, his name was Richard.
00:30:55.26\00:30:58.52
And I said Richard,
what are you doing, man?
00:30:58.55\00:31:01.01
I said let's go play hooky.
00:31:01.04\00:31:02.35
He says, oh, no, I
got to go to school.
00:31:02.38\00:31:03.75
I just got out from
reform school, he said.
00:31:03.78\00:31:05.71
If I get in trouble now,
they're gonna put me away
00:31:05.74\00:31:07.83
until I'm 20
years old, 21 years old.
00:31:07.86\00:31:10.72
I said, come on.
00:31:10.75\00:31:11.81
He said, well, we go to play,
00:31:11.84\00:31:13.50
we go play dice
under the boardwalk
00:31:13.53\00:31:16.42
or we shoot pool or,
they know where we are.
00:31:16.45\00:31:18.93
I thought about Jimmy
00:31:18.96\00:31:20.48
because you see Jimmy had
gone out to a Christian school
00:31:20.51\00:31:23.39
out in Queens
00:31:23.42\00:31:25.16
and I said hey, man,
00:31:25.19\00:31:27.30
let's go out to Queens
to this Christian school,
00:31:27.33\00:31:30.21
who will look for you
and me in a Christian school?
00:31:30.24\00:31:32.65
Hey, man, that's even
logic for Richard, logic
00:31:32.68\00:31:36.60
and so we snuck
out on the train.
00:31:36.63\00:31:38.13
You know if you've
ever been in Brooklyn,
00:31:38.16\00:31:39.73
lower Brooklyn it
becomes an elevated train
00:31:39.76\00:31:42.56
and we used to climb up--
00:31:42.59\00:31:45.00
There was a roof that went
across up above the stairs,
00:31:45.03\00:31:47.41
we used to climb up there,
00:31:47.44\00:31:48.48
jump over the
third rail, or be fry,
00:31:48.51\00:31:50.19
run between
trains are as crushed
00:31:50.22\00:31:51.87
and got on there
say, 15 cents in that day.
00:31:51.90\00:31:55.50
Got out to this
school, Christian school,
00:31:55.53\00:31:57.25
and there I was
black leather jackets,
00:31:57.28\00:31:58.63
skull, blood
dripping over the skull
00:31:58.66\00:32:00.89
because, see every
gang had its fluids colors.
00:32:00.92\00:32:04.92
And I walk in there I
was, you know looking cool,
00:32:04.95\00:32:07.32
you think the fun was cool?
00:32:07.35\00:32:08.78
Nah, I was cool.
00:32:08.81\00:32:12.87
And my friend Richard
just out of reform school
00:32:12.90\00:32:14.94
and we get to the
school and I walk into school
00:32:14.97\00:32:19.14
and, a woman teacher came in
00:32:19.17\00:32:22.02
and there I was
standing looking cool.
00:32:22.05\00:32:24.96
She said, can I help you?
00:32:24.99\00:32:27.76
And I said, yeah,
ma'am, we know the difference,
00:32:27.79\00:32:30.06
but you know that's cool.
00:32:30.09\00:32:31.83
I said, yeah, ma'am,
we're looking for Jim Landus,
00:32:31.86\00:32:33.82
does he go to school here?
00:32:33.85\00:32:35.86
And she said he's up in chapel.
00:32:35.89\00:32:38.48
I've never been in a
chapel all my life I said.
00:32:38.51\00:32:40.68
Well, she said would you
like to go up the chapel?
00:32:40.71\00:32:42.81
I said yeah, I would,
because I don't want to go out
00:32:42.84\00:32:44.83
there the cops everywhere I
mean I'm safe in this school,
00:32:44.86\00:32:47.38
up the stairs
00:32:47.41\00:32:49.12
and I put my
hand on the doorknob
00:32:49.15\00:32:50.60
and I remember,
I'll never forget it.
00:32:50.63\00:32:53.12
She says, oh by the
way, it's week of prayer.
00:32:53.15\00:32:57.19
I started to laugh I
said, a week of prayer,
00:32:57.22\00:32:59.69
I can't pray 10 seconds.
00:32:59.72\00:33:01.82
How do they pray
for a whole week?
00:33:01.85\00:33:07.53
Then I walked in that school.
00:33:07.56\00:33:09.99
Sat in the last row,
00:33:10.02\00:33:11.08
my friend just out of
reform school, Richard,
00:33:11.11\00:33:16.47
and we didn't listen
much to what was going on.
00:33:16.50\00:33:19.56
By the way kids, don't
you slide around in your seat
00:33:19.59\00:33:21.88
when I'm preaching to you.
00:33:21.91\00:33:23.50
I'll send the
Holy Spirit after you.
00:33:23.53\00:33:25.10
Amen.
00:33:25.13\00:33:26.63
See, I thought I was cool,
00:33:26.66\00:33:28.11
I could-- I didn't need that,
00:33:28.14\00:33:29.55
I was cool man, I wasn't cool,
00:33:29.58\00:33:31.86
I was bound for hell.
00:33:31.89\00:33:34.87
I was bound for hell.
00:33:34.90\00:33:37.42
Now, I know you like
pretty little sermons
00:33:37.45\00:33:39.01
with bubbling
brooks, pop psychology.
00:33:39.04\00:33:44.22
The Bible says, "All have sinned
00:33:44.25\00:33:45.37
and, come short
of the glory of God."
00:33:45.40\00:33:46.43
I was bound for hell.
00:33:46.46\00:33:48.86
Sat in that, the
preacher was up there,
00:33:48.89\00:33:50.38
preaching I
slid down in my seat,
00:33:50.41\00:33:51.71
looking around at the girls,
you know man, looking cool.
00:33:51.74\00:33:55.88
That afternoon,
listen, that afternoon,
00:33:55.91\00:33:59.38
we went out, my brother and I
00:33:59.41\00:34:00.91
we stole a boat
at Gravesend Bay.
00:34:00.94\00:34:04.07
I know it was
stolen, because we stole it,
00:34:04.10\00:34:05.60
but anyway we
were out their fishing.
00:34:05.63\00:34:07.96
I was fishing, I
still love to fish.
00:34:07.99\00:34:09.45
I'm a fisherman.
00:34:09.48\00:34:10.75
I won't brag about
it but I'm pretty good.
00:34:10.78\00:34:12.35
When I start my
boat in Crystal River
00:34:12.38\00:34:14.11
the fish trembled.
00:34:14.14\00:34:17.04
I mean, that's how good I am.
00:34:17.07\00:34:19.44
But, so we stole this boat
and we went out to go fishing
00:34:19.47\00:34:22.31
and storm came on
and wind started to blow
00:34:22.34\00:34:26.80
and the water was coming
over to the side of the boat
00:34:26.83\00:34:28.99
and a storm, and
the boat was filling up
00:34:29.02\00:34:32.55
and my brother
says, hey man, bail!
00:34:32.58\00:34:34.01
So I took of my motorcycle boot,
00:34:34.04\00:34:35.82
I'm trying to bail
this boat out and I can't,
00:34:35.85\00:34:39.29
and that water is coming
out faster than I can bail.
00:34:39.32\00:34:40.96
Listen, and then, just then,
he said well you row I'll bail.
00:34:40.99\00:34:44.54
So he's doing the
same to get the same place
00:34:44.57\00:34:46.53
and finally the tide changed
00:34:46.56\00:34:49.93
and we go one feet
forward and three feet back.
00:34:49.96\00:34:52.77
If you ever go over
the Verrazano Bridge
00:34:52.80\00:34:54.38
from Staten Island,
you look off to the right
00:34:54.41\00:34:55.96
that's Coney Island.
00:34:55.99\00:34:57.13
And that little bay there,
it's called Gravesend Bay,
00:34:57.16\00:34:59.54
called the Gravesend Bay
because so many ships sunk
00:34:59.57\00:35:01.58
there in the old days.
00:35:01.61\00:35:03.79
And so here I am
the boat's filling up
00:35:03.82\00:35:06.09
and I got bailing
and the boat's filling up
00:35:06.12\00:35:09.08
I prayed my first prayer
00:35:09.11\00:35:10.85
in a stolen
boat in Gravesend Bay
00:35:10.88\00:35:14.17
because there are no
atheists in sinking boats...
00:35:14.20\00:35:19.34
or crashing planes.
00:35:25.18\00:35:27.71
Listen to me, cool,
00:35:27.74\00:35:30.37
when the death angel
starts moving around your heart,
00:35:30.40\00:35:33.77
you're gonna wonder
00:35:33.80\00:35:34.88
where you gonna spend, eternity.
00:35:34.91\00:35:38.42
I get down on my, on my knees,
00:35:38.45\00:35:40.04
and kids don't you believe
those old folks that tell you,
00:35:40.07\00:35:42.99
God only hears the
prayers of good kids,
00:35:43.02\00:35:44.87
He doesn't, He hears
the prayers of bad kids
00:35:44.90\00:35:47.21
that's what makes him God
00:35:47.24\00:35:49.66
and, that's what
makes them your parents.
00:35:49.69\00:35:53.87
I get down on a
boat there I was praying.
00:35:53.90\00:35:56.96
God, get me in and I'll be good.
00:35:56.99\00:36:04.17
First of all, God knew better
00:36:04.20\00:36:08.37
but God heard the prayer,
00:36:08.40\00:36:11.26
be good Halvorsen, be
good, but God heard the prayer.
00:36:11.29\00:36:15.96
Have you ever been in a
storm and the wind comes
00:36:15.99\00:36:18.42
and rips away the
clouds for a minute
00:36:18.45\00:36:19.93
and the sun, sun comes down?
00:36:19.96\00:36:21.88
Have you ever seen the
sun rays come down in a storm?
00:36:21.91\00:36:25.13
Well, it came down
right on that boat.
00:36:25.16\00:36:28.20
And it was a speed boat going by
00:36:28.23\00:36:30.72
and its source and the
fog, and the wind, and the rain
00:36:30.75\00:36:33.73
and it came
over and hooked us up
00:36:33.76\00:36:35.64
and pulled us in,
and I get on shore.
00:36:35.67\00:36:38.90
I forgot that
prayer, I forgot that prayer.
00:36:38.93\00:36:43.37
How many times have
you done the same thing?
00:36:43.40\00:36:45.75
Come on now, doctor says up
00:36:45.78\00:36:47.91
we're looking at
this little X-ray
00:36:47.94\00:36:49.44
and looks bad
and then you find out
00:36:49.47\00:36:52.38
it was just
someone's fingerprint
00:36:52.41\00:36:53.93
and you go right
back to your old way.
00:36:53.96\00:36:56.52
Well, God restores you to life
00:36:56.55\00:36:57.85
and you go back to your old way.
00:36:57.88\00:36:59.71
I mean, so I got
my feet on the ground,
00:36:59.74\00:37:01.44
I forgot the prayer,
went out to the next day,
00:37:01.47\00:37:03.61
went out with my
friend, Richard Kelly,
00:37:03.64\00:37:04.97
went out to that school,
that school there in Queens,
00:37:05.00\00:37:10.03
Greater New York Academy.
00:37:10.06\00:37:13.18
I walked in, sat in the
last row with my friend.
00:37:13.21\00:37:16.41
Here I am the night before--
00:37:16.44\00:37:18.15
afternoon before I stole a boat,
00:37:18.18\00:37:22.64
prayed my first prayer
00:37:22.67\00:37:25.05
and now I'm in
religious service in the chapel,
00:37:25.08\00:37:27.61
and I didn't even
know what a chapel was.
00:37:27.64\00:37:30.38
The preacher was talking
00:37:30.41\00:37:31.44
and I don't want
to listen to him,
00:37:31.47\00:37:33.79
I wouldn't listen to him.
00:37:33.82\00:37:35.34
Looked around, didn't need God
00:37:35.37\00:37:40.91
but that prayer kept
haunting me, get me in
00:37:40.94\00:37:47.23
and I'll be good
and I'll be good.
00:37:47.26\00:37:51.73
That afternoon
we were gonna have
00:37:51.76\00:37:53.65
a block party that
night in our neighborhood.
00:37:53.68\00:37:55.61
Whenever you have block
party in the neighborhood,
00:37:55.64\00:37:57.43
you put the ash barrel
cans across the corner,
00:37:57.46\00:38:01.17
across the street,
00:38:01.20\00:38:02.27
so no cars come
driving through, you know,
00:38:02.30\00:38:04.44
and you open the windows
00:38:04.47\00:38:05.50
get the ghetto
blaster going away you know
00:38:05.53\00:38:07.65
and man, cool I have
steps if I showed you now.
00:38:07.68\00:38:11.42
I mean...
00:38:11.45\00:38:16.60
I can't wait to
get it, get to heaven
00:38:16.63\00:38:18.30
I'm gonna show
you my heavenly moves,
00:38:18.33\00:38:23.05
but we gonna have this party
and the president of the gang,
00:38:23.08\00:38:26.96
he always gave you the,
what you to bring the parties,
00:38:26.99\00:38:29.09
if you have no more money
00:38:29.12\00:38:30.23
you have to take
it, you have to get it.
00:38:30.26\00:38:31.37
So I had those things
that are not good for you
00:38:31.40\00:38:34.84
but when you get to
heaven they'll be good for you.
00:38:34.87\00:38:36.74
Creampuffs, eclairs,
00:38:36.77\00:38:39.40
I mean, pies, cakes,
00:38:39.43\00:38:45.07
you can have a pear tree,
00:38:45.10\00:38:46.99
I'm gonna snicker
bar tree, believe me,
00:38:47.02\00:38:48.64
but anyway for you poor
people that don't like that,
00:38:48.67\00:38:52.06
that's all right when you
get to heaven, you like it.
00:38:52.09\00:38:53.82
But anyway, so I had
to break in the bakery.
00:38:53.85\00:38:58.00
The bakery was on
Brighton Beach second,
00:38:58.03\00:39:01.86
broke in the back
window got in there
00:39:01.89\00:39:03.48
and, you know,
those nice white boxes
00:39:03.51\00:39:05.80
you put the
creampuffs, you know,
00:39:05.83\00:39:07.61
if you haven't been
in a Brooklyn bakery,
00:39:07.64\00:39:09.24
you haven't been in a bakery,
00:39:09.27\00:39:10.49
you haven't been
in a Brooklyn bakery.
00:39:10.52\00:39:12.31
You haven't eaten pizza
00:39:12.34\00:39:14.48
until you've
eaten New York pizza.
00:39:14.51\00:39:18.51
Hey, we are New Yorkers here.
00:39:18.54\00:39:21.72
Yeah, I went to a
place here in Charlotte,
00:39:21.75\00:39:25.07
man said you all want a pizza?
00:39:25.10\00:39:26.96
I knew right
away I was finished.
00:39:26.99\00:39:31.51
You all want a pizza?
00:39:31.54\00:39:33.62
That he brought it out
look like a flying saucer
00:39:33.65\00:39:35.79
with spaghetti sauce on.
00:39:35.82\00:39:39.14
Had to throw it out
and they had to be bad
00:39:39.17\00:39:42.57
for me to throw
out a piece of pizza.
00:39:42.60\00:39:45.95
Well, anyway I
broke in got the piled up
00:39:45.98\00:39:50.44
white boxes, creampuffs
00:39:50.47\00:39:52.41
and I thought man we're
gonna have some party tonight
00:39:52.44\00:39:54.32
when I get back there.
00:39:54.35\00:39:56.05
When I go out the back
window, I go out the front door
00:39:56.08\00:39:58.26
and so I got out the front
door and out onto the corner
00:39:58.29\00:40:03.59
there on Brighton second
00:40:03.62\00:40:06.57
and about six
blocks up a patrol car
00:40:06.60\00:40:08.68
came out on onto the avenue.
00:40:08.71\00:40:12.23
Now being a theologian,
00:40:12.26\00:40:15.10
I dropped what
I had in my hands.
00:40:15.13\00:40:18.27
You see you all know
what's right and wrong,
00:40:18.30\00:40:19.74
come on now.
00:40:19.77\00:40:20.83
Mama says, don't go
near the cookie jar,
00:40:20.86\00:40:23.34
you're eating
away, laughing away
00:40:23.37\00:40:25.26
and then you hear mama coming.
00:40:25.29\00:40:26.54
You'll rubbing
as you're running,
00:40:26.57\00:40:29.23
where are the crumbs, right.
00:40:29.26\00:40:30.37
So, I drop my
creampuffs and I started to run,
00:40:30.40\00:40:33.21
it's hard to get, get
traction in creampuffs.
00:40:33.24\00:40:38.20
And so, I started out
00:40:38.23\00:40:39.39
and ran I knew the neighborhood,
00:40:39.42\00:40:41.47
I figured out
ducked down in alleyway
00:40:41.50\00:40:43.49
jump over a fence
and man, I would be gone.
00:40:43.52\00:40:46.68
I won a 100 yard dash
00:40:46.71\00:40:48.04
two years in a
row for in Brooklyn,
00:40:48.07\00:40:49.53
all the boroughs of
Brooklyn and Manhattan.
00:40:49.56\00:40:51.69
And so I was fast,
00:40:51.72\00:40:53.56
I had to be to stay out of jail.
00:40:53.59\00:40:55.58
I had to be fast
and so I took off.
00:40:55.61\00:40:59.10
Now in my neighborhood
at the time, that was they,
00:40:59.13\00:41:02.18
they never walked in
twos in Coney Island,
00:41:02.21\00:41:03.91
they walk in
threes the policemen.
00:41:03.94\00:41:05.60
I don't know, if
you ever noticed that.
00:41:05.63\00:41:07.00
Next time you're
on Surf Avenue look,
00:41:07.03\00:41:09.97
the patrol car, you
see they would chase us
00:41:10.00\00:41:12.26
in the patrol car
00:41:12.29\00:41:13.63
and my friends would
get him the chase them
00:41:13.66\00:41:15.75
and then some of our gang
would jump into the patrol car
00:41:15.78\00:41:19.20
and they would drive in out
00:41:19.23\00:41:20.29
over the
bulkhead into the ocean.
00:41:20.32\00:41:23.15
So, they were told,
don't leave your patrol car
00:41:23.18\00:41:25.20
till you have a backup.
00:41:25.23\00:41:27.28
And then you go together
00:41:27.31\00:41:28.45
and sometimes they
would come up the stairs
00:41:28.48\00:41:30.76
we would throw ash barrels
off from the roof down on.
00:41:30.79\00:41:33.55
And so, I'm running,
00:41:33.58\00:41:37.13
I'm running down
this alleyway, man,
00:41:37.16\00:41:38.53
I'm putting distance you know,
00:41:38.56\00:41:39.93
and these guys
are getting cautious,
00:41:39.96\00:41:42.08
you know, they
ought to be cautious
00:41:42.11\00:41:43.29
and I'm running to a brick wall
00:41:43.32\00:41:46.46
nothing but a brick wall.
00:41:46.49\00:41:49.48
Man, I'm caught.
00:41:49.51\00:41:52.50
And so I start thinking,
00:41:52.53\00:41:53.57
what am I gonna
say, make up an excuse.
00:41:53.60\00:41:55.30
So, I start backing.
00:41:55.33\00:41:56.52
I'm thinking what I'm gonna say
00:41:56.55\00:41:57.66
and just then I
saw the fire escape.
00:41:57.69\00:41:59.18
You know, you ever
see those fire escape
00:41:59.21\00:42:00.89
and you run jump up
and pull the ladder down
00:42:00.92\00:42:02.82
and I'm running up, you can't
run up quietly up, fire escape.
00:42:02.85\00:42:06.21
And I'm waving at the people
00:42:06.24\00:42:07.34
in the
apartments as I'm going up
00:42:07.37\00:42:08.73
and finally get to the roof
00:42:08.76\00:42:10.38
and the policeman comes
in say stop or I will shoot.
00:42:10.41\00:42:12.57
I was moving so fast,
would outrun his bullet
00:42:12.60\00:42:14.43
but anyway down
across the building,
00:42:14.46\00:42:16.66
down across the roof over,
00:42:16.69\00:42:18.18
over-- jump to
the next building,
00:42:18.21\00:42:19.69
the next building and I'm gone.
00:42:19.72\00:42:21.99
Next day I'm out there
listening to the preacher.
00:42:22.02\00:42:24.89
Preacher is talking about God.
00:42:24.92\00:42:27.34
Talking about Christ,
and you talk about Christ
00:42:27.37\00:42:30.15
who touch lame
legs the man walked
00:42:30.18\00:42:31.72
and he talked about
Christ who touch blind eyes
00:42:31.75\00:42:34.22
and man saw, he talked about
00:42:34.25\00:42:36.24
a little baby with a dead heart,
00:42:36.27\00:42:37.47
and Jesus touched it, it
came back into life again.
00:42:37.50\00:42:39.76
And I thought, wow,
there is power in those hands.
00:42:39.79\00:42:42.97
First time I'm
thinking spiritual
00:42:43.00\00:42:46.22
this power, this
power in those hands,
00:42:46.25\00:42:51.58
in those hands, in those hands.
00:42:51.61\00:42:55.94
That night I needed some money
00:42:55.97\00:42:57.40
and best way to get money
then was snatch pocketbook.
00:42:57.43\00:43:01.96
You see between
Van Siclen Station
00:43:01.99\00:43:04.78
and the Brighton Beach Projects,
00:43:04.81\00:43:06.38
there were dark places
and I'd sit there and wait
00:43:06.41\00:43:09.33
and a little old lady comeback.
00:43:09.36\00:43:11.00
See that's what sin does to you.
00:43:11.03\00:43:13.99
They combine, you
run out, reach out,
00:43:14.02\00:43:15.56
grab the pocketbook run,
you know, if they did hold on,
00:43:15.59\00:43:19.25
you just kind of
hit him, knock him down,
00:43:19.28\00:43:20.90
that's what sin does.
00:43:20.93\00:43:23.20
My life-- I'm a loser man.
00:43:23.23\00:43:26.51
I mean that principle is right,
00:43:26.54\00:43:27.59
I was a bum, I
never amount to anything.
00:43:27.62\00:43:30.93
That's why I run out
and I grab the pocketbook
00:43:30.96\00:43:34.37
and I started to pull
in and she cried and yelled
00:43:34.40\00:43:38.00
and something came over me.
00:43:38.03\00:43:40.81
I didn't know what it
was something came over me
00:43:40.84\00:43:43.17
and for the first time
in my life I felt guilt.
00:43:43.20\00:43:45.63
First time in my life
I felt bad about this.
00:43:45.66\00:43:48.49
I mean, I started
to cry, I don't cry,
00:43:48.52\00:43:50.96
Halvorsen's don't cry.
00:43:50.99\00:43:52.31
I mean you beat me
with a baseball bat,
00:43:52.34\00:43:54.56
you never get me to cry
and here I am running down--
00:43:54.59\00:43:57.46
I let go and running down
00:43:57.49\00:43:58.87
the back alleyway
and up over fences
00:43:58.90\00:44:00.62
and running
towards the neighborhood
00:44:00.65\00:44:01.68
and I'm crying.
00:44:01.71\00:44:03.75
I didn't know what it was
then but I know what it is now,
00:44:03.78\00:44:05.84
it's called the Holy Spirit.
00:44:05.87\00:44:08.57
It's called the Holy Spirit.
00:44:08.60\00:44:12.59
And all that night I
laid between the ash barrels,
00:44:12.62\00:44:16.43
crying, praying, prayed.
00:44:16.46\00:44:18.89
You don't have to be
ever cool when you pray.
00:44:18.92\00:44:21.48
You don't have to be ever cool.
00:44:21.51\00:44:22.64
And by the way you
don't have to know a lot.
00:44:22.67\00:44:24.82
You people think a
person has to have a PhD
00:44:24.85\00:44:26.93
before they get saved.
00:44:26.96\00:44:28.45
You are so deluded.
00:44:28.48\00:44:31.28
You are living in a--
00:44:31.31\00:44:32.79
You are living in
a different world.
00:44:32.82\00:44:35.84
You throw yourself
on the mercy of God.
00:44:35.87\00:44:39.04
You don't make God
promises, He makes promises.
00:44:39.07\00:44:42.73
I will be with you always
Halvorsen, that's His promise.
00:44:42.76\00:44:48.15
That's His promise.
00:44:48.18\00:44:50.30
Next day played
hooky, Richard went out,
00:44:50.33\00:44:51.78
we went out to that school,
sat in the last row, last seat.
00:44:51.81\00:44:54.98
He sat there, Richard
just out of reform school
00:44:55.01\00:44:58.96
and here I am and
now I'm listening.
00:44:58.99\00:45:02.71
Listen to me kids,
00:45:02.74\00:45:04.70
the best thing
you can do is listen.
00:45:04.73\00:45:08.22
The best thing you can do.
00:45:08.25\00:45:13.15
Jesus, He talked about
how He had to go to His cross
00:45:13.18\00:45:15.71
and had to go--
He is talking about
00:45:15.74\00:45:18.02
the last days of
Jesus, and I though wow,
00:45:18.05\00:45:20.24
why did they do that to Him.
00:45:20.27\00:45:21.47
I can understand them
putting the thief on there,
00:45:21.50\00:45:23.39
I'm a thief, I
can understand that.
00:45:23.42\00:45:26.44
Why Him, He is innocent man?
00:45:26.47\00:45:29.38
I couldn't, I
couldn't understand it.
00:45:29.41\00:45:32.08
I couldn't
understand it. That night...
00:45:32.11\00:45:35.39
that night I was supposed
to go out and steal a car.
00:45:35.42\00:45:40.70
My friend, my brother,
00:45:40.73\00:45:44.22
and just then there
was a knock at the door.
00:45:44.25\00:45:47.92
I opened the door
and there was standing
00:45:47.95\00:45:49.35
a young boy 14
years old Jimmy Londis,
00:45:49.38\00:45:52.85
Bible in his hand,
a smile on his face.
00:45:52.88\00:45:56.71
No one smiles like him.
00:45:56.74\00:45:59.84
No one smiles like Jimmy.
00:45:59.87\00:46:02.19
He still
smiles, he captures you.
00:46:02.22\00:46:05.28
Jimmy Londis
from the inner city,
00:46:05.31\00:46:07.69
Jim, you talk about poverty.
00:46:07.72\00:46:09.24
Jimmy Londis,
became a doctor of theology
00:46:09.27\00:46:12.57
and teaches theology
00:46:12.60\00:46:14.37
and I mean smart loving God.
00:46:14.40\00:46:21.61
Everything I have,
I owe to Jimmy Londis,
00:46:21.64\00:46:23.63
a 14 year old kid
with a Bible in his hand.
00:46:23.66\00:46:28.84
You can clap.
00:46:28.87\00:46:32.67
Everything I have today,
listen the shoes on my feet,
00:46:32.70\00:46:36.49
the suit on my back,
I owed to Jesus Christ,
00:46:36.52\00:46:40.68
but I owed to Jimmy
Londis because he was the,
00:46:40.71\00:46:43.02
he was the one that
shared Jesus Christ with me.
00:46:43.05\00:46:46.30
He said, I come
to study the Bible.
00:46:46.33\00:46:47.74
So, I said I'm not going
out with you guys tonight.
00:46:47.77\00:46:50.80
That night they where caught,
00:46:50.83\00:46:53.60
just think if I've been caught.
00:46:53.63\00:46:56.67
Perhaps I never would
have heard the Bible study
00:46:56.70\00:47:00.06
and perhaps I
never would have found
00:47:00.09\00:47:01.56
what I found the peace, the joy,
00:47:01.59\00:47:06.54
the satisfaction
00:47:06.57\00:47:08.57
that only Jesus Christ can give.
00:47:08.60\00:47:11.05
And there I was, I
was there that night,
00:47:11.08\00:47:15.53
then I said that
I in my own heart,
00:47:15.56\00:47:17.51
I didn't say to anybody.
00:47:17.54\00:47:19.27
I said, I want to
know, I want what he has.
00:47:19.30\00:47:22.70
I mean I want
that smile on my face.
00:47:22.73\00:47:24.51
I want to-- hey that kid,
00:47:24.54\00:47:25.99
you don't know this
kid travel two hours
00:47:26.02\00:47:29.45
each way on the
subway to go to church
00:47:29.48\00:47:31.46
and you people
can't drive 10 minutes.
00:47:31.49\00:47:36.77
God sent him to me.
00:47:36.80\00:47:40.10
And so next day I played hooky
00:47:40.13\00:47:41.91
with Richard Kelly just out of--
00:47:41.94\00:47:45.31
just out of reform school,
00:47:45.34\00:47:48.45
back row and this preacher
00:47:48.48\00:47:51.06
said the Christ died
on the cross for sinners.
00:47:51.09\00:47:55.45
He hung between heaven and hell,
00:47:55.48\00:47:56.61
between life and death
and then He cries out Father,
00:47:56.64\00:48:00.10
forgive them for they
know not what they do.
00:48:00.13\00:48:01.98
Father, forgive that
rascal in Brooklyn that punk.
00:48:02.01\00:48:06.32
We thought he was
somebody when there's nobody.
00:48:06.35\00:48:09.81
Forgive that kid
that knocks him off
00:48:09.84\00:48:11.79
and hits them
down and steps on them
00:48:11.82\00:48:13.94
and hurts them
and steals from them
00:48:13.97\00:48:16.95
and forgive him.
00:48:16.98\00:48:19.49
And for the
first time in my life
00:48:19.52\00:48:20.76
I wanted forgiveness.
00:48:20.79\00:48:23.44
For the first time in my
life I wanted what this kid had.
00:48:23.47\00:48:27.29
I wanted that
salvation that this kid had.
00:48:27.32\00:48:32.01
And the preacher said
is anyone like to receive
00:48:32.04\00:48:33.84
Jesus into their life?
00:48:33.87\00:48:36.80
I wasn't like those academy kid,
00:48:36.83\00:48:38.10
I wasn't like those
so called Christian kids,
00:48:38.13\00:48:40.27
you know they've been
through many week of prayers.
00:48:40.30\00:48:42.85
They even know how to respond,
they have their legs curled up,
00:48:42.88\00:48:45.23
so they wouldn't respond
00:48:45.26\00:48:46.33
and you know they are
thinking about everything
00:48:46.36\00:48:48.08
and looking around
and you know trying
00:48:48.11\00:48:50.45
not to avoid-- avoid the spirit.
00:48:50.48\00:48:53.27
And I remember I stood
up black leather jacket,
00:48:53.30\00:48:57.35
skull blood
ripping killer Halvorsen.
00:48:57.38\00:49:02.69
And I turned to
my friend Richard,
00:49:02.72\00:49:03.79
I said Richard, I
said will you come?
00:49:03.82\00:49:10.40
He said this,
I'll never forget it,
00:49:10.43\00:49:11.78
listen to me, he said Ronny,
00:49:11.81\00:49:14.29
it cost too much
to be a Christian.
00:49:14.32\00:49:18.51
He later spent his
life in prison for murder.
00:49:18.54\00:49:22.65
Same boy had the
same opportunity.
00:49:22.68\00:49:25.88
The kid had the same choices.
00:49:25.91\00:49:29.23
And I go on to preach
the gospel of Jesus Christ,
00:49:29.26\00:49:31.46
that day I gave my life to God.
00:49:31.49\00:49:33.25
Amen.
00:49:33.28\00:49:34.56
That day I gave my life to God.
00:49:34.59\00:49:36.31
And you talk,
you talk about God,
00:49:39.94\00:49:43.84
what He does to the human life?
00:49:43.87\00:49:46.97
Talk about 10 day plans
and 50 throw away the alcohol
00:49:47.00\00:49:51.10
and the tobacco and you did it,
00:49:51.13\00:49:52.82
what is that throw
away my life physically,
00:49:52.85\00:49:56.75
the temple of the Holy Spirit
and God freed me instantly.
00:49:56.78\00:50:00.71
What are you talking about?
00:50:00.74\00:50:01.89
Oh, well, I got to get ready,
00:50:01.92\00:50:03.17
Brother Halvorsen
is gonna be baptized.
00:50:03.20\00:50:05.19
Get ready for what?
00:50:05.22\00:50:08.96
How can you clean a dirty pot?
00:50:08.99\00:50:11.58
You need the
cleansing blood of Jesus Christ,
00:50:11.61\00:50:13.87
you hear me here.
00:50:13.90\00:50:16.54
We're gonna have
another baptism tonight.
00:50:16.57\00:50:19.29
Some of you people should
be in a next one, believe me.
00:50:19.32\00:50:22.45
And by the way I prepared,
I went to little church up
00:50:22.48\00:50:26.40
there in Brooklyn, New York.
00:50:26.43\00:50:28.73
I started to study the
Bible and discovered the Sabbath
00:50:28.76\00:50:31.00
and went found
the Sabbath churches.
00:50:31.03\00:50:33.28
And I was alone, I was--
my family weren't into this.
00:50:33.31\00:50:36.53
I was alone
00:50:36.56\00:50:38.89
and what I said the other night,
00:50:38.92\00:50:40.59
better to walk alone
00:50:40.62\00:50:42.80
than walk with the
crowd in the wrong direction.
00:50:42.83\00:50:46.53
And I stood
there at that morning
00:50:46.56\00:50:48.47
alone except Jimmy,
00:50:48.50\00:50:50.61
he was sitting
down in the front row,
00:50:50.64\00:50:52.19
he is smiling, so
only Jimmy could smile
00:50:52.22\00:50:56.61
and I was
baptized some 57 years ago.
00:50:56.64\00:51:04.27
By the way I
didn't know much about it.
00:51:04.30\00:51:06.00
I hadn't had your
27 fundamental studies.
00:51:06.03\00:51:11.41
I had the Holy
Spirit in my heart.
00:51:11.44\00:51:14.34
Then you give me the
27 fundamental beliefs
00:51:14.37\00:51:16.89
and I will show
you how to keep them.
00:51:16.92\00:51:21.20
Then I give my life to Jesus
and I want to be a preacher,
00:51:21.23\00:51:23.72
I took a Bible I carry it.
00:51:23.75\00:51:24.92
I couldn't read.
00:51:24.95\00:51:28.21
So, I went to this
public high school,
00:51:28.24\00:51:30.29
I mean the public library
00:51:30.32\00:51:31.98
and I would get this
little books you know spot.
00:51:32.01\00:51:37.38
What it is spot?
00:51:37.41\00:51:39.91
Yeah, and I put it in
my black leather jacket,
00:51:39.94\00:51:42.78
I put it in here so
the kids won't see me
00:51:42.81\00:51:44.64
in the
neighborhood and I come home
00:51:44.67\00:51:45.91
and I was trying to
learn to read by myself
00:51:45.94\00:51:48.59
because I wanted
to read the Bible.
00:51:48.62\00:51:52.46
And my mother one day caught me,
00:51:52.49\00:51:53.61
she says son can't you read?
00:51:53.64\00:51:55.85
I said, mama, I
can read comic books.
00:51:55.88\00:51:59.78
So, she helped me, I
owe a lot to my mother,
00:51:59.81\00:52:04.54
I love my mother
deeply and dearly.
00:52:04.57\00:52:06.19
I look forward to be
with her in resurrection.
00:52:06.22\00:52:08.69
I do look forward and my father.
00:52:08.72\00:52:11.92
But she taught
me, and I went off,
00:52:11.95\00:52:17.96
I started preaching on
street corners in Manhattan.
00:52:17.99\00:52:21.43
I started it in parks.
00:52:21.46\00:52:22.82
Jimmy and I would preach it
00:52:22.85\00:52:24.68
and we held our
first evangelistic meeting
00:52:24.71\00:52:27.02
in a bookie joint
in Brooklyn, New York.
00:52:27.05\00:52:30.85
Seventeen years old, 15 kid,
00:52:30.88\00:52:35.98
and started serving God,
00:52:36.01\00:52:40.20
in that bookie joint in Brooklyn
00:52:40.23\00:52:41.63
was the guess most successful
meeting I ever had in my life
00:52:41.66\00:52:44.69
because my mother found Jesus
00:52:44.72\00:52:47.02
and she was baptized
in the kingdom of God.
00:52:47.05\00:52:52.95
It's a long way
from "Gangs to God."
00:52:52.98\00:52:55.81
And then I had the privilege
of leading my brothers,
00:52:55.84\00:52:58.17
I have wonderful
brothers, I love my brothers.
00:52:58.20\00:53:01.25
You don't--
00:53:01.28\00:53:02.50
hey, we used to
fight like cats and dogs
00:53:02.53\00:53:04.76
when we were young,
but we love each other.
00:53:04.79\00:53:07.13
I have a brother,
Warren, an athlete,
00:53:07.16\00:53:09.98
he played for the
Philadelphia Phillies.
00:53:10.01\00:53:11.89
I mean this kid, he was drafted
by the New York Knickerbockers
00:53:11.92\00:53:15.05
and the Philadelphia
Phillies went in a baseball.
00:53:15.08\00:53:17.93
He became a dean in
one of our colleges,
00:53:17.96\00:53:19.53
he was baptized in
the kingdom of God.
00:53:19.56\00:53:21.59
He served God in the
colleges, Southern College
00:53:21.62\00:53:23.92
and out there at La
Sierra and out of Walla Walla.
00:53:23.95\00:53:27.52
Listen he found Jesus-- I
have a brother an evangelist,
00:53:27.55\00:53:30.51
I mean a powerful evangelist.
00:53:30.54\00:53:32.86
I'm not worthy
to tie his shoelace
00:53:32.89\00:53:34.41
when it comes to evangelist,
00:53:34.44\00:53:35.67
he is an
evangelist, he loves evangelism.
00:53:35.70\00:53:37.91
He's retired just
now, just recently retired,
00:53:37.94\00:53:40.39
but he's still
holding five meetings a year.
00:53:40.42\00:53:42.34
My brother, he
became an evangelist.
00:53:42.37\00:53:44.62
I mean my brother Elliot,
he serves God in his church.
00:53:44.65\00:53:46.88
And my brother Billy,
00:53:46.91\00:53:48.58
you would have
never met a kinder
00:53:48.61\00:53:51.99
and yet he is still rouged,
rough you know, we used to,
00:53:52.02\00:53:55.87
hey, we all who we are.
00:53:55.90\00:53:59.44
I'm transparent to you people.
00:53:59.47\00:54:02.06
Hey, I am who I am but I become
00:54:02.09\00:54:06.07
what God wants me to become.
00:54:06.10\00:54:08.71
And my brother Billy,
00:54:08.74\00:54:11.04
and what a
beautiful family I have.
00:54:11.07\00:54:13.78
I have two kids. Why?
00:54:13.81\00:54:16.11
Because of Jesus Christ.
00:54:16.14\00:54:17.69
You want to know
what my life went from.
00:54:17.72\00:54:19.69
It went from the gutter.
00:54:19.72\00:54:21.89
I was in the gutter
00:54:21.92\00:54:23.81
and now I have two
beautiful children.
00:54:23.84\00:54:26.30
I mean my son is 6'7", 6' 8''.
00:54:26.33\00:54:29.79
He is a powerful preacher.
00:54:29.82\00:54:31.42
You hear
preaching, you hear my son,
00:54:31.45\00:54:33.32
you get on, you get
on the internet look for,
00:54:33.35\00:54:35.58
look for the his college church,
00:54:35.61\00:54:39.36
what is that called?
00:54:39.39\00:54:40.52
Union College and you
listen to my son preach.
00:54:40.55\00:54:43.91
He is a great preacher.
00:54:43.94\00:54:45.05
Then my
daughter, she can preach,
00:54:45.08\00:54:48.39
she is a great preacher
00:54:48.42\00:54:49.47
but men are
little jealous of that,
00:54:49.50\00:54:50.91
you know they don't
like great woman preachers
00:54:50.94\00:54:52.66
but she's a fine preacher.
00:54:52.69\00:54:54.43
Her first year she
led 80 people to Christ
00:54:54.46\00:54:56.50
into baptism in
the kingdom of God
00:54:56.53\00:54:58.55
but she is a chaplain
now in a nursing home,
00:54:58.58\00:55:01.48
my daughter.
00:55:01.51\00:55:04.20
I have two children. I
have four grandchildren.
00:55:04.23\00:55:07.87
You tell me God
isn't good? Amen.
00:55:07.90\00:55:10.72
I have four grandchildren
00:55:10.75\00:55:13.36
and every one of
them are serving God,
00:55:13.39\00:55:15.53
going to church,
living for Christ
00:55:15.56\00:55:18.06
and they are
faithful to Jesus Christ.
00:55:18.09\00:55:20.25
Everything I
have I owe to Jesus.
00:55:20.28\00:55:22.77
Amen.
00:55:22.80\00:55:24.97
I have two grand--
great grand babies.
00:55:25.00\00:55:30.92
Now they are little young yet
00:55:30.95\00:55:31.98
but they are off to
Sabbath school to church.
00:55:32.01\00:55:36.30
I saw a picture
of my little boy,
00:55:36.33\00:55:37.72
he's just starting to walk
00:55:37.75\00:55:39.11
and he is dressed
in his little suit
00:55:39.14\00:55:40.80
and he is walking beside
his daddy going to church.
00:55:40.83\00:55:44.91
All that I have, all
that's important to me
00:55:44.94\00:55:48.77
is a gift of God
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
00:55:48.80\00:55:52.44
It's a long way
from "Gangs to God."
00:55:52.47\00:55:55.07
Let me tell you that.
00:55:55.10\00:55:56.37
It's a long way
from "Gangs to God."
00:55:56.40\00:55:58.51
But God reached down,
00:55:58.54\00:56:00.13
He took a kid with harden heart
would beat you into the ground.
00:56:00.16\00:56:03.99
A kid with a harden
heart would steal anything
00:56:04.02\00:56:06.02
you didn't have attached to.
00:56:06.05\00:56:08.21
He took that kid
uneducated, stumbling bum,
00:56:08.24\00:56:13.98
and He gave me a life.
00:56:14.01\00:56:16.45
And I love this life,
00:56:16.48\00:56:18.97
I'm the happiest
man in all of Charlotte.
00:56:19.00\00:56:22.73
I come here every
night, I'm so happy,
00:56:22.76\00:56:24.87
I can hardly stand on the ground
00:56:24.90\00:56:28.51
and its all I
owe to Jesus Christ
00:56:28.54\00:56:33.24
and Jimmy Londis, a
boy who loved God so much,
00:56:33.27\00:56:40.14
he wanted to share
it with his friend.
00:56:40.17\00:56:44.95
And when I get to heaven
00:56:44.98\00:56:47.81
I'm gonna live in
the same neighborhood
00:56:47.84\00:56:50.65
with Jimmy Londis
00:56:50.68\00:56:53.01
and we're gonna
continue that friendship
00:56:53.04\00:56:55.84
which we've had
together for over 60 years.
00:56:55.87\00:57:00.50
Because of Jesus Christ
I stand before you tonight
00:57:00.53\00:57:04.73
and may God
bless you is my prayer
00:57:04.76\00:57:08.53
in the name of Jesus
our Lord, amen, and amen.
00:57:08.56\00:57:13.35
It Is Written is dedicated to
00:57:32.34\00:57:33.87
sharing the
gospel around the world.
00:57:33.90\00:57:36.08
To discover more
about It Is Written,
00:57:36.11\00:57:37.88
I invite you to visit
our website itiswritten.com,
00:57:37.91\00:57:41.38
and browse the dozens of pages
00:57:41.41\00:57:43.23
that describe what
we do and how we do it.
00:57:43.26\00:57:45.75
Let's get to know
each other better.
00:57:45.78\00:57:47.23
Visit our website
itiswritten.com, today.
00:57:47.26\00:57:50.99