Redemption from Drug Dealing to Spreading the Word!

 “THIS IS REDEMPTION!”

At 10 o’clock one morning on a dark and cloudy day in the north-west of England, Mick “a well-established underworld fixer” waited in his car, a stolen car, to clear a drug debt with another drug dealer. 

Mick had his gun in a plastic bag on the seat beside him, he was ready to use it if it became necessary.  Then he saw the man walk out of the building. Two little girls walked beside him. Mick got out of his car, holding the wrapped gun in his hand, and walked toward the man. He had business to do, there was no time for any nonsense.

Suddenly “a blinding light came from one of the children’s hands. It was white, brilliant white. For 15 seconds I could not see. It was like looking into the sun and I was paralyzed by it.”

He collapsed to the ground then struggled back to the car. “I felt sick I was shaking, sweating, my heart was beating fast I could hear my pulse as if it were in my head. I didn’t know what was happening to me.”

The story, written by Ed Thomas on the BBC website, tells in detail how a dangerous, violent, drug dealer was changed in a single moment and became a life saver. Mick got into his car unable to understand what was happening to him. He tried to kill himself with his gun. It did not go off. He wept bitterly as he saw his past life unfold before him - decades of pain.

The last time he had wept like that was when he was an eleven year old little boy. “It was like I was crying for him, that child, the boy I was, and the life I could have had.”

In two days at the beginning of February 1977 his life had changed dramatically. On his way to school he was raped by a strange man in a nearby park. Bewildered and traumatized he was about to tell his parents about what had happened when his beloved older sister died suddenly from a heart attack. His parents were devastated by her passing. 

Mick’s experience was pushed into the background and he never spoke of it to his parents.

His childhood had ended – much too soon and to deal with the pain he started using and dealing with drugs. “The next thirty years were hell. Pure hell. I would use any drug and always alcohol.”

Criminality became his world.

In 2009, however, when he had “the incident” outside the gym he was taken to a psychiatric unit at a nearby hospital. It was there that he met Pastor Tony. “Together they prayed and talked” and the coldness in Mick’s heart gradually melted. It gave way to the end of a troubled life and the beginning of a new one of hope.”

It was a long road, but Mick kept on trying. Eventually he gained a degree in theology and was ordained as a Pastor..

“I never drank or touched a drug again,” he said. “It wasn’t easy it was horrendous. But it was my path to God - and all the way to 2020 and the pandemic I had no idea of how much I would be needed and how once again I would be overwhelmed by suffering and pain. 

Yes! Coping with the pandemic has been and continues to be extremely difficult. But ten years ago, after becoming Pastor Mick,  he had an experience that overshadows most of the things that he has gone through in his life.

He befriended a homeless alcoholic who was begging outside a takeaway. Mike listened to his story, cared for him, helped him to get sober and reunite with his family. Two years later, the article said, the man died. His family was so thankful that they had reunited before he passed on.

Pastor Mick was also grateful that he could help the man before he died. 

What Pastor Mick did not tell the homeless man or the police was that the homeless man was the same person who had raped him as a child.

Really? Why did he act in that way? What was the reason?

“I knew that I had been forgiven for my past,” he said. “I did not do what he had done but I felt forgiven and did not want to live in his sin. 

Therefore, I am free. I am not spending my life in torment. It is redemption.”

This story raises many similarities to the story of Saul. As he neared Damascus on his journey suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?” So, they lead him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, he did not eat or drink anything.

That was Saul’s experience on the Damascus road. He met Jesus in a bright light. It was the reason why Saul the persecutor became Paul the apostle.

#Burnley #Pastor Mick #Redemption #England #Foregiveness #Miracles 

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