Hip-hop thrusday; testimonies

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Names in this testimony have been changed to keep them and myself from gang backlash, as I’m not popular in their neighborhoods. People getting saved means less people buying drugs.  

4 years ago, I met a man pan-handling in front of the Barnes and Noble down at the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City. He was a black man in his late 40’s early 50’s named Jimmy. He wore a greasy hat on his head, covering is surprisingly well kept “corn rows”. His smile was so big, it easily flaunted his lack of usable teeth. When he stood up to walk he carried a great limp as he had been shot twice in the same leg on seperate occasions. I sat on the curb and talked with him once a week. I’d bring him coffee when it was cold, groceries for his family, and if I had it, a little extra cash. I was trying to teach him how to read so he could get a decent job and leave the begging profession behind. He tried but was to ashamed to learn for a younger man such as my self.

Years went by and our relationship grew, I would give him rides home from the plaza and hang out with his family at his house.  Their house was horribly worn down, mildew and musty cigarette smoke filled the air inside. Empty liquor bottles littered the floor, as full liquor bottles inhabited the folds of the couch. A discovery I made when I unfortunately sat on one. I looked at Jimmy and said, “Are you kidding me? You say you want help yet you live like this? You need money, and your spending the little you have on this?” He conceded that he had been and was an alcoholic. 25 years of addiction had lead to the life he now found himself in. He got on his knees in front of me and begged me to show him what he needed to do to change. Getting on my knees with him, as I’m no one to be knelt in front of, I prayed with him. I told him the only way to change was to daily ask the Lord for help. I explained that the grace of Christ that sets us free from sin and death, is also the sustaining power that helps keep us their. That God has the ability to keep us from falling away when we ourselves do not.

After that, he started coming to church with Carrie and I every Sunday. During worship he sat there with tears on his face as I prayed with him to be free from alcoholism. That night was his first day of 8 months of freedom from the drink that carries through to this day. He told me he wanted his kids to know Christ as well. He has 3 kids, one Malcolm, is 26 and the drug lord of the neighborhood. The other is 20 named Shanda and is in the army, currently on tour in Iraq. The youngest child is 13 named Tyrone. Tyrone was at that critical age in between childhood, and gang life. 13-15 is about the time when most kids get jumped into gangs. Many don’t have a choice, some do. Tyrone came with us to church when we picked up Jimmy one week. Tyrone had just been beat up by a group of kids down the block, and was fast gaining a hard resolve. He sat in the service with us, but was unmoved, he was more interested in telling me about the “fly hunnies” we got at IHOP. Carrie and I took them home. On the ride there I put on a little Lecrae, looking in the review mirror to see if his interest was sparked. Tyrone’s eyes lit up, “yo what’s this!? This is better than Ludacris!” I cut him a CD, and Jimmy too. Weeks later Tyrone was so excited about coming to church. He got in my truck singing Lecrae’s “Crossover“:

Yo, life’s way more then ice and rims
And you don’t make enough to pay the price of sin
And God’s gon’ judge you dawg that’s reality
Saying you don’t believe is like saying there ain’t no gravity
Then running off to go jump a cliff
And when you hit the ground tell me what you get
Hey, why you running from the freedom of the gospel?
You hostile
You’re looking like your lucifer’s apostle
But God got you
And though we all deserve death He still keep putting breath in your nostrils
But you treat Him like an obstacle
See Him come at your convenience like a stop and go
Waiting for a sweeter deal or a sign or something
Like God ain’t come down and die or something
Trust me dawg God wants the best for you
That’s why the gospel of Christ is addressed to you

He looks up at me and says, “Zack I’m love Jesus yo. I don’t want to be like the rest of these guys running these streets. Can I bring friends next week?” “Sure”, I said.

He took that Lecrae CD and listened to it every day, He and Jimmy, found so much inspiration to stay strong listening to those lyrics. When they realized that everything he was saying was in the Bible, it drove them to the Bible. Tyrone still listens to the CD as do his friends. They go to a church closer to them in their neighborhood now, I pray often that they stay strong in the faith. But they wouldn’t be where they are if it hadn’t been for Lecrae’s lyrics.

See in the Hip-Hop culture Snoop, Dre, 2pac, 50 cent and others are the gospel they live by. If they say to do it, they do it. Lecrae knowing this has made CD’s that tell people to choose Christ in the midst of some live beats, and well orchestrated lyrics. It’s working, Jimmy, Tyrone, and his friends are one of yet still more testimonies of lives being changed in the hood. Pray for them. Pray for Lecrae, Teddashii, the 116 clique, Cross Movements, Corey Red and Precise, and all the others in the “Holy Hip-Hop” movement. They are changing lives, and I love the fruit I’m seeing from it.

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