TC Boyd
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Ryan Henry: there friends. I am Ryan Henry and welcome to 180 where we get to share absolutely amazing stories of Christian transformation from around the world. I'm talking every stage, every age, every region from homecoming queen to a witch doctor. I mean, these stories are just so, so exciting and you can find us@oneeightypodcast.com that's O N E 80 podcast dot.
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TC Boyd: That's a big thing about gangs, man. You feel a sense of protection, but at the same time, it's this sense of fear because you don't know, like if. Kind of get out of line, you know, you're going to be on the receiving end of something. Bad, bad
Ryan Henry: baptizing. Former gang members is something that TC board is kind of known for amazing in and of itself.
But what's more is that these were his old. Gang members of rival gangs. TC himself was after that was before he met Jesus. Hear how TC came from a lifestyle of violence and destruction on the south side of Chicago to a life of peace and the whole new trajectory. Jesus set for him. Welcome to TCS 180
TC. Thank you so much, man, for being on the show and like what an amazing, awesome testimony and story you have before we get started. Um, we want to turn to our, uh, trustee random question generator from chat deck. So I got a question for you
TC Boyd: ready for it? Yeah, absolutely. All right,
Ryan Henry: man. If you can know one fact about every person that you've.
Okay. What particular fact would you like to know about them? Assume that the other person wouldn't necessarily be aware that you know, this fact
TC Boyd: about, wow, that's a good one, man. Uh, I mean, I guess maybe something that, you know, their, their, their greatest dream, I guess I would say maybe like something that's just like their biggest.
Ryan Henry: Nice. Nice. That was a safe way to go about that TC.
Awesome, man. All right, man. Let's get into your story. All right. So yeah. Talk, talk to us about
TC Boyd: where you're from. Yeah, so I'm from, um, the south side, right by Damon in Chicago. Um, we've been, we were on the south side my entire life.
Ryan Henry: Like what was it like living
TC Boyd: there? I mean, as a kid, you don't really think about.
How, you know, certain neighborhoods you live in can be rough. You know, you kind of just go about the motions of living life. So, I mean, I thought it was cool, you know, as I got older, I understood that was issues as far as gang violence and drug problems and things like that. But growing up, you know, you didn't really think about it in that regard.
You just kinda think like this is life. Right,
Ryan Henry: right, right. Talk to me about your family, man.
TC Boyd: Yeah. So my mother was she's originally from South Carolina. She moved out to Chicago. She was trying to let you know, kind of find like better opportunities for herself. And then my father was from Chicago originally.
Eventually they had my middle brother, whose name was. And he was about three years older than me and then they had me after that.
Ryan Henry: Okay. All right. Cool man. So what was it, what was it like being in that house?
TC Boyd: Yeah, I mean, I, it was, it was cool, man. We had a lot of funds. We played a lot of games, me and my oldest brother, we, we weren't as close as he was kind of, since he was like eight years older than me.
He was kind of like more of the second parents. I put thing. Uh, cause you know, he had the watches and things like that when my mother or somebody was, was not around, I would say, you know, We, we lived like different places. So it wasn't like one place the entire time. And my childhood, at one point we lived in the projects and the other point we live, you know, just different spots on the south side.
So when we lived in the projects, for example, we lived with my cousins and my aunt. That was an interesting part of childhood. Which is like, are a lot of the memories, you know, but you then of course, like the neighborhood we were in, you know, you kind of take the good with the bad, but,
Ryan Henry: right, right. So I'm curious, was faith like a big part of your
TC Boyd: family growing up?
It was at a certain point. It became that, I guess I can remember on and off my mother making us go to church because it was something that. She started, you know, she started to value, but then I remember my mother, you know, she would go out, she would go out with her friends, drink, you know, party or whatever, I think at certain points too.
So I think when she probably got more serious about, it was probably when I was maybe probably 12 where she was like 11 and 12 or so, but she was like really, really like, you know, gave up a lot of things and really no. At it for her, her faith walk and all that. So, um, so long story short, I didn't really hate it, but I didn't love it.
You know, as far as when she used to make us go, when I got a little bit older, like as a teenager, I started to really dislike it. But I was like, it was things that was getting sewed into my mind. I didn't realize at the time, but that was going to be helpful later on, but,
Ryan Henry: right, right. So like when you were younger, it felt like, kind of like a, to do list type of thing.
And then as you got older, it was like, Can I get into
TC Boyd: you? Yeah, well, you know, it's interesting, actually, my mother told me this. It was when I was like five years old or so she said most people wrote the CTA bus, um, in Chicago. Cause it's, you know, the ones that were like five minutes. So anyway, we wrote a CTA.
And she said, I stood up in the back of the bus and I yelled out to everybody on a bus. We now baptize you in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. What if we give them to your sins and you were received a gift for the holy spirit? Like she said, I stood up and said that like five or six in the back of the hall.
So, I guess some foreshadowing, I guess, to
Ryan Henry: Alta called it. If I come down back to
TC Boyd: the clue and make sure you stick around today for the sundown, we have audio art today from young Lee, Hong Chandra. So don't miss it.
Ryan Henry: Do you remember? Like what your thoughts are? I always like to know, like what people think of God.
Like if you, if you have any memories of like having a pers, uh, perception of God at a young age, was he good in your mind? Was he, you know, it was a scary,
TC Boyd: like, you know what I'm saying? Scary. Probably I guess the younger I was, I think it was kind of a scary idea of God. God was like the, you know, you know, like, I don't know if you guys ever did this, but like when it would rain outside and then you'd be thinking like, oh man, God's angry.
You know what I mean? Like, just like just stuff like that, you know, like freaked out as a kid. I guess the younger I was, I had that kind of like fearful kind of like, God, it's like scary type of thought of God.
Ryan Henry: TC has growing up, you know, you're kind of getting a little bit, not liking the whole church thing anymore.
What's happening to you like high school or talk to me about how did things kind of get in, you know, go towards the area of gang.
TC Boyd: So in the neighborhoods we grew up in, you just see the thugs, you know what I mean? You see the people that are, man. These are the people that nobody wants to mess with. I think that as a kid, I always was in my mind.
Um, I fought a lot. I was angry as a kid, you know, Uh, a fall, I can't incumbents and as I've had fights, but I fought a lot. I was cool with a lot of the people that were in the gangs in the neighborhood. I was like friends with them and everything. So I think it was probably around the time when I turned 13 or 14, my brother ended up getting, um, gunned down and he was only 17 years old.
And so I had gang members come up to me that I knew, and they were just saying, Hey man, you know, we, we got your back, whatever you need. And I didn't formally. Get involved at that point, but I just knew that that was like, you know, what people were offering me. So I think surely after that, I got involved with some other friends that were in a different neighborhood.
That pretty much they wanted me to be part of their, I guess, gang, you know, uh, and that next year I got really sick. Um, I had meningitis, um, at that exact same time period and my brother died and then the following year. At the exact same time period, my brother died. I got very sick. Again, it wasn't meningitis, but it was like something, it was like something else.
But I was like super sick. I was out of school for like a week. It was, it was interesting because usually you join a gang based on what neighborhood you live in. If you have Latin Kings and you're able to you'll join the Latin Kings, if you have, you know, GDS and you're able to join GDS, you know, and I didn't do that.
I had what's called Blackstone, was in my neighborhood and. I was cool with all of them, but I didn't join that gang though. I ended up getting involved with a gang in a different neighborhood because some of my closer friends were part of that, so. Right,
Ryan Henry: right. Okay. So what was that like? I mean, being
TC Boyd: a part of gang, I felt like the biggest thing about it is you're trying to.
Fit in really? I think that's the biggest thing. If you're having meetings, you're having like things that they want you to want you to do. And if they're saying we, we need, we want you to go jump this person over here, whatever it is they want you to do. You have to be like, cool. I guess I say, I mean, but it's just a different level because you're afraid.
Like if I don't do what I'm being told to do, you know, you don't know, like, if people are gonna want to turn on you or people are going to want to do, you know, do something to you because you're not. You know, you're thinking for yourself almost, you know what I mean? Um, I feel like that's a big thing about gangs, man is like, it's a clique, it's this quick thing, man.
You feel a sense of protection, but at the same time, it's a sense of fear because you don't know, like if you kind of get out of line, you're not sure if you know, you're going to be on the receiving end of something bad for kind of getting out of order, you know what they say? So, and there's like so many different.
You know, kind of like rules and regulations and things like that. You kind of have to follow depending on what game you join or what neighborhood you're in. And certain things you can say, can't say certain ways you got to do handshakes or can't do handshakes. It's like just rules and all these different things.
The biggest thing, I guess I got say what gangs man is really just this feeling of, you know, you know, you feel, you feel protected, you know, you feel tough, you know, you feel like, man, I got my, I got these people with me that. If someone, you know, gets out of line, gets out of pocket, like, man, we gone, we don't do whatever we need to do.
You know, if you get out of line. You know, if you got a chief, you got someone telling you to do something and you're not really wanting to do it, or you're not respecting what they're kind of saying their rules are, you know, the consequences. So yeah.
Ryan Henry: Now, okay. So I've never been in a gang TC. Um, I'm asking this because I really want to know, give me like an average week
TC Boyd: for a, for a lot of people that are, that, that do it in their neighborhood.
Obviously, you know, like most, most people do, you know, obviously that's every single. Um, so for me, I was fortunate, I would say in that regard, because the gang I was involved with wasn't in my neighborhood that I lived in. So that, that, I don't know, maybe blessing in disguise, I guess. Um, but I think as far as the, as far as the people I was with, it was more about like, you know, trying to make money, the guy that I was like involved with the most, I guess that was kind of like the chief, he wasn't, he wasn't as crazy on like, Just cause it a bunch of random trouble like that, you know what I mean?
It was like more like if people, like, if people are trying to step to you or if people want it to like, you know, people were disrespectful in any way or anything like that, like that's when, you know, um, for us at least, you know, we would step in and like, you know, fight or whatever we needed to do. But, um, outside of that, you know, it wasn't thankfully for me, at least it wasn't so.
Too crazy in that regard where the guy that was like the chief was like super gung ho and just super crazy violent, you know, like some people are, um, that are like leaders of gangs and everything. So, um, I guess I was fortunate in that regard. Right.
Ryan Henry: So as you're doing this, I mean, do you have. Did you have conviction in your heart about
TC Boyd: what you're doing?
I think one of my guys that I was really cool with, he was, that was in the same gang as me, man, me and her. He was like, kinda like my best friend in high school. We both kind of thought about the world a little bit differently, man. So I think we started having conversations more and more about. You know, like something we could do with in life, you know, that's even beyond just the streets, you know, because we have friends that were even way more way more deeper into doing like, just super crazy stuff, you know, like breaking into homes and, you know, doing drive-bys and, you know, um, you know, all those things, man.
So that was so. People that we were with, they were even deeper into loving that stuff. I think we both had mothers that were well, he had, he had a mother and a father. I just had a mother that kind of tried to, you know, she really tried to speak life and, you know, and like, as I, like I said, as I became a teen, she got really, really serious about her faith.
So she would always like share things and talk about things with me and my, and my brothers and all that. That I think kind of helped me some, you know, even though I didn't want to care that much about it, but I didn't realize the things that were been obviously, like I said, sewn into my, into my mind, to my heart, um, that would eventually help you.
So I think that kind of without realizing it, those things, she would always say kind of help, I guess, guide me some when I was in the streets, because I knew like, you know, if every time about man, let's go do a drive by man roll with us type of thing. Like something in me. I'm like, man, I don't want to. Um, like, you know, I don't want to go do this, you know what I'm saying?
So, and I had my other guy, you know, that kind of thought the same. Cause he had people kind of speaking those types of things to him as well. Ah, man.
Ryan Henry: That's that's so good. That's so good. So take us to the you're kind of rock bottom. Like what types of things were leading up to, you know, pointed you to,
TC Boyd: to Christ?
Yeah, it was a few things, man. So, you know, like we would fight, you know, I mean, one thing we did was fight. So I mean, like we, um, We will fight rival gang members, just like just running stuff. Like I say, if, if one of our guys got into it with a rival gang member, obviously, then we got to fight like everybody.
So it's like, that was like a big part of it. So it was more of that. Like if one of us gets disrespected or feel like we get into it, then we all get in there and we all fight in, you know, their same gang and stuff. So I think it was just a lot of that going on. Then it just got to a point where, you know, I started thinking about life, man.
Cause one of my brother died when I was 14. I was angry, you know? So. I use like fighting tool when we were fighting. I used that kind of like as an outlet, but I got to a point, I guess, for me, male wash, I started feeling kind of fearful of like dying, you know, like, I didn't think I'd make it. You know, 17 years old because I was in the streets just like my brother was I'm fighting, just like he was, uh, you know, it was like all these different things, man.
I just started feeling like, you know, man, like, is there more, you know, and my mom was still, you know, trying to make us go to church and stuff. So I would go and then like, you know, you know, I didn't really want to be there, but it was like some things it was getting in my mind. I was gonna say about, about a pressure and everything.
So I guess I just got to a point where, um, One of my other friends that was in the same game, he was dealing with like some kind of like some homelessness where, you know, I started like giving them my clothes to wear, you know, we was giving him some, I was giving him some, our groceries. He had, I told my mother about it.
I don't know, man. I think God was working on my heart with that, to where it was like, I just, I just started feeling compassion towards him. So then that next year when I was 17, I told my mother I'm like, look like this is coming around the time of like the anniversary of when you know, my brother had. I dunno why I just keep getting sick, like around his time.
And so my mother, you know, she know what else to do. So she just took me to this like youth program at, at the church. And so they pray for all the youth, you know, like with them going to school and all these other things and they just pray for everybody. And then that time period came around, like October my brother die and I didn't get sick.
So I was like, okay, man, I'm thinking to my head, I'm like, Coincidence or maybe not coincidence. I'm like, I'm like, this is crazy though. She took me here and they pray and I didn't get it because I was like sick. I was in the hospital, you know, like both times. So that was just something that was, that kind of was building my faith.
And I didn't realize it, but it was kind of just building some of my faith up, you know, it was just all these different things. I started saying that I just, like I said, I used to get tired of. Seeing like, just like fighting and violence, you know what I mean? Just getting to the point where I was like, man, this is crazy, you know?
And then like I had other friends that was in rival gangs that I was cool with. Um, when I was in high school that, you know, they face in like life charges and stuff. Cause they shot somebody, other people facing drug charges. And I start looking at my life. It would be times where like I was supposed to be.
I wasn't there. Like whether, whether something happened, like whether I had a doctor's appointment, whether I was sick, whether what, whatever it was, I wasn't there, but I was supposed to be there. And then something bad happened. Like somebody got shot, somebody got arrested, like all these different things would start happening in them.
I'm not there when I was supposed to be there. And so it was just like all these different things kind of accumulating together where I just started looking at like, okay man, like, there's gotta be some so there's man. You know? And so, um, I had told my mother, I was. I guess I was just like questioning things, man.
And she'd she, she encouraged me to go to this like men's Bible study that they did at the church was called episodic church of God in Chicago. I just went. I was like, I don't know. I just, so I went, you know, they was just sharing the gospel and teaching about Jesus and stuff, man. And, uh, I just felt everything in me needed this.
Um, and so the guy asked if anybody wanted to come up, go to the, go to the bag, pray to receive the holy spirit and pray, you know, pray to have Christ in your life and all that stuff. And I say, yeah, Yeah. I was filled with holy spirit and all that crying, like crying like a baby man. And it felt just so much peace in life and just like joy man.
And when I stepped outside, I felt like my eyes were open. Like it was nighttime and it felt like, you know, like the world just looked different, like different, you know, come on, man. Yeah. So yeah. So good. Yeah.
Ryan Henry: So here you are, you accepted Jesus, you got filled with the holy spirit. Everything is starting to look different now. So then what happened after that is there are people that started to mentor you, take you under their
TC Boyd: wings. Yeah. So, um, I didn't really get like a mentor per se me, you know, I started going to that.
Bible study on Tuesdays. And then I will go to like the church service on Sundays after their experience with God. I just started diving deep into the Bible, really? Like I just studying like reading, like day in, day out I was skipped meals. So I did this for like months and months, man. Um, and I learned so much like God showed me so many things about my life during that time.
And then, so I gradually started just like talking to, um, Man people about it. So I talked to the people in the gang. I was in about, about God, about Christ. I was talking to people in rival gangs about God, about Christ album. I'm stopping fights now. So when like, people like, Hey, yo, we gonna jump. So, so I'm over here stopping the fights.
I'm like, Hey look, man, like, man, I do that. You know, like I'm like, we don't have to, like, we don't have to man. You know, then like, so one guy, I remember this was actually in school. One guy, I was talking to him earlier that day about Jesus and stuff, man. He was a Latin king. And he was told he was a rival gang member and some talk to him about Jesus and stuff.
And he's like just crying, like man, and like praying, crying, bawling, and stuff. And this was in school actually. So then later that day, one of his guys got into it with one of my guys, because like I say, rival gangs. And so I see him and two of his lad came friends and it was one of my guys was like, as, as like some, you know, license let's get them or whatever.
So we go over there, we see. And then, uh, and I shake the guy's hand and I was talking to the light King's hand that I was talking to. I was like, what up bro? So they were all ready to fight, but outside, I was like, nah, bro, we good, man, we good. But then I got to say. Many stories like that were not as good man.
You know, just being able to, to, to see the change man. And people would like, some people laughed at me, you know, obviously, because they were like, what dude to my God now, like what? Like, but, um, it was cool though, man, like a lot of people, man, I was able to share the faith with a lot of people, man. And, you know, and in my neighborhood and in the neighborhood, I hung out with the gang.
I was in Indiana and in school too, with a lot of, cause my school actually that I went to Curie high school. We had a lot of, you know, a lot of gang members. Um, you know, it was a Latin chain neighborhood as the, so it was like a lot of people, but I was sharing the faith with like everybody, man, man,
Ryan Henry: It's so good from, from, you know, fighting with people to bringing peace.
It's just like what a beautiful picture of that. Um, would you mind sharing real quick? Um, some of those things that you felt like the Lord started sharing with you and revealing to you about your life. When
TC Boyd: you came to him? Um, the biggest thing I think, man is really like just the impact man. Like the impact he's allowed me to have that he showed me that I would have in people's lives.
That's that's been like, I think the biggest thing has kind of been really cool to just, um, you know, to be a voice man. Um, and I'm grateful for that.
Ryan Henry: Yeah. Yeah. That's so good. You know, it reminds me of that, that verse in the Bible, it says, uh, you know, do not conform to the pattern of this world. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
And then later on it says through the renewing of your mind, then you're able to test and approve what the good and perfect will of the Lord is. You know? And it's like so many people, especially young people are like wondering what's my purpose. God, what are you? Or, you know, even whether it's God or not, God, just, what am I, what's my reason for existence, the desire to know that.
And you know, in the word it tells us. When we allow God to transform our minds, like he transform you. I mean, man, you went from, you know, doing all those things then to bring in peace and bringing love to those people and telling them about God. I mean, when we allow God to transform our minds like that, then we can actually learn what his desire for us for our lives is.
I just think I'm so thankful for you man, and your life and how that's going to have impact. Yeah. So talk to us about that, your impact. Former gang members,
TC Boyd: pretty much. I would, I would talk to my rival gang members about just like, you know, my life and my testimony, you know, and how, um, cause I was just so excited to share the faith.
And so I would yell, we're praying, man, for them to receive the holy spirit. Like literally even in school too, like we'll be sitting in like a class or something and whether it was homeroom or whether it was like band, we go like in the, of. Somewhere. And I'm praying with them while they're, while we're in school, man, or while we're outside of school, just like in the streets like everywhere.
Um, you know, it was cool, man. Like I'm seeing these like tough flight, you know, gang members, man crying and having Jesus come in, they life, they speaking in tongues that don't all kinds of stuff. So it was cool, man.
Ryan Henry: That is awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Hey, real quick. Talk to us about something that you gave up.
Was there anything specific that you gave up in your life
TC Boyd: gave up? You know, when I came to Christ, I gave up, you know, what fighting was a big one. I used to, I used to drink a lot, even at, you know, as a teenager, I mean, oddly enough. Um, but I gave that up cause, uh, you know, when I kinda got, I was like, man, I felt like.
I couldn't do that. You know, it just was too, it was like addicting and I smoked a lot, smoked a lot of wi um, so gave that up too. And I'm sure there's a lot of other things too, man, but I think, you know, those are some of the, I guess some of the major things I really tried to just live my life, you know, model and after, after Jesus really, you know, and, um, So I gave you, I had to get things up and to try to do that.
I had a scholarship to go to Jackson state university because I was on a drum line in my high school. And, um, I've turned it down because, um, I went to a campus visit for all of it and I was wearing university. Like when we went there, my mother went with me as well, and we just felt God's peace, man. And the Lord just lead in like, saying that this is the place to be at.
I mean, I did not have a scholarship for Olivette and, um, it was a private school like that too. So, so I turned down a scholarship for Jackson state university to go there. I just really felt it was God's leading man. Um, and eventually of course I met my. You know, my wife was there. She worked the scholarship.
Yeah. I would say I was a good answer. Yeah. Oh
Ryan Henry: man. Well, that's really awesome. We got one more question for you. Famous. Last question. If the TC today was able to visit the TC at 17, what would you
TC Boyd: say? Just keep the faith, man. You know, God, God, God will keep you. No matter what you go through in life, man, he will be faithful to you.
And, um, Just keep the faith. Yeah,
Ryan Henry: man. That's so good. TC. Thank you so much for being on 180 minutes. It's amazing to hear your story really, really appreciate you sharing.
TC Boyd: Thanks, Ryan. How about your story? God wrote it. So it's already awesome. Why not share it? We want to hear your 180 testimony. Check out our website to see how@oneeightypodcast.com that's O N E 80 podcast.com.
We'll help you put your story together so you can share it. We've got thought provoking writing prompts that will get you started. And of course we'd love your follow-up review and share of our show.
Thanks for staying for the Sunday. You made it today. We have audio art with young Lee, Hong Chandra. She wrote a poem based on TCS testimony, but there's even more. This is audio art. She actually did a piece of art that this testimony and this poetry is also inspired by. So you can only see the art if you go to our Instagram page.
So follow us at 180 podcasts that Instagram see you there. Thanks for.
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