You’ll Never Be Free Out There Until You’re Free In Here | Reginald Hicks

What does real freedom actually look like?

Reginald Hicks spent 30 years behind prison walls after a life-altering decision changed the course of his life.

But this is not just a prison story.

It’s a story about shame, identity, surrender, hope, and discovering that true freedom begins long before prison doors open.

In this episode of The Valiant Forge, Reggie shares his journey from promising baseball player… to incarceration… to finding Jesus in solitary confinement… to helping lead ministry and transformation inside one of the darkest environments imaginable.

We discuss:

• growing up with baseball dreams and losing direction
 • the choices that led to prison
 • surviving violence, pressure, and prison culture
 • finding faith in administrative segregation
 • why freedom begins on the inside
 • parole denials, hope, and trusting God through uncertainty
 • ministry, transformation, and life after prison

If you've wrestled with regret, shame, identity, hopelessness, or the feeling that your circumstances are holding you captive, this conversation will challenge and encourage you.

Home - Brother's Keeper Prison Ministry

Want to be a guest on The Valiant Forge Podcast? Send Mark Osborne a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/17432638464878159623a121d

https://www.skool.com/the-cave-of-adullum-1668/about

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

God, I just want to shot it. I want a chance. And I'll never forget, I did not, I did not, I want to say for everybody, I did not hear an audible voice. But I knew in my spirit God was telling me that you would never be free out there until you're free on the inside.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Welcome to the Valiant Forge Podcast, where we help men overcome life's doubt, show up better in the world, and become a valiant force for God. This is a place where we should have practical credit that will be quick to our life's journey to help you become the point of God to all the feet. Are you ready to overcome the doubt and fulfill your purpose just by doing? Let's go. Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Every one of us knows what it feels like to be trapped by something. Shame, regret, fear, pride, the belief that our if our circumstances change, we would finally be free. Today's conversation challenges that ideal in a powerful way. My guest today, Reginald Hicks, is a man who spent 30 years behind prison walls after a life-altering decision. But what you'll hear in this conversation is not just a prison story. It's a story about surrender, identity, hope in hopeless places, and a God who still meets men in the darkest moments of their lives. This one challenged me deeply, and I think it will challenge you too. Here's my conversation with Reginald. Reggie, welcome to the podcast. Good morning. Do you prefer Reginald or Reggie?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Reggie is perfect.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Awesome. So I know I know a little bit about your story. I know you were almost a star baseball player.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Yes, sir. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Did did you find your faith in prison?

SPEAKER_01 1:58

I well, so I grew up in a two-parent home. Uh but I didn't have a personal relationship with the Lord. Kind of like I went to church because my family went to church. So I didn't have a personal relationship with the Lord. But yes, sir, it was incarcer while I was incarceration. Incarcerated. In fact, not just incarcerated, but it was while I was in ad administrative segregation that I uh developed a relationship with the Lord. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Uh why don't you go into your your story a little bit? Like wherever you think it needs to start and lead you to where you are right now. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Well, first I uh, man, grateful. I just like to honor my parents. Raised in a two-parent home, uh, two parents who uh had a relationship with the Lord. Uh even when they didn't go to church, they took us to church and made sure we went to church. So uh just a beautiful uh environment, middle class home. My mom was a housewife. My dad worked and he took care of the family. Uh I started playing baseball at about the age of six. Uh we went in the backyard playing baseball, and I thought I was in a World Series, two house bases loaded. We're down by three, and I hit a line drive or what I thought was a line drive through the kitchen window. And my mom happened to be washing dishes that day, and she came out and she told my dad, you go take them to the park to play baseball, or I'll kill them. And so that's how my baseball career began. And so we played baseball from the time I was six. I'm sorry, I was I'm the third of four boys, all boys, and we played baseball all the way up until uh my incarceration. But I really excelled on the field, was uh head and shoulders uh uh pretty decent or with guys my age, so much so that I played up a couple of years in uh summer baseball, and I also was uh put up a grade. Uh I think uh looking back, that was one of the toughest things for me because while I matured and excelled on the baseball field, off the field, I was very immature and wasn't ready for the uh the things that were uh happening with me and for me in life. So anyway, uh all throughout my high school years, I was a four-year letterman in baseball, played a little football as well, but baseball was my thing, my dream. Uh, all district, uh, all great America. I mean, just a lot of success on the baseball field. And uh, and so uh I graduated at 16, 17 years old, and uh life was exciting. I had a lot of good friends that were drafted to play professional baseball out of high school. I had a lot of good friends that went to D1 colleges all around the country. Uh my by my junior year, I had letters from tons of colleges all around the country. And uh again, like I said, I just wasn't very mature. Uh I'd done pretty good in school. Well, anyway, by the time I finished high school, I went to go play baseball for San Central Junior College, which was a baseball mechan at the time, and uh went to try out for him. And uh for the first time in my life, I think I failed all my life. Like I said, I've been the best, if not one of the best, the best player on the team. Well, when you get to the next level, you get to college, everybody got talent, right? You walk on the field with Jose Cruz Jr., and you walk on the field with Andy Pettit, and you walk on the field with all of these athletes, and you you're just another person. And so it's all about who's committed, who's working the hardest, and things like that, which is where my immaturity showed up. Uh, faith would have it, I had a wreck, had to sit out a full year, and uh while I sat out for the first time missing baseball in the last, what, 14, 15 years of my life, uh, I had a uh, I just, I guess I I would say for me, I became ashamed. So all of my buddies there selling in life to playing D1 ball or playing uh minor league baseball, and here I was. I felt like a loser. So I just this disassociated myself with a lot of the friends that I grew up with and just chose a different crowd of friends. I wanted friends who weren't doing better than me, who didn't make me look like I was a freaking loser. So uh uh I think I just began to hang out with what we would probably say people that didn't have a lot of direction. People going, uh uh, you know, uh didn't have a plan. And so anyway, so we would just hang out one night. We went out, uh, got into an altercation. One three of us, uh one of the guys got into an altercation, and uh uh of course that's what brought me to prison. Uh one of the guys uh got into the altercation, the guy pulled a pistol, a lot of conversation. Man was shot once, and uh all three of us were charged with murder. So I went from a pretty cool, promising baseball uh career to being uh charged and indicted with murder. Of course, uh my my plea was self-defense with the trial, and then after about two years and 11 months, went to trial and found guilty in trial, was given a uh life sentence. And so that would uh change the rejected of my life. Never been a juvenile, no tickets, no nothing. But here I was faced with a life sentence. So I go into prison, uh a well-rounded young man grew up in a diverse neighborhood with different cultures and everything. And so you go into a prison where the culture is totally different. I didn't speak the language, I didn't understand it. You had black benches and white benches and Hispanic benches and all this hate and gangs and families, and I was like, oh my God, what has happened? But the reality is you uh you have to hold yourself accountable and responsible for what you've done. You go in prison, you're a man, you're not a kid, and so you either adopt the adopt the culture, adapt to the culture, or you get ran over by the culture. And so much uh extortion, so much violence, so much uh physical abuse, rape, different things like that. And I just I just made up my mind, it's not gonna happen to me, that's not gonna be my story. And so, even though I never, in the uh 30-year time that I spent in prison, I never um became gang-related or affiliated. But for the first 18 years of my time, it was extremely hard. It was a lot of fighting. It was a lot of uh, I don't know, I I used to go in the day room and at night I'd go in my cell face to wall and I'd cry myself to sleep because I thought, what have I got myself into? What is this? Go in the day room the next day, or when I'm sitting watching television in the activity room, whatever, I had to have a straight face. I had to be a part of this culture. And so I became the man that I hated. When I looked in the day room, the man that I hated, I became that person. Um I didn't want people to think that I was weak. Uh I bowed to a lot of peer pressure, peer pressure, I'm sorry. So I became a part of the culture that I was living in. And uh it wasn't until 18 years later when I found myself uh deemed a security threat that put me in an administrative segregation in a six by nine cell. And uh I woke up one day and I was like, the biggest regret I have is me. I mean, the choices I made. I could have, I could have stood up and been a man. I could have refused to adopt to the culture. I could have, it's a lot of different things that I could have done, but I didn't. The reality is I act like an animal, and so now I was being treated like an animal uh for 23 hours a day. I was locked in a cage, and I hated it. And so one day I got on my knees and I just cried out to the Lord. I had so much pride in prison to have what they call peak mirrors. You put a little piece of mirror on a pops table stick and you look down to make sure nobody's coming, and I didn't want nobody to think that I was weak again. And so I would pray and I cried out to the Lord and I asked God, I challenged God, and I said, I don't understand the uh Bible. Uh I had a King James Version that was given to me uh 32 years ago today. And uh I had that Bible from a ministry that sent free Bibles in. Only reason I got it, to be honest with you, was everybody would say, hey man, they send in free Bibles. And I looked at the Bible, it was pretty, I was like, oh man, I want one of those. So anyway, so I had that Bible in the cell and I got on my knees and I cried to God. I said, uh, I don't understand the Bible, but if you want me, and if you really want me to be a son of God, just come get me in this cell right here, right now. And that process happened. I began to read the scriptures, and finally I began to understand the scriptures, and I started a relationship with the Lord right there in that cell by myself, no choir, no beautiful music, just me and God. And uh when I was put in administrative segregation, I was told that I'd been there at least five years and that I had to modify my behavior. And uh I was just like, okay, and I was just hearing from the Lord. And uh one day I felt like I heard from the Lord that he wanted me to go back to school. And I was like, well, I can't go to school if I'm in this cage, right? Like, okay, this is my out. Okay, God, I'll go back to school if you let me out of here, right? You know how we do. We we we make deals with, right? And so I made a deal with God as a young, foolish Christian. And uh I went up for state classification about 11 months into my administrative segregation stay. And to my um amazement, God opened the door and allowed me to go back into um at least medium custody. And uh so now I was faced with this whole challenge. I told God that I was gonna go back to school if he got me out, and here I am. And so uh they had at the time, it was Warren Pittman, who's the senior warden on the wind unit. He had a very, very unique program, first ever in Texas prison, where he started a faith-based role in high security, which is medium custody, and it's just it's just never happened before. So I I signed up for it. I got put on a faith-based role, got into life changes, got into every program that was available to me on medium custody. And I walked in. They had leaders in each group. We break up in small groups. I never forget, I walked in there and I said, I want to be in a group where the leader don't look like me, act like me, and don't talk like me. And I looked around the chapel and I saw this little Asian guy. He was running a group, and I was like, I'm in your group. And he was like, Okay. His name was Paul Lynn, a very, very good friend of mine. Uh, since my release, he's gotten married, and I was able to uh be a groomsman in his wedding. But anyway, he poured into me, he prayed with me, he believed in me, encouraged me, and that's when my walk began. So immediately, uh uh, so after that, I was uh promoted to minimum custody where you have a little more privileges in in prison. And so I got into more classes. Every class they offered, I got into except for completed. And after I completed the classes, I became a facilitator and began to teach those classes. And this kind of drew the attention of the senior Warren, Warren Pittman, and he allowed me opportunities to share my testimonies. He would bring people in from the outside, and uh, I share my testimony, and uh, I started working around the unit. At this time, inmates didn't really minister in the chapel. So my friends and I, we started what we call Friday night lights. Every Friday night on the rec yard where everybody's playing basketball and doing their thing on the rec yard. We would do worship. We would pray and we would have a full service. And so uh men began to come out and support what we were doing. And after service, we will always get it two. We we break ourselves up in teens and twos, and we would walk around the rec yard and ask guys how we could pray for them, or you know, just share kind words with them, and that became a lifestyle for years until one day they opened up the chapel and allowed us to give it a try in the chapel. And that was uh maybe uh 17 years ago, and God is faithful. I get to go into that prison as a volunteer now, and every Friday night they do inmate-led services, so that's pretty cool. But uh anyway, so uh I just began to grow in my walk with the Lord. Uh not perfect, but I I I I will say this. Even as a young believer, I didn't really have a whole lot of people who were porn in me, and I didn't know a lot of things. I tried, I kind of had to learn a lot on the run. You know, we talk about baptism, the water baptism, we talk about the baptism of Holy Spirit, but we don't talk about baptism of fire very much in the body of Christ. Right. There is such a thing. It's called on-the-job training. And anyway, so a lot of things I had to learn on my own, but it's crazy before I really knew how to pray the word of God, or before I really, really knew how to have that fervent prayer, my prayer was simple. I found some people who believed in me, a senior warden, a chaplain, a few volunteers, and my prayer was simple. I just don't want to let the people that believe in me down. I don't want to let them down, Lord. So whatever it takes, give me a grace, a strength, whatever it takes. And so that was my thing until I began to grow in the Lord. And uh uh God just began to give me great favor on the unit. And so uh I was able to minister in the day rooms, I was able to minister on the rec yards, and if and eventually they allowed me to come in the chapel and start. And so I mentored a disciple with a lot of men uh many years. Uh in 2009, 2010, uh, our warden who was, he was ahead of the game. This guy was, in fact, they kind of ran him out of the system because he he he just believed God was able to do anything. I'm talking about complete world changing. So he wanted to start a new program that had never been done in Texas prison. He wanted to take a few inmates who still wore white, and he wanted us to go back to administrative segregation, the place that I lived and was housed, and we started an administrative segregation ministry, and we would go back, and and uh once a week they would allow nine to 12 guys to come into uh, they would be in single cages, and we would sing with them, worship with them, pray with them, and share the word of God with them, and God just began to move in a powerful way. Uh that year we watched uh over 100 people give their life to the Lord, over 150 men renounced gang affiliations. We're talking about the Meski Mafia, Texas Syndicate, AC, Avon Brotherhood, Cripps Bloods, some of the more notorious people who were in SAIG because of the considered security threats. These days we're giving our lives to the Lord. In Texas, we have what's called a grad program. If you come out of a gang or come out, renounce gang affiliation, you're able to go through a program where they debrief you for like six to nine months. It's real intense. So a lot of those men went through their program successfully, completed it, and we just watch God move in a cult completely crazy way, and I'm thinking, I don't even know what I'm doing, but God, this is so cool. Like, like we go to church and we pray for uh Big Mama, who's 95 years old, to be uh healed of cancer, a beautiful thing. We pray for uh a lot of things, but I'm just convinced from watching so many men in the darkest place of America, uh, men with life without parole, men who have no chance of getting out except the miracle of God, I've watched God totally transform their life. Like take them from being some of the most meanest, most violent people to watch them hug people and love people in the day room. Things that in 1990, when I went to prison, if if if these guys that were families got caught eating out a bowl with somebody or just, you know, uh interacting with other races like they do now, they would have been lifelighted or violently hurt and sent off the unit. But I'm watching these men who love God now and they don't care. They don't care if it's such a boldness and a purpose. And so here I was, this young kid and the young and the faith who's just watching God be God. So I'm just convinced uh in my almost 20 years as a uh committed Christian in relationship with the Lord, I just believe that a transformed life is the greatest miracle in this world. I I don't, I don't, I don't know that nothing's more powerful. Because uh, I mean, so this man gets transformed, he gets to take that to his family, and then that totally changes his family, and they get to take it to a church or community or city. And so we're watching that happen. So anyway, all of this time that I'm building my relationship with the Lord, my court case, I come up for parole, and every time I come up parole, I'm denied. Uh, I got a five-year set off, which means no, you can't go home today. You have to wait five more years before we see you again. And this happened five times. I ended up having five set-offs, different numbers. But for 15 years, I got five set-offs, and I was just like, okay, okay. And uh, I don't know if you know Mike Barber, who is uh used to be a tight end for the Houston Arlors years ago. We just went and celebrated this week, his 40th year in prison ministry. Uh, but anyway, he started discipling me and fathering me spiritually when he came into prison. And uh, and he told me something. He said, you know, like he talked to me about the power of the tongue, how life and death is in the power of the tongue. He told me, no matter, no matter what happens, every single day I want you to wake up and say, any day now, I'm coming out. And I thought, this man got to be crazy. He they say he goes home every day with his wife, he got a family, he got a nice thing. I mean, just whatever. And I was like, he's crazy. But what did I have to lose, right? Right. So I just started declaring and decreasing. And even when I would get the paper from the setoff, and the reality was I had a two-year set off, three-year set off, five-year set-off, whatever it may have been, I would get on my knees and through tears I cry. And I was just like, okay, God, any day now, coming out. And so time progresses. Uh, every year he would bring his best friend to have a revival for four days during the Christmas holidays. So he let me, you know, be on the setup team, and I felt loved and seen and important to him and his ministry, excuse me, his ministry. And my prior kind of changed. God, if I have to spend the rest of my life in prison, I'm okay with it. Just let me serve this ministry for the rest of my time here, right? Wow. So I'm excited. And uh every year I'd be excited, and throughout the year, they would keep in contact. But uh, and so here they was. And so I have to bag up a little bit. I missed this part. It was real important. When I was sentenced in the court, they gave me a life sentence. I won my appeal. I went back and was retried in court, and then I was given 80 years instead of life sentence. So in Texas, anything 60 or more is a life sentence. So hey, I went from the numb from the the word to some numbers, a little different. But anyway, I'll never forget the judge in the courtroom, he said something, and for 18 years I lived that way. The judge said in the courtroom, he said, the world is a better place because you'll never get out of prison. And for for 18 years, those were the words that dominated my mind, controlled everything. You know, in Proverbs, we say uh uh uh uh hope hope deferred, make it the heart sick. But but when that desire comes in his life, right? And so I didn't have any hope. I didn't have any hope, period, point blank. But when Mike Barber started talking to me about the power of words that totally changed, and that voice that I heard in my head for 18 years that you're never gonna get out of prison began to get softer and softer and softer. And so anyway, uh, so I'm I'm excited. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm a I'm I'm a Christian. God sent me a beautiful wife, who uh we became friends uh while I was inside. And I was like, nah, I don't do this, I don't do Pimpal, so probably a bad idea that you wrote me. But she was extremely uh nice and she said she wanted to be my friend. So I was like, if you want to be my friend, come see me. So I just kind of throw that out there in a letter. One Thursday, she got it that Saturday morning. She came to see me at 8:30. And for three years, she never missed a weekend. And I was like, might be cool. So uh anyway, so she encouraged me, man. My wife was on the outside. She went back to school. She got uh uh associates, a bachelor's, a master's degree. Uh, she's doing extremely well. She has a career, and uh, so that encouraged me, right? And so she brought to our family two beautiful girls. And so the girls would, you know, kids are different. Like me and my wife, we wouldn't talk about me coming home so much because we knew it was kind of bleak. But those kids, they don't care nothing about that. Be like, when you coming home? And I'd be like, okay. And then so we start having conversations. And so my hope, I'm talking about, I tell you, I go into prisons all the time now, but but I tell people, I know right away if a person has hope or not by the way they conversate, by the decisions they make and the choices. Because when I didn't have hope, my choice was easy. I wanted life to be comfortable inside of the place that I thought that I would spend the rest of my life. I was building a home now. I was building a kingdom now. I didn't want to be intimidated, so I intimidated. I didn't want to be without, so I wanted everything. Got caught up in the uh the contraband. You hear about the contraband ban in prisons, all the tobacco and cell phones and all that crap. I was a part of it. I was in the middle of everything. I wanted all the money, all the attention, all and everything because I wanted my life comfortable, because I didn't have no hope. But when I when when God gave me hope, it was easy for me to say no to all of those things because I wanted what was outside of the bars. So, anyway, so here I am, the the the the uh set officer that I have a beautiful wife. Uh the kids love me and adore me, and I'm thinking, God, I really need your help. And I'll never forget, I'm on the corner of the record praying one day. It was uh matching security has two barbed wire fences that right before you can see the free world, and I was praying, looking out, and I was like, God, it just so happened it was a baseball field in the corner. So outside I could see in the corner, the kids would play baseball in the summer, and that was my passion, my dream, and I was like, God, I just want to shot it, I want a chance. And I'll never forget, I did not, I did not, I want to say for everybody, I did not hear an audible voice, but I knew in my spirit God was telling me that you would never be free, unfair, until you're free on the inside.

unknown 27:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

It challenged me in a way, and I was like, you know, that's some more things that God is working out for me, working in me. And uh, and so I was like, okay, God, what is it? Go get it. My prayer was kind of like King David, created me a clean hole, God. You know, just clean out whatever is not good, just go, have your way with me. And so that was a turning point for me, and still getting it set off, not being uh uh released for parole. And in uh 2012, beautiful. I get a word from the Lord, the door is open. And I was like, what? The door is open? What does that mean? So I'm searching scriptures and Revelation said before you open the door, no man can close. I'm going and I'm going everywhere. I'm just looking with Peter and they were miraculously let out of jail, and I'm thinking the door is open. So I'm preaching that. I'm every every Friday night, I'm preaching it to the men, and I'm watching God open doors for people, people that thought they would never go home. I'm being miraculously released, and I'm thinking, yes, it's my time. And I went up for parole and got another set offs, and I was like, okay, God, maybe I'm right. But you know, it's funny how God, I say funny, it's amazing how God works. Right. Give us a word, and it's for us, but it's for a season. But in the meantime, we can speak a word to people and it could bless them. And it's kind of like I've seen people with different gifts of the spirit in the body of Christ, and they operate powerfully in it, but they have a mother or a wife or a family member who is struggling and they can't do nothing for them, but everybody around them, they're blessed. So I thought, this is crazy. So anyway, so everybody's going home. So I kind of allowed the enemy to get in there and say, well, that word wasn't for you. It was for everybody else. And so one day Mike Barber comes for the weekend, and we're getting ready to set up. So I was at this time I was welding and I was teaching Lee College welding to other offenders on the unit. So I had to run to my uh run to my dorm to get my stuff ready so I could go set up. So I told this officer, and this was not a nice officer, he was kind of one of the rednecks, I don't like nobody. I don't even like my wife. My dog is my own friend kind of guy. And so I went in and I said, excuse me, if you don't mind, I need to put some stuff up in my cell and then, I mean, in my uh cubicle, because we was in the dorms, and I'm gonna come right back. He was like, okay. So I went and I came back. I get to the door to get out. He's standing on the other side of the door, and he's just kind of looking at me, and I'm looking at him, and I was like, Well, I I just asked you when I came in, could I get myself come out? And he just looked right at me and he said, the door is open. If he'd have said any other word in between it, I would have been like, okay. But he said, the door is open. I was like, no, I heard from God. This is real. Wow. So anyway, so I finished that up. And he is not gonna, he's, he's not, God would speak to anybody when we we hear the story about donkey what you talk about. Oh, it was a donkey. Well, dude, I don't know if God's, I don't know what other people believe about the donkey, but this guy, he probably was as close to a donkey as you could come. I mean, I'm just saying. So anyway, so I go out and I'm excited and just nothing happens. I get signed off again for parole. And then in 2020, COVID hits. Well, 2019, COVID comes. Boom. It's like, oh my God. So they're locking us down, they're racking us up. I get a lay-in. And uh so when I get the lay-in, it says, go and see parole, but I was going to see a commissioner. Now that's a big deal in Texas. So in Texas, if you go see the commissioner, that means you're not just seeing the three people that's voting on your case, you're seeing a person that's above them. I mean, it's it's a pretty big deal. And by law, you have to do at least 20 years before you see them. And they don't have to see you again until you set off at least three times. So I wasn't even eligible to see them again. I had seen them before, and they was like, I needed two, two votes out of three. I was, I was, I never even got one vote. So the third person didn't never even had to show up to work on my case. And uh anyway, so I said, okay, so this is a Wednesday afternoon. I went to see the commissioner. The first five times I came up parole, I thought I'd done good, great interviews. No, usually take about two to three months before you they tell you, ah nah, I set off, you're not going nowhere. So I went down and I had the worst interview of my life. I'm talking about I was stumbling, I wasn't smooth, I couldn't, I couldn't articulate or express nothing. I thought I had the worst visit of my life. But before I was leaving, she was getting up to leave, and she said, Do you have any questions for me? And I was like, No, ma'am. But she had on this armband, and it had a uh a cross with Christ on it, and I thought, you're a Christian, I could pray for. If nothing else, I could pray for clean up this. But it kind of shifted from me and my presentation to God, I bombed, and only you could could work this out. So anyway, that was a Wednesday afternoon. That Friday, they called me down a re-entry, and uh he told me, he said, I ain't seen this before. I don't know what happened, but I just want to tell you, you're going home to your family. I was like, okay. Anyway, so uh so I had to go through class and everything. I had to do a three-month program, of course. It's called Changes to try to, you know, get you ready for the uh free world. Of course, I had spent 30 years in prison at this time. And so uh, so I'm excited. We get the news to my wife, my family, uh, my mom, who was uh still struggling to help while staying in the senior's home. She had gotten ill, and so my aunt, my baby, my mom's baby sister said, I need to go tell your mom, because it seemed like she wants to give up. Seemed like she just tired. So she goes to the hospital, tells my mom, and I'm excited, and I get this, I'm gonna get to see my dad, my mom, everybody. And I'm going through the class and COVID hit. So now we're kind of doing our schoolwork from the from our cell block, and then my mom just dies. And I was like, goodness. Like all my life, I've been dreaming. She held on, she fought all this time, and now my aunt kind of just said when she went and told my mom. My mom kind of smiled, and the next day she just went home to be with the Lord. So even though my mom didn't get to see me, or we didn't get to uh experience a lot on the outside after my release, I just think that she went to heaven knowing that he finally got out of that place, or was getting out. So, anyway, so I make parole, I come out, and uh it was tough. It was tough. Uh so I went to prison in 1990, all the 90s, all the 2000s, all the 2020, up to 2020. And you think about it, so if you really, when I went to prison, they still had beepers. Remember the beepers? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So now you're coming out with all this technology with cell phones, and I miss car phones, like, you know, I've whole histories here. Uh when I went, you went in to go pay for your gas, you went and got gas. People are using cars is like, oh my God. So a lot of things are, and you know, you read. My wife uh always sent me time magazines, they just different things. You read about these things, but being put in that fire, trial by fire, it was extremely difficult. So getting work, I finished my college degree when I went back to school. I got a college degree, and uh I got a social supply science of welding technology. I learned all the processes of welding, me, T, flux core, uh, running the machines, whatever. And um, so I thought I'm gonna get out and I'm gonna be a welder, and it's gonna be perfect. My wife, at the time, she was uh, like I said, she was climbing a ladder in corporate America uh for the hospital that she worked for, and I got it, I got it, I got it. And I get out in this COVID, nobody's doing interviews like I grew up, my dad grew up. You go apply for a job, you go to an interview, you show up what you can do, whatever, and you get it. Well, everything sent through his computer, and nobody, every time I thought I was this close, boom. I even had it where uh I've done the route number, to get a job, nothing. So now I have to work, so I'm doing DoorDash, Uber Eats, um gas station evaluations, uh working at uh part-time uh job. I mean, not part-time jobs, uh minimum wage jobs. Uh that's the wash that just went off, I'm sorry. Minimum wage jobs, uh uh, getting cheated out of money, warehouses, forklift jobs, or whatever. It was just tough. Um finally I got a break. Uh a man wanted to give me a job with a tree cutting company, and I thought, okay, I don't know how to cut trees. He was like, well, don't worry, because I wanted to be run a four-man crew. And I was like, but I just told you, I don't know how to cut trees, right? Like, that's okay. You'll get your crew and you're gonna need a climbing and all these different things. And I was like, okay. So my heart turned toward men that were in prison. What do I do? I go and hire four men that came out of prison. And I asked one of the guys, I said, You ever climbed trees? He said, Yeah, when I was a kid. I said, You think you can do that with a uh a saw in your hand? And he's like, we'll see. But man, cool. Uh, it opened up a door for me. And it opened up a door for all four of those men, and we made really good money. We done the company well while we were there, and uh it just kind of opened up a door with that. Of course, a good friend of mine who I grew up playing baseball with, he ran a uh really uh in the woodlands here. It's select baseball, it's crazy in Texas. And so he ran one out there and he wanted me to come out and pour into the kids. So I was an umpire and I was like, okay, we'll try this. And so I done that for three years part-time every weekend, Saturdays, Sundays. In between Saturday and Monday, I do anywhere from 18 to 20 games a weekend. My feet, but I'm providing, right? I'm doing something for my family. So I was doing that, running the tree company. And at night I was uh moonlighting as a front desk employee at the bowling alley. So I'm doing three jobs. Uh I'm providing I'm I'm providing, I'm happy, but I'm burning the candle at both ends. So anyway, so God opened up a door. Uh, this wonderful man who had never hired an ex-offender before for his company. Uh, the supervisor talked to me to give me a chance and uh started making a difference, and I had a lunch with him. At first, he wanted me to know I don't, I've been, I got six businesses. I've been doing business for 20 years. I don't eat with none of my employees. And I was like, okay, but let's go to lunch. I was like, okay, so that's the start. But anyway, man, God gave me great favor with him, and he was like, you know, I always thought that a person goes to prison. If they get 100 years, they do 100 years, give them bread and water. They've done something to get there, and that's what they deserve. And he was like, man, you know, you kind of change the way I see things. And so he allowed me an opportunity to promote the company. Uh of course, one of the guys died, one was fired, so I went to do a three ticket job. But uh, he gave me a lot of advantages. But more than anything, he would, I would talk to him about business, about money, investing, just different things. And so, just God, real quick, I'm uh I'm I'm rambling. So you can stop me whenever you want. No, you're you're good. But a friend of mine in Austin, when he was in prison, I was mentoring and uh pointing to him, discipling him. And uh he uh it spent like four years. So he was a great athlete, uh D1, football college, scholarships all over the country, and he was accused of uh molesting a kid. And it's kind of taboo in prison. A lot of people kind of uh, but not me. So I got an opportunity to pour him, and we we we became friends. And uh, well, he went back to court. They found that he was not guilty and they exonerated him, and so the state had to pay him, and the state and the county they'd come from had to pay him. So, anyway, so fast forward, I'm out, I'm working for this company, I'm thinking that I want a business, I want to do something different. And my friend Greg calls me, one that was in prison, now business owner, and he's doing extremely well in Austin, Texas, and calls me and says, Hey, I want you to come to uh Austin. I was like, What's up? He was like, uh, I'm running an axe on a mobile axe on business in Austin, and it's doing great. And he's like, I want you to start one down there in Houston in the woodlands. And I was like, uh, black people don't throw axes. That's just something we don't throw axes. Like, just don't do it. And so he's like, man, just come down. And I went and taught me how to throw axes, and we went and done a couple of uh events, corporate events, of course. And I fell in love with it. My wife, she was like, Babe, you look really happy doing that. You want to do it? And I was like, I don't know. So I told my wife, I want to do it, I want to do it. So he told me, we'll get you a trailer and a truck, and you just pay me back. And man, my wife's like, nah. So we prayed about it and we decided to uh get our own trailing truck, start one here, and it done extremely well after a year. Um, kind of looked at my wife like, well, what do we do now? I mean, we missed about $16,000, $18,000 this year because they wanted two trailers instead of one. So she's like, well, Doug, we build another trailer. So we built another trailer, and uh that's what we do, man. For four years, we've been running a uh mobile accident business, Tomahawk Targets. And we do a lot of corporate events, weddings, birthday parties. You'd be surprised, team building events, tons of church events. A lot of the uh big churches here in our area, Kingwood, uh, the Woodlands, Houston, Conroe, surrounding areas, they'll book our trailer. And we'll go to multiple uh church uh campuses, and it's really cool. Uh they have men's nights, they have women's night, but they also have youth nights, and uh they get an opportunity to throw axes. But uh it's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

I know it sounds crazy, but uh I mean we we do a lot of axe throwing events. I'm I'm a men's director at my church, and we sometimes will either go to an axe rolling place or hire it out. It's it's it's a great way to witness to people. Are you still doing uh prison ministry?

SPEAKER_01 43:00

Oh, yes, sir. So while I was in administrative segregation, God has such a great sense of humor. So he gave me the name of our um ministry and everything. I couldn't even make parole and I'm thinking, God, you gave me name of prison ministry, and I'm still in prison. Like, should I get some shirts made like here? Anyway. So uh I wrote it down, kind of forgot about it. So when I got home, I talked to my wife about it, and she searched it up. Nobody had our name. We only had to put prison in it. So our name is Brothers Keepers Prison Ministry. So four years ago, my wife uh done all the legwork, started 501c3, and we go into prisons. Yes, sir. Uh, we love it. Initially, when we started, God gave me great favor. I was able to go back into the wind unit, the unit that I spent the last 12 years of my life to the Lord on. I get to go and do church services and baptisms at different. And things. I get to pour into the men. I can walk to the unit right now and just go around and just pour into the men. But God began, God just had big ideas. So now, four years later, uh, we do Day with Dads. That is a program where we'll go in at eight in the morning, come out at five in the evening. Take the kids of the men that are incarcerated. We do breakfast and lunch with them, but we bring cornholes, basketball, footballs, uh, card games, but gives them about eight to nine hours to spend intimate time with the dads because we know how important family is to God, right? And so we want to keep that family connected and strong. We also do what we can call family days. We just want done one in Huntsville two weeks ago. Um so we're giving in between 55 to 75 men in white, and we get to bring in two of their family members, and uh they get to have a full church service, breakfast, lunch, and uh we just pour into them. We do worship, we pray with them, we preach the service, of course, and then we give them interval time. We spent, we do games and giveaways, prizes, or whatever. Excuse me, but that gives them about nine hours to spend with the families as well. And we also do uh marriage seminars. So the marriage seminars is a game changer. It's three days. So we'll go in uh that Friday, that Saturday, and that Sunday, and these men get to spend almost up to 30 hours over the weekend with their wife. And uh each day we get breakfast, lunch, and dinner formed. Uh, we bring it in, and uh we have other couples come in, and all throughout the day we're pouring into their marriages, just kind of uh discipling them and strengthening their marriages because we see the numbers. We know the receivedism rate nationally, of course, is about 70%. Seven out of ten people within three years are back in prison. Those are the numbers. Nationally, that's you you you can't you can't find it. In Texas, something is happening. Texas used to be at the top of that, uh, uh, of those numbers. In fact, I think Texas was in the top five. Well, Texas is one of the lowest in the country now. Uh the receivability rate in Texas is about right under 20%, which means two out of 10 are coming back within three years. That's not the that's not we want 100%, but okay. But but but my point is that I just feel like the connection between family. I've seen so many men that done a lot of time like myself. I was blessed. I had my wife and my family there to support me, to encourage me, and to help my transition. I've been out six years. I I I don't have, I haven't been back to prison, I haven't been to jail, I haven't gotten speed tickets or none of those things. My wife is a very, very strong, opinionated young lady. And she is an accountability partner from um, let's say that. So, but but but a lot of people don't have family. Right. You understand what I'm saying? So, so if they go and they slam the door on their face at a job, what do they do? In most cases, people, I go back to what I know how to do, selling drugs, jumping or whatever. And so, anyway, so we feel that if we could help the family structure stay strong throughout the incarceration, keep them connected in some kind of way, then when they get out, they have that family there for them. And so those are very, very important. So we do the David Dad Family Day marriage retreat. We also added um men conferences two days. We'll go in on Fridays, stay on Friday, and and do Saturday afternoon and uh bless the men. And we're doing this year, our schedule is ridiculous. We're doing about anywhere from 40 to 53rd services. Um totally committed to the men and white. Yes, sir. And this year I was full-time ministry. So we still have our extra in business. But uh I left the uh I was running a warehouse in Tombaugh. My mentor, uh Jerry, thank you so much. Uh, the business owner I was telling you about, he believed in me, supported me. One day he told me, he said, you know what? You're gonna leave me at some point. You know that? And I was like, I don't know. You paying me pretty good, yeah. But uh he was right. Uh and he even hired our company for his daughter's wedding. So I thought that was the ultimate kind of thumbs up from a man who poured in my life. So that's what we do, and we love what we do. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 48:43

Awesome. Man, Bret, you have such a powerful story. And you're you're a man who, you know, you served 30 years in prison.

SPEAKER_01 48:51

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

And you you could easily justify, all right, God, God save me. I did some things and I helped people in prison after God saved me. But you get out of prison and you're continuing to do the ministry, and from what I'm hearing, there's no slowing down in you. Yes, sir. There's no like, I I need a minute, you know, to process all this. You just continue to keep moving in God. And that's that's what men need to hear. Yes. God, you know, myself, for a long time I was a kind of sedentary, didn't really do much for God. And now once God pulled me out, if every man has some kind of muck and mire that God has pulled them out of. Yes, sir. Some are a lot more extreme, you know, it could be prison. For me, it was just basically depression. But still, God pulled me out of something. And because of that, I don't feel like I should slow down and and take a break. I need to push, push forward and and reach as many men as possible. That's why I'm doing podcasts, that's why I'm doing men's ministry at church, and I love everything that you're doing. Something I want to highlight about your story because I I recently just did a talk on YouTube about this, about prayer. A pivotal moment in your story was where you had that desperate prayer. What you said was, you know, I didn't know how to pray fervently and all that. It was just a conversation. And and prayer is a conversation between you and God. Come on. I do believe in the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man. But you know, we we see how men pray in church and it's this great, and sometimes you know, you use all the biblical terms, which is important at times, but there is a time, a moment of desperation like you had right there. Yes. Where you just say, God, I need I need your help. So I I guess I'm saying that because hearing your powerful story and how God led you through it, it's it started with that one moment. God, I need you right now. I need your help. And that's you know what I'm trying to encourage any man that's out there listening, is it just starts with you in a moment of desperation saying, God, I need you. I need your help. You don't need to look up Psalms and say, you know, all these great Psalms, and this is my powerful prayer. Just God, I need you. And like your your story is so powerful because even after you said that prayer, Yes, you saw God moving, but it was slow. It was a slow process. Oh, yeah. It wasn't like I prayed and now God is getting me out of prison. Was it you said you were in prison for 30 years and it was 18 years when you you when you surrendered to God?

SPEAKER_01 52:01

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 52:02

So it was what it says 12, 12, 13 years? Yes, sir. Man, that's a that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 52:09

Yeah. You know, and my wife, she makes a joke out about it all the time, and she'll say say stuff like, Am I talking to the 55-year-old Reggie, or am I talking to the eight-year-old Reggie? And uh my my thought, not always my response, but my thought is always, uh, I hope you talk to the eight-year-old Reggie, because I pointed that out because she just said, Except we come to him like a little child, I think it's so important. That childlike faith is so beautiful. I think that's why every opportunity I get, I go to school to high schools and kids, I get to point the kids. And it's so awesome how kids have faith. And then you go to church. And like you said, we see seasoned adults and we say all the right things. Kids say the darnest things, but we say all the right stuff. But kids have faith. We like, I just pray. And they don't pray. And we'll we'll fast, we'll pray, we'll cry, we'll beg, we'll uh shake our fist at God, and all of these things, but the kid, he'll just pray. And he and I I just want to always keep that childlike faith, that childlike passion. I feel like God impressed in my heart that even though you came home when the judge said you die there, that I will always, I will always have a life sentence. And my life sentence is not, my life sentence is not to the state of Texas as much as it is to God. And so the whole men and women came and then the dark place, the darkest place of America, people would come in. And I I got to a part where my heart was so hard that I couldn't even cry anymore. For 15 years, I couldn't even shed a tear. And then one day, this little small white guy, about five feet tall, 160 pounds soaking wet, he comes in and shares the store, and I weep and I follow him around the whole weekend because I wanted what he had. And uh, so it's a it's a game change now. But my point is that, you know, God radically changed my heart. And what I'm learning in this life, even before our outward actions begin to change or manifest the transformation, God is doing something here. Because even before I had the courage or the boldness to stand up and be a man of God in the face of adversity in prison and the dark place of marriage, even before I had the boldness and the courage to do that, my heart was like, this is not right, Reggie. No, you don't do that. You know, the whole racism, all of the things that I adopted and became a part of. Even before I started befriending people outside my culture, in my heart, I was like, that's not right. You know, that's not that's not the right thing to do. And so anyway, so so man, I will go out of my God is such, God is divine. We say God and we say God work in mysterious ways. I just think he's so divine. So what we confess, God will always put to the test. I was like, I'm God delivered racism and I'm not a racist no more or whatever, blah, blah, blah. So I'm in, uh I'm in the uh uh uh Mike Barbara setting up for revival. And I was in charge of putting out 2,000 chairs for the revival. So we would pray over the chairs and everything. A friend of mine came to me, he said, Hey, I need you to do me a favor, I want you to pray for this guy. Just kind of share your story with him, and uh, man, everything will be cool. I was like, okay. So the guy comes up to me. And so, me with my religious self, you know, hey, how you doing? How can I pray for you? And he comes to me and he says, Well, my name's Richard, and uh I was a captain in the uh uh Aaron Circle, and I got I I'm a Christian now, but I don't like black people. And I'm like, okay. I'm thinking in my mind, the guy that told me to pray for this guy, I'm thinking, I'm gonna get him. I can't wait to get him. So I prayed with this man, and we both become friends. Now, this is so powerful how God worked all of this out. This moment, I could have said, hold up, I'll be back. I'll pray for you tonight in my cell. But we prayed in that place. For the next five years, I couldn't find a black friend. Every last one of my friends were Asian, Hispanic, or white. Every last one of them. Every last one of them. We're talking about still in prison. So the guy that I prayed for, when I went back to college, he was the one that helped me through college. He was the one that helped me through welding. He was the one that got my job teaching welding in Lee College on the inside. Wow. Look, he he went to prison at 15. He spent 32 years in prison. I beat him home when he comes home. He's been in my home with my family, my wife, him and his wife. They've been in my home more than anybody, even more than family members. So I'm just saying, it's it's it's moments like God, moments like that. Yeah. Look back and I be like, what if I didn't pray? Like, we just went and done a family day, and he and his wife served alongside me and my wife in the ministry, and he got to pour into all of these families, and we got to share some of this story. What if I didn't pray? What if I was obedient, disobedient? I'm sorry. I mean, so it's just small stuff like that, where God just take that small moment or something you might think, and he just makes it so powerful. And so that man is a business owner now. He's at home, he's married, and uh, just so many powerful things. So many like share, but I mean, I'm I'm like you, man. I I'm just passionate about what I do. And uh God has given me great health and strength. God is giving me lots and lots of passion. And for what it's worth, I still feel like I'm very young. And I want to stay, I I wanna, I want that feeling to continue. I don't want this to get old. I don't, I don't want to ever, I mean, I go in sometimes and I have to pull myself to the side of these uh things that we do in prison, and I just cry and I weep. It'd be times that I'm driving on the highway and I just cry by myself because I'm always thinking about, God, why me? Like, out of all 150,000 people in Texas prison, over 2 million people incarcerated throughout the country, why me? Why did you bring me out of a situation that was hopeless? Right? And I feel guilty because there's so many beautiful men, so many beautiful women who love God as much as I do, who have family like I do, who's married, have children, grandchildren like I do. And I want for them what God done for me. And so I feel like, and this is a powerful statement. I heard somebody say this, I thought, this is the craziest statement I've heard. But the deputy director of our chaplaincy department, I get to do a lot of stuff with him over the system, and he said, he said, prison ministry is a matter of public safety. And I thought, I didn't get that one. That went over my head. But you think about it, almost 70% of the people that go to prison are one day gonna be released. And they're gonna be released from neighborhoods just like yours, just like mine, right? And even though you may not feel led to go into prison to preach the gospel to anybody, but don't you want or hope for your family, for you, for your community, men that have encountered the Lord to come out like don't want people to come out the same they went in. You don't want people to come out worse because a lot of men can be worse going into prison. My prayer is not that every man in prison come out. I'm just being honest. And I share this with the men in prison. That's not my prayer. Because some men are not ready. I've sat at the table in a day room where men bragged and and saliva, uh, you know, spittle was covered out of their mouth, redescribing how they love the crime that they've done. Wow. I'm praying that he get healed, but I'm not praying that God release him. Right. Because he's not, he's gonna do. I have a wife, I have children, I have daughters, I have a grand, a granddaughter. So it's it's important. Prison ministry is a missionary field in our country, not outside our country, in our country. And because almost 70% of people in prison are one day gonna be released, I want to see as many people healed and whole and healthy as I can. And I'm praying, I pray I joined a partner with other ministries because I know I can't get to everybody myself. So uh that's very important. Now I understand that what he meant when he said that it's a matter of public safety. And so uh God is counting on us. He's counting on me. And I just wanted to whether God lead me, whatever door he opens for me, um, if I can fit through it, I might need to slam down a little bit to get through some holds. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:38

Man, Reggie, I I love your story. You're you're such an encouraging, inspiring person. We are bumping up against time a little bit. So there's there's a question I ask every man that comes on the podcast. Yes, sir. And I feel like you're gonna have an amazing answer.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:55

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:56

First Samuel 22, David. You know, he was in that moment where he was expecting one thing from his life, and now the king is trying to kill him. So he runs to the cave of Adulum. That was his place of refuge. While he was in that cave, the men of the kingdom were disgruntled, disheartened, discouraged, didn't know what to do next with their life. They came to David while he was in the cave. They ended up following David. David led them. They ended up becoming David's mighty men. Modern day. You got men in front of you who are disheartened, discouraged, disgruntled, looking for direction, looking for leadership, looking for guidance. What would you say to them?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:42

Man, I would encourage men, first of all, to get in the presence of God. To get in the presence of God. Just surrender your life to the Lord, get in the presence of God. It's so awesome. You chose one of my favorite things. Uh, but uh I I would encourage men to find a mentor, stay connected. A lot of times when we start to grow in Christ, we forget that we had need to be poured into, and we pour into people, and we become empty. Man, get connected, encounter Christ, get connected, and uh to to just stay to stay keep keep your heart humble and soft. Um I know for me, man, um I just uh I just I don't know, it's it's kind of tough for me. But uh yeah. I thought that'd be an easy question for me, but uh it's not. Um I I I don't I don't know. I I I I don't know for me, for me, I'm just grateful that uh every opportunity I get, I'm always praying that God will always keep somebody in my life that'll hold me accountable, who would uh always, always remind me to stay focused on what's important. Uh so who I surround myself with, who you surround yourself with is extremely important. Uh, I think that uh we become uh who uh we become like who we associate ourselves with, while I hold myself accountable and responsible for the crime that I committed. Looking back, it's no way. I mean, none of my family, friends, nobody would have thought that ever could have happened with me. And um, and for 18 years, uh I thought I blame everybody but myself. But I put myself in that position. I got it, I get it. But but I do know that when I surround myself uh with God-fearing men are people who have been further than I would. Some of my favorite people are people who've been doing prison ministry for 40 years. And so I get to see how they're doing it. I get to see, you know, I get to learn so much. Surround yourself with powerful men. Always don't be intimidated uh by if somebody is further along in their walk on their faith. I surround myself with stronger men because I want to become stronger. You use the story about David. David was the only man or was the first man who killed a giant.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:36

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:36

When we talk about the cave of Dulan and all the men that followed him, these men became giant killers. And uh so I would I would encourage you to surround yourself with people stronger than yourself, uh, to stay connected to these people and uh to stay in the presence of God. Amen. Um don't want to Moses, Moses was at This place where God was so frustrated with the people of God. And he told him, He said, I'm going to still send them into the promised land, but I'm not going to go. I'm going to send an angel before them. And the reason why I say the presence is so powerful, Moses made a decision right there. He said, if you don't go, I don't want to go. He said, if if you don't go into the promised land, I don't want to go in the promised land. I'd rather stay in the desert with you than to go into a promised land filled with uh uh filled with all of these beautiful things. I'd rather stay in the desert with you than go there. And so the God is so important. We have to stay in his presence. Whether that's spending time in prayer, meditation, reading the word, uh, we have to stay in his presence. So I just encourage men and women that's listening uh to stay connected, uh, to find someone who uh who you're not intimidated by who really love you and will pour into you, and just to stay in the presence of God.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:02

Good night. Reggie, thank you very much for coming on. We're um I know you have you have a website, the Brothers Keepers Ministry.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:10

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:11

Yeah. Is there anywhere else that people can connect with you? Um follow your journey or yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:18

Is is it possible? I don't know. Is it possible for me to send that to you? Because I don't have it in my head. For sure. Yeah, yeah. And I can send that to you. Yes, sir. Uh we do have Brothers Keepers uh Prison Ministry. Uh we have a web page set up. If you would like to partner with us in any kind of way, whether it be volunteering, praying for us. We need people praying for us all the time. Our 2026 calendar is ridiculous. It's full to the heat. So we're gonna need prayer more than anything. But if you would like to volunteer with us, you can go to the uh website and volunteer as well, or if you'd like to support us and partner with us through resources, it's there. We appreciate it. And uh yeah, so we do have it. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:03

Awesome. Reggie, I know we prayed before we started recording, but do you mind if I say a prayer for your ministry before we end? Perfect. Thank you so much. Jesus, thank you for your love, your grace, and your mercy, Lord. I pray, Lord, that you continue to bless Reggie and his ministry, Lord. I pray, Lord, that you send him the people that he needs to help his ministry thrive, and that he continues to reach men in prisons, men outside of prisons, people all over the country and all over the world, Lord. I know, Lord, he has a powerful story, and you use those stories and those testimonies to help advance the kingdom. You said, Lord, we overcome by the word of our testimony, and I know that Reggie's testimony is going to touch many people, and I thank you and I praise you, Lord, in your name. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:55

Amen. Amen. I appreciate it. I think I found it. So it's Brothers Keeper's Printish Prison Ministry at Gmail. Okay. And Brothers Keepers Prison Ministry at uh dot com.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:12

Okay. That'll alpha. I'll put I'll have that in the show notes as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:16

Yes, sir. Thank you so much, man. Thank you for your time and your patience. I know I can ramp.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:22

All right. You got a story that's worth listening to, so all right, brother. God bless you.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:28

Yes, sir. God bless. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:29

Reggie's story reminds us that freedom doesn't begin when our circumstances change. Freedom begins when Christ changes our hearts. Maybe you're listening to this today and you're carrying shame, bitterness, addiction, depression, or you just feel stuck. Let this episode remind you that God is not finished with you yet. You don't need to have perfect words. You don't need a polished prayer. Sometimes you just need to call on God and just four simple words. God, I need you. This episode and encourage you, please share it with another man who can get some value out of it. And if you haven't already and you've been listening to the podcast for a while, please take a second and hit the subscribe or follow button on whatever platform you're listening on. And I would love it, love it, love it if you would put me a review on whatever social platform you're following this on. If you're on YouTube, leave a comment below. Let me know what you thought of the episode. Did this did Reggie's testimony encourage you? Did it stir up emotion within you? Whatever. All the things. Just leave a comment below. And if you have any questions, you can reach out to me at the ValiantForge Podcast at gmail.com. If you're struggling with something, I'm here to help you. I don't have all the answers, but I will find the answers. So, with that, stay strong, stay valiant, keep forging your path, and be blessed.