They Said He’d Die in Prison… But God Had Other Plans (Testimony)

He was sentenced to three life sentences and was never supposed to be released.

For nearly 50 years, Bobby lived behind prison walls — violent, addicted, and known as one of “the worst of the worst.” But one encounter with Jesus changed everything.

In this powerful story, you’ll see how God transformed a hardened inmate into a man who led over 150 men to Christ… and how a small radio signal became a lifeline inside a prison cell.

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’ve gone too far or wasted too much time — this story is for you.

Transcript

Three life sentences and no way out — until there was

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I'm 68, and probably 50 of those years have been spent locked up. I was sentenced to three life sentences and two 30-year sentences, all stacked on top of one another. I was never supposed to be released from prison.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

That's a life most people would call over. And yet, today, Bobby is thriving with a wife, kids, grandkids, and he even owns his own business. But how?

SPEAKER_02 0:32

I remember one night being high and drunk and putting my hand in his face and shoving his head into a wall.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

How does a life that looked permanently ruined turn into a story of transformation?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

I don't think I've ever heard a transformation story like Bobby's.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Well, this isn't a story just about a guy that was in prison. This is a story about God and what he can do.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

All that hate and anger and resentment and stuff, it was just like it was washed clean.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

And if you've ever wondered if you've gone too far, if you've wasted too much time, if you've made too many mistakes, then let Bobby's story be a reminder to you that God's not done. Hey, I'm Bryce, and over the last 25 years here at Joy FM, there have been stories that sound impossible. Stories that only make sense if God was working behind the scenes the entire time. But this one, this one asks us a very deeply personal question. What if the part of your story that you're the most ashamed of is the very part that God wants to show up in?

The violence that shaped him

SPEAKER_02 1:44

I believe I was saved when I was a kid. Um, but I was never taught how to get in the Bible or to renew my mind. Didn't even know the concept about renewing my mind. And so I just kept living the way I knew how, you know. And um my father was a very violent person. I remember the last beating I got from him. If I wouldn't have got away from him that night, he would have definitely killed me. He had split my head open, my back open. Uh the very first lick that he gave me that night was kicking me in the face and putting my head to a wall. And um I hate I had such a hatred in my heart for my father. By the time I was 12, 13 years old, um, just felt like a total reject and an outcast everywhere I went and uh made a lot of bad decisions in my life. Put in jail, was in jail for two years before I was sentenced to three life sentences and two 30-year sentences, all stacked on top of one another. And uh the way the sentences were structured, I was never supposed to be released from prison. I tried to kill myself while I was in jail by hanging myself, and the guard just happened to be right walking by at that time and grabbed me by the legs and lifted me up until he got some help. And then again went in prison. I I don't know if anybody, I'm sure some of the listeners know what dilatas are. One of them will kill a hard core dopamine, and I shot four of them in my arm trying to kill myself again. And um, but here I sit today.

The man in prison he shoved into a wall

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Twelve years into my sentence, uh, there was a guy by the name of Paul. He reminds me of the Apostle Paul because of some stories I could tell about his life. Uh, he was only about five foot one, five foot two, but he was fearless when it comes to the things of God. And he came to me a couple of times trying to share about the Lord with me. And I remember one night being high and drunk and putting my hand in his face and shoving his head into a wall and told him to get away from me. I didn't want to hear it. I didn't want to hear all that. But it was like a week later he he walked up on me again, no fear. And I think the thing that attracted me to him most was he showed no fear of me, and I was one of the I had a bad reputation in prison. But more than that, there was no animosity or or or anger toward me for what I for what I had done to him. And um he said, Bobby, he said, uh, I know you don't want to hear what I've got to say about Jesus. He said, but I won't quit. He said, because God's uh called me to share the gospel, and he said, uh he just places you on my heart a lot. And

The prayer that changed everything in a month and a half

SPEAKER_02 5:10

believe it or not, I started crying and uh I didn't really want nobody to see it, but I started crying and I just rejected him and ran to my cell and slammed the door and started bawling like a baby. And and it was just, I don't know, an hour or two into like crying like a baby. I I just said, Jesus, I'm so tired of this. I don't, I don't want to live no more. I said, but if you can take my life and do something with it, please do. And within like a month and a half, God delivered me from drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, pornography, all the anger, the hate, the resentment, the bitterness that had been bottled up in me for years, my entire life. Um it was just like a cleansing took place on the inside of me. And um all that hate and anger and resentment and stuff, it was just like it was washed clean. It was like I went from being one of the hardest guys in prison to being one of the softest ones in prison. From that went to going out on the yard and praying with people, and I probably had the opportunity over a 12-year period to lead, I don't know, probably 100 to 150 men to the Lord because they knew the old me versus the new me. And it wasn't without, it wasn't without uh trials, and I mean big trials, because when you when you're known in prison as being one of the hard ones, and then all of a sudden you change up and everything, some of the weaker ones they want to get a reputation for them by trying to make you look bad. So it wasn't without its challenges, but um it just it couldn't, I I the word of God became like my necessity. I couldn't live without it. I I just absorbed it. I read through. Now what we're talking about somebody that couldn't even hardly read. And I read through the Bible probably three times in a year.

How he kept his faith when prison made him a target for it

SPEAKER_01 7:30

I just can't get over the fact that what God did in Bobby's life, it didn't just change him, it changed so many men that were watching him. 150 men gave their lives to Christ. And the craziest part about this is this isn't something that's happening in a church setting. This is happening in a prison yard. Changing your identity in prison, it will cost you. So, what kept him steady? What kept his fire alive when the pressure came?

SPEAKER_02 8:02

I don't remember the exact year that I first heard Joy FM on the radio. I happened up on it by by circumstance, accident, whatever. But from the very first song, it was like a breath of fresh air, is the best way I can say it. I can remember so many times uh when I was locked up in 5C behind the walls in a cell by myself, I'd have to take that little radio and get up in certain corners of the cell to be able to draw the signal and just sit there sometimes and hold it for an hour or so just listening to the music or find a way to try to hang it from the window or something just so you could keep the signal coming in. Because you didn't have that kind of encouragement in there, you know, on a regular. So um you do anything you could to try to keep it coming in. Yeah, it took you away from the mess in there. And I mean, you gotta you gotta understand that you're in there with the worst of the worst of the worst. It was a lifeline to me. There's no question about it.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Now, if you didn't hear the story

The signal that wasn't supposed to reach St. Louis

SPEAKER_01 9:12

that we released just a couple of weeks ago, you need to hear that story too after this. But we talk about how Joy FM didn't start on the signal that we're on right now. It started when we purchased the first signal that came available, which was 97.7. 97.7 was about an hour outside of St. Louis, and it didn't reach most of the St. Louis area. So in our minds, 97.7 was inferior. But it's becoming clear that God had a bigger plan. Did you know that 97.7 reached into some areas that prisons were in?

SPEAKER_00 9:48

No, not until it never occurred to us. 97.7 in our minds was an inferior way to reach St. Louis. It barely got into St. Louis. And so our our view of the signal was yes, it reaches south of St. Louis, but it never occurred to us until we started hearing from people who were in Potosi, Farmington, Bontaire, that wow. Um honestly, it felt like it got orchestrated. That if I were trying to start a radio station to reach all of St. Louis, I don't know that I would have picked 977. But if I were wanting to reach people who got into heart for in prison, there was no better signal because it was the only signal that could get into those

Why Bobby kept spending his prison wages on phone time to JOY FM

SPEAKER_00 10:32

facilities.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Was a radio something that you had access to?

SPEAKER_02 10:36

You had to get them the you had they had jobs in there to where uh uh I can't remember how they're worded, but like state jobs would pay like seven dollars and fifty cents a month. And then there was industry jobs to were whether it was the furniture factory, the plate plant or whatever, and you could make up to s anywhere from fifty to a hundred dollars a month working at those places, but normally I didn't because of my violent history the first few years I was in, they wouldn't let me work in those places. I mean finances was really, really hard to come by in there. You've got to buy your own radio, your own TV, whatever the case is.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Seven dollars and fifty cents a month. That was his month's wages. So when he chose to spend that on a radio, it wasn't just a big investment. It was a lifeline for him. And eventually, just listening inside his cell, it just wasn't enough for Bobby. He felt like he wanted more, he wanted a connection.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Well, we were on uh we'd have to buy these little phone cards and or time on the phone. And um, I was in prison probably 20 years before I got my first visit, before somebody ever come to visit me. And um, but the little money that I'd get from home, and it would it would always be my mom, she was the only one, but it wouldn't be much, it'd be $20 about every six months or something like that. But I'd always spend my money on on the phone time. Um I remember talking to Sandy several times.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Do you remember? He he talked about how he would call in to Joy FM. What were you doing at Joy FM at that time? And do you remember him calling in?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

When Joy FM first came on the air on 97 7, I not only did mornings, but I did the noon hour. And occasionally, but with frequency, we would get calls from a correctional center in Missouri. Every time I was just struck by the reminder that God's using Joy FM in places we didn't realize, right? He shared while not while I didn't know why he was in prison. I he did share that he didn't think he was ever going to get out. And then he would share why he wanted to hear a particular song, and then he would always say something to try to encourage me. And I'm like, wait a minute, I'm encouraging you.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

Um the Spirit of God would prompt me to say certain things at certain times to encourage the listeners to know that even in your worst situation, I'm reminded of the story of Paul where he was in prison, but the conditions that he was in was a hundred times worse than anything I've ever been through. But he kept his joy. And um he uh he and that was that was something I just wanted to try to you would hear people sharing their stories about struggling and so on and so forth, and so it it was my way of trying to say that even in a a very, very dark situation you can you can still have the joy of the Lord and and um and live in victory because I was living in it.

What 30 years locked up looks like on the other side

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Um three years before Bobby was released, he met with the parole commissioner who acknowledged the change they saw in him since he gave his life to Christ 15 years prior. They also told him that if he continued on that same path in three years, they would consider his release. Bobby met with several people and organizations who evaluated him, and he was released after serving 30 years to the day. Bobby told us about how Joy FM was like family to him, and he did end up getting out of prison. Did you do you remember like finding out that he had gotten out? Did he call you and tell you that?

SPEAKER_00 14:51

He c he called, I believe I found out. I mean, I I want to say he called to let us know he was going to be getting out. And we had a conversation that I recollect having about well, well, now what's next? And he shared that he was gonna be staying in St. Louis, um, trying to get some traction in his life. And like, uh I don't I don't think I've ever heard a transformation story like Bobby's. Only God can do that.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

A signal that you felt was inferior at the time led to one of the most powerful transformation stories you've ever seen.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

It's why our ministry hasn't sold that signal. Um it's not needed to reach St. Louis. Uh oh. We have bigger signals to do that, but our board um will not sell that signal for that reason.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

I honestly don't think that I knew that we still had that signal.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

We do.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Simply because it reaches into prisons.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Yes. Boost is on it now, our sister station. Um, a very effective way to reach a demographic of largely men who um have a history, maybe that that music was part of their story. Our our thought was if the Lord gave that signal for that purpose until he tells us that his heart has changed toward prisoners, like there's no amount of money. Like w we would sell that station and get money. No, we're we're gonna trust him for them to provide, and we're gonna continue to use that signal um to reach people that his word tells us he has a heart to reach, and that by the way, we're supposed to have a heart and reach, right? The orphans, the widows, the prisoners.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

So you count how many times I was in and out of jail. I'm 68, and probably 50 of those years have been spent locked up. So just for me to sit here telling this story is a miracle in and of itself, I believe with all my heart, and a testament to how if you'll just keep your eyes on God no matter how hard it gets, he's gonna bring you through.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Miracles are happening all around us, which is why we're calling this series stories only God Could Write. You just heard about what God did with 97.7. But to even be doing ministry on that signal was a miracle in and of itself. God orchestrated something that seemed so impossible and he made it possible. To watch that video, click here and make sure you subscribe so that you don't miss a thing.