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My name is Kennith “Pete” Williams. I grew up in a housing project in Birmingham, Alabama. There was a lot of hate there, but there was also a lot of good. We had our own little church where all the kids went to Sunday School. My mother and father did their best to instill me with good values, and for the first few years of my life I was a quiet kid who stayed out of trouble. By the time I was twelve, however, I had begun drinking and taking drugs. It would be a long time before I finally realized the power the drugs and alcohol – and the devil – had over my words and actions during those years. At seventeen, I was doing heroin and really on my way to a life of hell. A few months later, I was kicked out of school, and joined the Navy. My drug habit worsened, and I stayed in trouble. Although I managed to make it out of the Navy with an honorable discharge, the god of this world had blinded my mind (I Corinthians 4:4). After my discharge, I started stealing and robbing – doing anything I could to relieve the sickness and pain the drugs put on me. Soon I began robbing to support my habit. Finally, I was arrested in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi and put into jail. I was almost relieved, thinking I would at least get some help with my drug problem. But I was wrong. I was charged with several robberies and sentenced to a total of one-hundred and five years for four of them and was facing two life sentences without parole. In November of 1979, I went to prison for the first time in my life. If my life had been bad before, it was really a nightmare now. That first year in prison, I tried to get off the drugs. For a while, I did okay. But the devil kept whispering, “You can do them just once or even every now and then. It’ll be okay.” Of course that was a lie, and soon I was using drugs more than ever. I was moved to a different unit within the prison. A few nights later, I saw some men gathering into a group. I figured there was going to be a fight. After a while, they all started to look over at me. Then one of them walked over and asked if I would like to come pray with them. I told him to get out of my face, or there really was going to be a fight! I told him I didn’t need God, that I was going to die in this place. Of course, that was just what the devil wanted me to believe. Night after night the same thing happened: One man would come over to my bed and tell me Jesus loved me. Then he would go and kneel down by his bed. I knew he was praying for me, and I wanted to kill him. Then one night as I lay on my bed, a strange thing happened. God began to convict me of all the bad things I had done in my life. And I realized the pain and suffering I’d been through wouldn’t begin to compare with what was ahead of me if I didn’t make some changes, and make them quickly. That night, in February of 1986, I asked the Lord to forgive me and to come into my life. And He did! He delivered me from drugs and helped me start all over again. “If any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come (II Cor. 5:17).” I started studying God’s Word and singing in our prison chapel services. And I began sharing what the Lord had done for me with the other inmates and saw Him work in their lives too. While I was there in prison, I completed almost six years of Biblical studies. Slowly the Lord restored my life, and in February of 1996 I was released, having served almost 17 years in prison. There have been some tough times. It isn’t easy adjusting to the “free world” and starting all over again after you’ve been locked up for so many years. But God has always been right there beside me. My first real job was with a painting company. By June of 1996, I owned the company. Seven months later, God called me into a prison ministry. Although you are not usually allowed to minister in the prisons of Mississippi unless you have been out for a number of years, I was given special permission to do a service once a month. Now we are conducting 14 prison meetings each month in the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility and in prisons around the United States, plus speaking in churches and sharing my testimony in the drug awareness programs in schools. Wherever and whenever God opens the door, I’m there to tell others they, too, can be delivered and set free by His love and grace and power. The Bible says, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed (John 8:36).” I thank the Lord for taking away the drugs and setting me free. It is only now that I have Jesus that I have really begun to enjoy life. He told us this is the reason He came, that we “might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).” If you are bound by drugs or alcohol or lost in sin and think there is no way out, believe me, Jesus is the way! He said, “I am the WAY, and the TRUTH and the LIFE…(John 14:6).” Whatever your problem, He is waiting to set you free! Call on Him today, and pray this prayer, as I did there in my prison cell: “Lord Jesus, I am a sinner in need of a Savior. I’m truly sorry for my sins. I believe You are the Son of God, and that You died for me that I might have a new life in You. Please forgive me now, and help me start all over again.” If you mean that with all your heart, you are born again, and Jesus is your Lord. I’d love to hear from you! Please drop me a line. If you would like a copy of this Testimony or Kenny Pete Williams complete testimony you can order it from our Online Contribution page for any donation of $5.00 or more for tape or C.D. and $10.00 or more for video or DVD put in the places What prompted you to respond today?. Put Tape or C.D or Video or DVD. God Bless you as you Give to help us go into the Prison.
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