"Addiction, Prison and a Prayer: The Day Everything Changed" ft. Salvador Torres

The Transformative Journey of Salvador Torres:

In this compelling episode of the From Wrong to Strong podcast, host Omar Calvillo sits down with Salvador Torres to uncover his powerful story of addiction, redemption, and transformation. Salvador shares the depths of his heroin addiction, including the dangerous extremes he went to, the spiritual awakening that began in a prison cell, and his newfound purpose in Christ. From overcoming his heroin addiction to becoming an evangelist and fitness coach, Salvador's journey is a testament to the power of faith, discipline, and perseverance. Tune in to learn how Salvador broke free from his past and now inspires others through Chicago Evangelism and his faith-based fitness program, Virile Virtue Fitness.

https://virilevirtue.com/

https://www.facebook.com/salvador.torres.908579

Transcript

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I get to the point that I was so bad, so hopeless that I would go in front of the mirror. I would hold my breath until my jugular vein popped out, and I would pump my jugular vein filled with heroin. That's how bad the addiction got because I didn't care if I died, right? I, I didn't care if I OD'ed off the drugs. It. Honestly, if I OD'ed, it'd put me outta my misery, right? And so that's how bad it got for me. The reason I started shooting in the neck was because I remember the woman, I remember her doing it shooting up in her neck, and then I remember she just like starts convulsing, like kills over and she starts convulsing it. And I remember thinking to myself. She's gonna die, she's gonna OD on. I was so far gone in the criminal lifestyle that like I wasn't even worried about her health or her life. Like the only thing I was worried about was that I was on parole and that I was gonna be in the presence of somebody who possibly OD'ed. Right? So I'm like shaking her, like to try to snap out of it. And I grabbed like some water and I poured it on her and then she finally snaps out of it. And I look at her and I'm like, are you okay? And she's like. That was effing great. Those were her words. She was like, that's, that was effing great. And I remember looking at her and I remember thinking like, I wanna get that high, you know? From the city of Chicago, a city most recently known for its crime and violence from this podcast. We will be sharing stories of redemption from individuals raised in the tough streets of Chicago and from around the country. Some of them were gang members, drug dealers, incarcerated victims, and perpetrators of violence. Listen to my guests as they share their experiences, struggles, trauma, but also the strength, hope, faith, and perseverance these have developed in them to keep pushing and moving forward in life. Tune in to hear how their lives have gone, from darkness to light, and from wrong to strong. Hello everyone and welcome to another episode From Wrong to Strong podcast. Uh, been off, took two months off, uh, all of July and then going into August, uh, actually June, from June to all of July, you know, to early August. Took two months off. Uh, basically spending time with the, with the wife, the kids, but at, at the same time just praying, planning, reorganizing. Uh, during these two months, uh, I, uh, we launch a, a website, so I just wanted to share that if you guys haven't checked it out from wrong to strong, do OR go under, you know, we got all our, our social media links under. And if you go on there, if you leave us a review, a comment, send us an email, I will, what I wanna start doing is getting feedback of how this podcast has been maybe helping you, uh, giving you hope. You know, maybe there's a testimony that's spoken to you. You know, leave us a comment, send us an email. What I wanna do is I'll post your comments on the website. So I wanna start putting, like, the feedback on there just to share. Uh, so I wanna thank all the listeners, those that have been supporting us, you know, we're two and a half years, uh, going in this. And we're just continue to grow. There's some, some plans in the work of what we're gonna do with this as to officially turning it into a ministry, but that's all, like, behind the scenes right now is not official, but once it gets official, I wanna announce that. Uh, but, uh, man, that the, the heart of this podcast is basically is ministry. Uh, what we want do, uh, on this platform is share testimonial. Of, of redemption and point people to Christ through the stories that are being shared on here. Uh, so, so tonight I got my guest, his name is Salvador Torres. I met this brother, had to be maybe a month and a half ago. Uh, we were at a new life center. They put together what they call, I believe it was like an entrepreneurship program, correct? Like a. So we went there. You know, I went there just to get some information. I met this brother there. I met a few brothers out there. You know, we exchanged information. He shared a little bit of his testimony over there. But welcome to the podcast, brother. Hey brother. Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here. I love the work that you're doing. Heard about this broadcast before, actually know a couple brothers who have done it. You know, so it was just, it was by the grace of God that we met at that, uh, at that, uh, entrepreneur program. You know, God put us together and so, so here we are. Amen. Amen. It was more than business, man. It was a kingdom business that we wouldn't kingdom the best business. That's right, man. That's right. The best business. I think as a Christian, all business should be kingdom business, right? That's right. That's right. Amen. Everything. That's what we're called to do, brother. That's what we are called to do. You, you know what you, you bring up something good. You know, a lot of people think there's like a distinction. Between like the sacred in a sense, you know, quote unquote the sacred and the, and the, uh, secular work. But nah, God's everywhere. You know? Like you, you could be working for God and be working a regular job. A lot of people think, man, I'm, I'm gonna leave my job. I'm gonna go full time, you know, to pastoral or this and that. Mm-hmm. But man, you, you could be serving God in whatever role it is in the office. And, uh. You know, in the shop and be, man, be serving the, serving the king, right? 100%. 100%. I say it all the time. Your faith is not private. Your faith is never private. It's always public, right? It should always be on display. Because you're a Christian, then you're centered in God's truth. When you're centered in God's truth, it affects every area of your life, every area of your life. That's why, uh, Galatians two 20 says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live. I live for Christ who loves me and died for me. Amen. And so that means now you're on mission. It's funny'cause we were doing bible study yesterday, uh, at a barbershop of all places. That's, we'll get into that later. Amen. Hopefully. Um, but I was telling the guys that, and I said, look, you know, the way you look at the world is through a Christian lens. Now that you're a Christian, everything that you look at in the world is affected by your Christian worldview, right? Because that's what guides us. The gospel guides us. Truth guides us. Some of us took the long road to Christ, right? And so coming to Christ later in life, it's like, uh, you have to. Learn everything all over again. You have to leave everything. The streets taught you, everything the guys taught you prison taught you even your own family, right? If you come from a family with, you know, a broken home and whatnot, you know, and when you come to Christ, it's like it's learned behavior. Paul talks about that. I believe it's at the end of Philippians, right? He tells them, um, to imitate. What he's done and the way he acted. Right. Because you have to, you have to learn how to put on the righteousness of Christ. Amen. I, I, I I think that's where Paul says, follow me as I follow him. Mm-hmm. Right. That's, I if it's, I dunno if it's in that book or not, but I love that scripture, man. So basically. If I were to follow you, who would you lead me to? You know, that's a question that you, you guys should be asking yourself 100 as believers. You know, if people were to begin to follow you, would you be leading them to Christ? Or something to think about. But, uh, you know what? We're gonna get there, obviously. That's what, yeah, we're already, we're back deep. We're already at the end, man. We even did introductions. Hey, speaking of introductions, man, let's, let's go to the beginning, man. Usually I like to start in the beginning. Basically to the childhood. Uh, so can you tell us, you know, where, where, where did you grow up, what city, what neighborhood, and, and could you describe that? Like your early years for people that maybe, uh, n never been there? Yeah. Yeah, 100%. You know, first of all, my name is Salvador. I am an evangelist to Christ the King founder, and CEO of Vero Virtue Fitness, and also known on social media as the fit Christian Dad. I had to throw that in there. Oh yeah. You're gonna have to do some, uh, pushups or something that I feel like I should have. I feel like I should have got right here and did a couple pushups. Or at least flexed a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe at the end when it's all said and done, man, just to make sure, close it out. Yeah, we'll close it out that way. Make sure you're practicing what you're preaching, you know, now. But go ahead, brother Yoki, tell us about those early years, like growing up and what, what area did you grow up? Yeah, 100%. Born and raised here in Chicago, south side of Chicago. You know, always. White Sox fan. Oh man. It is funny'cause I always say even last year when you know the, the Sox didn't place the best last year. Right. I don't wanna say where they placed or what their record was. Let's just say they didn't place the best, right? And so what I tell people, I said, Hey, there's two things I'm not ashamed of. Romans one 16 says, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God onto salvation. I'm not ashamed of that, and I'm not ashamed to wear my white socks hat no matter how bad they were last year. You know what's crazy? I, I was talking to, I, I, man, hey, I gotta throw it out there. Hardcore Cubs fan. Oh, been a Cubs fan my whole life, but, but check this out, right? So I, I got saved, uh, October 26th, 2004. That's the day that man, he touched me talking about 2004. 2004, okay. October 26th, 2004, right? So I was talking to my coworker, he's a hardcore socks fan today, right? And I told him, man, you know what's crazy? On October 26th. 2005 on my one year anniversary, the White Sox won the World Series. That was a good day. And, and, and, and, and I was thinking like, man, when I was talking to God, a guy, man, let, man, let, let a World Series come to Chicago. And he, he granted my prayer, but you know what it was, I forgot. There was another team in Chicago, man. So just the wrong side. So I told him like, man, come on man. It was supposed to be the cuss, but 11 years later we got one too. So, but uh, yeah, you did. But anyways, back. Going back. Okay. South side, uh, you growing up, how, how, how, how was life for you like growing up? Uh, a mom and dad in the picture, brother sisters. Yeah. So we grew up, I got two brothers, one older, uh, one younger. I was the middle child. Did they say the middle child's the deprived child? Right. Because the oldest always gets everything first. Then the young one's the baby. So the middle child kind of just gets lost in the middle there. Right. Uh, but yeah, grew up, we was born in back of the yards neighborhood there. Uh, until I was about five, six years old. Then we moved over to Gage Park. Gage Park area, predominantly Hispanic, uh, community there. Um, so spent my, my. Teenage years growing up there. You know, I say, I always say I was, as a kid, I always say I was, I was a big nerd that Satan led astray, but the Lord brought me back. Hmm. Right? Like while most kids was, was out, you know, playing and stuff. I was, I was overweight, I was kind of sickly. I always had a runny nose going, you know, I always had. Bro, bronchitis issues, you know, so I just, I love to read, bro, you know, ever since a little kid I had like this awe and wonder about the world, right? The Bible talks about, uh, looking up at the skies and seeing the hand of God, right? And so, like, I just had this curiosity about the world. And so like, I wasn't good at sports, so I spent a lot of time just reading, bro, reading books. You know, whatever I could get my hands on, right? I was, I was, I was the kid. You remember Walden books? I dunno if you, you're about my age. Remember Walden books? Walden books was the store that they used to have in, in the mall, right? And so when we would go to the mall, uh uh, normal kids go to the toy store, right? That's where normal kids, they would go to KB Toy store or something, not me. You'd find me at the bookstore, bro, because I just wanted love to read. And I loved it. My mom would buy me books and, you know, I would go home and I would read'em and my mom would be like, man, you better not be reading that whole book'cause I'm not going to buy you another one idea until next week. Right. Idea. You know? And just because I was just, you know, I, I wanted to know more. I had I that oh, and wonder about the world, but. You know, little by little living in the south side of Chicago kind of chipped away at that, right? Seeing, you know, gang violence in the street, you know, seeing murder, chaos, mayhem, you know, and so like that awe and curiosity, kind of like slowly. Started to, to dwindle, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. Like, okay. So in, in those younger years, it, it did, did you get that from anybody like that reading? Anybody in your family, mom, dad that loved to read as well, or that just came from you? Like, I think it was my brother. My, I just, I remember my brother could draw bro. Like, he was just great at drawing and I couldn't draw. Worth a lick, bro. Like I couldn't draw. Stick figure. Not like I had that talent. Like God did not give me that bro. You know? He didn't gimme that. So I guess I, I couldn't draw. I wasn't creative. I was sick and overweight. You know, and so like, I couldn't play sports really too much. So I, I think like I just, I just gravitated towards the books, you know? I think that's just how I ended up there. But, you know, the curiosity and the wonder and the storytelling. You know, I, I, I always say there's a, there's a verse in Ecclesiastes chapter three. Um, it says, uh, he has set eternity in our hearts. Speaking of God has placed eternity in our hearts. And so there's an. Awe and a wonder about God. And so, um, I always tell people everyone's searching for God, right? Even when you was in sin, you were searching for God. You were just looking for him in the wrong places, right? And, uh, I think it's, uh, Augustine, Saint Augustine says, say, uh, that our hearts are restless until we get back our relationship with God. Right. So you're, you're always searching for God, right? It's funny, it brings me to a joke right from the movie Forrest Gump. You ever seen Forrest Gump? Oh, yeah, yeah. I love it. Uh, uh, there's a part in Forrest Gump where Lieutenant Dan tells Forrest Gump. He says, he says, Hey, Forrest, have you found Jesus yet? Forrest Gump goes, I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for him, sir. That was my Forrest Gump impression right there, not that good. But the point there is that we're all looking for Jesus, right? We're all looking for him in one way or another, and when we find him, we know we've found what we're looking for in a sense. Yeah, that makes sense. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, definitely, man. Okay, so that's your younger years, let's say like teenage years. What does anything begin to change during those years? Yeah. You know, so when I hit, I say when I, when I got to high school, you know, kind of everything kind of took a shift for the worst, I would say. I was, uh, I lost four friends that year, my freshman year to gun violence from the streets, you know, and so that, that took a big toll on me, you know, losing four friends my freshman year, uh, to gun violence, you know. Um, and so like. I slowly began to find myself gravitating towards the street life, and you know, I always say in, in the hood. Like, we didn't have role models, you know, like, we, like who did, who do we look up to as a Hispanic community? Like actors or, or athletes, right? But we never had like, like business owners or ceo, at least back then, you know, now there's, you know, things are changing. We're picking up more recognition, uh, making a bigger impact on society as Latinos as a whole. Praise God for that. Um, but. Not to get sidetracked too much, but let me just say this, right? So I, when, when we preach, and we haven't even gotten into the whole evangelism ministry yet, you know, but when, when we, I do street preaching, uh, and when I go preach, I, I wear a shirt and a tie, right? And people are always like, oh man, why do you wear the shirt and tie? I am like, well, because I wanna look professional, because I'm preaching the word of God, right? That's important to me. Right. And second of all is because as a kid in the hood, I never saw any adult going to work wearing a suit and tie. You know, it was always like the work uniform, you know, construction workers, whatever trade, you know. But I, in the hood, I, I never saw anybody going to work in a suit and tie, carrying a briefcase or none of that. You, you're in line, man. You know? Yeah. Yeah. And so for me it's like, hey, you know, there's, there's, there's, there's more places for us, you know, to, to advance ourselves, you know, and, and, and, and preach in the gospel is, is, is, is kingdom business like we talked about. Right? Right. And so when I preach, I, I wanna go out and I, I wanna look professional, uh, when I do it. Amen. Amen. Yeah. Let's go back to before you, you, you wanted to preach. Yeah. So, okay. Teenage years, you see the gun violence. Yeah. Now, does that, does that lead you maybe to want to be more out there in the streets or what, what, what, what happens after that? Yeah. That, you know, my, my, the, my home life wasn't the greatest, you know, coming from like, uh, Latino background, you know, where. Heavy drinkers and you know, that runs deep. It's deep in my family and whatnot, you know, so little by little I found myself kind of gravitating towards the streets. And then, okay, so now I go, going back to the point I was making now, I remember why I was making that point, right? Uh, because of the fact that as a kid, as, as a freshman in high school. Who had the girls, right? This just, there was just, you know, I, I was attracted to, to girls, right? Like I thing young, adolescent, teen, you know, and, you know, I was kind of sickly and kind of, you know, overweight, you know, I needed some credibility, right? And so I started to hanging around with, you know, the guys that were involved with gangs and stuff and, you know, uh. Finding myself being sexually immoral at a young age, really kind, was just like, just nailed it for me, you know? And I, and so like I remember being in school one day. And, uh, there was like a recruiter there for, for the Air Force, right? And so I remember because I told you I had this awe and wonder about the world, and, you know, I, I wanted to travel the world, see the world. I was big into like science and astronomy, you know, a lot of the stuff I read was about astronomy. So I see this Air Force recruiter and I'm like, let me go up to that. Hey, he's like. He's like, Hey, you wanna join the Air Force on? And I'm like, yeah, I wanna be an astronaut, you know? And here I am a freshman. Hopes, dreams, you know? And he looks at me and he's just like, well, how about we just start you off working at a desk or something like that? And that just crushed me. No way for. It crushed me, bro. You know, because I'm just like, here I am, the, the little bit of hope to make it out the hood. Gotcha. Right. To do something with my life, you know, that didn't end up still in the streets, you know, he just, he just crushed it, bro. That's crazy how the words, the power words, right? Yeah. You know, and, and so it's that, that's around the time. Like I said, I became sexually immoral and then the streets just, you know, it became a common thing, you know, like I said, uh, being home, you know, my parents weren't really overly uh, strict, you know, so we kind of just ended up being on the streets. So at least I did, you know, at least I did, you know, and, and, and that's what led me down the path towards. Towards gangs, towards, towards crime, although like the criminal aspect doesn't come till later, you know? Gotcha. At least the, the deep, the deeper part of that. Gotcha. You know, so, so, so what was that progression that eventually leads. To that, like, uh, I, I know you mentioned a lot, a lot of drinking in the family. Did, did that, um, become part of your life? Drinking? Yes. Did, did the drinking lead to anything else? Oh, 100%. You know, so it all tied in together, the, the being sexually immoral, uh, drinking, say marijuana, although I wouldn't say marijuana. I mean, I guess I smoked marijuana'cause everybody else was smoking it. You know, I never really found it to be like. My drug of choice that came later, you know? Um, but yeah, mostly just that, mostly just out drinking, hanging with the guys, doing dumb things, you know, uh, scrape through. Through high school. Barely, barely made it through high school. Actually graduated like, uh, uh, in summer school. You know, graduated in summer. But you graduated? Yeah, I graduated in summer school. I took pe, I took PE in summer school, physical education to, to get you over to Hump, to give me those little credits to get me over to Hump. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, I graduated high school. I ended up catching, you know, a case. And I'm just like, this is right after nine 11 had just happened. I'm showing my age. I'm showing my age here. This was right after nine 11, right? And so, uh, like I said earlier, you know, we're all searching for God, right? We're all searching for that purpose. And so, you know, as a kid, my curiosity about World, of the World, you know, diminished that Air Force recruiter, God bless him, Lord have mercy on his soul. That Air Force recruiter really crushed it for me, you know? Uh, and so the nine 11 happened, if you remember, you know, the, the attacks, uh, on the Twin Towers. And everybody was like, you know, standing together and unity and I was just like, man, you know, I wanna do something for my country. You know, I, I wanna join the military. And, and so that's what I did. That was like my escape because I knew like if I stayed in Chicago then I was just gonna like, continue down this path. End up locked up, uh, in prison or dead. And so like, I, I made the decision. So, so, so that case you mentioned you caught a case. Yeah. Now, did you beat it that you were able to join the military or what happened? It got thrown out. Got it. It ended up getting thrown out. Got it. And so then I was just like, I caught a blessing there. Yeah. You know, not a blessing. I wasn't a Christian. I was lucky. Right. Yeah. Or mercy. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And so, and so, I ended up just like, man, I gotta do something. I gotta get up outta here, you know? And so I, I joined, I joined the military. I joined the Marine Corps. Okay. Yeah. How was that experience for you in the Oh, it was an eyeopening. It was an eyeopening experience, you know, it's like, uh. I, I, I say the military will teach you how to be a man. It'll teach you discipline, it'll teach you self-control. But it won't give you your purpose. Only Christ can, only Christ can give you your purpose. Right. So everything I was searching for in the military, my military career, it was brief, very brief. Right? I ended up getting kicked out the military, um, for misconduct, right? And ended up right back in Chicago. Two years later, in 2004, I get kicked outta the military and then I'm, I'm right back in Chicago, right back in the position where I was before I left. Right. If you don't mind me asking, what was that? Misconduct, uh, fighting, you know, I ended up fighting with a superior officer when it was just, uh, ended up with a, other than honorable discharge, you know? Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, I don't talk much about. My military experience was just for the fact that like, after I got kicked out, my unit ended up getting deployed to Iraq, you know, and we lost some guys there. And so like, I still feel some type of way about that. Like, I, like I let them down because, you know, you're a band of brothers when you're in the military. How, how long had you been with these guys? Like before you got up? Uh, two and a half years, man. Yeah. That's, that's a nice wow man to be building that bond, the relationship. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so, you know, I, I found myself just, I felt like I let them down, you know? And so that's kind like, why, you know, even to this day, like, I, I kind of joke, just brush over that part of my life too much because I, I, I know God had more plans for me. Right, right. I'm not like, uh, you know, here, um, regretting anything because I know this was God's plan for my life. Right. Uh, but, but yeah, the military taught me a lot. You know, I'm glad of the years that I, that I served there. Uh, you know, and, and, and maybe one day I can get my other than honorable turned into an honorable discharge. I mean, you're gonna get it from him, so, that's right. Well done. Well done. Good and faithful servant. There you go, man. That's right. That'll be better than the other one, but, okay. So you come back to Chicago? Yeah. And then how, how, how does life look for you once you're back? So I get back to Chicago and I'm just like, all right, what? You know, let me just find the job, kinda settle back in and I guess I, I pick up where I left off, but it takes just a drastic. Turn for the worst. Right. I'm like, I'm back in my addiction. I'm, I'm depressed, you know, I, I'm, I'm hopeless. You know, I'm just like, why am I alive now? Now, addiction at this point, is it just alcohol and weed still, or, yeah, it's just alcohol. Okay. Right. It's just alcohol at this point. Gotcha. I had kind of left the weed,'cause I never really was a big fan, so I'm just drinking heavily, you know, and just like. Unhappy with life, unhappy with my situation, you know? And then, uh, I ended up getting like a random job, and that's where I got introduced to heroin. One of my coworkers, um, asked me one day after work like, Hey, can you, can you gimme a ride somewhere? Right? And so. Sure. I ain't got nothing else to do. Right. But, but get drunk. Right. And so, like, uh, I took him and come to find out, you know, he was, he was snorting heroin, you know, and I remember, you know, him asking me like, Hey, you want some? And like, the first time or the second time, I, I was like, no, I'm good. You know? But like the third time giving him a ride to his, his connect, I was just like. Okay. You know, let me, let me give it a shot. You know,'cause the alcohol wasn't doing it no more for me. The alcohol wasn't doing it no more for me. And so, you know, I, I snorted heroin for the first time. I say, I say instantly I was addicted. I was an instant dope fiend. Like right away. Like I knew that was my drug of choice. I said earlier, I said, uh, marijuana didn't like it too much. Alcohol wasn't doing it. But as soon as I, as soon as I snorted that line of heroin, like I knew that that, that, that monkey, that gorilla got jumped on my back and it never let me go. What, what, what was it that you felt that you knew this, uh, it numbed me. It numbed me to the pain of a hopeless, meaningless existence. Right? There's a verse in Ecclesiastes where he says, meaningless. Meaningless. Everything is meaningless, like chasing after the wind, right? And, and so that's what. That's what life is if you don't have God in the picture, right? So in the Book of Ecclesiastes, he's taken the position of the skeptic, right? He's the skeptic. And so he says that meaningless. Meaningless, everything is meaningless, right? It's like a puff of smoke, like vapor in the wind. It's pointless, right? Like chasing after the wind, you can't chase after the wind, right? And so the position that that book takes is of someone. Life being hopeless and void of meaning if God's not there, right? Because ulti, ultimately, if there isn't a God, then life is an exercise in futility, right? It's hopeless, right? And so. For us as Christians, we have that hope, right? It anchors us. It grounds us in reality, and it, it, it gives us, it gives us, uh, assurance of, uh, strengthens our faith as we walk the walk, right? Uh, but if you don't have that hope, then you, you don't feel the presence of God. You don't have hope or what, what do you turn to? Right? Because if, if God said eternity in your heart, if he did. The Bible says so. Amen. And you don't have it. You, you don't have God. Well, you're still gonna look for it everywhere. You're gonna look for it in power. You're gonna look for it in wealth, you're gonna look for it in, in drugs, mind altering substances. You're gonna look for it in relationships, right? Wherever you can find purpose and meaning that that's where you're gonna, that's where you're gonna look for it, right? And so me. Without God, without hope, without purpose. Searching for something, searching for something, you know, I found the heroine and like it took it all away, like it took all the pain away. It numbed me to a meaningless existence, right? It gave me an exit, right? Because I didn't feel anything no more. I was numb to everything. My emotions were numb. My mind was numb. Know, and so that, that just, that was like my early twenties and you know, I, my whole twenties, I'm 42 now. My whole twenties was just like a blur in and out of prison. Uh, in and out of rehab, in and out of the county. You know, it's bad. Like you go into jail when, like, you go to the county and like the guys remember you, the, the cos remember you right. Or the guys that you left and you came back to the deck and there's guys still there that remember you from when you left. Right. You know. You're walking in there like ashamed.'cause you're like, man, here I go, coming right back. These dudes are still here and here I go, coming back. The cos know your name. You know where like, cheers where everybody knows your name. Now let me ask you, um, what, what, what are, what's bringing you back? Well, what kind of cases are you catching? Like as you're in and out of the county? So most of my cases were, were drug cases, right? So I say, uh, I ended up, you know, starting to get high, right? And so, you know, in order to feed my addiction, you know, I, I had to sell drugs, right? I had to sell drugs. I always say I was a great drug dealer. I don't wanna boast, but the only problem I had was that I was my best customer. Not a good business model. Okay. Time to diversify your portfolio. Going back to the business, huh? I guess you didn't listen to, uh, Tony Montana and Eazy-E right. Don't, don't get high of your own supply. Right. Don't get high off your own supply. You're right. Yeah. Gotcha. No, not at all. Gotcha. Not at all, you know. But I would tell you this, heroin addiction is one of the most, if not the most difficult addiction. Uh, to kick, you know, and it'll have you do things that you wouldn't have done, you know, if you weren't addicted to heroin. Yeah. Like if people haven't done heroin before, it's, it, it, it, it, it's a drug that grabs hold of you and it doesn't let you go. And so what happens is you develop a tolerance to it and you become addicted to it, to the point where if you don't have it. You get withdrawal symptoms, right? So once your body develops a tolerance to it, you need more and more of the drug to get high. And then, so the moment that you stop getting high, like if you don't get high that day, then you, you start feeling sick. Like you got, you feel like you got a fever. You sweat, you got the chills. The runs like all types of symptoms. Like your body is physically sick because it's going without the drug that it's gotten hooked on, right? And so when you become an addict in that manner, you're willing to do anything for the drugs. Right. And so that will lead you to do all types of crimes, you know? And so, you know, like I said, it just led me down a path of, of violence, robbery. Uh, soliciting prostitution just like very deep into the Chicago criminal underworld, you know, uh, just because I've seen so much on the streets, you know, just being involved with gangs, addicts, prostitutes. You know, drug lords, you know, so much that you see, you see like the underworld of society when you're living that type of lifestyle on the streets, the worst of the worst. And so, you know, you're, you're. Your knee deep in it, you know, that becomes your life, you know, and so that's, that's how my twenties were just high in and outta jail, prison, rehab, just getting locked up, trying to get cleaned up. Right. And it's funny because I would, I would get locked up and. I would get sober enough. Like I'd be in the county for whatever reason, if I couldn't bond out or whatever. And, and so, you know, first you get the withdrawals coming off heroin, which is bad. Um, but then that goes away. And then like I would, I would open up the Bible, like I had this curiosity about scripture. You know, and, and that could, could I ask you something? Like, I know like growing up you said you read a lot, like in those early years, did you ever pick up a bible? What, what, what was faith like in your home? Uh, we were, so, we were Roman Catholic. I say we were cress. We went to church on Christmas and Easter. Yeah. CREs. Um, so yeah. So it was more like you went to church. Out of obligation, not out of desire, right? It was more about Catholic tradition and you know, uh, just following the steps of your ancestors. You know, it was kind of like punching in the clock at work, right? You go to work and you punch in the clock. So it was kinda like, Hey, God, I showed up. Look, I'm here in the pew. I'm sitting here, I'm singing, I'm shaking hands. See me? All right, cool. And then you leave, and then you go back to your life because it's not, it's not Christ centered like it is now for us. Yeah. Now everything that you do is mission work. It's kingdom business. But as, as Sters growing up, it was more just about, it was part of who. Your family was more like tradition that you were rooted into. Yeah. Right. So, so back then you didn't read the Bible. What, when was the first time you picked it up and did it do anything for you or you just, so I would say, I would say the first time I, I picked it up to actually read it and see what it said was what would've been in prison would've been, uh, in division six, I remember correctly. There was a, of all people, a Jehovah's Witness, uh, a pastor that would come to the deck. Uh, you know, and so people would get to go, you know, to the gym or whatever to go listen to this Jehovah's Witness, pastor, mind you, I'm like a, I'm a Priester, so I have no idea what's going on, you know, and I'm just like, oh, this guy's teaching the Bible. Okay. You know? Let me go, just because I had picked up the Bible for the first time and I was curious about it, curious about reading it, and I, I wanted to know more and I say, you know, God used that Jehovah's Witness pastor to plant seeds in me. You know, and God will use anybody. Yep. You know, I, I'm a firm believer of that. Oh yeah. You know, God will use anybody. And so, you know, to get up off the deck because who wants to sit on the deck and be in the cell all day, right. So like, let me just go get off the deck, gets me out the cell, and I would go listen to him, you know, teach on Bible and stories and whatnot, and it, it engaged me, you know, and it sparked that curiosity in me of a kid again. You know, and so that was like my road, uh, to back to the Bible, you know? And, and so I was still like in that, that mindset of Roman Catholicism too. And so, like one thing I, I say, uh, and I said this at my wedding, um, is that, you know, in the reform tradition, the cross that we wear, it's, it's. It's empty, right? Christ isn't on that cross because he rose again on the third day in fulfillment of the scriptures. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. Uh, but I remember as a kid, you know, and we would go to church and we would sit there in the pews and you would look up and there would be that big crucifix, and you would see Jesus lying there, and he just looked all defeated. You know, and, and I remember my, my grandma saying, you know, and that painted an image in my head as a kid. Like, like, why would I, why would I wanna worship that? You know, looking at that image of Jesus defeated, right? And so. That's why in the reform tradition, right, Jesus isn't on that cross. Right? Amen. Because he's not defeated. Right. He reigns, he rose again on the third day. He was victorious. Death could not hold him. Right? Amen. And so it's little things like that, right? Just little, that little mind shift. That means everything. Yeah, it means everything, right? It may seem insignificant, not insignificant, but it's like just a small little thing, but. Yeah. Yeah. Because as a kid, I remember just looking up and you know, he's there and he's hanging and it's like he doesn't look victorious. He doesn't look like he conquered. Right. He doesn't look like the Bible says all authority under heaven and earth has been given to him. Right, right. And so that's why. The cross is empty. It's because Jesus isn't there. You know? He's raining, he's at the right hand of the Father, and it's gonna come again to judge the living and the dead. Amen. Yeah. So, so back, back to the county. You're reading the Bible now that sparks an interest. Does anything change once you come out or you still come back? Back to the drugs or No, back to the drugs. You know, it was just like a revolving door, you know? I ended up just getting tied in with more, more guys that are like on drugs, you know? So like, if I'm already immersed in the streets, gang lifestyle, now I'm involved with guys that are hooked on drugs, you know? And so it's just like I, I, I, I get locked up, I get cleaned up. I. I get a little bit in the word and then, you know, and then I'm out. No profession of faith or nothing, just curiosity of the Bible reading it. Uh, but then I'd get back out and claim that I was gonna stay clean, right? But like I said, heroin. Is a gorilla on your back, like that is a drug that once it grabs you, like it grabs hold of you. Like I tried on my own strength, I tried and I, and I wanted to get clean, right? Because I knew the effect it had on me and how it was destroying me. You know, my body, my life, you know? Uh, but. It didn't matter.'cause I would get out and I would have that itch, like a dope fiend. That's why I say I, I became an instant dope fiend. Like it grabbed me, bro. And it didn't let me go. And it just, it just, it just spiraled and snowballed into something just vicious, you know? Uh, and, and, and in and out, in and out for years. I, I, I know you mentioned the word of vicious. I know we're talking when I met you over there and you said how bad you got. I know you're talking about snorting, but did that change? Oh yeah, 100%. So like I remember too as a kid. Like seeing like those after school specials saying no to drugs. You guys remember those with the, and seeing those after school specials of like needles and guy syringes. And I remember seeing that like, man, how could somebody do that? You know, that's just crazy, right? Uh, but my habit, my habit got so bad, right? I remember. You know, I was still just snorting heroin at the time, and I remember, you know, meeting some guys that were, that were shooting heroin. Right. And I remember telling myself, I'll never do that. You know, I, I, I got, I got too much pride to do that. Right. I, I'm, you know, I, I won't do that. I'm just going, I, I'm not gonna go that, Lord. I'm not going to sink that low in the mud, not me. Yeah. Yeah. That ain't me. Right. But I remember looking at them and then, you know, like I remember looking at'em and seeing how high they got, you know, from shooting it. I, I'm, I'm a dope fi and I'm like, dude, I, I don't even get that high.'cause you build up a tolerance to the drug, right? And so I'm watching them shoot dope and I'm just like, man, he's nodding off. He's high as a kite over there. He's carefree. I wanna be like that. Right? So sure enough, you know, opportunity presented itself and I started shooting dope. Yeah, started small. Um, but again, it snowballs. It's an addiction and it grabs you and it doesn't let you go. So, I mean, I get to the point and I tell this story that I was so bad. So hopeless that I would go in front of the mirror. I would hold my breath until my jugular vein popped out and I would pump my jugular vein filled with heroin. That's how bad the addiction got because I didn't care if I died, right? I didn't care if I died. I didn't care if I OD'ed off the drugs. Honestly, if I OD'ed, it'd put me outta my misery, right? And so that's how bad it got for me, where I was shooting dope in my neck. Man, that's going back to that word, vicious. That. Yeah. Dangerous too. I would imagine. I mean, I, I've, when I talk to you that, to be honest, that's the first time I heard somebody doing that in the neck. I know people doing the arms, their legs, but. When you mentioned the neck, I'm like, man, that's like you mentioned. Yeah. That was like suicidal in a sense. Oh yeah. 100%. But it took a while to get there. Right? It developed because like, I mean, I was a dope fiend. I'm serious. Like when I say I was a dope fiend, hey man, I used up all the veins in my arms. Like I started in the arms, you know? And it was like, it was like finding spots to hit, right? Because as you, as you continue to do heroin, like it. You use up your veins and then you have to find the other spot so it, it end, it started in the arm, but then eventually progressed to there. You know, I mean, that's how bad, that's how lost I was. That's how hopeless I was, you know? And I didn't care, bro. Like I didn't care if I lived or died, you know. Did, did, did, did anything happen or change that started you on the road of, of changing like. Was there? Yeah. Well, yeah. So before, before that, the, the reason I started shooting in the neck was because I remember being in, in, in a, in a motel room with a woman. Right. And so, you know, she was, she was shooting in the neck and I wasn't there yet. Right. I was still. Shooting, but I was like, man, that's kind of dangerous. Like you said, like, dude, something happens up there, bro. Like, you know, you gonna have some problems. You know, you miss a vein up there, right? Yeah. Or you not off with that needle in your neck. Yeah, it was, it's reckless. It was crazy. And I remember her like, uh, I remember her doing it shooting up in her neck, and then I remember she just like starts convulsing. Like she just outta nowhere. Just like. Keels over and she starts convulsing on the bed. And I remember thinking to myself, oh man, she's gonna die or something. Like, she's gonna OD on. I wasn't, and like I was so far gone in the criminal lifestyle that like, I wasn't even worried about her, about her health or her life. Like the only thing I was worried about was that I was on parole and that I was gonna be in the presence of somebody who possibly OD'ed, you know, I was only like looking out for my own interests. Right? Sure. And so I remember like trying to get her up. And, and wake her up. And so I'm like shaking her, like to try to snap out of it. And then I grab like some water that we had and I poured it on her. And then she finally, like, she finally snaps out of it. And I look at her and I'm like, are you okay? And she's like, that was effing great. Those were her words. She was like, that's, that was effing great. And I remember looking at her and I remember thinking like, I wanna get that high, you know? Yeah. And so that's why I say that's how, that's how bad it got, that it was just like, I didn't care if I lived or died. My life was without hope. I had no purpose. The drugs were the only thing that numbed me, numbed the pain of a hopeless, meaningless existence. And, you know, I was gonna do'em until, you know, until, uh, I died or something else happened. What is that or something else that begins to happen. Yeah. So eventually, you know, I am, my, my father dies at the age of 57. He dies from diabetes along with other complications to his health. Right? And so that's in December of 2014, and I remember. I'm like, man, I gotta do something. Man. My dad's dead at 57. You know? Uh, diabetes is heavy in my family. You know, my grandma, his mom died. Diabetes, he's got uncles. I got uncles that die. Die. You know, we're Mexicans, you know, it's, it's very deep in our, yeah, in our, in our, in our people. Uh, and so and so, my dad dies at 57. And I'm just like, I, I gotta do something. Like I, I can't keep on this, this road, you know? And, and, and, but I couldn't, I couldn't do anything on my own, you know, because I couldn't break the addiction on my own. Like, it had me, it had a grip on me and it wouldn't let me go. The addiction was so bad. I was getting high at my dad's wake. I was in the bathroom shooting up at my dad's wake, bro. Yeah, I remember nodding off on the way there and my brother like. Yelling at me like, Hey man, get yourself together, dude. We're on our way to the wake, you know? And so like, uh, it was bad, bro. And so like December passes January, February, and then March comes, right? March comes, I end up like, uh, getting pulled over. I was high, uh, I was nodding off. Uh, the, the cops pulled me over. Uh, they find some drugs on me and so they lock me up. Right. And so I'm a parole vi. I'm on parole, so that's a parole violation. So there's, there's no county for me. Like I'm going straight to Statesville. Right. Let, let me ask you, you're on parole. Did you do some time, how much time did you do before that, that you were on, on, um, parole at this time? Uh, I had did, I had did about. Four years in and out throughout my twenties. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, just coming in and catching cases, violating parole, stuff like that. Alright. Uh, yeah. And so I end up as a parole violator, uh, going back down to Statesville. Right. And so I'm in Stateville, NRC, I'm in 3G. NRC is like the holding cell where they hold you until they ship you out to the prison you're supposed to go to. Right. And so, like, by this time I think, I mean my addiction was bad, like I skipped over, uh, it wasn't just heroin, but I was heavily drinking. I was on Xanaxes, I was doing pills, so I had Xanaxes and I was also on methadone, which Methadone is like a heroin replacement that like. You can get at a clinic that's supposed to help you to get off of heroin. Uh, but from my experience, the methadone clinics is just a place where all the dophines gather to find the best dope spot, you know? Um, so for me, like I was on methadone and methadone withdrawal, it's a horrible withdrawal. It's worse than heroin. Like it takes, it takes a long time to come off that. So here I am getting locked up. I'm in NRC Statesville. I'm, I'm, I'm coming off of heroin, I'm coming off of alcohol, I'm coming off of methadone. Uh uh, and coming off of, I said the pills, the Xanaxes, right. So like, here I am and I'm just, I'm in, I'm in the cell, and the Lord put me by myself because like I was just so far off sick, just sick withdrawals, like unimaginable, right? Uh, and I cried out to God, bro. Bro. I cried out to God and I said, God, if you're real. Take this away from me, Lord God. I didn't, didn't call him Lord. Yeah. If you're real, God, take this away from me. I don't wanna live my life like this anymore. I'll do whatever it is that you ask of me. Right? And there's a, there's a verse in the psalm. Uh, Psalm 34, 6, this poor man cried out and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles. Amen. So that was at night that I cried out to God. And then the following morning there's a, there's a pastor like doing his rounds. I, I remember hearing the door open to the, to the cell block. Uh, and, and I remember him calling out, does anyone need prayer? Does anyone want a Bible? You know,'cause there'd be pastors that come in to visit and hand out literature and stuff. And I remember I was all the way up on 3G, the third floor, all the way in the corner. I'm, I'm dope sick, you know? I'm like, oh man. I was like, Ugh, I gotta get up. Like, I don't even want to get up, but I, I get up, I, I, I wrestle my way up. I, I go, I go to the door and I, I scream out. I'm up here in 3G, right? And so pastor makes his way up there, you know, and I tell him, and I'm like, Hey, it's a coincidence. That you came today. Because last night I was crying out to God and he said, it's not a coincidence young man. It's the will of God. Amen. Yeah. And so he prayed with me. He prayed the sinner's prayer with me. Uh, and I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior right then and there in the, in the cell in 3G in Stateville, NRC. Dope. Sick. Dope Sick out of my mind. Right. But I tell people when he prayed over me, something came over me. You know? And, and some people have this experience, some people don't, right. Uh, when they convert to Christ. But I remember just for that moment in prayer, like all the dope sickness went away. And like I just had peace in my heart, bro, when he prayed over me. So he gave me a Bible. I remember I still have that Bible. It's my most prized possession. The Bible he gave me, uh, and he slid it under the door. He's like, here, take this Bible. I want you to read it every day. And he said, but this is important. Before you read it, I want you to pray to God that he opened up his word for you. Pray to the Holy Spirit to fill you to understand the word. And so I did that. I did that. And I tell you, the next six months was like the worst. I ended up getting two years, right? I got, I got two years and I ended up going downstate to Lawrenceville Correctional Facility. Uh, and I, and I tell people, you know, those were the best two years of my life. And they look at me like I'm crazy. Like, how could you be locked up? They'd be the best years as I I, my body was physically locked up, but Jesus had set me free. Amen. You know, and so I, the, the next six months was like, withdrawal, and it was just like, you know, I, I tell people, it took me like six months before I could sleep through the night without like, getting up, you know, because of everything that like I had was coming off of like all the drugs, like I had completely destroyed my body. You know, my body was just completely, completely destroyed. And so, you know. I'm downstate and, uh, lawrenceville's, uh, a media max parole violator joint. So you don't get out to sell much, you know, you don't get out to sell much. So what am I doing? I'm reading. I'm reading every day, all day. That's what I'm doing. And then God bless me with Christian brothers. In, in, in the prison, you know, mys next to me, uh, that were in the word that had books, Christian books. I mean, I read The Fathers, I read like Aquinas, uh, I read Augustine, I read, uh, John Calvin, uh, c uh, the Institutes of Christian Religion. Like, I, I got deep bro, you know, like I had all the time on my hands. Yeah. You know, so I. Myself, and I tell people, like, if God put me there for a reason, because he knew I, I wouldn't have got it on the streets. No. Like he had to go sideline me, you know, and put me in there so that I can, I can be fed. And so I just, I read the Bible, I read it all the way through, then I read it, then I went back and I read it again, right? I read whatever Christian literature I could read just because I was hungry. Omar, bro, bro, I was hungry, man. You know? Uh, because, you know, once you. Once you've tasted and seen that the Lord is good, bro, man, it changes everything, bro. Yes it does. It changes everything, man. And like the words is true, you are a new creation in Christ. You know? Uh, I, you know, Christ found me, bro. Like that was the lost sheep, bro. And he came, he came back from, and that changed everything in my life immediately, dude. Immediately I knew that. I wasn't gonna get high no more. Nobody believed me, bro. Like I would call home, I would call my moms, my fam, I'd be like, Hey, I'm a Christian now. I'm not gonna get high no more. And they would look at, they would be on the phone. You need to stop. You need to make sure that you get in a rehab when you get out. You need to make sure this, that, and I'm, I'm like, BA, I'm okay. I trust me. I'm okay. I, I'm, I'm not, I'm not gonna get high. They didn't believe me, bro. They didn't believe me. They didn't know that's that, uh, jail house religion. You're, you're, you're talking about man. Alright. That's what people, what people say, man, you know? Yeah, you're right. And then I remember when I would be back in like the county and in prison before I came to Christ and I, I, I wouldn't wanna get in prayer circles like that'cause I'd be like, oh, you know, that's jail house religion. You guys are gonna get out and do the same thing. You know, uh, but I'm telling you, dude, I But you knew that. I knew. You knew man. Like that. I knew. I knew. I knew it was, it was gone the instant he prayed over me. The desire to do heroin was gone. I've been clean to this day. Oh, how, how long has it been? That was 2015. So we're, we're going on, we're going on 10 years now, man. Praise God. Yeah. Yeah. Praise God, man. Yeah. From a prayer, from a prayer. From when, when you cry out to God. I tell people I remember having this conversation, uh, when I came home, right? And I went to like a barbecue, uh, and there was some Christian brothers there and we were fellowshipping and, uh, this, this Christian brother, he had a drinking problem, you know? Uh, and he was there drinking. He's like, man, I got so many things I wanna do for the Lord, but you know, this is keeping me from it. And he, and he looked at the beer, you know, and I told him. I get it, bro. I get it. I've been there. I'm like, but you know, have you ever really like, sincerely, like sincerely, with all your heart. Ask God to take that away from you because I believe that if you truly come to God and take, tell him to take that away from you, he will do it. Amen. And he, he told me no. He's like, no, I've never, I've never got down on my knees and begged God. Like, you gotta get down on your knees, dude. And begged God, I was on my knees, bro. I was on my knees begging God, telling them God, I will do whatever it is you want me to God. The Bible says, the psalmist says, if I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have heard my prayers. Yeah. Right? Yeah. So if there's still a part of you that still wants to hold on to the drugs, still wants to hold on to the sexual immorality, still wants to hold onto the greed, whatever. Whatever your sin of choice is, right? If there's still a part of you that wants that, God's not gonna hear your prayers, man. He wants you to hit Yeah. Give it all to him. And he wants to find you broken and empty because that's how he's gonna use you. Yeah. That's how he's gonna use you, bro, because he's gotta fill you back up, man. Amen. With his presence. Yeah. Okay, so, so you're in there, man, you're hungry, you're feeding yourself Bible and all these books. Now you get out. You, you have the family saying, oh man, come on, you gotta go to rehab when you get out. There's no way you're gonna be clean on your own. Mm-hmm. H how did that look when you came out? Did anybody that remembered you come to you, try to temp you, you know, like, Hey, come on, man. The little beer, little drugs. Yeah. How, how, how was that for you? Like when you got out? So when, when I was down there, and this is where I got my first taste of evangelism, Marcel Dave, he would go. Sell to sell. Every time we had day room, he would go sell to sell and ask people, uh, if they wanted prayer. Right? And I remember being down there and I would hear guys curse him out through the door, tell him to get the F outta here and just blasting God. All types of crazy stuff. I mean, there's guys out there that are. Accepting. Right. There's believers and stuff, but then there's, it's prison, right? So you going, you're gonna get that type of response. Yeah. From some guys, you know? Right. And so like, I remember asking him like, you know, uh uh, man, bro, why do you keep doing that? These, you know, like, don't you think like you keep doing it, man, these guys, they don't want it, bro. He's like, man, God calls us to be a watchman. Right. God calls us to be a watchman. It's in Ezekiel, I think it's like Ezekiel 33 or something. He says, be a watchman to my people. And so that was my first taste of evangelism that I ever got was seeing him go door to door from cell to cell, trying to pray over people and read the scripture to people, and people denying him and denying him. But he would get up and he would do it all over again the next day. And, and that taught me a lot. Like he was a blessing. Like he was like, Paul had Timothy, like he, I consider him like Paul to me. Yeah. Because he really mentored me and he was there to answer my questions and really like, show me how to live as a believer in prison because I didn't know. Right. I didn't even know how to live as a believer. And one thing he told me. When it, when it came for my time to get out, he was like, you need to find a church. Like immediately you need to get out and you gotta get plugged into a church. Right. And he stressed it. And so I was like, okay. You know, and so coming home, I, I remember, I, I, I paroled to my, to my mom's house. I paroled back to her house and I remember trying to find a job and whatnot. You know, it's difficult because I was wearing the house arrest band, you know, and I'm just, uh, fell in and everything, you know, and I remember, uh, I remember walking one time into, into the house coming from outside. Like I, I was taking the bus to like, uh, go fill out job applications and stuff. And I was, I, I wasn't getting no luck, right? I wasn't having no luck. And I remember like, God, what's going on, man? Like. I'm out here, I'm, I'm staying away from all the noise. Like I ain't, I erased everybody off my phones and stuff. Like all the context that anybody that had anything to do with getting high, like I was nowhere near'em, bro. You know? And I remember just saying like, Hey, uh, you know, God, what's going on? You know? And I remember I was walking down the gangway and I remember there was like a little squirrel. And as I was walking, the squirrel was, was walking in front of me and it would turn around and he would look at me and as I would walk more, he would walk more and then he'd turn around. And like if he was watching me, like if he was leading me, like if he was saying, Hey man, follow me, I got you. And like I tell that story and people think I'm nuts. Right. And see the squirrel, not yet. Oh yeah, I got it. But I truly felt that that was God. Like,'cause I was in the middle of prayer, like God crying out to God, God what's going on? And he sent this little squirrel there to have this little moment with me to say, Hey man, keep your eyes on me, bro. I got you. Amen. And it wasn't shortly after that that I ended up getting a job, uh, a landscaping Christy Weber, a landscaping job. And, you know, I was able to provide for myself and stuff like that. Uh, so that was a blessing. And as far as church. I knew I needed to find a church, bro. So I, I end up, uh, I end up, before I got incarcerated, I used to work for a man who would tell me about New Life Church. He would always say, yeah, you need to check out this church. Uh, my, my brother-in-law is the pastor there, pastor Mark, job New Life, midway 51st and Keeler. And so like coming home from prison, I was like, okay, let me go try this church that Dan always used to tell me about. Right. And so I ended up walking up into New Life and like from the moment I stepped foot in there, like I knew that's where the Holy Spirit wanted me. Like I knew right away, like walking in there, like I just felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, right. From Be. And so I knew that that's where I needed to be. And, and I've been there and I'm still there to this day, you know? Man. So you've been there since, uh, 2015? Yeah. 2016. 2016, yeah. Yeah. Got it. Okay. Earlier. You mentioned wife, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. Uh, where, where, where, where does she come into the picture? Yeah, that's later. So I did have a, a child out of wedlock before I became a Christian. So then my mom ended up taking care of my son while, while I was incarcerated, while I was in prison. And you know, it's just the way how God works too. You know? My mom was suffering with the loss of. My dad. And so like, she had kinda my son there to, I'm in prison, but at least my son was there with her to like console her, you know? And so like, uh, you know, my son's mom's out the picture, you know, hadn't seen him. I, I came home from prison and she was like already out the picture. Uh, so that's why my son went to go stay, uh, with my mom. So I get out and I'm a single dad. You know, that's another reason why. I need to find a church. I gotta ground my child in the truth. Right. Gotcha. Bible says, raise your children in the ways of the Lord. When they get old, they will not depart. Right. Oh, how old is he at that time when you got, uh, I came home. He was four. Okay. He was four. Uh, and so, so, um, we end up at, at New Life. Right. I'm, I'm a single dad and I'm just there, you know, taking care of my son and just, you know, taking care of myself, you know, learning how to live as a Christian, you know. Uh, learning how to be obedient to Christ, you know, and, and walk that line.'cause you know, I'll be honest with you, bro, and I'll be complete honest with you, transparent. You know, I, I became, you know, a Christian in prison. I was on fire for the Lord. Uh, but, you know, uh, a man comes home from prison, bro. You know, a man comes home from prison and he does what guys who come home from prison do, bro, you know? And I fell, you know? Yeah. I fell, my walk, I stumbled, you know, and I, and I was sexually immoral, uh, with a woman, you know? And, and I remember sitting in a hotel and just sitting in the mirror. I looked in the mirror and I started bawling, bro. Like I was crying in the mirror. Like,'cause I knew that I had let the Lord down. I felt so, like, ashamed of what I had done, you know? And I remember from that day, from that moment, I said, you know what? Like if I'm gonna call myself a Christian. Then I need to act like I, I gotta follow God in every area of my life, every area of my life, you know? And so, you know, I made a, you know, if I could touch on that,'cause a lot of people look at, they take that lightly. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? I, it's my girlfriend, you know. But you knew based on scripture. Yeah. It, it's a sin.'cause a lot of times we could say, oh man, a sin is man breaking the law. Being in Cook County, all that, that's a sin. But hey, you know, you're just, you and your girlfriend could, could you touch a little bit on that? I guess anybody's gonna be, well, 100%. You know, because I mean, I, like I said, in prison, I, I read the word, like I knew what the word said about being sexually immoral, you know? And I knew that it was a sin, you know, but I, I, I thought that I could kind of just, I could still have that, you know? Right. I could still, like, God was gonna overlook that, you know. Uh, and kinda like make it an excuse for myself. Well, the Lord knows I'm coming home from prison, you know? Come on, man. You know, uh, but no. Oh yeah, no. You know, uh, God calls us to purity, right? God calls us to purity. And it's funny because just talk about my wife, right? I ended up meeting my wife at, at New Life midway. Uh, and so we dated for about a year. Then we got married, right? And so I got married in 2023. Uh, I got married a day after my 40th birthday. So I tell people that I was a 40-year-old virgin for one day. It is good. Yeah, you got joke. I told that joke at the wedding, right? Because I wanted people to know. That we had kept our purity Oh, gotcha. Throughout our whole dating phase. Right. Because my family obviously very secular, non-believers, whatnot, you know? And then just like you said, like people think it's okay to just, you know, sleep around and be sexually immoral. But, you know, it was a challenge. But me and my wife, when we started dating, we made sure we had mentors, accountability partners in the church. You know, and we, we, we didn't leave any opportunity for the enemy to tempt us and trust me, Omar, bro, it was hard, brother. It was hard because we're, we're grown. We were like in our late thirties dating, you know, we both got kids. She had a son that was six months older than mine. Uh, and so it's like you're grown. Yeah. You know, you got responsibilities and everything. I mean, you know, you got needs. Yeah. But no, we wanted to do it right by God. Amen. We wanted to do, and we did it right by God. And so I told that joke at my wedding because I wanted everybody to know the commitment we made to God. Because if God calls us to be pure, then we, we have to be pure. Right. And for me it was like a monumental achievement. Yeah. To be able to date her for a year and not have sex. Yeah. Right. But I knew that. God was calling. I mean, you know, you have to sacrifices that you make for God. You have to be able to tame the flesh. Right? And there's blessing and obedience. 100%. 100%, 100%. He's blessed us. You know, and it's like, I, I keep seeing the blessings everywhere. It's everywhere. Praise God. How, how, how is, uh, me, uh, merry life for you? I know you mentioned, uh, 20 threes. It's only been a couple years. Yeah, we just celebrated our two year anniversary. Congratulations. Oh, thank you. Thank you. You know, and you know, I always tell people, Hey man, you, you want God to work in your life. Get married. Get married. God will show you some things that you didn't know was wrong. Which, yeah, you thought you were holy. You thought you thought you was holy. You thought you had it all together. Nah, nah. Let me show you what's wrong with you. Yeah. Let me show you what's wrong. We were at a wedding recently. Uh, I remember the pastor was like, you know, the purpose of your spouse is to sanctify you. Mm-hmm. You know, and I thought that was the could, could you share sanctify? Somebody's gonna be here in this man. We'll, sanctify. What's sanctification? Sanctification is to be made. Holy. Right. It's to be made righteous. So that's God cleansing you of your sin. Uh, exterior sin could be like the alcohol could be like the sexual. Uh, immorality, but you know, a lot of the times it's what comes from the abundance of the hearth. That's what Jesus says out of the abundance of the hearth, the heart, the mouth speaks. Yeah. Right. And so, like for me, you know, like God took away the addiction. Like he took that away. And here I am like, Hey man, you know, God took all that away. I'm clean on the outside, you know, but still God has the work in. On your pride. God has to work on your anger. God has to work on the condition of your heart. God got God. Gotta make you more gracious. Right. More loving. Yeah. Right. And, and, and take away that self, that self-centeredness and that conceit, because that's the way we grow up where we're sinners from birth. Right. Yeah. Bible says that out of my, I was born in inequity, right? Yeah. Gotcha. Okay, so you're married. Now ministry. Like all throughout, even when we started talking, you were talking about evangelism preaching. Yeah. You, you got ahead of the story, but now, now we gotta get there. So. Oh, man. Okay. You're, you see the guy evangelizing how much time we got, buddy? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaking of that too, it's 8 46, so, Hey, we, we'll keep going man. I'm, I'm, I'm knee deep already. Oh yeah. If you got time, Mike. I got time, man. You know, we had, you know, unscheduled interruption earlier, but man, we're flowing. So I'm gonna leave it up to you, you know. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, so go, go, go into that. Yeah. So, you know, I come out, I come outta prison and I'm, I'm aside from my minor setback that I had. Uh, I'm on fire for God, bro. You know, like I'm on fire for God. Like I, I, I see the change that he's done in me and. You know, I wanna serve him. And I made that vow to him, like in the prison cell. I said, Lord, I'll do whatever it is you want me to. So then I begin, I began to get heavily involved in, in men's ministry. Right. I become a leader in the men's ministry. Uh, and so I remember one of the brothers, I was at his, uh, I was at his baby shower, right? Him and his wife were having a baby. And I remember we're at his baby shower and he's telling me about how. The weekend before he had been on 18th Street passing out Bible tracks, uh, and sharing the gospel with people. And, and I remember thinking to myself like, wow, God has blessed me so much. You know, he's taken this addiction away from me. He is given me employment, a home, uh, me and my son are in the church. Like I've read so much. Like I know the word, uh, like why ain't I out here? Why ain't I out there with him? You know? Uh uh, I think Augustine says, what, what good is it if you have knowledge, if you don't share it with others? Right. And it's more than just knowledge. It's the gospel. Right. And so I remember telling him, dude, when are you going back out?'cause I wanna go with you. And so that just, that's how, you know, we launched our evangelism ministry. And this was like right after COVID. So we're talking about like 2020 COVID was in March. This was around August, September, you know, and we just started, it was me and him, uh, with a speaker, a microphone, and some Bible tracks going out every Saturday, uh, wherever the Lord let us, mostly like downtown. We started on like Roosevelt and, and state. Roosevelt and Wabash area, and we would just pack up our speaker. We would go preach the Gospel Street, preach and just have conversations with people and share the gospel. And you know, that was 2020 and here we are five years later, Chicago Evangelism, still doing two events a month consistently throughout the whole city of Chicago. Uh, we have partnered with multiple churches. Throughout Chicagoland, uh, we've seen all types of people come to Christ. Uh, our church, new Life Midway, is part of a church that meets in over 27 locations. So whenever we meet people and they wanna accept Christ as their Lord and Savior, then we make sure that we find them one of the churches where they can be discipled. Uh, you know, and they can grow in Christ. Uh, because what we do is, is evangelism. We love to preach the gospel. We love to, uh, tell people about Jesus. Uh, like I said, we're not ashamed of the gospel. Acts four 20 says, for we cannot help but speak of what we have seen and heard. Amen. Right. Wasn't that Peter when he was brought before them, when they were trying to, to silence him. Exactly. You gotta stop preaching in that name, man. Exactly, brother. You're spot on. Yeah, that's exactly, and then they, then they end up getting beaten and then they said they rejoice for, they were found worthy to be beaten for Christ man, like suffering and, and for him. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Wow. You know, so yeah, that's how the Evangelism Ministry launched. Like I said. It started right after COVID and it's just, it's just blown up something that God is just on the move in this city. I tell people and they think I'm just like a broken record because I say, God is doing something powerful right now, in this moment, in this city. Amen. You know, uh, uh, for instance, like I just baptized four guys in Lake Michigan two weeks ago. I, I seen that, uh, on Facebook, you know, speaking of that real quick. You mentioned the name, I believe, what was the name of it? Of the, uh, the ministry, Chicago Evangelism. Where, where could people go to? Maybe So you could find us on Facebook and Instagram. Just look up Chicago Evangelism. And if you wanna get in touch with us, you can send us, uh, DM or you can email us@chicagoevangelism.gmail.com. Amen. Okay. Now going back, you said you were at the lake for guys. What, what, what, what made this, uh, uh, special? I guess so, you know, I've, I've, I've. I took some time off from men's ministry when I got married, you know, because we had to do, uh, fusion ministry. We wanted to make sure that we were plugged into the church as a couple. Um, you know, but then I felt God calling me back to men's ministry. So I started leading a, a group at our men's ministry at the church. Uh, and then the church ended up taking the summer off, or they, they still, they still decided to leave it open, but one of the brothers there who. Owns a barbershop, um, was like, Hey, we could go do the Bible study at my barbershop. You know, shout out to Leo from Wall Street Barbers. Uh, and so who is he? Well, here. South side. Yeah, south side of Chicago. Got it. Archer and Central area. Wall Street Barbers. Got it. Give more plug. Yeah, get a good cut. Get a good cut. Go to Wall Street Barbershop. Um, so yeah, so we, we ended up. Back at his barbershop. And there's a whole nother story behind that. Like, I started taking my son to this, to this, uh, to this barbershop when I came home from prison. And back then it was what barbershops do, right? Guys drinking, smoking, profanity, music, you know, wild movies on the screen. I even got to the point where I'm just like, God, should I go somewhere else? But, but I, the thing is I found myself like preaching the gospel there. Like I found myself defending the faith, you know? I would go in there and guys would have crush and they guys would mock and scoff and stuff like that. And, oh, here comes Brother Sal, the Christian. Ha ha. You know? But you know, I kept going, you know, and I, I, and I showed that Christianity wasn't like some fantasy religion, right? I always tell people, Christianity makes the most sense. About reality than any other religion, ideology, philosophy, you know, I think it's Charles Spurgeon who says the truth is like a lion. Let it loose. It'll defend itself. Mm-hmm. Amen. Amen. Amen. Yeah. And so, like, you know, being well read and in the word, you know, you, you. You don't have to defend the truth, bro. You know the truth defends itself. And they recognize that in that barbershop, bro. And they, they, they might not have believed yet, but they saw, man, there's something to this because this dude actually knows and is confident in what he's, so I planted seeds little by little. So fast forward years and years and years later, one of the barbers ends up at my Bible study, right? And he brings one of the other barbers. Which brings one of the other barbers, and then we take the Bible study back to the barbershop for the summer, and now God is just bringing people off the streets because some people are hesitant to go to a church. Yeah. But they'll go to a barbershop because it's like neutral, you know? It's like, oh, it's a barber shop. I get to go there and learn about the Bible because there's an interest about the Bible, unlike anything I've seen, uh, since I started evangelism. Right? And so God's bringing people from off the street and they're telling other guys about it, and they're barbers, they're fading people up and talking about Jesus in the barbershop, bro, I got pictures. The place got just full. And so what happened is like these guys decided to take the bold step of baptism, right? Because that's the next step. And they're like, Hey, but we wanna do it at Lake Michigan. And I'm just like, okay. Like that's a great idea. He is like, man, I wanna do it at Lake. I want you to baptize me in Lake Michigan, bro. So I'm like, man, I ain't never did that before. You know the baptized people at the church, but Lake Michigan. But that sounds like a good idea, bro. Man. So we went two weeks ago. We were there and it was this forecast called for rain. It called for rain. Uh, and I'm telling everybody, man, it's gonna be raining, but we're still going do it. We're still going to do it. So we get there and it's like, God kind of just opened up the skies, bro. We did like a little short little service there. I led in a little bit of a word. My wife, uh, sang and led worship. Oh, wow. And then we just because they had family there, bro, like their families Oh yeah. Came out. Yeah. Nice. There was, there was people there to witness it, bro. It wasn't just us. Like these guys brought their families out to witness it, you know, and so we made it kind of like a mini service out there on the lake. And we baptized him, bro, and it was just incredible to see how God is working. I said, look, here, go four grown men, you know, that have been through some things. You know, they've been through all types of trauma, pain, seen all types of evil, you know, but God calls them to him. When God draws us to him, man, you know, you can't say no, amen. You can't say no. And so, yeah, that's how that, that came about. And today we're doing that Bible study every Tuesday. It said we were just there yesterday. Uh, you know, because God is doing some amazing things, brother, in this city. Amen. People, people watch the news, and the news is meant to condition you, to take your morale from you to depress you because it's all bad news. Right? At, at the end of the newscast, they give you like one little story about like a cat being rescued from a tree or something, right? But there's never anything like, but. I'm telling you all the good news I see on the streets of Chicago, like people are coming to Christ in droves. Amen. The youth, the youth are coming to Christ. Amen. Grown men coming to Christ, everybody from all walks of life want to know more. They wanna know about Christ. And then this is our opportunity. This is our opportunity to share, share, share, and be the church, right? Be priests to the nations. Amen. Man. Speaking of priest, you, you mentioned a word, I dunno if you wanna, you got some papers here. I wanna give you an opportunity to, I don't know if you had something on your mind you wanted to share, but priest, you mentioned a word earlier, Shamar, if I'm mistaken. Uhhuh? Yeah. I dunno if you wanna share a little bit about that or anything else that got placed on your heart, man. Oh, the shamar. Oh, that came from a post, um, from my. From my, uh, from my coaching, right. Do a, a faith-based Christ-centered coaching program for Christian men. We ain't even go down that road yet, man. We, oh, we, we gotta, we gotta go right now. Now you gotta talk about it. Okay. So is that, is that the workout thing you're talking about? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. It's, it's, it's Christian based fitness coaching, uh, which God put on my heart. So, coming home from prison, I told you I was young, I was overweight, I was sickly. Uh, the drugs completely destroyed my body. I watched my dad die at 57. I knew I needed to change, but I couldn't. Right? I gave my life to Christ and started with little workouts in the, in the prison cell, you know, at, at, at my heaviest, I was 200 pounds. When I got locked up, I was over over 200 pounds. You know, I say 200 pounds is just shame and guilt, uh, addicted to everything and sugar of all things. And so coming home, I knew I needed to change and I knew I needed to take care of my body and restore my temple, right? Because the Bible says one Corinthians six, 19 and 20 says that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. You are not of your own. You were bought with a price. And Romans 12, one says, to offer your body as a living sacrifice to God. Holy and pleasing for this is your spiritual worship, right? So our physical is important. Amen. As Christian, right? Unfortunately, there's like this. Gnosticism in the church today where it's like, oh, as long as you're spiritual, your body don't matter. But that couldn't be further from the truth. Right? Especially as men, because we're supposed to provide and protect for our families. And I tell guys, how can you provide and protect if, if you lose your breath walking up a flight of stairs? Right? Shouldn't be that way. Right. And so I know because I experienced it firsthand and I made the decision to take my health very seriously. So when I came home from prison, dude. I went and I got certified as a personal fitness trainer. Uh, I got certified in weight loss management. I got certified in nutrition. I even got certified. Now are these classes you went to school for? This how did, uh, American Council of Exercise. Okay. Uh, it's a, it's a certification through the American Council of Exercise. So it is, it is classes, it's online classes. Alright. Uh, and so I got certified for all these things. I started working at a gym for a while. I was doing in-person training. Uh, it just by, at that time, you know, I wasn't paying the bills. I was a single dad, so I needed something more stable. Uh, uh, online fitness coaching wasn't even a thing yet. Uh, so, you know, I was just working a regular job and so it wasn't until full circle I got all these certifications, uh, and I ended up, uh, getting married to my wife, you know, in 2023. Then right around that time, God put it on my heart because I seen a need in the church. I seen that men were struggling silently with these weight problems, with this lack of energy, low performance. I talk to guys all the time that are just battling so many issues because of their weight, you know, and so like, God put it on my heart and he said. You, you need to do something about this, you know? And so, you know, I went ahead and I found I founded VE Virtue Fitness, uh, which is a faith-based, Christ-centered weight loss program that helps men, uh, lose weight, reclaim their energy, restore their temple, and become fit discipline disciples. The Jesus Amen. Yeah. You, you got it right there. Wrong to strong, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Strong. Strong in spirit and strong in body. Right. Amen. It's very important in the church, scripture tells us, like I said, with the two scriptures that I mentioned, but it's, it's, it's because there's a lack also of discipline and self-control, right. Like if we can't control what we're consuming in our bodies, it's another form of addiction. Yeah. Maybe not as prevalent as the heroine and stuff, you know, but there's a saying, and it was Theodore Roosevelt. Oh, Teddy Roosevelt. The, the president, I dunno if you guys are familiar with Teddy Roosevelt. He was a powerful Christian, powerful Christian, uh, and he, and I believe it was him that said, all attainable health is duty. All avoidable sickness is sin. So what he's saying is, is that it's our duty to attain the best health as Christians, right? And it's our duty to avoid any sickness by the way we treat our bodies, right? Because if we're bringing on chronic illness and disease because of bad eating habits or sedentary lifestyle, then that's taking years off of our life, right? Am I, which essentially is. Not allowing us to fulfill God's command. And so your health and wellness and longevity is very, very important. So as Christians, Jesus says, to be perfect for your heavenly Father is perfect, right? So we're supposed to strive for excellence, right? That's what virtue is. Virtue is moral excellence, right? And virility, well, virility comes from the same root word, which is ver in in, in, um, in Roman. And what that means. It's the base word for male or for strength, right? And so co, it's been always commonly known that characteristics of man are to be strong, physically, strong, spiritually, and strong morally. Mm-hmm. Right. We have to be strong in all three of those areas. Those are common characteristics of men throughout the ages. We've just lost that concept. And so founding Vero Virtue Fitness is a way to bring that back to light, right? And to coach men so that they can put forth the best version of themselves to build the kingdom, right? So I say is that we're, we're molding and shaping strong men of God to build the kingdom of God for the glory of God. Amen. Now, so somebody hears, there's your training that you offer. Is that in person? Is that online? How, how does that look? It's a, it's a completely online training. Um, so we, we dive into three pillars. The problem with in-person training is that you go to the gym and your trainer gives you the workout, right? And you're, oh, yeah, I feel good, good workout. But then you leave the gym and then you go out and eat like trash for the rest of the week, right? You don't do anything else. Your trainer has no contact with you at all. Um, so you're not making any gains. You're not making any progress. You're just stuck in this cycle. Right? But our, our program is a one-on-one coaching program where I counsel you in the three different pillars that we call of our program, the, the, um, nutrition pillar. Right? Because honestly, weight loss is about, is more about what, what you eat than how much you train, right. Saying, we say, you can't out-train a bad diet, right? You can't out-train a bad diet. You know that, right? If you're eating like trash, you're, you're not gonna see no weight loss, right? Right. And so nutrition is one of the pillars and we work side by side one-on-one with our clients to make sure that their nutrition is dialed in into a biblical approach. Right? It's a biblical approach to fat loss rooted in scripture, right? Uh, God designed us to eat fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, fresh meats, right? I say single ingredient foods. I say eat foods that spoil. If you're shopping, if the food that you're eating has a shelf life of like five to 10 years, you know what I'm saying, then maybe you shouldn't be eating it. If you, if you turn around the ingredient list and it's got a bunch of ingredients that you can't even pronounce, maybe you shouldn't be putting that in your body. Right. Um, so we go back to God's design for nutrition, and then we put together training programs for our clients specific to their needs, to their schedules and to their situations. And most importantly is the accountability, right? The Bible says, uh, Proverbs 27 17, iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Right? And so. With me, with my experience, right? With my certifications. Like I've been there, I've walked the road, I've helped men through this, through the weight loss. And so, you know, sometimes you need that accountability. You need somebody that's on you and behind you, right? Think about it in your spiritual life. I tell guys what happens. Don't isolate yourself. Yeah, because sin comes and knocking, right? There's a proverb that says that he who isolates himself seeks his own desires. That's a Proverbs 18 one, I think. Right? So in isolation, we, we can't accomplish much. Right? And so part of the biggest part, biggest pillar of the program is the accountability is the one-on-one accountability, sharpening each other in order for, uh, our, our, our people to accomplish their results, our clients. Hmm. Now, now. I know you mentioned like the one-on-one. Now, do you have like a community, like a, are people able like to comment with one another there or No, just, yeah, so we're, we're working on building out a community, you know, because that's important as well, right? We want our, our, our clients to have that interaction with each, each other. So yeah, we're, we're, we're getting there. You know, we've, like I said, 2023, I made the shift from, you know, where I was working at before a nonprofit. I got married, I was working at the nonprofit in Chicago because I wanted to give back to the community, but then God brought me to this, uh, more recently, so, so, you know, we launched Bureau Virtual Fitness about six months ago now, is this your full-time job now? Yes. Okay. Full-time job. Yeah. Yeah. Full-time job. I'm in it, bro. I'm in it for the Lord. You know, like we talked about in the beginning. This is kingdom business, you know? Amen. Amen. I truly believe that this is where God has called me to be. And, you know, we've helped so many men, uh, overcome addiction, build discipline, uh, build self-control, develop eating habits, break emotional eating habits, and develop, uh, proper eating habits that, uh, glorify God, lose the weight. It's just so much, it's so much more than just weight loss. You know, when, when, when guys see the weight come off. It's like, man, if I can do this, what else can I do? Right. Because you have this mindset that you're like so defeated and that's the enemy. Yeah. That's the enemy. Keeping you in this defeated, uncertain mindset that this is the way I'm always gonna be. I always struggle with this. Exactly. I'm gonna stay there. Oh, my dad was like this. It's in my family. No, you can change. Yeah. Mark 9 23. Jesus says all things are possible for him who believes. Amen. You know, I, could I ask you something? I know you mentioned the spiritual, the physical, um, something happens when you work out too with the mind. Like I notice like when I, when I, when I'm not, I'm, I'm not saying I do it all the time, but when I do, I seen that set. You got over there, man. He's got, damn, the weight set is, oh yeah. Yeah. That was, I was telling his brother. I, I, I know I've shared this on before, before I started the podcast, I had the ministry in my home workout in the Word on Wednesdays. We came here, worked out, and then we did the Bible. So, man, I, I love what you're doing and, and I know that that's a God thing. He definitely wants to do that. But the mind, and when somebody works out, I notice that man my creativity, I think, I think that that's the word that comes to mind is just more active man. And I find myself, I feel. That it's not just my mind, but I'm more, I don't know, alert to the Holy Spirit man. I start receiving like God ideas. Yeah. And it gives me, well, 100% exercise is a powerful stimulus. Uh, it's mental clarity, um, to your consciousness. Right. Um. When you work out your, your brain, your body releases neurochemicals, called endorphins, right? And those are feel good chemicals. They make you feel good. So, uh, it's, it's, it's a stimulus, which is a stressor, right?'cause working out is a stressor. But it ultimately resolves in, you know, the chemicals that soothe the body, that heal the body that make you feel good. It's, it's because we were designed, God designed us to move. It's only till fairly recent that we, because of industrialization and technology that. Man has moved indoors to a sedentary lifestyle, uh, without the sun, you know. Um, but people ask me, did, did, did the apo, the apostles didn't work out like they, they, they didn't work out'cause they didn't have to go to a gym because their, their, their daily lifestyle involved rigorous physical activity. Jesus was a carpenter. Okay. Uh, Paul was a tent maker. The apostles were fishermen. Okay? These were rigorous activities that were done daily. I read a book and it talks about how Jesus, how Jesus survived. Um, you know, the beating that he took, the lashing, then the beating, and then carrying this 150 pound cross, uh, up the hill up Calvary for almost a mile. And how for him to be able to do that and withstand so much punishment and have all that energy, he had to have been in very peak good physical health. You know what I'm saying? To withstand that much punishment. You know, Jesus was fit. In other words, amen. Jesus was fit. That's the only way he could have, uh, withstood such a beating and then carrying up that 150 pound cross, almost a mile uphill. Come on brother. Jesus was fit. I've never seen it that way, but that, that is a good, uh, yeah. Per and so it's, I perspectives. It's very important for us as men, providers and protectors of our families to make sure that we're putting out a product.'cause your body is a temple, right? Your body is a product. And, and so like, you want to do your best with what God has given you. Right? And so. That's the emphasis on, on the physical. And that's why I founded, uh, the fitness program. And, and that's why I'm doing what I do now. Amen. Where, where, where could people go to to hear about this? Yeah, so, uh, you could go to vero virtue fitness.com. I'm known on social media as the fit Christian dad, like we talked about. Should I do the pushups now? Since you're gonna break my, my little, my little desk right here, man. But, uh, you know my brother, I know earlier you mentioned nine 11. It's nine 11, man. I wanna be respectful of your time, you know, but, uh, be, be before that. I know you got some papers, I know there's something you wanted to touch on, basically. Any final words, any message that you wanna share with the listeners before we go? Um, you know, uh, just, God has brought me so far, Omar, you know, and he's done so many things in my life, you know, and I, I truly believe we're, we're living in a time. Where revival is happening. I see it in the streets of Chicago. We were just at Archer Park the other day, uh, celebrating, uh, the championship of a softball league, the new life softball league. And we broke out in a prayer circle afterwards where a Muslim man who was just invited there by someone who was attending God in the prayer circle and said he wanted to learn more about Jesus. And bowed his knees before Jesus. And it's just like, God. That's just one example. A small, like the Yeah. The baptisms that are happening, guys are getting baptized in Lake Michigan, right? Uh, the evangelism we see when we are on the streets of Chicago. Uh, we went to Gay Pride. We went to gay Pride, uh, to preach the gospel and love, right? Because we go everywhere or we go everywhere. God calls us, you know, and I had a person reach out to me. Uh, interested in my fitness coaching because he saw me preaching at Gay Pride and he said, I came from that lifestyle, you know, uh, and I know the spiritual warfare happening there. He said, but I like the way you guys did it. You did it in love. You just went out there in love. You didn't condemn, you didn't tell people they were going to hell. And I said, of course not, because we love these people. Right. Jesus says he looked on the flax and had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Uh, people are lost. Then people are lost. You were lost. I was lost. But now I'm found. Right? And so part of our ministry, or part of our purpose now as Christians, is to be the light. Is to be the light in all the world. And just like you said, you said it, man, you, you, you can. You can be an image bearer of Christ in whatever you do, right at whatever your, your job title is. Uh, whatever it is that you do for a living, wherever you're at, uh, you can be the light. And if Christians would truly understand that, like, man, we would take Chicago over for Jesus 100%. So, you know, that's my call to action. That's my call to action. Let's get bold for Christ. I hope you know my story. Resonated with some people. Uh, I hope they could see my passion for Christ. And I hope some of that passion, you know, um, stirs them, uh,'cause the Bible says to stir each other to good works. Stirs them to do the same, to go out and share the gospel. Uh, if you're interested in joining our ministry, Chicago Evangelism, reach out to me, send me a DM, or email us at chicago evangelism@gmail.com if you're interested in, uh, my faith-based Christ-centered weight loss program. Go to vero virtue fitness.com or follow me, send me a DM at Fit Christian dead on Facebook and social media and Facebook and Instagram. Hey. Amen. Amen. Brother. Thanks for sharing all that. Could you close us out in the prayer? Oh, of course. Amen. And thank you, brother. Bye. Oh, no, no, brother. No, for sure man. You brother. Pleasure. You know what I believe in, in divine connections, man. That's all it's been, man. It's like, man, just stepping out in faith and God's like been putting pieces together and I know this is just the beginning, brother. You know what I'm saying? Like, I, I think I told you even that day when you mentioned the barbershop, I like, man, I would love to go over there, maybe get skate, you know, sit in on that, maybe, you know, take some footage, you know? Yeah. And that, that would be awesome for, for people to see, man, that you could, you could hold and like you mentioned, guys would be more comfortable in a setting like that than stepping foot in a church. Yeah. Because guys go to the barbershop to talk, man. Hundred percent. You know what I'm saying? They go there, they talk about their struggles with their relationships, and the, I think one of the best mini ministry opportunities is as a barber hundred, is you get to hear people. And like you said, you're in their ear. Mm-hmm. And even if you're just man dropping a seed, man, you know, you ain't got hit'em full force depending on how the Holy Spirit leads you. Yeah. Give him some love, be in ear to listen to him and man, and little by little point him to Christ, man. But I, I, I, I love. To hear what's happening, like in a setting like that. Man, it's beautiful. It's a beautiful thing. And that barbershop, if anyone's interested in that, it's Tuesday nights at 7:00 PM Wall Street Barbershop. You can send me a DM on social media, uh, to learn more. Hey, man, man, I definitely, I'm gonna put out all all the, the links. Yes, please. Uh, to, to both the ministry or your business, and to this, uh, barbershop. They'll definitely be, uh, in, in the, in the notes. There'll be links. You just click on there and I'll take you to all that. But yeah, brother, if you wouldn't mind closing this out. No prayer, man. Yeah. Uh, Lord, heavenly Father, we just come before you today and praise and honor and glory for you are God and there is no other. You are the alpha, the omega, uh, the beginning and the end. Lord, you are the God who declares, uh, the end from the beginning. You are of our salvation Lord. And you, we take refuge and you, we take shelter and you we find hope. Lord, our lips can never cease to praise you. And I just thank you for the opportunity here to share with Brother Omar and the wrong to strong podcast Lord. Um, bless him and his endeavors with this podcast. Lord may reach people, Lord, uh, may, may the testimonies Lord, uh, resonate with people and draw people to you Lord, and advance the kingdom of God. Lord, that is our purpose, Lord, to advance the kingdom of God, to advance the gospel, Lord. So whatever. Capacity, Lord. However you use us, Lord use us. We are willing and we are obedient. Lord, I just pray Lord God, for you to bless his ministry. Lord bless this time to thank you for him Lord, and I just pray for our city of Chicago. Lord, that you can continue, Lord, uh, what you're doing in this city. Revival is happening. People are coming to Christ in droves. The youth are seeking God, Lord God. Grown men are bowing their knee before you, Lord God. Muslims are coming to Christ, Lord, and so much more that is happening in this city, Lord. So I pray that the good news can be proclaimed from the rooftops, Lord. I pray, Lord God, that more Christians get stirred up to be evangelists, to share the gospel, Lord, that we take over this city and we claim Chicago for Jesus, Lord. So I thank you that you're using me, brother Omar, uh, continue to use us. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Brother man, thank you for sharing your story with us. Thank you for being on here, man. Pleasure. Look, look forward to whatever else God's gonna be doing. But with that we're gonna wrap up. Matthew four 16 reads, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned alongside my guest, Salvador Torres am Omar Calvio, and we've gone from wrong to strong.