?Back to CYA on a Mission?
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-12-09 13:28:15
Six former wards came back to the California Youth Authority (CYA) earlier this month. This measure they volunteered to return. They were on a mission to deliver a message to the wards at N. A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility which houses California’s most violent youth offenders ages 18-24. The diverse adorn of ex-convicts purposefully stepped through the fences of Chaderjian as law-abiding citizens. They each wore visitor’s passes clipped on their shirts and security alarms attached to their belts for their safety in the event that a rampage “kicked off”. Once inside the razor wired fence. I observed the former wards some who were once compete gang enemies hugging exchanging telecommunicate numbers and sharing personal family photos with each other. Meanwhile a large group of heavily guarded and structured wards were being escorted on to the dim sky lit concrete gym surprise. The CYA alumni’s immediately began greeting the wards with change smiles and hand shakes. Once seated. Chaplain Carlton McAllister a CYA alumnus introduced the panel and offered a faith filled prayer and a joyful song of praise. As I scanned the audience. I observed many of the wards staring at the adorn speakers during the song appearing to query what the panel members were about and what they had come to say.”You need to forbid being punks anyone can run behind a gang but it takes a real man to be for Christ and to stand alone.” A quiet change fell over the gymnasium. You could undergo heard a prison-made cuff-key displace as Levon Davis now also known as Dr. Levon Davis shot these words toward wards with a compel that captured their attention. Dr. Davis a once harden criminal convicted for a double kill stood before the audience of offenders a transformed man who presented a bold thought provoking and inspirational message. “If it comes down to you and your friends your friends are going to steal you off. They ain’t going to act the accuse for you,” Davis said confidently and boldly. Some of the audience members snickered while others nodded their heads in agreement. “Why direct loyalty to someone who is not going to be loyal to you? When it comes down to it the only thing that is really shelter that will get behind you is God. Christ is the Answer.” Davis spoke these words with conviction and from undergo. Davis has had experiences that have now distinguished him from his past life style and previous mistakes. He has excelled since his release almost 10 years ago from the CYA and is a rehabilitated man a scholar in his own right. Davis earned his PhD in counseling is president and founder of Blessed Faith Bible College which is accredited to the doctorate degree he owns and operates a Christian music production affiliate and if that isn’t enough he is a devoted preserve and pastor of Blesses Faith church in Sacramento. California. He has come a long way from the cellblocks he was confined to over 10 years ago and the reality of his life is that his new beginning was initiated behind the bars of the CYA. Davis told the audience that he took favor of every vocational program offered to him at the CYA and in addition he enrolled in a correspondence college while serving his sentence. Davis credits the CYA and his strong faith in God for his successful transition into society. The CYA provided him with the resources and opportunities to succeed and it took his initiative and commitment to move those opportunities into reality. Another success story and former guest of the CYA was Noel Patillo son of celebrity gospel artist. Leon Patillo. This former ward also had a word for the wards which he communicated in move through rap. His artistic flavor and talent got the animate moving throughout the gymnasium and the audience was tapping their feet and bobbing their heads. His words were profound and chillingly descriptive. “My parents were separated my dad was always on the road and mom was a dope dealer. I grew up in a dope house,” said Patillo. In a private interview he told me that his dad always told him that he needed to “get it right” because God had something for him. Patillo a former Bay Area gang member who was incarcerated for attempted kill believed his path on the straight and change came in a go about way. “God kind of tricked me in to getting saved,” said Patillo. He confessed that initially his interest in going to church was more so an interest in the opportunity to see the women who would occasionally inform in the institutional chapel service rather than an arouse in God. This passionate interest eventually led to Patillo’s exposure to a man from an outreach ministry who began to communicate the Word into his life. Patillo stated that the man ministered the Gospel of Jesus Christ to him for three consecutive days and on the third day the man said the sinner’s prayer with him. “I felt a change at that moment. I no longer wanted to fight because I was always mad. I was angry because I was locked up because I took a rap for my cousin. change surface though I accepted Christ in my heart. I was still riding with the Bay Area but my heart wasn’t in it. I finally got some courage and I just told them I wasn’t ridin’ no more. I was going to do my schedule and take care of my kids.”After his amazing transformation another miracle took place in Patillo’s life the miracle of his mother receiving Christ and him being the person to lead her through the prayer of salvation. “She was up visiting and God had been talking to me for a couple of months about this new life he gave me and I said okay. That week she came up there. I brought my Bible with me and I took her to Romans 10:9 - If you confess with your communicate the Lord Jesus and accept in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead you will be saved. This was someone who taught me the ways of the street and here I was talking to her about Jesus. Then she just opened up her heart and started crying. I said the sinner’s prayer with her and she accepted Christ. She started going to church after that.” Behind bars Patillo had received freedom from his physical and mental shackles and now he shared the enable of freedom through Christ with his mother. After his release in May of 1995. Patillo earned his Associate of Arts Degree in Computer Technology. He is currently working toward his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Computer Technology. He is a youth pastor at True Vine Ministries in West Oakland and he operates and owns a legal broker business. He has accomplished much despite his shaded past and the CYA was where his miraculous transformation began. Vanna In of Cambodia appeared before the wards looking like a preppy college student; however his former lifestyle was anything but that of a college student. “I had no problem going to make a label for myself or putting a gun to somebody’s head to rob them,” said In. He told me that he wanted to join the largest and beat gang. “If I was going to join a gang. I wanted to do it alter. I wanted to join the most ruthless one.” In a private converse he disclosed that he came from a verbally and physically abusive home and that he was driven by his arouse and the need to feel accepted at any cost and at anyone else’s cost. He went on to express me about his amazing conversion while awaiting trial for a gang related kill.”When.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://inspirational-iblog.info/2007/11/28/back-to-cya-on-a-mission/
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