Welcome to the God's gonna podcast where our mission is to encourage and highlight God's
goodness and modern day miracles. We are your hosts, Josh and Shelley Hankins. Today we have
with us a special guest. You're gonna love it. We have Ralph Gatchal with us and he was
introduced to us by pastor Rick Cardell. He had a few episodes with us so check those
out. He has a playlist in YouTube. I got to add one more to it but we'll get there and you'll be
blessed and encouraged to listen to those episodes because they're pretty cool. And Ralph is going
to open our episode up with an opening prayer. So thanks for being here Ralph. Thank you. Lord Jesus,
I just come before you and I just ask the words that I speak be blessed of the Holy Spirit. Let
them flow for me as you would will to help anybody that would hear the podcast. Anything that I have
to say let it be of your blessing and let it come out with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I ask
that your holy and most precious name amen. Amen. Thank you for that. So where would you like to
start Ralph? Well I've gone through a rough time in my life at one point. Went through a pretty bad
marriage and when you lose a wife you start thinking differently and you become self-destructive.
In my case I got so self-destructive that I literally pointed again at the man that was with my ex
and as you all know when there's a weapon involved it doesn't take long. The police are on your door
and it cost me dearly. I lost my children. Everything was gone that I valued. My life I did
not even feel like continuing living. At one point nearly took my own life. Very nearly. But God in
my conscience said no, no. That moment probably is what changed my life and brought me to why I'm
here today because I have such an awesome testimony only by the Lord Jesus. My life is valuable now.
I've been able to serve as a servant that I could not have done if I would have taken my life
and if I would have given up. Don't get me wrong. The early days were bad. Lots of bars,
women, all the wrong things. But I'm here today to tell you that no matter what your situation was
or still is, you can come out of it. You have to pray. You have to ask Jesus into your life. If you
do that, your life will change so drastically even you won't believe it. It has done that to me
and I have so many things I could even explain and share with you what God has done. I hope to
earn this podcast. Some of that will be revealed to you and I thank you for listening.
So I was wondering what was your relationship with Jesus before all that altercation went down,
before you were standing ready to take another person's life? I actually was raised Catholic
and we did attend a local Catholic church in the community but I did not know Jesus. I did not know
Jesus. I would go, we'd listen to the sermons, our children were baptized but I did not know Jesus.
I had no idea who he really was. Do you think being able to point a gun at another person
made it that much easier for you to rationalize being able to do self-harm?
I believe pointing the gun at another person at that point looking at myself and how I went down
that road to that point, I had given up. So I think I could have done anything to myself just to get
out of that. I thought the easy way out was to shoot myself, blow my head off. However, as you all
know you see, I'm here. I'm glad that you did that. Always fear it came within me and just
something happened. No, no, no and I did not. I was powerless. So did you ever question that
something in you that said no, no, no? I did but at a later time after I came to know the Lord Jesus
in the process of changing, I began to look back on my life and I saw where he came into my life
and was trying to help me but I did not recognize it back then because I did not know Jesus. I did
not know what the Holy Spirit was. That is so powerful because I think I even shared this
in a podcast, maybe my testimony, but at one point I asked God to show me where you're like,
or I kept asking where he was in my life on all those points but it's hard. You know, I was like,
if you only were in my life revealed to me sooner, I wouldn't make these mistakes now.
He let me down that road to see where I refused him and he was there the whole time
in every instance where I turned him down and it was and so when you said that, man,
I bet it really sparked a memory in me, you know. Obviously, I'm not alone in how God convicts some of
us. I think that's amazing. Please go on. How did you even get to that point where you would
even think of Jesus as someone? Well, after the police came and arrested me and I knew that I
was going to be doing some time, I was going to lose my house. The children were glad to go with her,
which honestly, I know they were raised okay. It was not a problem. The one thing I did when the
divorce was being finalized, I allowed her to keep the house, just pay any back taxes and did not
try to force a sale so that I would get half because I knew the children would have a place to stay.
At that time, I had a son eight years old and daughter seven. It was tough. I saw everything
losing. It was just all my whole life was going down the drain and I didn't think to call out to
God, but being as I was raised, even before I went into prison, I knew to get on my knees and pray.
When I'd come back from a night at the bar dancing and things you don't even want to know,
I didn't do any drugs. I didn't go out, but that didn't make it any less harmful.
I just get on my knees and I'd say, God, please, please, please help me. I don't want to be this
person that I am. I do not want to be me. Please, please, please help me. I do that every time.
I'd come in one o'clock in the morning drunk and still get on my knees and ask them to help me.
To this day, I believe that's why once I got to prison and I had time to think
and see, reflect on my life, that God came into my life through a series of events,
being invited to the chapel, meeting the right people to tell me who Jesus was and why I needed
him. It took a while. In 1991 is when I went to prison, Western Penitentiary, anybody knows that
place. It's not a very nice place. It was freezing cold over there. Is that the old Allegheny County?
Yes, the old Allegheny. I've heard stories about this. Yes, it was a prison. It was a prison,
but one night in my cell, something in my heart was just bouncing around. I knew I needed to do
more. I just called out my very words to this day. I can remember. I said, God, I have no idea why you
would even want a person like me. I'm bad. I've done a lot of bad things. You probably hate me,
but I said, if you really, really care about me, would you please, please, please come into my life
and help me? I still at that point didn't know Jesus. I still called upon God, three and one,
same entity, same person. But something happened and these huge tears started coming down.
It's still emotional. I still feel it. I still see it that day in the cell. Tears came down,
were dripping on my arm and I didn't know what that was. I looked down, saw these drops of water.
It was me crying that deeply because I believe at that moment, even knowing not how to ask Jesus
into my life, He came. He sent the Holy Spirit at that moment, even through my own ignorance.
Something happened and it changed me. I could tell something was different and my life really
changed from that day forward. I mean, God is faithful and He does say that there is no excuse.
If you look upon creation that you will see Him and praise Him and you went to your knees and you
praised Him and you worshiped Him and you begged Him and you told Him how much you cared for Him
and He did not leave you wanting. I think that's tremendous. I mean, absolutely tremendous to be
in that place where you don't do it all right. Right? Nobody did it by the book, but neither
did the thief on the side of the cross from Jesus. He didn't do it by the book either
and he still had salvation. He didn't know that Jesus was the way of the truth in the life. He
had no idea. Right? And so, I think we get wrapped up on semantics often and it's very confusing for
people who want Jesus, but they don't know how to invite Him in. They don't know how to open that
door and they think that there's a magic prayer and there's not. And most people acknowledge that.
Most decent Christians acknowledge that there's no magical prayer that is the prayer that you pray
and that what it is, it's the Spirit behind it where you say the quiet part out loud where you
acknowledge that Jesus is Lord. And so, even if you don't know His name, God is faithful to our
heart. He knows that our heart is toward Him and that is the catalyst that changes everything for
us is that when our heart towards Him, whether it's Him through the Holy Spirit demonstrated,
whether it's Him as Himself or the Father, whether it's Him as His Son is Jesus, like we turn our
heart towards Him is when things change in us and I think that's a tremendous story. I mean,
absolutely tremendous change for you and I'm so happy for you that you got to experience that.
That part resonated with me that you knew Jesus, well, you knew of Him and you would pray,
but you would still do the worldly things, not chasing after Jesus. But then when you decided
to chase after Jesus a little bit and turn towards Him, that's when everything changes and then
you build that relationship and then it's the gradual sanctification process. So, tell us more
what happened when you were in the prison. Well, this is how I know that that night Jesus centered
my heart. Where I was at, when you're in the intake in Western Ben and Tentra, you were not
allowed to have anything. You could have commissary, you were allowed to buy some honeybuns, which was
a big deal back then. But you really weren't allowed to have anything, you were not allowed to
purchase anything until you were processed through. The fellow that was in the cell beside me,
he was getting ready to leave the very next morning. He came over to my cell and he handed me
a bunch of colored pencils and he said to me, Ralph, he said, I heard you last night. He said,
oh my, he said you had me in tears. He said, I don't know why, but something tells me
that I should just give you these and he did. He gave me colored pencils and it changed my time
immediately there because I was able to draw cartoonish figures on the envelopes that I made out
like a lot of inmates do. You have a lot of time. The cell was very small. It was six foot by eight
foot. My cell. Very small cell and I'm telling you, you had a little desk about a foot and a half wide,
a foot and a half deep. That's where you did everything. You usually had to sit on a great
white throne to do that. Should I say stainless steel throne? Anyhow, that same day I was out
in the yard and somebody said something to me about the church service that they had there.
And I no longer remember Billy Graham's right hand man's name, but he was actually volunteering
as a minister for the church service for the non-denominational church service there.
And one of the inmates said to me, yeah, you want to go check it out and get you out of your cell.
So I did it and oh my, we went in there, they started singing and I never sang like that. We
didn't sing like that at our church. We didn't sing for Nisoul. We didn't sing blood of Jesus. We
didn't sing songs like that and it moved me greatly. It, something happened again that day
and I wanted to go back for more. The second time I went back, he gave me a Bible and he said,
if I were you and you're serious about trying to come to know the Lord, you need to be reading this.
And I suggest you start in the New Testament. He said, once you have the New Testament read,
I'll give you directions for where to go. He said, when you come back again, if you do,
I'll lead you to Jesus. And so be it. He led me to Jesus and I started reading. I found a lot of
enlightenment in the Bible and it showed me that no matter how evil I thought I was, which I was,
that Jesus forgives and that forgiveness is what gave me the hope. And once I accepted
Him as my Savior, from that point on, they had free Bible studies in there that they could
send you through the mail. I worked diligently, very diligently to learn and make sure I didn't
make any mistakes. I looked up the verses and funny thing is, when you start looking up verses,
you see yourself throughout the Bible. You see the people that were stoned because of their sins,
only you weren't. You see the people that were hanged because I, Jesus, only you weren't. You
had a second chance and I knew it. And so I thirsted so badly to get that done. And I quit
complaining about my situation, accepted it and tried to just move forward.
And how long were you in prison for? I was in prison for seven and a half years. I had a nine
year sentence. And at the time when I knew Governor had come in at the time, I can't remember
rightly what his name was, but he said, if you do serious crimes, you do serious time. And they
quit allowing you to get out on your minimum, which would have been at that point four and a
half years to nine. I would have been out at four and a half, first time offense. So the first time
that they gave me a hit, it was an 18 month hit. It broke my heart. But the nice thing about it,
God had a plan I was only at Western Penitentiary for maybe six, seven, eight months. They transferred
me to Greensburg SEI. And there they have a lot of programs that you can get involved in, a lot of
school classes. And just for the first year I was there, they opened up the Westmoreland County
Community Business College to the inmates. They came in, you were allowed to take classes. I felt
that I needed to learn to write better and know better English and know how to do things referring
to literature. So I took all the classes that I could get. And fortunately, I studied well enough
that I got A's on my tests. And for the one year that they allowed the inmates to have college,
I made the president's list. And that again was all by Jesus because I was working at three o'clock
in the morning. I had to get up and go down to the kitchen and start cooking and getting breakfast
ready for the inmates. You didn't get out of there till 10 o'clock the next day. So the classes were
two, eight o'clock at night. Inmates aren't very quiet from eight to twelve. So I got very little
sleep underneath my eyes for pure black all the time because I wasn't getting sleep. So I just said
a little prayer. Lord, would you please get me out of this kitchen? Give me a job somewhere where I
can continue to do all this. And still be able to manage my classes. So not even a day later,
somebody took me off at there was rooming the weight anyx. The lifting the weight anyx for the
inmates. They said they're hiring down there. If you get down there and you get in, you won't have
to get up at two or three in the morning and go to work. It'll start at nine in the morning or 10.
I went down, they hired me on the spot. And they said the only thing is we're gonna have to put you
outside in the snow because inside in the gym, those slots are all taken. I didn't mind. I did it.
I loved it. And it also by building physically, by building strength physically, adding to the mental
strength that I was gaining and being more secure inside the two together, it did something to me.
I didn't see prison as such a horrible place to be. It was more a place to grow. And that's what I did.
A lot of stories that we've actually had in our podcast that come out of the jail system. And
I love the transformative power that that level of despair can cause a man to come to,
that he genuinely seeks Jesus, genuinely seeks God. The transformations that we have seen from so
many people. It is so much like Paul, right, when he's in prison and he just sings and the walls,
where all the prison doors like bust open wide and all the prisoners leave except him, right?
Because he still has a job to do and he still stays for the guard, you know. And it seems
that this is something as close to Jesus as God's heart to reach people in their desperation while
they're in prison to say that you are not irredeemable and let that be a lesson to everybody
listening that no matter what you think you've done, we've had people that have done, you know,
committed heinous acts against other people and God has forgiven them. God has allowed them
to be in their kingdom, to be adopted as the son of the most high God. And you are not any different
from these men and women that we have on our podcast, that you are worthy, you have worth,
you mattered to God and there's nothing you've done at all, at all that would cause him to not
allow the sacrifice of Jesus to be yours as well, to not allow that to cover you. I love the
transformation that we hear from from prisons and addictions. We have a lot of freedom of addictions
as well that, you know, is if you can't see God moving in our world with that, I don't know how
to help you. I don't understand people in prison and they don't, I guess, do the Jesus thing,
so to speak. You know, like what an empty life that would be without focusing on something.
I met a man once when I worked at a busy beaver in college who had been to prison for five years
and he said the first two years he was just mad. He wasn't seeking Jesus, he was just dwelling in
his anger and the three years after that he said, then he would, he had learned his lesson and he
said it was miserable. So he went from angry to miserable and he didn't turn to anything because
he just turned to his own emotion and I think that's what causes people not to seek Jesus is
because they don't want to, they want to consult themselves with themselves.
I know that I could probably go on for days and tell you all the testimonies but I'll speak this
along a little. I want whoever out there that this needs, you need this in your ears, whoever you are
that are worried about things or not sure how God can help you in a situation with what God did for me
while in prison, after all my faults. If he can do the things for me that he did for me in prison,
you've got to remember he owns everything, he owns the whole earth, he owns everything.
He made ways for me in there that a lot of folks never got to see and it brightened my days,
it gave me hope. Hope was the most important thing you need when you're in prison, you need hope.
They actually, I was in the wait-and-exec for quite a while and I used to take on
inmates that couldn't defend themselves, the ones that people would steal their
commissary off of them. I would try and invite in people that were very weak and didn't have
any self-confidence because those are the ones that needed help, they needed to stand up for
themselves. I learned through praying that he can do all things through Christ and in Ecclesiastics,
as he states in Ecclesiastics, there's a time for everything and my time was then to grow in Christ.
So he gave me a heart that changed the way I saw others and those that were weak that would get
picked on it would just, oh, it would hurt me so bad when I would see it. So I started standing
up for them because I'd been lifting weights for a while and putting the weights away every day and
got pretty strong and actually at the age of 40 years old, God blessed me to be able to bench
315 pounds and I know there's a lot of stronger people and it wasn't about how much weight,
it was about where he brought me from the 100-pound day I started and how it helped me build self-
confidence in my life. I knew I could do anything in Christ. I started participating in the church
much more, many more Bible studies. Rima Bible College ended up sending me their whole course
and when I was done completing it, they can tell if you cheat if you stole the answers off of somebody
else because they have worded essays that you have to explain your answer. So I did well on those,
well enough when I was done with their course, I asked them if there was any way they could send me
things on manuscript writing, advanced English, anything that could help me become a better writer
to write articles because I was being so inspired to write while I was in there and
I got a letter from somebody there that said, I think we can help you with to check with your
journal to see if you're allowed to receive this but if so, we'll send it. They sent me three courses
on literature and manuscript writing, book writing, advanced English, everything to help you to word
your words so that they flowed smoothly and you weren't putting a lot of double words in there
that didn't need to be double negatives, double anythings and it helped me greatly but in the
course of doing that for some reason somebody gave me a calligraphy book and to this day,
to this day, just this past week a friend of ours was getting, their daughter was getting married
and they asked me to do the table, the people's names and table numbers in calligraphy because
they liked it so much and it was such a pleasure for me to do that as knowing that I learned that
in there. It was a God-given gift and I was able to utilize it to help somebody at their wedding
and it's just so much joy. Everything God gives you when you utilize it, it will come out as joy
in your heart. You'll know that it's joy. I'm telling you, I'm so happy when I did that and
they wanted to know if I wanted anything for doing the work. I got all I needed just for doing it
because of the pleasure of being able to do something that God blessed me with and I still
did a stay to it. I love it. I did a lot of the articles in calligraphy back then but God then
blessed me to go to the auto mechanic shop which I liked. I wasn't there six months and the teacher
liked me so much he made me a teacher's aide so I got to stay outside the fence and work fixing
cars and guess who some of the cars are fixed? They're the very guards that watched over you.
So they get to know you and I ended up making some pretty good friends that were guards
helping them with their vehicles. I loved it because I wanted them to have the best job done
on their vehicle that could be. The minister there, Pastor Watkins at the time, he liked me and he
asked me if I'd consider going out and doing speaking engagements to Juveniles and they have
a juvenile center in Youngwood at Greensburg so you were allowed to wear your better clothes and
he had me write a letter to the warden to get clearance to MC Clarence. He approved it and
there I was getting to leave the prison with the pastor in his car and eat at King's Restaurant.
Youngwood. Food that you just don't get in prison. Again, little things like that.
There's so much joy and all the years now since it's been that I've been there. I got to meet with
my pastor, I got to take him and his wife out for a steak dinner and we reminisced, we cried,
lots of tears because when God works on things he makes them permanent and our friendships with
those guys are permanent. So a wonderful experience there. I know I'm talking about prison but it was
a wonderful experience because God was in it the whole way. Well, isn't he the only one that can
make it a wonderful experience? Everybody that's ever mentioned their time in prison has always
had a better experience after their relationship with Boston with Christ, never before. And so
in prison was designed by men that know that this is a place that you don't want to be. That's right.
And Jesus can't take you out of the prison but he can take the prison out of you and that is
evidenced by the joy that you had being there, right? That he loved you so much that he rewarded
you for your faithfulness, that he is always faithful and you experience prison differently
than your fellow prisoner, right? You experience it through a lens of joy,
right? Isn't that right? A lens of praise. That's how we're supposed to be. We're not in all
adversity. That's how his children are supposed to be and he gives us the moments of joy and gives
us those moments to praise him and to glorify his name. He loves that. He loves pouring out into us
and I love to hear that. I noticed a theme throughout this episode that you would ask and then you
would receive. You would ask and then you would receive and you kept finding favor like Joseph
and when he was in prison he was appointed, you know, head over the prison or whatever the guards,
whatever he was but he was raised and his level was raised so it's just really neat that you kept
asking and then it took you to the next step and the next level up and you kept getting better and
better at various things and then he came out this well-rounded person and it was kind of like a
like a vacation so to speak. Intimacation, you do lose your freedom but sometimes in the silence
of not having freedom you gain a great ability to be able to better yourself because there's no
distractions and the truth is I tell my wife and this is a testimony in itself, I tell my wife
all the time that prison was actually good for me and people would think, are you nuts?
Well no, it depends on what you use your time for so I'll get right to it. I kept praying and praying
and praying for a good Christian pen pal to write to and the pastor told me at Grainsburg, Ralph,
if you want the best you need to pray and fast. You need to pray and fast for three days just
something to drink that don't eat any food, don't cheat because if you cheat you're cheating on God.
So I prayed and fasted and as it turns out on the third day when I was done and I went down to get
lunch I came back and the guard said, hey Ralph there's a letter here for you. It turns out that
one of those guys that had no self-esteem and my weight lifting group that needed a lot of help
and I pulled him into a group and helped them out with the help of God. He saw something that was
worth on. He got stronger, he helped his disabilities. When he left he went to this person and asked
them if they would consider writing to me. The letter came on the day of my that I ended my fast.
That woman, I sent her the first letter and told her why I was in there right off the bat,
everything the truth, everything. It's now my wife we're going to celebrate 25 years this October 16
and you want to talk about blessing. She is the best woman you could possibly want. She loves me
in spite of myself at times and that's what God gives you when He gives you something. He gives
you the best and this woman Susan is the best. 25 years coming up on October 16th we're going to go
back to the cabin where we had our honeymoon this year up in Cook Forest and we're going to probably
have some tears but it's just one of the little things that happens if you just keep your faith
and don't give up. God is faithful even when we're not and our heart is in the right place. We often
fail anyway but God never fails so pray it's God for that. Excuse me that's a little bit
there for there. No, no you're okay this is the same place. We're all children of God here so it's
this is okay. I was tearing up the first time you had tears because it wasn't the Holy Spirit
just fills you. It just for me it just oozes out his tears. It was thick in the room.
I have been so moved that woman started coming to see me. She used all her vacation time,
all of it to come see me and when we were finally allowed to have picnics outside she'd bring a
whole feast of food, invite my father, my family, my mother and siblings and come on out and have
the picnic on the grill and I'm telling you the times that that was they are such fun memories
because they were only a part of God grooming me to be a better servant and how to be one.
But this woman stuck beside me and they finally transferred me to Wainsburg SCI
which is down in Wainsburg. It's a state prison but it had no fence. It had no fence. I said what?
A prison with no fence? Well I had gained enough respect and the prison saw something in me to
allow me to keep the two MC clearance so when I got there they had a mechanical shop and I asked
them hey you need a mechanic. He said well as a matter of fact our mechanic's leaving in a week.
So a fellow by the name of Mr. Petrus at the time. I don't even know if he's still around but he was
a big part of my life. He said well I need you first. I need you first to work down our sewage
treatment plant. He said wear screens down there we got to clean out. Let's see how you approve
yourself. He said a topside defense it's a quarter of a mile away from the prison. I drive you down
there you're free. No cops know anything if you want to walk away you can. Well in that experience
I got to see deer. I got to see squirrels. I got to see turkey. They come right up to you where
you're working when you're walking on the job. It was such a wonderful fulfilling sense of freedom
when I was out there. Yes it was a sewage treatment plant. Yes I found dentures in the screens and
amongst a few other things I don't care to talk about but the part was I had a job where I was
still being taught by God patience understanding and at that time I didn't know. Like I said there's
a time for everything. Ecclesiastics couldn't be clearer about that. He was teaching me and I didn't
know it at the time. He was teaching me he was preparing me but soon the mechanic left and he
needed me to work as a mechanic. I got down to work on a mechanic and what happens they get eight
brand new prison vans outside the fence dodge vans in that year which was probably 90 or six or so
and he called me the office and he throws me the keys to all these brand new vans outside the fence
with five miles on them. Now just try to imagine being an inmate and your boss is
a hand full of brand spanking and keys. Some kind of a vehicle with the keys. No fence. Here you go.
My face must have said it all because he looked at me and he said Ralph here's how it is. If this
prison system trusts you enough to give you a two mc clearance who am I to doubt you? He said if
you're going to go go. He said don't catch you though add five years to your sentence they'll
catch you but I have to trust you that's why you're here that's why you have a two mc. I said well
I'm not contemplating leaving I'm just so overwhelmed that somebody would trust me with brand
new vehicles outside the fence. He told me to do hundred point inspections on it make sure everything
was up the par took a while but it gained my trust with him and he started taking me to east liberty
to their warehouse to get chairs and tables and that feed us some real food sometimes.
And it was also an adventure and it was a lesson and just to make this so that you can understand
that God has humor and we're created after his own image. He is humorous and you might not see it
a lot when you read his words but we're created after his own image where do you think we get
humor from? So he takes me out to east liberty to get some tables and stuff and on the way back
in my boss says hey Ralph your girl's here waiting for you for a visit and she lived in
Pittsburgh she came down to Winsburg to visit me so she had to wait for me to go up and change the
clothes and get shired and come back down to visit her whenever I was out where she's from.
It just kind of made me laugh because that's how God is. He gives you enlightenment when you need it
the most and he sure put a big grin on my face that day when I told her oh I was over in Pittsburgh
I'm sorry I didn't get back in time. I love how it just got stood corrected when I said that Jesus
can't take you out of prison. He did. He gave you the prison experience of freedom you know you knew
that if you left that you would be in a worse place right and so you enjoyed the freedom that you had
and enjoyed the work that you did and I mean long away just amazing. He blessed me so. I'm like I'm
sitting all confident oh yeah Jesus can't take you out of prison but you can take a prisoner out of
here like yeah well now he took you out of prison like while you were still there. If he walks again
anything is possible with Christ. Yep so I stand corrected I apologize I was wrong Jesus can take
you out of prison. This is more favor. He definitely I ended up pursuing more things and enjoyed the
choir there was a woman there named Mrs. Long Helen Long who knows no longer with us but I loved her
dearly she was very good at teaching you to sing. I loved singing but my notes were about as flightless
a band cake she taught me how to sing and to use my baritone voice which isn't very popular with
singing but if it's fit in with the tenors and the bassist you can sound very well and you can fit
in and add to that choir. So she added me in and gave me some solo parts and I found great joy when
we'd have a big assembly meeting where we would put on Christmas shows or Easter shows and it just
built my self confidence and I continued to writing and started sending articles out to various churches
those churches sent them to various other places I started getting letters from the Philippines
from England from out west the oldest living martial in the United States he found one of my
articles the value of nothing. God blessed me to write those things and one of the people I met
when they came out was still carrying one of the Minnows Bible he said I read that every now and
then because it inspires me that's what Jesus does. He put those words sometimes in the middle of the
night it's stopping out of my sleep and I'd have to write in the dark and my lines were my words
were all over the place because they weren't on the lines I had to figure them out in the morning
but he inspired me to write also maybe that's why I needed those courses. I was thinking earlier
when you're talking about your wife and how you would have picnics and the whole family getting
out on a picnic that that must have been some letter you wrote you know to get it going and of
course it makes sense that you had the grammar you had the literature you had the English courses
that you took that was some letter that you wrote you know because you didn't see her right away
it was just correspondence right and that turned into something else from just the letters that's
incredible. I think the important thing is is God I prayed about the letter I wrote back and God
told me don't hide the truth put it right up front in your first letter let her know the truth
and I did that I told her I said if we're to have a friendship it has to be built on the truth
because that's what God wants and she said when she got it she was rather taken back
a little but she knew in her heart that it was okay because I wasn't afraid to share it with her
and sometimes we still talk about it I mean it's in the past but we bring it up once in a while
and enjoy how God brought us through that it's just so wonderful how he makes a way where there
don't seem to be one and he does it constantly in your life. He's really good at it. He's like
it's his forte so I just make my way it's where where there isn't one like I just create a way for
you out of the blue just right there you can't imagine it because it doesn't exist to you.
We actually had quite a few miracles in there and one of the women that I was writing through she
was a school teacher and she came from England from Sherwood Forest and she moved to Wilmington
in North Carolina and she started sending me letters and she would send me literature to help me
improve on reading and writing and I was doing some poetry at the time and she encouraged me to
continue to do that. I'm glad I did because some of it got published and it isn't to me it's not
that it got published oh wow look I got something about God has nothing to do with it. What it has
to do with is for example the one poem that I wrote was called Emotional Glass about how the pieces
of your life and soul are all over the place in your life and nothing's coming together but what that
poem shows is how Jesus can bring all those pieces back together and put them in their correct place
and make it a song. It's just unbelievable the National Library poetry actually put that in there
top 30 out of thousands of poems and I still have the book at home and I read it because I remember
the moment the night that Jesus gave me that and sometimes when I know somebody going through
struggles that are suffering and they don't know how to get their life together or put the pieces
of their life back together I'll let them read them and explain how Jesus got me through that
that's why he gave me that so I can share it with them and I know when to do it because God
leads you and tells you when to do it otherwise they just sit in a shelf they sit there with dust
on them sometimes but when the time is right they come out for the right person so I thank you Lord
Jesus for that too you always encourage me at the right time I can move on to the latter stages
if you would like sure okay as things progressed in prison of course by then I was pretty confident
I had no fear of other inmates sadly some of the worst ones actually like me for some reason I don't
know why maybe because I would share a cookie or share a honey bun or whatever somebody needed
something you try to give it to them it was the Jesus in you that they were sharing it's like a
moth to the light it just can't be stopped they're like oh what is that I like that the
worst you are the more you need him one of the fellas that I actually had a lot of fear of because
he was a pretty strong fella he came and sat with me at lunch one day and he said who are you
how can you be so happy you're always smiling we're in prison you know he said we're eating
prison food with bugs in it and you're sitting here enjoying your meal like if you're having a steak
dinner and I just told him I said put the blessing upon it ask Jesus to bless your food and you'll
like it a whole lot better it helped me to get through some of the meals that there is no doubt
and on several occasions I did find bugs in my food especially at western venitentiary you have
to push them aside and you have to eat because if you don't eat you're going to be hungry you have
to eat so I ate anyhow just move whatever it was aside whether it be a broccoli or
a worm or whatever it was and we did have several of them you just had to in your heart say well
this is what happens when you go to prison you're not going to have steak dinners you're not going
to have french fries you're not going to have meatloaf you're not going to have roasted turkey
you're going to have stuff that can be thrown together quickly a lot of starches but still you
get used to it and you accept it and if you don't grumble about it you actually end up being able
to survive because you can enjoy it because the income wasn't much I actually made it all the way
up to 19 cents an hour oh wow for work when I was working when I was working as a mechanic at
Williamsburg I got all the way up to 19 cents an hour I was able to buy shampoo real shampoo real
soap and still have a treat and that was kind of nice but once my pen pal got to know me closer
she started leaving a little bit of money in the books for me to have a treat and hickory farms at
Christmas they used to allow us to bring a package in and she'd get me a hickory farms package and
it was like a feast of a can you can sit and have that cheese and that sausage and M&Ms in some
packages and stuff you'd never get to get so we'd lay them all out at Christmas we'd go to each other
dorms and we'd invite people in and share share the bounty because it would make such a difference
in those person's lives that couldn't even have that it was so nice to see the smile on her face and
it was just wonderful you don't mind giving away something when you know that those people are
enjoying that so much I agree so it was pretty easy actually and my then girlfriend she made sure
that I had enough stuff for those holidays to share with others and she'd say did you share
did you share to this day she lets me know when I'm going five or eight miles over to speed limit
believe me she lets me know that is what that is what a good christian moment
do I get irritated oh yeah I get irritated tell me how to drive however in realistic view you have to
look she's only doing that because she loves you she don't want you to get it to her get
another accident so be it so continuing from the Waynesburg air I had gotten another hit so there
I was I was up to doing seven and a half years out of the nine and when I went up for review
at the parole board they told me do you have any work jobs in places you used to have to
before you went to parole you had to get jobs set up so that when you get out you could go to a job
well I utilized so many good ones earlier in the times that I went up for parole that there were
no more there were no more so when I went up they said what what job do you have in place I said well
I had good jobs in place the last couple times I came up for parole and you rejected me so I lost
those forever I said as it stands I have none I said however I am not afraid to work and when I
get out if I'm sent to Johnstown I said I'll find a job I'm not afraid to work I said I'll get a job
I said I know I will and I said that's where that stands I don't have anything in place
and I thought they were just going to tell me well another six months came back my green sheet
which they called was the decision that they would make by the parole board it would come
in a male green sheet approved to go to a halfway house in Johnstown yeah but he cried on that one
oh my god I could not wait to share that with my girlfriend who by that time we would have been
together for like three years already time flies you know she came all the time to support me
so I got released in November of 1998 just a few days before my birthday the first thing we did was
ran straight to Burger King and had two whoppers three large fries a big milkshake and believe me
I know that's not what God wanted me to do but forgive me it was delicious I'll never forget
that my family came and enjoyed that time with me now you're out after so much time you're not
allowed to handle money all of a sudden now you have bills in your hand there's a great amount of fear
because you know if you have bills in your hand or money that's contraband you're not allowed to
have that you're going to go to the hole place they lock up with no light no windows and so it
takes a quite an adjustment the longer you're in prison the harder that adjustment is but my girlfriend
would ride the train in from Pittsburgh and come and come to see me over at the halfway house and
would go out you were allowed to go out three hours at a time until you got a job and would walk
down and would talk about things and she helped enlighten me and take away some of the fear she
prayed with me often and again when God puts somebody beside you a companion most likely
you're not going to find anyone like that person because it's God sent she helped me through a lot
of fear back then one little thing I will add it's a little funny I'll put it in here I went to
call her one day from the phone in the park I picked up the phone I dialed the number and the
phone made this crazy note and I couldn't get through what what the heck is going on I said
and when I finally got through to her she said that's the facts I said what's the facts what's
wrong with this machine she said you don't know what a fact is I said uh no you lose time when
you're in there you lose track of what's going on in society it passes you up it blows by you and
you don't know what has changed in society to this day we still laugh about it because I'll do that
every now and then so look at me and bust a gut laughing because now I know what a fact is but
I got a job at a furniture store moving washers and dryers I had a driver's license which I did
not lose and I got to drive the truck and deliver appliances and I liked it because it let me be
out of work all day I would get to go to st. Vincent de Paul's in Johnstown and those people
so gratefully shared their time to serve people in need for food and oh man was that good food I was
spoiled rotten going to st. Vincent de Paul some people wouldn't even want to go through that line
but let me tell you those people give from their heart and that food was delicious I'd go for lunch
every day delivering washer and dryers and the boss was eighty eighty four eighty five and she
got sick after I was working there for three months her son was a cancer specialist in New York
a big top of the line cancer specialist I had to make the call I found her bleeding laying on the
floor and I called I got through to the hospital where he was working and told him that was up
and I told him I'd keep the store after keys I'll run the store he came in and he came to visit with
me a little bit and he said what am I going to do I said let's pray first this is what having
God in your life can teach you always always pray when you lose that key in the snow or you lose
your wallet or you don't know where you put your phone don't go hunting for anything just say lord
you know where it is you have the eyes you see it would you please lead me to it that's what happens
so I prayed with this man and he looked at me and he said you know my mother told me you're one of
the best employees she's ever had you do everything that she asked of you and she trusts you and I said
well I hope so I'm a Christian I assumed all Christians were honest well let me tell you
that's not necessarily the truth but Christians are fowlable we're not perfect I make mistakes once
in a while even to this day I'll let a word out that I would never let out normally but I know I'm
not perfect I go before God and ask forgiveness so he said would you run the store and come in here
in the morning keep this place going till we can figure out what to do at this time my wife was in
a count where she worked and she came in and she laid out this spreadsheet how we could liquidate
that store for them the model number the value what was paid how much you were going to sell it for
taxes etc etc etc down the line and move everything and so I told him I can do this even though I
was an inmate I was still living at the correction center I can do this I'm sure I can do this he
trusted me he trusted me and guess where my help came from I know where this is going the correction
center I hired the people that I trusted to help me get stuff ready to get it on the truck and one
gentleman had a license that I knew trusted him to deliver to the people and you want to know what
that is so $40,000 worth of appliances in the first month and that's because God had his hand on me
he was making it work he was showing people that no matter what your situation was you could be a
good servant you could be trusted I love the fact that these people trusted me enough to
liquidate their store and I'm living in the correction center this testimony is important to me because
this man he would check the bank every now and then he'd call me and tell me Ralph I don't think
if I could hire somebody I could have this done this well he said I don't know how you're doing
this but keep it up I would always tell him I'm doing this through Jesus because Jesus is the one
who gives you the right things to do he tells you he got you and he helped me through that so we
liquidated his store in three months and all the stuff he didn't sell he said I was allowed to put
out for garbage or sell guess what I had big yard sale on the big glass windows ended up making a few
thousand extra office stuff that would have went into garbage that he allowed me to keep and then
my wife to be in October of that year we'd be getting married it was July 15th or so we were
done with the store liquidated cleaned out I moved her father let me move into their house where my
then wife was living by herself and she had to move out and live with a girlfriend so that I would
have a place to come to pitchburg and stay while I was trying to find a job and that's the kind of
Christian father she had now you understand why my wife is as she is and her sisters they're the same
everybody tries to help each other so there I am living in their house and her father hardly
knew me at all and trusted because he said if my daughter trusts you I trust you and I moved into her
house she moved out in an apartment with a girlfriend so now to wind this down a little bit and sum it up
comes the best part of all and I'm just telling you to this day it still makes me cry because
it just goes to show how good God is he's a really good God I wasn't in Pittsburgh two days
and in July of 99 I believe that was in July of 99 yes that's when we had the microburst in
pitchburn and I had her out to lunch from her work across the street from a golf course South
Hills Country Club pretty prestigious place private club she worked at the GBU which is an
insurance organization and I had her out the sky turned green and the wind started blowing
and it started shaking the car around really bad I said just just stay tight stay tight while we
were in the car we were watching all these huge trees fall on the road fall over at the country
club big oak trees pine trees they were just coming down right left and it was raining so hard
it put down like three inches and less than 25 minutes that's how hard it was raining it flooded
the road trees were down and I just jokingly said to her wouldn't it be something if I got a job
right across the street from where you've been working for 20 some years guess what that's what
happened God let me the very next morning I went into that golf course and I'm gonna I'm
my hands do I do things with my hands I like to work with my hands I'm outdoorsy I walked into there
and they had trees down everywhere that a small group of people I knew how to run a chainsaw I
was from the country I knew how to run one and I said look I need a job I'm right out of prison I
told them you know I told the guy the story and I said look I'm a good worker and if you want you
could hire me without pay for a couple weeks and I'll show you that I can be trusted I can do the
job and he said well at this point whether I trust you or not I need help we got you see what's
out there in that course he said our car is closed we got trees all over everywhere so he hired me on
and I liked working with the chainsaws I knew how to sharpen the chains so he gave me devices to do
that and one thing led to another to another to another and before you know it he was raising me
from the seven dollar and honor start wage up to about eight dollars which back then in the 90s
starting out out of prison that that was way better than minimum wage and he just kept bumping me up
bumping me up and his job positions open he wanted to keep me and he did but during this entire time
my wife she had one hour from lunch guess where we had lunch every single day except for one or two
bad stormy days in the golf course parking lot we got to share lunch I had a half hour she had an
hour she'd be waiting with the air conditioner on to keep me cool and we enjoyed that meal so much
together we got to do that for a lot of years a mile from where we lived so no big miles on the
vehicle we practically walked there it was wonderful I just retired from there eight years ago now
and I had 18 years in with that golf course and she's retired now when we go by there we still
smile because the story was I mean come on what more of a blessing could you have it's got to work
right across the street tell us that you uh you'd get like a bag of Wendy's and just sitting
apart and not reminisce once in a while it's wonderful it's been and that's just how my life
has been our wedding was wonderful and we both got to work our working years and now we're retired
and we're enjoying life I did do prison ministry in Elginie County jail for a while they allowed
me to take their security class and at that time the warden would allow people that had convictions
in there and do church service for the inmates so fortunately for about a year or a year and a half
I was able to do that until a new warden came in and didn't like having convicted felons doing
one things like that so he stopped it but I made a few friends at that time I write to a few of
those guys to this day and it was a time it was the season as the ecclesiastic says it was the
season and it worked out perfectly and I still know some of those fellows and I encouraged them to do
well and it makes me feel so good to be doing God's work instead of doing the work I was doing
the devil's work it's such an improvement let me tell you so and now three of the prayers I did when
I did that fasting I'll sum this up three of the prayers one of the most tomorrow find a good pen
pal which you all know now how that worked out the other was my brother would not speak to me
and a fellow that was abused badly sexually as a young boy where fishnet's talking to
the cell he was crying all the time and very I asked if God would come into his cell and steal
him give him his peace make him calm bring tears to his eyes let him know that he was loved
and I prayed for my brother to be restored to me all of the above were answered all of them
not all in that immediate moment they fell in the other cell he came and told me that evening
were you praying for me I said yes he said what did you pray I told him he said oh my
he started crying God actually came in this cell the Holy Spirit entered him and gave him a comfort
like that you can only get from God and he told me all about it when he was crying telling me so I
know I know when you pray and fast there's even more power in your prayer my brother after I was out
for a year invited us for a picnic I finally got to know him thankfully I got to know him very well
because at 61 years old he passed away to do the COVID so I got to restore my relationship
as for my children last August my daughter was in the hospital and nobody was really coming to
see her and she was desperate and she had blood clot in her legs and problems going on and she
said she was laying there wondering if her father was in her life what would I be there well of
course I'd be there I knew I'd be there she reached out to me last August so now we've had a year
already of reestablished relationship and it is wonderful and I believe eventually that my son
will come around it please and God I have faith that that's going to come in his time also so I
would say the last piece of the puzzle that needs to be put into place is the day that we're called
home until then I'm just going to try to do what he has been giving me to do including this podcast
I'm not going to tell you I wasn't nervous I was but I think it's important some of you out there
that may hear this might say man and I think I have problems well I was there I'm just telling you
please no matter what it is how serious how simple just go before Jesus ask him please ask him to
help you just a simple thing of something you lost or you've got a relative that said now remember
praying for them to be revived and come back and be healthy isn't always the right correct way to
pray always put in and yet that God's will be done because God might have a better plan than you know
for sure that person you must let God make that choice but by praying for that choice he will give
you the understanding when the time comes and you will understand as I now do thanks to God coming
into my life way back when I was in Med Salon Western Benitentiary and it's been a wonderful ride
I'm loving it it sure does make a person a whole lot happier inside the fear is gone
the sting of that death is gone I'm ready whenever that time is bring me home Lord
awesome yeah I'd love that absolutely love that Ralph how am I thank you so much for sharing
a tremendous testimony for opening up for being vulnerable with us and our listeners
I thank you so much for leaning into the teachings of Christ and hearing how he has blessed you for
every time that you step towards him I just loved hearing about that we enjoyed having you on as a
guest Pastor Rick recommended you and he did not disappoint Pastor Rick and I genuine man of God
yes for sure and if this episode is blessed you we ask that you pass it along and be an encouragement
to somebody else so they can be inspired and live closer to Jesus as well because he changes everything
and with that we'll talk to you next time