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| Testimonies & Prayer Requests
These are some of the monthly unsolicited testimonies we receive about the impact of Coming Clean Ministries. October, 2003: Dear Coming Clean Ministries, I am writing in regards to your book Coming Clean. It made me think a lot of my personal life. You see, I was living on the edge … making money, selling drugs, going through women and came to find just like in the book that what I was doing was not making me happy. I have been incarcerated for almost three years and still have four more left after being arrested for selling drugs. When I was out there living that life … I wanted so much to just stop and walk away, but at that time it seemed impossible to do. What I really wanted was a life that was worth living. It hurt me so bad when I would hear of friends that I grew up with over-dosing on drugs and never having that second chance at life. Right now I’m focusing my heart and mind towards God’s will in my life. I accepted him in my life about two years ago even though I continue to struggle. I think the hardest part for me is to understand what the Lord wants from me. I appreciate organizations such as yours for keeping the hope alive and keeping it real. If your agency has any other books or information on more issues of kicking our habits and following Jesus I would appreciate if you could keep me updated. Your brother in Christ, seg
Greetings And May God’s Blessings Be With You. I’ve just finished reading the story of Jorge Valdés and it truly touched me sincerely. It shows that faith in God can truly change a man as well as bring out the best within the heart. I am serving a life sentence and I truly get down sometimes because I just don’t see what my faith is doing for me. I have been studying and praising our heavenly father now for the past three years daily. But it seems at times that I am praying to the wind, I know in my heart that there is a greater power than man and I pray daily not asking God for freedom because I feel that God knows what a man desires before he even asks. Your book not only gave me inspiration but it game me hope that at a time when things seem so bleak there is always a shining point with the love of Jesus. I am enduring some of the same things that Jorge Valdés went through. I haven’t seen my kids in 10 years and I have no idea where they are. I do know their social security number but out of respect for their mom I’ve never attempted to try anything underhanded to invade their private lives. Your book truly brought true meaning to my life and my patience and respect for God and his blessing and miracles that can be received by loving Jesus and walking in his footsteps have been truly enhanced. I thank you for sharing a story so powerful and strong, that can make a man understand that throughout all trials and tribulations there is hope if we put our faith in God and be sincere. In the Bible it states with the faith of a mustard seed a man can enter the Kingdom Of God. I have faith far more greater than a mustard seed, but I know that my journey will be a long, a tedious one. May God’s blessings be with you. Sincerely, rkr September 2003 - An inmate from Mississippi: Dear Mr. Valdes, I am incarcerated for eight months in federal prison for cocaine trafficking charges – guilty as charged. I am from a small town in Florida, but am now far away from my family. I met a man in prison here who let me borrow the book you have written. Mr. Valdes, nothing in life has affected me the way your story has. I was never at the level you were, of course, but the damage to my family and community has been identical. I sold drugs from 1976 to 1998: cocaine, marijuana, extasy and every drug that could be marketed. Along the road that ended here in prison I met a man in Miami in 1985 that I found to be exactly who I wanted to be. He had money, power, a beautiful home and family. He was a drug dealer that seemed to have it all. While staying with this man he made a comment that stuck with me. “Everything and everyone has a price,” he told my female friend. I never forgot what he said as we sat by the pool because, in the game, the statement was so true. Anyone could be bought to do your bidding. In your book you talked about how alone you felt when everything seemed so “right” in your business life. And the feeling you had when you called your parents’ home on New Year’s and how those so-called friends had turned their backs on your family. Those were feelings I had while in the game, but I still could not stop. The words of the drug dealer in Miami kept playing in my head: only I was thinking of the price I was selling myself for. I had always wanted everything that the Miami dealer had and now I found myself wanting what he had. You see, Jorge, that drug dealer I met so long ago in Miami was you. The last time I saw you, you were in Florida at a hospital where our children were born. We walked to a beach and talked for a couple of hours. Jorge, I want to be free from the burden of my sins, but while I was in the game I was an animal. I never hurt anyone intentionally, but I know people were hurt, destroyed, by my products. I had been married 15 years with two children and a loving wife, but the corruption of my soul and my sins took them away. My wife divorced me, but I still have close relationships with my children aged 9 and 14. I thought I was different from everyone else in the world until I read your book. That God would want nothing to do with me because I had been so bad in the past. But I’ve been feeling in my heart that I could be wrong. That there could still be hope for me. Through the Christian Brothers and Bible Study I am surrounded by friends (a word I have not used in a long time). Jorge, I would love to hear from you and am desperately seeking guidance that I feel I can be delivered through you. I hope I will hear from you and you can find the time to help me.
Prayer, both corporate and private, is a mighty way to grow in our faith. It acknowledges that we can accomplish so much more in life when we surrender ourselves, our problems, our concerns and then offer our thanks to Jesus Christ. Each week, we gather together as a ministry to pray for God’s wisdom and guidance. We would like to include your prayer requests in our Monday Morning Prayer/Bible Study Meetings. Just e-mail us your request and know that you will be on our hearts and our minds. Send an email prayer request to: info@comingclean.org |