miserable now

miserable now

Monday, February 16, 2004

Another man called Wayne Raney...

Well, what d'ya know, even die naam intikken op Google en dan vind je zo'n bizar verhaal... het lezen waard, hier kan 'de verandering' nog een puntje aan zuigen! ;)

My name is Wayne Raney and I have spent the last 29 years of my life behind prison walls. I began my sentence in Jan. 1971. On January 13th, 1972, I was sitting in a cell on Death Row at Ohio Penitentiary awaiting my execution. I was to die that day but what the state of Ohio failed to realize was that I was already dead. Physically I was alive - but inside I was dead.
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I lived off hatred for years. I lived in a world of violence and death - a world of despair. I lived in a world where men would kill you over a pack of cigarettes or for talking too loud - for disrespecting their space. I lived in a world of hatred, of hopelessness where the strong ruled and the weak perished. It was Satan's house, and he ruled in our lives!
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I'd been shot, cut or stabbed on 6-7 different occasions over the years. On two of them I almost died. On one of them I was pronounced dead in the street - no pulse, no heartbeat, nothing. I'd survived death row, shootings, stabbings, 6 1/2 years in solitary, and every form of physical and mental abuse brutality imaginable. I even had a demon appear to me one time. But even that didn't move me to change me life. And it was the most frightening thing that I'd ever experienced.
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My lawyer who was a Christian sent me a Bible when I was on death row but I never read it. It set on my shelf for 26 years.

Then one day I received a letter from a girl named Carol Joy from my hometown. She'd known me since she was 10 years old but I didn't know her. She had gotten my address from one of my sisters the year previously. She was a Christian and when she wrote she told me that the HOLY SPIRIT had spoken to her heart and told her to write to me. She was reluctant to do so for she had heard so many bad things about me (all of them true). But finally after a year she wrote. When I became aware of the fact that she was a Christian I didn't want to write to her. I wasn't looking for GOD. I didn't want GOD or no one in my life.

But I started to read the Bible just so I could discuss things in the Bible with her. Then one day I was reading the story in the Bible in which JESUS was talking to the religious leaders. And he was calling them hypocrites and vipers, children of Satan. That got my attention.

For the people HE was talking to had all the power (or so I thought) and they had the power to put him in prison or execute HIM. For HIM to stand up to them in the way that HE did was something to be admired and respected. I saw HIM as a warrior - I saw HIS strength, and courage and I admired and respected those qualities in HIM. That drew me to HIM. As I began to read the Bible more I began to see JESUS differently than I had before.

I could relate to HIS execution for I had been on death row myself. I could relate to HIM being spit upon and mocked. I could relate to HIM being beaten for I had been beaten by guards many times. I could relate to HIM being stabbed in the side, for I've been stabbed.

It was then that I started seeing JESUS through different eyes. I cried when I read the story about HIS crucifixion and how they had beat, spit upon and mocked him. I still weep when I read those stories in the Bible. I wanted to know more about this man JESUS. So I started reading my Bible every day and GOD was opening / softening my heart to the scriptures - to his son JESUS.

http://www.christian-penpals.com/bi/wayne.html

14:11 | posted by Maarten |