In this wonderful and exciting episode, Reverend Ralph Hawthorne candidly shares his powerful testimony with us. Rev. Ralph is a great man of God and a tremendous blessing to the body of Christ and humanity as a whole.

What do you do when you believe the lies of the enemy, after receiving a psychiatric diagnosis of a chronic drug addict, an alcoholic, and having an anti-social disorder?

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus , But God!

Rev. Ralph Hawthorne was born in Louisville, Mississippi. He was raised in a single parent home in Rockford, Illinois. He was the middle child of eight siblings. As a child, he remembers his mother sending them all to an AME church. They went to Sunday school occasionally.

Three of Rev. Ralph’s older brothers got involved in negative, risky, and illegal behavior. They eventually became gang members.

Rev. Ralph’s family lived next door to a bootlegging house. At an early age, he saw alcoholics, pimps, and hustlers. He soon picked up on all these things in his environment. At the age of nine, he started participating in illegal activity. He became a product of his environment. He defined success as living off the fat of the land and getting your hustle on.

His first arrest, at the age of nine, was for stealing a lady’s purse at the laundromat. He was sent to a juvenile detention center. After being released he started stealing cars and burglarizing people. He learned how to drive from stealing cars.

He had several stays at the juvenile detention center from the ages of 9-15. During one of his stays, he was placed in solitary confinement. He smuggled matches and set his mattress on fire. He was charged with arson.

He was marched from juvenile detention to the county jail. After being in a holding cell for a few months, his mother, with the help of an attorney, got him released.

His next encounter with law enforcement was for violating his parole. He was sent to the Illinois Youth Commission (IYC). This facility was considered a prison for young people. However, he took driving courses and obtained a driver’s license.

At this facility, he met some men from Chicago belonging to organized street gangs. He learned the rules and the literature of the gangs. He dropped out of school at the age of 16 and resorted to old hustling behavior.

Several years later, Rev. Ralph had multiple burglary cases. Rev. Ralph finally gained employment at the City of Rockford. However, he met a group of Italians, got a pound of weed, and left his job. At this point, he has his own apartment and now is operating a gambling house.

He eventually gets into a serious relationship with someone and shuts the gambling house down. He is now employed as a store manager at a men’s clothing store. He is introduced to the controlled substance, cocaine, and now is entrenched even deeper in the life of drugs, gangs, partying, and prostitution.

Rev. Ralph is the author of the book, Pimp, Player, Preacher: My Life of Gangs, Guns, Drugs and God. the book “From the Streets to the Sanctuary.”

Thank you, Rev. Ralph.

Rev. Ralph's Books:

https://www.amazon.com/Pimp-Player-Preacher-Gangs-Drugs/dp/B0BSJLSZK4

https://www.amazon.com/Streets-Sanctuary-Journey-Continues-Preacher-ebook/dp/B0FBH9QH6Y

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