Guns to God: My journey from drug dealing to deliverance

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Now I serve in the church, and therefore, if God permits, I will become a priest in the Church of England. Pete was my manager’s manager’s manager, and was more or less the head of an entire department within the council. And for the first time in many years, I stared at this package and thought: is this my contribution to society? His story is one of poverty, abuse, drug dealing, and violence – and of a life turned round by a loving God who refused to give up on him. Soon after that, for some reason I was looking through the local newspaper and I saw the volunteering opportunity the guy from the council had told me about.

I had no idea then that I was about to become both stronger and more vulnerable than I’d ever been in my life. I was sure that the world around me is filled with predators – I was surrounded by terrible, inhuman things. When Claud was 6 years old, he held a gun for the first time – a 9mm handgun belonging to his older brother.

And where I’d drive one of my cars into work each day and pay for parking, even though I lived within walking distance of the offices, Pete would catch public transport. By the end of the Alpha course, God was such doing such a work in my life that I just had to confess to the vicar.

It was around this time that an opportunity arose for me to volunteer within my local council, mentoring high-risk young offenders. He became entrapped in a life of drug dealing, credit card fraud, and greed, with frequent run-ins with the police. An expert panel discusses the introduction of Prayers of Love and Faith and blessings for same-sex couples. Dad would get the Bible out every few months and demand we all sit round the dinner table while he read Psalm 23. Where I’d go out and pay for lunch every day, Pete wore a backpack and brought a packed lunch with him.We hope that you too, will catch afresh, the hope of the Gospel as you journey through Claud's story. But he also lived in a permanent state of anxiety with a sense that things were spiralling out of control.