TESTIMONIALS 2
Through the years Hand Up Ministries, Inc. has helped hundreds of men and women successfully reintegrate into society. After release, many are unemployed and without proper identification to seek employment and obtain stable housing the prospects are grim.
Matt Perry
I pretty much had everything I wanted when I was a child. My dad was a retired veteran, and my mom was a registered nurse. I had an older brother who was seven years older than me, so he was kind of jealous of me getting all of the attention. My brother went into the service right after high school. My dad died from lung cancer when I was 13. He died at the VA hospital. That left my mom to raise me all on her own. My high school years were great. I had all of the brand new clothes, plus my grades weren’t half bad.
My brother returned from the Air Force during my senior year. He was honorably discharged and a one hundred percent disabled veteran. He had been stationed in Saudi Arabia, and he was digging up old warheads. They ran into small pockets of radiation, and it messed up his nerves. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. For the most part, he was fine. He had a wife and kids.
I started a family of my own after I got out of high school. My mom and I remained close, and we went to church with her from time to time. I grew up going to the Baptist church. My mother was a member of that church for as long as I can remember. My brother and I would get all of our kids together, and we would be at our mom’s house having a good time as a family.
My brother’s health slowly declined over the years. He went from having full conversations to where he could barely talk and couldn’t walk. His wife left him, and my mom took full responsibility of taking care of him. I would come over and help when I could. I had a full time job working fifty to sixty hours a week, so sometimes I wasn’t able to make it.
One day I got a call from my mom saying he had a seizure and he had been rushed to the emergency room at the VA hospital. A neurologist performed a spinal tap, and after a few days he was better. My mom had a heart attack a month later.
My brother had another seizure, and we took him to the VA. My mom passed away in her sleep the second night my brother was at the hospital. My whole world was turned upside down. I was given power of attorney over my brother, but I signed it over to his wife. I figured I couldn’t help as much since I had my own family and a job. I was numb and depressed all the time. I would leave work early and just drive around all night. I eventually got fired. My girlfriend and I broke up, and I moved into my mom’s house.
I didn’t care about anything anymore, and I was always getting into trouble. I went to prison. My brother died in 2020, but I didn’t find out until I left prison a few years later.
I was starting to feel like I felt when my mom passed away. When I arrived at Hand Up Ministries, I wasn’t expecting them to support and care for me they way they did.
They made me feel welcomed, and they made me feel like my life still has purpose. Thanks to Hand Up for believing in me and putting Jesus in my heart. Without Hand Up I would be back in prison or worse. I know my mom and brother would be proud of me.
Charles Mason
I was a problem child. I was always acting up and getting into trouble. It was just my mom and my brother.
My dad was no good, and my mom divorced him when I was two or three. I was a monster baby when I was awake. My mom’s friends said I was a little angel when I was asleep.
I had problems learning in school, and I didn’t learn how to read until I was in third grade. I was in learning disability classes all through school.
I started smoking cigarettes when I was 10 years old. I met all of the stoners, ditchers, and drinkers when I was in seventh grade. My brother and his friends were drinkers. They were in ninth grade. I would hang out with my brother and his friends on the weekend and get drunk with them. My brother hated me, but his friends liked me. They always let me go with them. My brother didn’t like me because I wasn’t as smart and cool as him. He played football. I was not smart, and I hated school.
I was arrested in seventh grade for possession of marijuana and for riding a stolen dirt bike. The court removed me from my mothers’ custody and made me live with my grandpa for a year.
I went to seventh grade for the second time, and I flunked again. When I flunked the third time, I tried to enroll in Roosevelt School, but they told me I was too big. I went to Grant High School, and I enrolled in ninth grade. They passed me to the tenth grade, and I quit school.
I got a job roofing houses. I started drinking every day, and I got into a bad car wreck when I was 17. I have a head injury. I forget things all of the time. It is hard. I was in a coma for five days, and I got on SSI when I got out of the hospital.
I started selling marijuana just so I could smoke it all day. Then I started selling meth.
I met a woman, and I got her pregnant with my son. I divorced her when my son was two months old, and I got custody of him.
I drank like a fish, and I sold drugs. I worked construction for cash so I could pay for daycare. I took my son everywhere, and everyone loved him.
Now he is in prison. I messed up his life. I tried to get him to chill out, but he wanted to be just like his dad.
My mom raised us, and she was a good woman. She always worked, and she never whipped us. She wouldn’t let anyone touch us. That is probably why I was bad, because my mom let me do whatever.
I am glad to be at Hand Up Ministries. I can stay sober here, and I can do what I have to do to get my life in order. I stay away from drugs and crazy ladies that do drugs, because drugs and women are no good for me. I have to keep God in my life so I can make a better life than the one I had.
John Hancock
I was born on March 21, 1959 in Sumter, South Carolina on Shaw Air Force Base. My parents moved to Sapulpa when I was four years old, and eventually we moved to Keifer, where I attended school from first grade through the twelfth grade. I had a Christian mother and an abusive father.
Looking back on my childhood, it seems like I was being pulled in two different directions at the same time. When I was 13, I started using marijuana and alcohol. I think I was on a self-destructive mission because the way I was treated by my father took away my self-worth.
I got married in 1978. We had a daughter in February 1979, and we had a son in October 1982. My life had no moral compass at that time.
Instead of being focused on caring for my family, I was focused on the wrong things. We got divorced in 1984, and I was introduced to methamphetamine the same year. This expedited my destructive lifestyle, and I started using needles to shoot up drugs. I did this off and on during the eighties and nineties.
I remarried in 1990, and I had two beautiful daughters. However, my behavior didn’t change, and I was arrested on December 31, 2006.
I served almost six years in prison, and I continued to ignore God during my stay in prison. I came to Hand Up Ministries in 2012, but I had to live in a tent because the state took away Hand Up’s exemption to the state law that prohibited two registered sex offenders from living together.
My son bought a travel trailer for me, and I moved to another location in Oklahoma City. I didn’t use methamphetamine between 2012 and 2017, but I continued using alcohol.
My probation was revoked in October 2017. I returned to prison, and I was released on August 5, 2024. My life changed during my second stay in prison. I turned my life over to God, and I asked Him to guide me through the remainder of my years on earth. I was reunited with my four children and my grandchildren, and we go to church together and celebrate birthdays. We do things I had never done before when I was far from God.
Looking back, I should have stayed at Hand Up the first time and got stronger so I could have resisted the devil. This time, my life has been completely transformed. I haven’t had a cigarette or alcohol since 2017, and I am part of my children’s lives and the lives of my grandchildren.
This happened because Hand Up gave me an opportunity to come back and do things right. God has changed me completely and put me on the right track. My children and my grandchildren see the change in my life. I want to thank Jesus and give Him all of the credit for me getting to the point where I turned my life around.
I also thank Hand Up. I can be a dad and a grandpa.
Marion Cooper
I was the oldest of five boys. We had a good childhood. We played and had fun with each other. When I was five I went to Texas to live with my aunt for some years. It was fun, but I missed my brothers.
My grandmother got sick, so I returned to Oklahoma to take care of her. I was about 13 years old, and that was when I joined a gang. My life changed. I stopped going to school, and I started selling drugs. My mother was going through hard times, so I sold drugs to help out.
My life was going well. When I was 17 I became a father, and I went to prison for robbery. I was hanging out with the wrong person. I spent five years in prison, and I went back to the same life of selling drugs. I met a woman with whom I had three kids. I went back to prison for four years for selling drugs. My kids’ mother started using drugs, and her drug use was so bad that the kids stayed with me.
I changed my life for my kids’ sake, and I started living right. I met the love of my life, and we started a family. Years later something went very wrong. One of the kids died, and my woman was charged with the crime. My boys were taken from me, and my woman went to prison for killing my son. Her family blamed me for her going to prison. I went to their house to visit, and I was accused of touching and trying to rape one of the kids.
I was sentenced to 20 years, and that is how I got to Hand Up Ministries.
Ricky Smothers
I grew up in a family that partied all the time, and I was drinking and partying with them all the way into adulthood. My parents were kind, and they never physically abused me.
I continued doing drugs and drinking alcohol when I was an adult. My main choice was alcohol (whiskey and beer).
My girlfriend tried to get me go to church, but didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t care about God or church, but I came to the Lord when I was in prison.
Someone introduced me to a man named John Hider, who had a small Bible study group. My mother had just passed away, and I told John about it. He explained to me that God was the only answer.
So I could cope with my situation and find peace through Jesus Christ, I confided in John that I was a homosexual at that time. He led me in a prayer of salvation, and immediately I felt a big peace come over me.
I continued following the Lord all through my incarceration.
I learned about Hand Up Ministries, and I went to Hand Up after my release. I was at Hand Up for a year and a half, and I was removed from Hand Up due to homosexual activity.
My probation officer called David Nichols, and she discussed my situation with him. David told her he had a place for me in Chandler, Oklahoma. He said he would give me another chance.
I will always be grateful to David for giving me another chance. After I had been in Chandler for two years, John Hider showed up at my door. We got reacquainted, and I joined his Genesis One group.
Hand Up has been a godsend to me and all of the guys here at Chandler. My life is now on track, and I praise God for all He has done for me.
Ricky Smothers
I grew up in a family that partied all the time, and I was drinking and partying with them all the way into adulthood. My parents were kind, and they never physically abused me.
I continued doing drugs and drinking alcohol when I was an adult. My main choice was alcohol (whiskey and beer).
My girlfriend tried to get me go to church, but didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t care about God or church, but I came to the Lord when I was in prison.
Someone introduced me to a man named John Hider, who had a small Bible study group. My mother had just passed away, and I told John about it. He explained to me that God was the only answer.
So I could cope with my situation and find peace through Jesus Christ, I confided in John that I was a homosexual at that time. He led me in a prayer of salvation, and immediately I felt a big peace come over me.
I continued following the Lord all through my incarceration.
I learned about Hand Up Ministries, and I went to Hand Up after my release. I was at Hand Up for a year and a half, and I was removed from Hand Up due to homosexual activity.
My probation officer called David Nichols, and she discussed my situation with him. David told her he had a place for me in Chandler, Oklahoma. He said he would give me another chance.
I will always be grateful to David for giving me another chance. After I had been in Chandler for two years, John Hider showed up at my door. We got reacquainted, and I joined his Genesis One group.
Hand Up has been a godsend to me and all of the guys here at Chandler. My life is now on track, and I praise God for all He has done for me.
James Bell
I was born in 1969, and I grew up Los Angeles. I was a curly headed mixed breed kid.
Others had a hard time understanding what was wrong with me. I had ADHD, and it spilled over into everything.
School was tough. In 1975 the school nurse gave me too much medication, and I went into the girls’ restroom and beat up a girl. I was expelled from Inglewood school district when I was six years old.
I had to walk to west Los Angeles school district to a special education school. It helped my education quite a bit. Two years later my mom decided it was too expensive to live in Los Angeles, so in 1978 we moved to my grandmother’s house in Fresno.
My uncle raped me. I told my mother, and she just yelled at him. To this day I can’t stand being touched by any man. My life changed.
I became violent in school. I drank in high school, and I experimented with drugs. I did not finish high school. I had a child at age 18, and I abandoned that child when I was 19.
I enlisted in the Navy, and I went AWOL in a month. I drank beer all of the time. I held various jobs. I went to various vocational technical schools, but I never completed any of them.
I met Christina in 1992. I moved to Oklahoma in 1994, and I married Christina in May of 1994. We had a girl in 1996. I worked at J & E Belt Supply from 1994 to 1997. Christina and I separated in 1997, and I quit my job.
I started running the streets and selling meth. In 1999 I shot and killed a man who said he was going to beat me up and rape me. I flashed back. He hit me, and I shot him. I spent 11 years in prison.
I got a job doing hotel maintenance after I got out of prison. I met a woman who was 17 years younger than me, and we started a family. She already had two kids.
In 2016 my 18 month old daughter and I fell down, and I put my right hand down to break my fall so my daughter and I did not fall. 12 year old was lying face down. My right hand fell on her back side, and she claimed I touched her vagina. How this happened from behind I do not know. I spent eight and a half years in prison for something I did not knowingly or willingly do. I should never have let the district attorney and public defender coerce me into signing a plea deal. I would have fought it if had known better.
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Will King
I had a pretty normal early childhood. We went to church and Bible study every Sunday, and I went to Sunday school. We also went to church most Wednesdays.
My dad was a truck driver, so he was gone for weeks at a time. My mom did most of the raising. I didn’t have a rough time at home. I was just a typical kid.
School was normal until around my sophomore year of high school. That was when l started to go off track. I started smoking pot, drinking alcohol, and having sex. I also started playing guitar in my first band.
My focus shifted away from school, and my grades dropped. I started skipping class regularly, and I didn’t graduate. I got a GED instead.
I had my daughter when I was 21. She came from a woman who supposed to be a one night stand. We dated for about the first two years of my daughter’s life, but we were not faithful to each other. I cheated more than her.
My daughter was a real turning point for me at first. I got clean, and I tried to be a dad. I ultimately couldn’t handle the baby momma, so I left. She got with one of my friends, then she disappeared. I didn’t see my daughter again for six years, when she was eight.
I still played guitar and sang in my band. I joined the Army in 2007. I got clean for about two years.
In 2009 I met the woman who would be baby mamma number two, and we had a son in 2011. We were together for four years, during which time I didn’t do any drugs other than pot. After being with her for four years, I learned she had been cheating on me for three years with 16 different dudes. This killed me. I left, and I went straight to drugs and drinking.
My teeth were in bad shape by 2014, and I was in incredible pain. I began dating a stripper who introduced me to OxyContin. There was no turning back. I was nearly instantly addicted.
Over the next two years I spiraled down so fast I didn’t see it coming. I was arrested in late 2016, and was sentenced to 10 years.
In prison I began doing sound for the praise team, and God started working on me. The guitar player got shipped out, and I was asked to play guitar for them.
My entire view on music, faith, and the world changed. I was released from prison in May 2026, and I went to Hand Up Ministries. I have been sober for eight and a half years, and I am ready to live life for God.
Ruben Torres
I had a good childhood. My family treated me with respect. When I was in my twenties I lived with my step-aunt, and she was very abusive to me. I was hit with a ball bat and locked in my room. I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere. She was a drug addict and an alcoholic. She hated me, and I never knew why. I escaped from her, and I went to live with my sister.
I started going to church, and I liked it. My aunt Lucy became my guardian, and she wanted me to go to Purcell to live with her and work with her. While attending church one Sunday I was arrested for my crime, and I went to county jail for three years. My aunt Lucy and my cousin took me to Hand Up Ministries in Oklahoma City. I was put on probation. I was at Hand Up on 59th for about three weeks, and then I was sent to Chandler. I was put into a Genesis One group.
God has blessed me since I have been here. The people here have helped me with food and clothing, and they have been kind to me. I love Hand Up for what they have done. I hope I will be able to go back home to be with my family in Texas someday. Until then I am happy and satisfied here where I am. I thank Mr. Nichols and Hand Up for helping me straighten up my life. The staff here has told me how I have changed into a better person.
Leslie Weese
I grew up in Canton, Oklahoma, a small town with a population of 503 people. The only thing there was to do was go fishing in the lake. I played baseball and football, and I was pretty good at both. I was offered baseball scholarships, but I dropped out of school my senior year so I could move to Clinton with my cousin and begin my life of crime.
My cousin had three kids, and she was on meth. I started cooking meth with one of her friends. I was 17 at the time. We got pulled over when we were dropping off her kids, and we had meth in the car. She was arrested for not having a driver license, but I was let go.
I moved to Chickasha, where I met my wife. We had three kids: Zack, Blake, and Kira. We moved to Woodward, where my wife and I split after 12 years of marriage.
I was working in the oilfield, and I was making $3,000 every two weeks. This lasted for 15 years till the oilfield shut down.
I started selling drugs again, and I got caught and went to prison.
I heard about Hand Up Ministries when I was in prison, and I started going to church in prison.
Knowing God has caused my life to turn around, and I am right with God. Hand Up has given me a place to stay and has helped me with food and work. I couldn’t have done all of this without God and Hand Up. I give my sincere thanks.
Jeremy Hintergardt
I was born in Guymon, Oklahoma in 1974. I have a sister who is five years younger than me. I was shy then, and I am still shy. My paternal grandparents took us and my cousins to church for Sunday school, and I would hang out with my cousins afterward. My whole family would travel to different lakes and rivers to fish and play in the water. We also went hunting. We moved to Thackerville, Oklahoma when I was in second grade. We lived there until winter break. We moved back to Guymon because my maternal grandmother had Huntington’s disease. This disease runs in my family, and I have it.
I graduated from high school, and I hung out with my four best friends until I got married. I got divorced, and I started drinking a lot. I made dumb choices, and I went to prison for six years. Project Commutation got me released from prison in 2025. I got released because I had already given up my bad habits. I give thanks to Hand Up for being so kind to me and helping me. I am blessed.
Tre' Shawn Horton
I didn’t have a good childhood. I knew my mother when I was little, but I didn’t know my dad. I have two brothers and one sister. I was the youngest of my mom’s kids. All I can remember are the bad things, never the good. I was always making my mom hit me by running away or being bad in school. I was 10 or 11 around that time. We moved to Oklahoma City when I was 12, and everything went downhill for me.
My so-called friend wanted to make some money, but not by selling drugs. He wanted to take things from people’s homes. They called 911, and I was taken into custody. I didn’t go to jail because I was 12. I was sent to a boys’ home for three years.
My mother and my sister brought me home when I discharged. I was 15, and I was living with my mother, my sister, and my brother. My mother was different. She was more chilled.
That was when I met my first baby mama, for those not familiar with modern slang, “baby mama” refers to the mother of one’s child. I was almost 17. My family moved around a lot, I didn’t know she had given birth to my son till I was 20.
I had two other kids by two different women. I committed my first big crime when I was 21, and I went to prison for four and a half years.
Smoking weed and having sex caused me to go astray from the Lord. I knew it was wrong, but I wanted to be cool. To be honest, I wanted to be somebody because I felt like I was nobody. My whole life I felt like my mother didn’t love me. I found out she did love me. She just didn’t love what I was doing with my life.
I am a new resident at Hand Up Ministries. I was in prison, and I was looking for a good program to help me be a better person. I came across Hand Up. I wanted more information, and Mrs. Lee helped me set it up. I didn’t want to leave Tulsa, but I didn’t want to be the same person I was before.
Thanks to Hand Up Ministries, I am now drug free. Hand Up has done a lot for me. They helped me get Sooner Care, food stamps, a state ID, and a license. They are helping me look for a job. They give me rides to my appointments, and they have helped me get clothing. They see the good in people, and they push us to be better. God did everything to put me here, and He put people who care about me in my life. I can learn from people at Hand Up, and I can be the son He wants me to be.
Thanks be to Hand Up Ministries.
Manuel Perez
My mom and dad always had conversations about the love of God. During my early life I began to not think straight, and I started making mistakes that got me into trouble. I worked as a truck driver hauling wheat, corn, and other products. Since that time I have worked several different jobs to keep myself independent and stable.
I committed a crime, and I was convicted of that crime. I had a lot of remorse. I knew I shouldn’t have done it. I made a big mistake that cost me my freedom, and it destroyed the trust I had gained in life. I attended church when I was in prison, and I continued to attend church after I was released from prison. It was during church attendance outside of prison that I learned of the program Hand Up Ministries offers to offenders who have been discharged from prison and want to get their life back on track. Hand Up helps people become stable and productive citizens after they enter back into the community.
I understand my mistakes, and I am committed to learning from my mistakes and staying on the right track. Hand Up Ministries has helped me to better understand my life, and Hand Up has given me the opportunity to create a stable and productive life. I am now capable of changing my life for the better. Believing in God has helped me to understand my mistakes. His love will never leave me, and I can grow to be a better person. I thank God daily for the life He has given me.
Doyle Smith
I was born in Roswell, New Mexico in 1960. My early life was good. I am the youngest of four siblings. I have two brothers and one sister. They all babied me. My life changed when I was in fourth grade. My sister was fifteen, and she was skipping school. I was riding in the backseat of a car with her, and we were rammed when a car ran a red light. My sister was killed. We moved to Oklahoma after that.
My dad opened up a plumbing business, and he did well financially. Our family was very close. My parents were very strict with my brothers and me. We ate dinner together every night, and at the dinner table we talked about our day. We loved each other very much.
I got married when I was 21. We had two children. I started cheating on her, and we got divorced. I started drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. I met my second wife, and we had a daughter. My wife got cancer, and she fought the cancer for four years. It was terrible to watch and not be able to do anything to help. I took her to chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Our daughter was four when my wife passed away. My daughter and I moved to Carlsbad, New Mexico. I had relatives in Carlsbad.
I met my third wife in Carlsbad, and we had one daughter. My wife and I did hard drugs, and we got divorced. I got custody of our daughter, so now I have two daughters. I was still doing drugs, mostly meth. I stared running with people who broke the law daily, including meth crimes and stealing. My waking thought was how to get high that day. I got caught several times with dope, I had CDS charges. I went to drug court, but I still didn’t learn anything.
The Lord was something I didn’t think about much until I went to prison. Now I believe in Him, and I pray to Him daily.
I learned about Hand Up Ministries in prison, and things are starting to look up. I am off drugs, and I am helping myself do better with the help of the Lord and Hand Up. Hand Up has given me a stable place to live. I have learned to follow rules and listen to others.
I enjoy life and just live. God has taught me to be a better person. He has also taught me how to pray. I paid for my crime, and it is up to me to live my life.
Bobby Thomas, Jr
I was diagnosed with cancer at fourteen months old, so I really didn’t have much of a childhood. I was in and out of the hospital. I went through full body radiation and chemotherapy. I relapsed when I was four and a half years old, and I was put on a list for a bone marrow transplant. They found a match for me in October 1995. My mother was by my side during this entire time.
We lost my dad to cancer in January 1995. They kept a close eye on me after my bone marrow transplant, but after ten years they told me I was free from cancer. I just had to be checked once a year to be safe.
Since then everything has been on the positive side. When I was young, my dream was to become a pro wrestler, and I pursued that dream when I turned eighteen years old.
I knew about the Lord when I was growing up, because someone was healing me. I didn’t turn my back on Him when I got older, but I wasn’t putting Him first. I was doing lots of drugs in 2016, and I went to prison. My sentence was two years of incarceration and five years of probation.
I found the Lord again during that time, and I was told about Hand Up Ministries at that time. I went back to the same habits after I got out of prison, and I became homeless. I was also charged with another crime, and I went back to prison in 2024.
My life now is much better. I have been clean since July 2024. I got back into church after I turned my life over to God.
This time I took the time to apply to Hand Up, and I was accepted. Hand Up has provided me with the opportunity to get my driver license, and I have a safe place to lay my head at night. Hand Up provides transportation.
Every day I thank God for everything. He has brought me through everything, and He will continue to bring me through everything. God has wonderful plans for me, and I know He will help me succeed.
David Ruschmeyer
For the most part, my childhood and family life looked like that of everyone else in the sixties.
My parents were hard working blue collar folk. Our family went to church on Christmas and Easter. I was very overweight when I was growing up, so I had to work hard to make friends.
The stigma of obesity was very great during the seventies. A friend from high school reconnected with me when I was in my early twenties, and he led me to the Lord. She also introduced me to a Christian woman I would soon marry.
We got married in 1986. My wife and I became involved with a small word of faith church. She was in children’s ministry, and I was a worship leader.
We moved to Minnesota in 1989, and we began volunteering in a large word church. We also started attending Bible classes so we could learn more of the word. This is when God moved us to go to Bible school.
We moved to Tulsa in 1996, and we enrolled at Rhema Bible Training Center and graduated in 1999.
We started working for a Christian radio network after graduation. We wanted to start a family, but we were unable to conceive a child. We adopted three children. We moved to the small town in Michigan, where my wife grew up. Our intent was to start a ministry, but we fell away from the Lord.
Without staying in the word and being under teaching, we drifted farther away from God and each other. We moved back to Oklahoma in an effort to get back to God.
I committed a crime in Oklahoma, and I was arrested. I foolishly took my case to trial, and I lost. I was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
I came to my senses in prison, and I repented and returned to God’s open arms. I lost my children, but my wife stood with me.
I heard about Hand Up Ministries when I was in prison, and Hand Up gave me a place to live. Hand Up helped me get on my feet. They helped me get food stamps, my ID, and SoonerCare. I am very grateful for all of these things.
I had a stroke about one month after I was released from prison. Chaplain Howard Stevens took good care of me. He made sure I got my medications and went to my appointments. Howard has been a huge help. God has healed my body, and He has brought my vision back to normal. He also caused my probation to be cancelled. I know He is just getting started.
Tre' Shawn Horton
I didn’t have a good childhood. I knew my mother when I was little, but I didn’t know my dad. I have two brothers and one sister. I was the youngest of my mom’s kids. All I can remember are the bad things, never the good. I was always making my mom hit me by running away or being bad in school. I was 10 or 11 around that time. We moved to Oklahoma City when I was 12, and everything went downhill for me.
My so-called friend wanted to make some money, but not by selling drugs. He wanted to take things from people’s homes. They called 911, and I was taken into custody. I didn’t go to jail because I was 12. I was sent to a boys’ home for three years.
My mother and my sister brought me home when I discharged. I was 15, and I was living with my mother, my sister, and my brother. My mother was different. She was more chilled.
That was when I met my first baby mama, for those not familiar with modern slang, “baby mama” refers to the mother of one’s child. I was almost 17. My family moved around a lot, I didn’t know she had given birth to my son till I was 20.
I had two other kids by two different women. I committed my first big crime when I was 21, and I went to prison for four and a half years.
Smoking weed and having sex caused me to go astray from the Lord. I knew it was wrong, but I wanted to be cool. To be honest, I wanted to be somebody because I felt like I was nobody. My whole life I felt like my mother didn’t love me. I found out she did love me. She just didn’t love what I was doing with my life.
I am a new resident at Hand Up Ministries. I was in prison, and I was looking for a good program to help me be a better person. I came across Hand Up. I wanted more information, and Mrs. Lee helped me set it up. I didn’t want to leave Tulsa, but I didn’t want to be the same person I was before.
Thanks to Hand Up Ministries, I am now drug free. Hand Up has done a lot for me. They helped me get Sooner Care, food stamps, a state ID, and a license. They are helping me look for a job. They give me rides to my appointments, and they have helped me get clothing. They see the good in people, and they push us to be better. God did everything to put me here, and He put people who care about me in my life. I can learn from people at Hand Up, and I can be the son He wants me to be.
Thanks to Hand Up Ministries.
I was born in Norman, Oklahoma in 1985. My mom was a single mother. I have never met my father. My mom married my step-dad when I was two, and they separated when I was eight.
I saw murders when I was between the ages of two and eight, and I was abused mentally, physically, and sexually. My mother went into a mental institution when I was eight. My brother was 13.
My step-dad didn’t want to take care of my brother and me, so he took us from Kansas to Wister, Oklahoma to his mother’s house. She didn’t want us, so she made us sleep outside on a screened-in porch.
I remember it was cold outside, and I was hungry. She fed us two hot dogs a day. I remember looking through the window and wondering why I couldn’t go inside. That feeling of rejection carried with me into my adult life.
Someone must have noticed us, because she found our step-dad, and we were dropped off on the curb at DHS. They told the people inside, and they left without saying anything to us. They put our stuff on the sidewalk and drove off with us just standing there.
We got back with our mom. I started smoking marijuana when I was 11, and I got my first felony charge when I was 16. By the time I was 17, I was selling meth. I also got more felony charges.
I went to prison for the first time when I was 23. I met Jesus when I was in the county jail. I was saved and born again, but it has taken time to be washed by the water of the word. I have had to renew my mind to be free of all of the past hurts and addictions.
I don’t feel rejected here at Hand Up Ministries. I feel accepted into a community of brothers. I feel like I have hope and future, but I have to do my part. We have a saying here at Hand Up, “It’s a hand up, not a hand out.”
I have to work, and not just a job. I have to do that, but I also have to work on my sobriety. May 6th marked two years sober for me. Praise God! I also have to work on my relationship with God daily. I have to keep my focus on Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of my faith.
Tyrone Mason
I was born in 1962. My early childhood was okay. We attended church when I was growing up, but my siblings and I backslid a lot.
My father introduced my brother and me to marijuana when I was nine years old. He didn’t want us to fall to peer pressure. He was very abusive to me and my brothers. We were dropped off at a babysitter when my parents were working, and she sexually abused us. She forced us to do things to her body.
Things got better when I started playing my instrument and got into sports, but marijuana was always present.
My parents got divorced when I was 14. Even though we lost our dad, I still loved him. I am named after him.
I joined a gang when I was 14, and I got into a lot of illegal activity. My only outlet from all of that was my music. My music blossomed when I was 16, and everyone was proud of me. I graduated from high school when I was 18, and I joined the Army.
I served in the Army for six years, and I was injured on guard duty. I turned to cocaine after I left the Army. I got married while I was in the service, and I started a family. My wife decided to cheat on me, and I divorced her after 13 years of marriage.
After I left her, she falsely accused me of spousal rape, and I went to prison. I lost my mother to diabetes and COVID, and I gave my life to Christ. I got baptized when I was in prison in 2023.
God has blessed me to be drug free for 22 years, and God has eased the pain of losing my mother.
I attended Crossings Community Church services when I was in prison, and I was told about Hand Up Ministries.
Hand Up gave me a roof over my head after I was released from prison. If not for Hand Up, I would have been homeless. God has blessed me since I came to Hand Up. My life has gotten better, but I am struggling. As long as I keep putting God first, I know things will get better. I have given all of my current problems and issues to God.
Dave Lavender
I was born in the 1950’s. My earliest childhood memory of church was my parents taking us to church six or seven times. Dad told me he believed in God and it was important for me to believe. Dad believed you can only be saved once. He believed if you sin after being saved you were doomed. My mom believed in the concept of once saved, always saved. I did not take sides, and I never found an answer to who was right.
I joined the military when I was 18, and I married in 1980. I had three kids and a home mortgage, and I attended junior college at night. I had a full time job, and I served in the National Guard on weekends. I was living the dream. Now all I had to do was pay for it. There were so many bills and too little money.
In 1990 I was divorced, homeless, and a drunk. I was a functional drunk. I held down a job sometimes, and I had moments of sobriety. I started doing drugs with the alcohol, and I hit bottom. I committed a felony, and I went to prison. Like many in prison, I had a lot of time to think about my life. I pondered what I did wrong and what I did right. I thought about the changes I had to make so I wouldn’t go back to prison.
I thought about God a lot, and I read the Bible over and over. I made it a point to read the Bible like a novel. I read it front to back at least once a year, and I prayed every day for protection and a deeper understanding of His word. I was a mental and emotional wreck after prison. I needed help. I couldn’t do for myself what I could do before prison.
I reached out and found Hand Up Ministries. I was accepted in the summer of 2006. I got a bed and help with job placement, as well as transportation. I got a job within three days of arriving at Hand Up. I worked at that job for ten years before retiring. I had a nice cozy nest egg. I had no bills to be paid, and I had nice little pickup. It was paid off. All I had to do was pay my program fees, attend church services and Genesis One, and stay off of drugs and alcohol.
I was 52 when I came to Hand Up 19 years ago, and I am now 71. I still live at Hand Up in peace and prosperity.
My faith in God has multiplied beyond counting. I am a better man now than I was 30 years ago. I have changed because God made a way for me. I received much more than a hand up. I now have a community and a family. I have seen many men become better men after they have been here for a while.
I have seen hearts and minds changed for the glory of God. Those who come to Hand Up looking for a handout will be disappointed. Those who seek help will be blessed.
Chad Dickson
I was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma, but I also lived in Dallas. My mom’s side of the family is from Dallas. I was raised as an only child, but I have two older half-brothers my dad had with another woman.
For the most part, growing up was great till my dad was shot. I had a great school life. I went to a school named Dickson. I lived in the country, and I rode four wheelers. Our middle school baseball team went undefeated two years in a row.
My dad was shot in the line of duty during a traffic stop, and our life changed.
My dad lived after getting shot, but the Oklahoma Highway Patrol made my dad retire. This killed him, because law enforcement was all he ever knew.
My mom went to nursing school, and she worked in a local hospital. My parents got divorced soon after my dad was shot. My mom moved to Dallas, but I stayed with my dad. He died when I was 15, and all I had was the streets.
I was arrested for drugs and burglary when I was 18, and I have been in and out of prison during my entire adult life.
It was during my last time in prison that I made the two best choices of my life. I turned to God, and I quit drugs. I realized I couldn’t do it alone. I learned that all of the things I had done and all of the things I thought I knew were wrong. I leaned on the Lord.
Quitting drugs was the best worldly choice I have ever made. I have been clean and sober for over five years.
The favor I have received from these two choices has been great.
I needed help when I discharged from prison the last time, and I turned to Hand Up Ministries.
The things I have done are amazing. I have accomplished more at Hand Up than I ever did before arriving at Hand Up.
I have a job, and I earn a paycheck. I pay my program fees, and I am working toward getting my driver license. I am also working toward repairing family relationships.
I am thankful for the help and the opportunity Hand Up has given to me. I am going to lean on the Lord, and I am going to let His will be done. He has a plan for me.
Arlie Buchanan
I am one of six kids. Our parents used to fight a lot, and at the age of six it got worse. My mother had my dad arrested in Missouri, and we left for Oklahoma City. He found us six months later, and he came to our house. He got into an argument with my mother, and he shot her five times. He went to prison, and my mom was in a coma for nine months. My siblings and I were scattered out with neighbors and family. After my mom recovered, she met a man who became my step-father. I didn’t like him at first. I was a daddy’s boy. He used to take his days out on me.
In my teens I hit the streets with my friends, and we would stay out late. We drank wine and got high on weed. We started getting into trouble. We broke into houses and stole anything we could sell. I started getting arrested when I was 14, and my mother and my brother told me I was no good just like my dad. They said I would end up in prison. I became a best friend to my sisters, and I watched over them and protected them.
My mother started making us go to church on Wednesday and Sunday. I started to like church. I would come home at night and find my mother on her knees by her bed with her hands high in the air and praying for God to protect me and keep me safe while I was out on the street and up to no good. I felt myself starting to change. I was 16, and I had been selling weed since I was 15. I fell in love with a girl from the neighborhood, and I had a son with her. This turned me around, and I had a somewhat normal family life. By age 20 I had a daughter and a house, and I was working in the oilfield. I was making good money. We were doing great. I prayed every night and every morning. I never stopped praying, even when I wasn’t living right.
The oilfield shut down, and I started writing bad checks to take care of the family. Drugs came into play, and I went to jail. We got divorced, and my ex-wife took off. I was raising my three kids on my own. I met another woman when I was 29. We got married, and we raised five boys, two girls, one grandson, and a nephew. We divorced after 17 years of marriage. My best friend’s two sisters died three months apart. I was devastated, and I started drinking. I was out of control, and I got arrested for two counts of lewd acts. I went to prison for the first time in my life.
When I thought I knew pain, my baby son died during my first year in prison. It was terrible, but God helped me through all of it. God was taking everyone I loved the most, and I realized that if I wanted to see them again I had to get right with God. I was released from prison, but I had no place to go. I was homeless for over 40 days. I was very happy when Hand Up Ministries accepted me.
Hand Up Ministries is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. It feels like home. Great things are happening here. Hand Up has a good staff and great people. David Nichols is doing a good thing here.
God has been blessing me. There are a lot of spiritual things going on with me, and I feel closer to God than ever before. I thank Hand Up for giving me a chance.
Jeffery Cargill
I was born in McAlester, Oklahoma. My dad did not stay around. He left when I was two. My mom wasn’t around a lot when I was very young. My siblings and I stayed with family members. I stayed with my grandparents and two cousins until I was five, and then I moved back in with my mom. We never stayed in one place more than a year. I started smoking weed when I was 10. My mom was not really a mom, and I more or less lived on the street all the time. By the time I was 13 I had a fulltime job, and I was drinking and doing cocaine.
I started doing meth when I was 16, and it was all downhill from there. I was partying all of the time, and I was sleeping with any girl I could get. When I was 21 I met my first wife in a bar where I was working. It was all fun and games at first. I tried to get sober, but we realized we did not get along at all. We divorced when I was 23, and I started to drink again.
I made some very bad choices when I was 32, and I went to prison. It didn’t help. I didn’t change my ways. I still used drugs every chance I got. I spent six years in prison, and I went back to my old ways when I got out of prison. A few years later I met wife number two. I really loved this woman. We got married, and we had two kids. I tried hard to stay off of drugs, and I had a good job. She got me to go to church for the first time in my life. However, I was stuck in my ways. I didn’t do drugs all of the time, but I went overboard when I did them. I let the drugs the drugs take over, and I made the worst decision of my life.
I went back to prison. I did drugs and had fun during the first eight years of my prison sentence. I almost died of COVID, and from that point I made a change in my life. I quit drugs, and I started reading the Bible. I was accepted at Hand Up Ministries. It was God’s will for me to come here. It is all uphill from here in my walk with God.
Today I am in Charge of Hand Up Ministries maintenance crew, theysay I am doing great!
James Rose
Doyle Smith
I was born in Roswell, New Mexico in 1960. My early life was good. I am the youngest of four siblings. I have two brothers and one sister. They all babied me. My life changed when I was in fourth grade. My sister was fifteen, and she was skipping school. I was riding in the backseat of a car with her, and we were rammed when a car ran a red light. My sister was killed. We moved to Oklahoma after that.
My dad opened up a plumbing business, and he did well financially. Our family was very close. My parents were very strict with my brothers and me. We ate dinner together every night, and at the dinner table we talked about our day. We loved each other very much.
I got married when I was 21. We had two children. I started cheating on her, and we got divorced. I started drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. I met my second wife, and we had a daughter. My wife got cancer, and she fought the cancer for four years. It was terrible to watch and not be able to do anything to help. I took her to chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Our daughter was four when my wife passed away. My daughter and I moved to Carlsbad, New Mexico. I had relatives in Carlsbad.
I met my third wife in Carlsbad, and we had one daughter. My wife and I did hard drugs, and we got divorced. I got custody of our daughter, so now I have two daughters. I was still doing drugs, mostly meth. I stared running with people who broke the law daily, including meth crimes and stealing. My waking thought was how to get high that day. I got caught several times with dope, I had CDS charges. I went to drug court, but I still didn’t learn anything.
The Lord was something I didn’t think about much until I went to prison. Now I believe in Him, and I pray to Him daily.
I learned about Hand Up Ministries in prison, and things are starting to look up. I am off drugs, and I am helping myself do better with the help of the Lord and Hand Up. Hand Up has given me a stable place to live. I have learned to follow rules and listen to others.
I enjoy life and just live. God has taught me to be a better person. He has also taught me how to pray. I paid for my crime, and it is up to me to live my life.
Bobby Thomas, Jr
I was diagnosed with cancer at fourteen months old, so I really didn’t have much of a childhood. I was in and out of the hospital. I went through full body radiation and chemotherapy. I relapsed when I was four and a half years old, and I was put on a list for a bone marrow transplant. They found a match for me in October 1995. My mother was by my side during this entire time.
We lost my dad to cancer in January 1995. They kept a close eye on me after my bone marrow transplant, but after ten years they told me I was free from cancer. I just had to be checked once a year to be safe.
Since then everything has been on the positive side. When I was young, my dream was to become a pro wrestler, and I pursued that dream when I turned eighteen years old.
I knew about the Lord when I was growing up, because someone was healing me. I didn’t turn my back on Him when I got older, but I wasn’t putting Him first. I was doing lots of drugs in 2016, and I went to prison. My sentence was two years of incarceration and five years of probation.
I found the Lord again during that time, and I was told about Hand Up Ministries at that time. I went back to the same habits after I got out of prison, and I became homeless. I was also charged with another crime, and I went back to prison in 2024.
My life now is much better. I have been clean since July 2024. I got back into church after I turned my life over to God.
This time I took the time to apply to Hand Up, and I was accepted. Hand Up has provided me with the opportunity to get my driver license, and I have a safe place to lay my head at night. Hand Up provides transportation.
Every day I thank God for everything. He has brought me through everything, and He will continue to bring me through everything. God has wonderful plans for me, and I know He will help me succeed.
Mark Horsfall
I was born and raised in California. I was the third of six kids. I had a good childhood. I rode bikes and played ball with neighborhood kids.
I quit school in the eleventh grade, and I have been working since that time.
I met my first wife in 1989, and my first child was born in 1989. I caught my wife with another man, and I divorced her in 1990.
I met my second wife in Las Vegas 1991, and my second child was born in 1994. We moved to California, and my third child was born in 1996. My second wife left me, and she moved to Utah. We got divorced in 1997.
I met my third wife in 1997, and I had my fourth child in 1999. I was married to my third wife for 15 years. She cheated on me, and she had me thrown in jail for a battery I never committed. I was sentenced to 52 weeks of anger management class.
I moved to Oklahoma, and I worked for the sheriff’s department as a detention officer for five years until the detention center closed. I went back to driving a truck, and I lived in Ardmore, Oklahoma.
One of my kids came to live with me. I was charged with a sex crime in 2020. I spent ten months in the county jail, and I pled guilty. I spent two years and ten months in prison.
My case manager told me about Hand Up Ministries. I applied to Hand Up, and I was accepted. Hand Up is a good program. They give you a place to live, and they make sure you get to probation appointments and registration. They help with getting identification, and they get me to my medical appointments.
Hand Up also gave me a job on the maintenance crew. I have to show up for church and Genesis One. They require those who can work to get a job, and residents must pay program fees. The Hand Up staff will help us any way they can as long as we are doing that which is required of us.
I knew God had blessed me as soon as I arrived at Hand Up Ministries.
Joseph Watson
I was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. I grew up in a very small town. My father was a business owner, and we had a strong religious background. I went to a Catholic school from first grade through third grade.
After an altercation, my sister and I were placed in public school. My childhood was very good, but my teenage years were not so good. I got into drugs and drinking alcohol. I was a one person crime wave.
I got married to my first wife when I was 21. Our marriage was an extremely volatile relationship due to drugs and alcohol. I got my first prison term when I was 23. I was caught up in drugs and selling guns. I also committed assault. My prison sentence lasted seven and a half years.
After prison I divorced my wife. I got off of drugs, and I found a new career doing industrial maintenance.
I met my second wife during this time, and at first things were good. I travelled around the country installing equipment for a large poultry company. I was making good money, and I had a child. After 15 years of marriage things got sour, and my relationship with my wife fell apart. I started using painkillers on top of whiskey, and I pretended to be happy in front of our child for her sake.
We moved to Oklahoma in 2004, and I took a job at a large food processing plant in the city. I thought a job without travelling would help mend my relationship with my wife, but things became worse.
I went back to prison in 2018 at age 52. I served three years of a 10 year prison sentence. Upon release I had no place to go. I had no family or friends in Oklahoma.
A prison counselor suggested I go to Hand Up Ministries as an alternative to spending the entire ten years in prison or being homeless.
In 2021 I was released from prison, and I found myself at Hand Up Ministries. While at Hand Up I found faith in religion again, and I got back into a career field I embraced before going to prison.
I have become dependent on myself to take responsibility for bills and holding a job. I am off of drugs, and I have a lot of support from the ministry staff to stay off of alcohol.
Today I am sober, I am working, and I have a place to lay my head. I also have friends who actually care.
Gordon Westervelt
I grew up in a family dynamic that was considered to be dysfunctional.
My family was my mom, my dad, and three kids, of which I was the youngest. My siblings and I fought almost constantly. It was very physical. It was nothing for one of them to put another through a wall or destroy a refrigerator. My parents argued and fought verbally at least twice a day. For years I thought this was normal.
I never had a stable home in the traditional sense. We moved constantly, either living in tents or vehicles for a good portion of my childhood. Whenever we did have a house it usually never lasted very long. It was usually a few months to a year.
My teen years were work and little play. I started working in my early teens.
I went to prison in my early twenties, and I spent a little over a decade in prison.
I have always known of God, Jesus, and their love. However, as I grew, I saw more and more “Christians” hate and hurt people, so I stepped back from God because I believed the Bible was a man-made construct created to control others.
Prison was a blessing, because I stepped closer to God in prison. Prison saved my life and my soul. I learned that the Bible is of God, but it is distorted by the majority of “Christians.”
I discovered I was emotionally dead, except for severe anger. I knew that if God had not sent me to prison I would be dead or worse.
I examined my life, and I realized my childhood was beyond dysfunctional. I also realized that even though my family fought, they still loved God in a way. They also loved me. I wasn’t just a non-entity to be tolerated.
I went to Hand Up Ministries after I left prison. I found contentment, but not complacency, at Hand Up. The people here are all decent and kind people. I try to have more of a life outside of work. Hand Up saved my life, because I would not be alive if not for Hand Up.
I try to live by the two commandments, Jesus mentions in Matthew 22:36-40. I have explained it to others as, “Who doesn’t want to be treated unconditionally with love, kindness, and respect?” All of us want to be treated that way, but do we give unconditionally? I know I am loved unconditionally by God.
Carl Fain
I had a good childhood. I was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, but we moved to Oklahoma when I was young. I had three brothers and one sister. I was the oldest. I was also the black sheep of the family.
After I graduated from high school I went to work to try to help my dad. I started drinking and partying. I still had a job, but my drinking got worse.
I got married, but the marriage only lasted a year.
I continued drinking, and I got married a second time. We had a son, and this this marriage lasted six years. I went to prison. I was sentenced to 10 years of incarceration and five years of probation.
My parents passed away when I was in prison. It was hard for a while, but I got through it. I went to Hand Up Ministries after I was released from prison.
I got a job working for Hand Up the second week I was at Hand Up. Hand Up helps me, but I also have to help myself.
I have been homeless before, and it is no joke. I am grateful for Hand Up’s help. I have trust issues.
I believe in the Creator. I ponder life as I get older. Life is what you make it. I thank David Nichols and Hand Up for giving me a chance.
I was born and raised in California. I was the third of six kids. I had a good childhood. I rode bikes and played ball with neighborhood kids.
I quit school in the eleventh grade, and I have been working since that time.
I met my first wife in 1989, and my first child was born in 1989. I caught my wife with another man, and I divorced her in 1990.
I met my second wife in Las Vegas 1991, and my second child was born in 1994. We moved to California, and my third child was born in 1996. My second wife left me, and she moved to Utah. We got divorced in 1997.
I met my third wife in 1997, and I had my fourth child in 1999. I was married to my third wife for 15 years. She cheated on me, and she had me thrown in jail for a battery I never committed. I was sentenced to 52 weeks of anger management class.
I moved to Oklahoma, and I worked for the sheriff’s department as a detention officer for five years until the detention center closed. I went back to driving a truck, and I lived in Ardmore, Oklahoma.
One of my kids came to live with me. I was charged with a sex crime in 2020. I spent ten months in the county jail, and I pled guilty. I spent two years and ten months in prison.
My case manager told me about Hand Up Ministries. I applied to Hand Up, and I was accepted. Hand Up is a good program. They give you a place to live, and they make sure you get to probation appointments and registration. They help with getting identification, and they get me to my medical appointments.
Hand Up also gave me a job on the maintenance crew. I have to show up for church and Genesis One. They require those who can work to get a job, and residents must pay program fees. The Hand Up staff will help us any way they can as long as we are doing that which is required of us.
I knew God had blessed me as soon as I arrived at Hand Up Ministries.
Dakota Shoemaker
I grew up in a household where religion wasn’t important. My family wasn’t Christian. I believed there was a higher power, but I never put a name to it.
I never worshiped God, nor did I seek a relationship with God. I carried those beliefs with me well into adulthood.
For years, I carried a deep emptiness inside me, and I couldn’t seem to fill it. I tried drugs, relationships, and other things I thought would make me whole, but the emptiness remained.
I made a poor choice that led me to being convicted of a crime, and I was sentenced to four years in prison. I lost almost everything I had.
My fiancé ended our engagement during my last year in prison. I felt like I had lost everything. I was at rock bottom, and I had very little hope. That night, I prayed to God for the first time in my life. I asked Him for guidance and hope.
The next day, a fellow inmate offered me his old study Bible. He said I looked like I might be in need of God’s word.
I didn’t know where to begin, but eventually I opened the Gospel of John. As I read about Jesus, I began learning not only what He taught, but who He was. I learned about His kindness, His compassion, His humility, and the way He loved people.
I found myself wanting to be more like Him. The more I read, the more I prayed. Something began changing inside me. I experienced peace and comfort I had never known before. I began to understand that God wasn’t some distant higher power. He was God, and he was with me.
Today, my relationship with God continues to grow. I talk to Him throughout the day, and I trust Him with my worries, fears, and hopes. I trust Him with my future. I strive to become more like Jesus. He is my Savior.
I was afraid I might become homeless when my incarceration ended, but Hand Up Ministries stepped into my life. They gave me a hand up when I needed one. They provided the resources to help me get back on my feet. They gave me a roof over my head, clothes on my back, and the community I needed.
I also found people with whom I could worship and fellowship. I learned from people at Hand Up Ministries, and they showed me I didn’t have to face reentry alone.
I believe the Lord brought me to Hand Up.
Matt Perry
I pretty much had everything I wanted when I was a child. My dad was a retired veteran, and my mom was a registered nurse. I had an older brother who was seven years older than me, so he was kind of jealous of me getting all of the attention. My brother went into the service right after high school. My dad died from lung cancer when I was 13. He died at the VA hospital. That left my mom to raise me all on her own. My high school years were great. I had all of the brand new clothes, plus my grades weren’t half bad.
My brother returned from the Air Force during my senior year. He was honorably discharged and a one hundred percent disabled veteran. He had been stationed in Saudi Arabia, and he was digging up old warheads. They ran into small pockets of radiation, and it messed up his nerves. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. For the most part, he was fine. He had a wife and kids.
I started a family of my own after I got out of high school. My mom and I remained close, and we went to church with her from time to time. I grew up going to the Baptist church. My mother was a member of that church for as long as I can remember. My brother and I would get all of our kids together, and we would be at our mom’s house having a good time as a family.
My brother’s health slowly declined over the years. He went from having full conversations to where he could barely talk and couldn’t walk. His wife left him, and my mom took full responsibility of taking care of him. I would come over and help when I could. I had a full time job working fifty to sixty hours a week, so sometimes I wasn’t able to make it.
One day I got a call from my mom saying he had a seizure and he had been rushed to the emergency room at the VA hospital. A neurologist performed a spinal tap, and after a few days he was better. My mom had a heart attack a month later.
My brother had another seizure, and we took him to the VA. My mom passed away in her sleep the second night my brother was at the hospital. My whole world was turned upside down. I was given power of attorney over my brother, but I signed it over to his wife. I figured I couldn’t help as much since I had my own family and a job. I was numb and depressed all the time. I would leave work early and just drive around all night. I eventually got fired. My girlfriend and I broke up, and I moved into my mom’s house.
I didn’t care about anything anymore, and I was always getting into trouble. I went to prison. My brother died in 2020, but I didn’t find out until I left prison a few years later.
I was starting to feel like I felt when my mom passed away. When I arrived at Hand Up Ministries, I wasn’t expecting them to support and care for me they way they did.
They made me feel welcomed, and they made me feel like my life still has purpose. Thanks to Hand Up for believing in me and putting Jesus in my heart. Without Hand Up I would be back in prison or worse. I know my mom and brother would be proud of me.
Charles Mason
I was a problem child. I was always acting up and getting into trouble. It was just my mom and my brother.
My dad was no good, and my mom divorced him when I was two or three. I was a monster baby when I was awake. My mom’s friends said I was a little angel when I was asleep.
I had problems learning in school, and I didn’t learn how to read until I was in third grade. I was in learning disability classes all through school.
I started smoking cigarettes when I was 10 years old. I met all of the stoners, ditchers, and drinkers when I was in seventh grade. My brother and his friends were drinkers. They were in ninth grade. I would hang out with my brother and his friends on the weekend and get drunk with them. My brother hated me, but his friends liked me. They always let me go with them. My brother didn’t like me because I wasn’t as smart and cool as him. He played football. I was not smart, and I hated school.
I was arrested in seventh grade for possession of marijuana and for riding a stolen dirt bike. The court removed me from my mothers’ custody and made me live with my grandpa for a year.
I went to seventh grade for the second time, and I flunked again. When I flunked the third time, I tried to enroll in Roosevelt School, but they told me I was too big. I went to Grant High School, and I enrolled in ninth grade. They passed me to the tenth grade, and I quit school.
I got a job roofing houses. I started drinking every day, and I got into a bad car wreck when I was 17. I have a head injury. I forget things all of the time. It is hard. I was in a coma for five days, and I got on SSI when I got out of the hospital.
I started selling marijuana just so I could smoke it all day. Then I started selling meth.
I met a woman, and I got her pregnant with my son. I divorced her when my son was two months old, and I got custody of him.
I drank like a fish, and I sold drugs. I worked construction for cash so I could pay for daycare. I took my son everywhere, and everyone loved him.
Now he is in prison. I messed up his life. I tried to get him to chill out, but he wanted to be just like his dad.
My mom raised us, and she was a good woman. She always worked, and she never whipped us. She wouldn’t let anyone touch us. That is probably why I was bad, because my mom let me do whatever.
I am glad to be at Hand Up Ministries. I can stay sober here, and I can do what I have to do to get my life in order. I stay away from drugs and crazy ladies that do drugs, because drugs and women are no good for me. I have to keep God in my life so I can make a better life than the one I had.
John Hancock
I was born on March 21, 1959 in Sumter, South Carolina on Shaw Air Force Base. My parents moved to Sapulpa when I was four years old, and eventually we moved to Keifer, where I attended school from first grade through the twelfth grade. I had a Christian mother and an abusive father.
Looking back on my childhood, it seems like I was being pulled in two different directions at the same time. When I was 13, I started using marijuana and alcohol. I think I was on a self-destructive mission because the way I was treated by my father took away my self-worth.
I got married in 1978. We had a daughter in February 1979, and we had a son in October 1982. My life had no moral compass at that time.
Instead of being focused on caring for my family, I was focused on the wrong things. We got divorced in 1984, and I was introduced to methamphetamine the same year. This expedited my destructive lifestyle, and I started using needles to shoot up drugs. I did this off and on during the eighties and nineties.
I remarried in 1990, and I had two beautiful daughters. However, my behavior didn’t change, and I was arrested on December 31, 2006.
I served almost six years in prison, and I continued to ignore God during my stay in prison. I came to Hand Up Ministries in 2012, but I had to live in a tent because the state took away Hand Up’s exemption to the state law that prohibited two registered sex offenders from living together.
My son bought a travel trailer for me, and I moved to another location in Oklahoma City. I didn’t use methamphetamine between 2012 and 2017, but I continued using alcohol.
My probation was revoked in October 2017. I returned to prison, and I was released on August 5, 2024. My life changed during my second stay in prison. I turned my life over to God, and I asked Him to guide me through the remainder of my years on earth. I was reunited with my four children and my grandchildren, and we go to church together and celebrate birthdays. We do things I had never done before when I was far from God.
Looking back, I should have stayed at Hand Up the first time and got stronger so I could have resisted the devil. This time, my life has been completely transformed. I haven’t had a cigarette or alcohol since 2017, and I am part of my children’s lives and the lives of my grandchildren.
This happened because Hand Up gave me an opportunity to come back and do things right. God has changed me completely and put me on the right track. My children and my grandchildren see the change in my life. I want to thank Jesus and give Him all of the credit for me getting to the point where I turned my life around.
I also thank Hand Up. I can be a dad and a grandpa.
Marion Cooper
I was the oldest of five boys. We had a good childhood. We played and had fun with each other. When I was five I went to Texas to live with my aunt for some years. It was fun, but I missed my brothers.
My grandmother got sick, so I returned to Oklahoma to take care of her. I was about 13 years old, and that was when I joined a gang. My life changed. I stopped going to school, and I started selling drugs. My mother was going through hard times, so I sold drugs to help out.
My life was going well. When I was 17 I became a father, and I went to prison for robbery. I was hanging out with the wrong person. I spent five years in prison, and I went back to the same life of selling drugs. I met a woman with whom I had three kids. I went back to prison for four years for selling drugs. My kids’ mother started using drugs, and her drug use was so bad that the kids stayed with me.
I changed my life for my kids’ sake, and I started living right. I met the love of my life, and we started a family. Years later something went very wrong. One of the kids died, and my woman was charged with the crime. My boys were taken from me, and my woman went to prison for killing my son. Her family blamed me for her going to prison. I went to their house to visit, and I was accused of touching and trying to rape one of the kids.
I was sentenced to 20 years, and that is how I got to Hand Up Ministries.
Ricky Smothers
I grew up in a family that partied all the time, and I was drinking and partying with them all the way into adulthood. My parents were kind, and they never physically abused me.
I continued doing drugs and drinking alcohol when I was an adult. My main choice was alcohol (whiskey and beer).
My girlfriend tried to get me go to church, but didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t care about God or church, but I came to the Lord when I was in prison.
Someone introduced me to a man named John Hider, who had a small Bible study group. My mother had just passed away, and I told John about it. He explained to me that God was the only answer.
So I could cope with my situation and find peace through Jesus Christ, I confided in John that I was a homosexual at that time. He led me in a prayer of salvation, and immediately I felt a big peace come over me.
I continued following the Lord all through my incarceration.
I learned about Hand Up Ministries, and I went to Hand Up after my release. I was at Hand Up for a year and a half, and I was removed from Hand Up due to homosexual activity.
My probation officer called David Nichols, and she discussed my situation with him. David told her he had a place for me in Chandler, Oklahoma. He said he would give me another chance.
I will always be grateful to David for giving me another chance. After I had been in Chandler for two years, John Hider showed up at my door. We got reacquainted, and I joined his Genesis One group.
Hand Up has been a godsend to me and all of the guys here at Chandler. My life is now on track, and I praise God for all He has done for me.
John Hancock
I was born on March 21, 1959 in Sumter, South Carolina on Shaw Air Force Base. My parents moved to Sapulpa when I was four years old, and eventually we moved to Keifer, where I attended school from first grade through the twelfth grade. I had a Christian mother and an abusive father.
Looking back on my childhood, it seems like I was being pulled in two different directions at the same time. When I was 13, I started using marijuana and alcohol. I think I was on a self-destructive mission because the way I was treated by my father took away my self-worth.
I got married in 1978. We had a daughter in February 1979, and we had a son in October 1982. My life had no moral compass at that time.
Instead of being focused on caring for my family, I was focused on the wrong things. We got divorced in 1984, and I was introduced to methamphetamine the same year. This expedited my destructive lifestyle, and I started using needles to shoot up drugs. I did this off and on during the eighties and nineties.
I remarried in 1990, and I had two beautiful daughters. However, my behavior didn’t change, and I was arrested on December 31, 2006.
I served almost six years in prison, and I continued to ignore God during my stay in prison. I came to Hand Up Ministries in 2012, but I had to live in a tent because the state took away Hand Up’s exemption to the state law that prohibited two registered sex offenders from living together.
My son bought a travel trailer for me, and I moved to another location in Oklahoma City. I didn’t use methamphetamine between 2012 and 2017, but I continued using alcohol.
My probation was revoked in October 2017. I returned to prison, and I was released on August 5, 2024. My life changed during my second stay in prison. I turned my life over to God, and I asked Him to guide me through the remainder of my years on earth. I was reunited with my four children and my grandchildren, and we go to church together and celebrate birthdays. We do things I had never done before when I was far from God.
Looking back, I should have stayed at Hand Up the first time and got stronger so I could have resisted the devil. This time, my life has been completely transformed. I haven’t had a cigarette or alcohol since 2017, and I am part of my children’s lives and the lives of my grandchildren.
This happened because Hand Up gave me an opportunity to come back and do things right. God has changed me completely and put me on the right track. My children and my grandchildren see the change in my life. I want to thank Jesus and give Him all of the credit for me getting to the point where I turned my life around.
I also thank Hand Up. I can be a dad and a grandpa.
Ricky Smothers
I grew up in a family that partied all the time, and I was drinking and partying with them all the way into adulthood. My parents were kind, and they never physically abused me.
I continued doing drugs and drinking alcohol when I was an adult. My main choice was alcohol (whiskey and beer).
My girlfriend tried to get me go to church, but didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t care about God or church, but I came to the Lord when I was in prison.
Someone introduced me to a man named John Hider, who had a small Bible study group. My mother had just passed away, and I told John about it. He explained to me that God was the only answer.
So I could cope with my situation and find peace through Jesus Christ, I confided in John that I was a homosexual at that time. He led me in a prayer of salvation, and immediately I felt a big peace come over me.
I continued following the Lord all through my incarceration.
I learned about Hand Up Ministries, and I went to Hand Up after my release. I was at Hand Up for a year and a half, and I was removed from Hand Up due to homosexual activity.
My probation officer called David Nichols, and she discussed my situation with him. David told her he had a place for me in Chandler, Oklahoma. He said he would give me another chance.
I will always be grateful to David for giving me another chance. After I had been in Chandler for two years, John Hider showed up at my door. We got reacquainted, and I joined his Genesis One group.
Hand Up has been a godsend to me and all of the guys here at Chandler. My life is now on track, and I praise God for all He has done for me.
James Bell
I was born in 1969, and I grew up Los Angeles. I was a curly headed mixed breed kid.
Others had a hard time understanding what was wrong with me. I had ADHD, and it spilled over into everything.
School was tough. In 1975 the school nurse gave me too much medication, and I went into the girls’ restroom and beat up a girl. I was expelled from Inglewood school district when I was six years old.
I had to walk to west Los Angeles school district to a special education school. It helped my education quite a bit. Two years later my mom decided it was too expensive to live in Los Angeles, so in 1978 we moved to my grandmother’s house in Fresno.
My uncle raped me. I told my mother, and she just yelled at him. To this day I can’t stand being touched by any man. My life changed.
I became violent in school. I drank in high school, and I experimented with drugs. I did not finish high school. I had a child at age 18, and I abandoned that child when I was 19.
I enlisted in the Navy, and I went AWOL in a month. I drank beer all of the time. I held various jobs. I went to various vocational technical schools, but I never completed any of them.
I met Christina in 1992. I moved to Oklahoma in 1994, and I married Christina in May of 1994. We had a girl in 1996. I worked at J & E Belt Supply from 1994 to 1997. Christina and I separated in 1997, and I quit my job.
I started running the streets and selling meth. In 1999 I shot and killed a man who said he was going to beat me up and rape me. I flashed back. He hit me, and I shot him. I spent 11 years in prison.
I got a job doing hotel maintenance after I got out of prison. I met a woman who was 17 years younger than me, and we started a family. She already had two kids.
In 2016 my 18 month old daughter and I fell down, and I put my right hand down to break my fall so my daughter and I did not fall. 12 year old was lying face down. My right hand fell on her back side, and she claimed I touched her vagina. How this happened from behind I do not know. I spent eight and a half years in prison for something I did not knowingly or willingly do. I should never have let the district attorney and public defender coerce me into signing a plea deal. I would have fought it if had known better.
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Joshua Davis
I grew up with divorced parents, and I travelled from parent to parent. My mom lived in California, and my dad lived in Oklahoma.
My mom remarried a few years after the divorce. My mom attended a Lutheran church where I participated in the choir and church activities. My father remarried several years after the divorce. He attended church occasionally. I joined a Nazarene church after I turned 16.
I joined the Navy, and I served my country while I traveled the world. I went to many European countries. I did not attend church regularly when I was in the Navy.
I became a cop in Oklahoma after I left the military. I got married, and I had a son. My wife grew up in a family that regularly attended church. Her mom played piano, and her dad helped with the audio equipment. My wife attended a private Christian school instead of public school. My wife and I divorced.
A few years later I lost my job in law enforcement because of hearing loss related to my military service. I found myself alone and depressed, and I made a mistake that would change my life forever.
I heard about Hand Up Ministries when I was in prison. Hand Up helped me with housing and transportation. The Hand Up church services allowed me to reconnect with my faith. With the help of Hand Up and the power of the Lord, I have been able to move past my conviction, and I am able to be successful in work and in life.
Ruben Torres
I had a good childhood. My family treated me with respect. When I was in my twenties I lived with my step-aunt, and she was very abusive to me. I was hit with a ball bat and locked in my room. I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere. She was a drug addict and an alcoholic. She hated me, and I never knew why. I escaped from her, and I went to live with my sister.
I started going to church, and I liked it. My aunt Lucy became my guardian, and she wanted me to go to Purcell to live with her and work with her. While attending church one Sunday I was arrested for my crime, and I went to county jail for three years. My aunt Lucy and my cousin took me to Hand Up Ministries in Oklahoma City. I was put on probation. I was at Hand Up on 59th for about three weeks, and then I was sent to Chandler. I was put into a Genesis One group.
God has blessed me since I have been here. The people here have helped me with food and clothing, and they have been kind to me. I love Hand Up for what they have done. I hope I will be able to go back home to be with my family in Texas someday. Until then I am happy and satisfied here where I am. I thank Mr. Nichols and Hand Up for helping me straighten up my life. The staff here has told me how I have changed into a better person.
Leslie Weese
I grew up in Canton, Oklahoma, a small town with a population of 503 people. The only thing there was to do was go fishing in the lake. I played baseball and football, and I was pretty good at both. I was offered baseball scholarships, but I dropped out of school my senior year so I could move to Clinton with my cousin and begin my life of crime.
My cousin had three kids, and she was on meth. I started cooking meth with one of her friends. I was 17 at the time. We got pulled over when we were dropping off her kids, and we had meth in the car. She was arrested for not having a driver license, but I was let go.
I moved to Chickasha, where I met my wife. We had three kids: Zack, Blake, and Kira. We moved to Woodward, where my wife and I split after 12 years of marriage.
I was working in the oilfield, and I was making $3,000 every two weeks. This lasted for 15 years till the oilfield shut down.
I started selling drugs again, and I got caught and went to prison.
I heard about Hand Up Ministries when I was in prison, and I started going to church in prison.
Knowing God has caused my life to turn around, and I am right with God. Hand Up has given me a place to stay and has helped me with food and work. I couldn’t have done all of this without God and Hand Up. I give my sincere thanks.
Jeremy Hintergardt
I was born in Guymon, Oklahoma in 1974. I have a sister who is five years younger than me. I was shy then, and I am still shy. My paternal grandparents took us and my cousins to church for Sunday school, and I would hang out with my cousins afterward. My whole family would travel to different lakes and rivers to fish and play in the water. We also went hunting. We moved to Thackerville, Oklahoma when I was in second grade. We lived there until winter break. We moved back to Guymon because my maternal grandmother had Huntington’s disease. This disease runs in my family, and I have it.
I graduated from high school, and I hung out with my four best friends until I got married. I got divorced, and I started drinking a lot. I made dumb choices, and I went to prison for six years. Project Commutation got me released from prison in 2025. I got released because I had already given up my bad habits. I give thanks to Hand Up for being so kind to me and helping me. I am blessed.
Tre' Shawn Horton
I didn’t have a good childhood. I knew my mother when I was little, but I didn’t know my dad. I have two brothers and one sister. I was the youngest of my mom’s kids. All I can remember are the bad things, never the good. I was always making my mom hit me by running away or being bad in school. I was 10 or 11 around that time. We moved to Oklahoma City when I was 12, and everything went downhill for me.
My so-called friend wanted to make some money, but not by selling drugs. He wanted to take things from people’s homes. They called 911, and I was taken into custody. I didn’t go to jail because I was 12. I was sent to a boys’ home for three years.
My mother and my sister brought me home when I discharged. I was 15, and I was living with my mother, my sister, and my brother. My mother was different. She was more chilled.
That was when I met my first baby mama, for those not familiar with modern slang, “baby mama” refers to the mother of one’s child. I was almost 17. My family moved around a lot, I didn’t know she had given birth to my son till I was 20.
I had two other kids by two different women. I committed my first big crime when I was 21, and I went to prison for four and a half years.
Smoking weed and having sex caused me to go astray from the Lord. I knew it was wrong, but I wanted to be cool. To be honest, I wanted to be somebody because I felt like I was nobody. My whole life I felt like my mother didn’t love me. I found out she did love me. She just didn’t love what I was doing with my life.
I am a new resident at Hand Up Ministries. I was in prison, and I was looking for a good program to help me be a better person. I came across Hand Up. I wanted more information, and Mrs. Lee helped me set it up. I didn’t want to leave Tulsa, but I didn’t want to be the same person I was before.
Thanks to Hand Up Ministries, I am now drug free. Hand Up has done a lot for me. They helped me get Sooner Care, food stamps, a state ID, and a license. They are helping me look for a job. They give me rides to my appointments, and they have helped me get clothing. They see the good in people, and they push us to be better. God did everything to put me here, and He put people who care about me in my life. I can learn from people at Hand Up, and I can be the son He wants me to be.
Thanks be to Hand Up Ministries.
Manuel Perez
My mom and dad always had conversations about the love of God. During my early life I began to not think straight, and I started making mistakes that got me into trouble. I worked as a truck driver hauling wheat, corn, and other products. Since that time I have worked several different jobs to keep myself independent and stable.
I committed a crime, and I was convicted of that crime. I had a lot of remorse. I knew I shouldn’t have done it. I made a big mistake that cost me my freedom, and it destroyed the trust I had gained in life. I attended church when I was in prison, and I continued to attend church after I was released from prison. It was during church attendance outside of prison that I learned of the program Hand Up Ministries offers to offenders who have been discharged from prison and want to get their life back on track. Hand Up helps people become stable and productive citizens after they enter back into the community.
I understand my mistakes, and I am committed to learning from my mistakes and staying on the right track. Hand Up Ministries has helped me to better understand my life, and Hand Up has given me the opportunity to create a stable and productive life. I am now capable of changing my life for the better. Believing in God has helped me to understand my mistakes. His love will never leave me, and I can grow to be a better person. I thank God daily for the life He has given me.
Doyle Smith
I was born in Roswell, New Mexico in 1960. My early life was good. I am the youngest of four siblings. I have two brothers and one sister. They all babied me. My life changed when I was in fourth grade. My sister was fifteen, and she was skipping school. I was riding in the backseat of a car with her, and we were rammed when a car ran a red light. My sister was killed. We moved to Oklahoma after that.
My dad opened up a plumbing business, and he did well financially. Our family was very close. My parents were very strict with my brothers and me. We ate dinner together every night, and at the dinner table we talked about our day. We loved each other very much.
I got married when I was 21. We had two children. I started cheating on her, and we got divorced. I started drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. I met my second wife, and we had a daughter. My wife got cancer, and she fought the cancer for four years. It was terrible to watch and not be able to do anything to help. I took her to chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Our daughter was four when my wife passed away. My daughter and I moved to Carlsbad, New Mexico. I had relatives in Carlsbad.
I met my third wife in Carlsbad, and we had one daughter. My wife and I did hard drugs, and we got divorced. I got custody of our daughter, so now I have two daughters. I was still doing drugs, mostly meth. I stared running with people who broke the law daily, including meth crimes and stealing. My waking thought was how to get high that day. I got caught several times with dope, I had CDS charges. I went to drug court, but I still didn’t learn anything.
The Lord was something I didn’t think about much until I went to prison. Now I believe in Him, and I pray to Him daily.
I learned about Hand Up Ministries in prison, and things are starting to look up. I am off drugs, and I am helping myself do better with the help of the Lord and Hand Up. Hand Up has given me a stable place to live. I have learned to follow rules and listen to others.
I enjoy life and just live. God has taught me to be a better person. He has also taught me how to pray. I paid for my crime, and it is up to me to live my life.
Bobby Thomas, Jr
I was diagnosed with cancer at fourteen months old, so I really didn’t have much of a childhood. I was in and out of the hospital. I went through full body radiation and chemotherapy. I relapsed when I was four and a half years old, and I was put on a list for a bone marrow transplant. They found a match for me in October 1995. My mother was by my side during this entire time.
We lost my dad to cancer in January 1995. They kept a close eye on me after my bone marrow transplant, but after ten years they told me I was free from cancer. I just had to be checked once a year to be safe.
Since then everything has been on the positive side. When I was young, my dream was to become a pro wrestler, and I pursued that dream when I turned eighteen years old.
I knew about the Lord when I was growing up, because someone was healing me. I didn’t turn my back on Him when I got older, but I wasn’t putting Him first. I was doing lots of drugs in 2016, and I went to prison. My sentence was two years of incarceration and five years of probation.
I found the Lord again during that time, and I was told about Hand Up Ministries at that time. I went back to the same habits after I got out of prison, and I became homeless. I was also charged with another crime, and I went back to prison in 2024.
My life now is much better. I have been clean since July 2024. I got back into church after I turned my life over to God.
This time I took the time to apply to Hand Up, and I was accepted. Hand Up has provided me with the opportunity to get my driver license, and I have a safe place to lay my head at night. Hand Up provides transportation.
Every day I thank God for everything. He has brought me through everything, and He will continue to bring me through everything. God has wonderful plans for me, and I know He will help me succeed.
David Ruschmeyer
For the most part, my childhood and family life looked like that of everyone else in the sixties.
My parents were hard working blue collar folk. Our family went to church on Christmas and Easter. I was very overweight when I was growing up, so I had to work hard to make friends.
The stigma of obesity was very great during the seventies. A friend from high school reconnected with me when I was in my early twenties, and he led me to the Lord. She also introduced me to a Christian woman I would soon marry.
We got married in 1986. My wife and I became involved with a small word of faith church. She was in children’s ministry, and I was a worship leader.
We moved to Minnesota in 1989, and we began volunteering in a large word church. We also started attending Bible classes so we could learn more of the word. This is when God moved us to go to Bible school.
We moved to Tulsa in 1996, and we enrolled at Rhema Bible Training Center and graduated in 1999.
We started working for a Christian radio network after graduation. We wanted to start a family, but we were unable to conceive a child. We adopted three children. We moved to the small town in Michigan, where my wife grew up. Our intent was to start a ministry, but we fell away from the Lord.
Without staying in the word and being under teaching, we drifted farther away from God and each other. We moved back to Oklahoma in an effort to get back to God.
I committed a crime in Oklahoma, and I was arrested. I foolishly took my case to trial, and I lost. I was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
I came to my senses in prison, and I repented and returned to God’s open arms. I lost my children, but my wife stood with me.
I heard about Hand Up Ministries when I was in prison, and Hand Up gave me a place to live. Hand Up helped me get on my feet. They helped me get food stamps, my ID, and SoonerCare. I am very grateful for all of these things.
I had a stroke about one month after I was released from prison. Chaplain Howard Stevens took good care of me. He made sure I got my medications and went to my appointments. Howard has been a huge help. God has healed my body, and He has brought my vision back to normal. He also caused my probation to be cancelled. I know He is just getting started.
Tyrone Mason
I was born in 1962. My early childhood was okay. We attended church when I was growing up, but my siblings and I backslid a lot.
My father introduced my brother and me to marijuana when I was nine years old. He didn’t want us to fall to peer pressure. He was very abusive to me and my brothers. We were dropped off at a babysitter when my parents were working, and she sexually abused us. She forced us to do things to her body.
Things got better when I started playing my instrument and got into sports, but marijuana was always present.
My parents got divorced when I was 14. Even though we lost our dad, I still loved him. I am named after him.
I joined a gang when I was 14, and I got into a lot of illegal activity. My only outlet from all of that was my music. My music blossomed when I was 16, and everyone was proud of me. I graduated from high school when I was 18, and I joined the Army.
I served in the Army for six years, and I was injured on guard duty. I turned to cocaine after I left the Army. I got married while I was in the service, and I started a family. My wife decided to cheat on me, and I divorced her after 13 years of marriage.
After I left her, she falsely accused me of spousal rape, and I went to prison. I lost my mother to diabetes and COVID, and I gave my life to Christ. I got baptized when I was in prison in 2023.
God has blessed me to be drug free for 22 years, and God has eased the pain of losing my mother.
I attended Crossings Community Church services when I was in prison, and I was told about Hand Up Ministries.
Hand Up gave me a roof over my head after I was released from prison. If not for Hand Up, I would have been homeless. God has blessed me since I came to Hand Up. My life has gotten better, but I am struggling. As long as I keep putting God first, I know things will get better. I have given all of my current problems and issues to God.
Dave Lavender
I was born in the 1950’s. My earliest childhood memory of church was my parents taking us to church six or seven times. Dad told me he believed in God and it was important for me to believe. Dad believed you can only be saved once. He believed if you sin after being saved you were doomed. My mom believed in the concept of once saved, always saved. I did not take sides, and I never found an answer to who was right.
I joined the military when I was 18, and I married in 1980. I had three kids and a home mortgage, and I attended junior college at night. I had a full time job, and I served in the National Guard on weekends. I was living the dream. Now all I had to do was pay for it. There were so many bills and too little money.
In 1990 I was divorced, homeless, and a drunk. I was a functional drunk. I held down a job sometimes, and I had moments of sobriety. I started doing drugs with the alcohol, and I hit bottom. I committed a felony, and I went to prison. Like many in prison, I had a lot of time to think about my life. I pondered what I did wrong and what I did right. I thought about the changes I had to make so I wouldn’t go back to prison.
I thought about God a lot, and I read the Bible over and over. I made it a point to read the Bible like a novel. I read it front to back at least once a year, and I prayed every day for protection and a deeper understanding of His word. I was a mental and emotional wreck after prison. I needed help. I couldn’t do for myself what I could do before prison.
I reached out and found Hand Up Ministries. I was accepted in the summer of 2006. I got a bed and help with job placement, as well as transportation. I got a job within three days of arriving at Hand Up. I worked at that job for ten years before retiring. I had a nice cozy nest egg. I had no bills to be paid, and I had nice little pickup. It was paid off. All I had to do was pay my program fees, attend church services and Genesis One, and stay off of drugs and alcohol.
I was 52 when I came to Hand Up 19 years ago, and I am now 71. I still live at Hand Up in peace and prosperity.
My faith in God has multiplied beyond counting. I am a better man now than I was 30 years ago. I have changed because God made a way for me. I received much more than a hand up. I now have a community and a family. I have seen many men become better men after they have been here for a while.
I have seen hearts and minds changed for the glory of God. Those who come to Hand Up looking for a handout will be disappointed. Those who seek help will be blessed.
Chad Dickson
I was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma, but I also lived in Dallas. My mom’s side of the family is from Dallas. I was raised as an only child, but I have two older half-brothers my dad had with another woman.
For the most part, growing up was great till my dad was shot. I had a great school life. I went to a school named Dickson. I lived in the country, and I rode four wheelers. Our middle school baseball team went undefeated two years in a row.
My dad was shot in the line of duty during a traffic stop, and our life changed.
My dad lived after getting shot, but the Oklahoma Highway Patrol made my dad retire. This killed him, because law enforcement was all he ever knew.
My mom went to nursing school, and she worked in a local hospital. My parents got divorced soon after my dad was shot. My mom moved to Dallas, but I stayed with my dad. He died when I was 15, and all I had was the streets.
I was arrested for drugs and burglary when I was 18, and I have been in and out of prison during my entire adult life.
It was during my last time in prison that I made the two best choices of my life. I turned to God, and I quit drugs. I realized I couldn’t do it alone. I learned that all of the things I had done and all of the things I thought I knew were wrong. I leaned on the Lord.
Quitting drugs was the best worldly choice I have ever made. I have been clean and sober for over five years.
The favor I have received from these two choices has been great.
I needed help when I discharged from prison the last time, and I turned to Hand Up Ministries.
The things I have done are amazing. I have accomplished more at Hand Up than I ever did before arriving at Hand Up.
I have a job, and I earn a paycheck. I pay my program fees, and I am working toward getting my driver license. I am also working toward repairing family relationships.
I am thankful for the help and the opportunity Hand Up has given to me. I am going to lean on the Lord, and I am going to let His will be done. He has a plan for me.
Arlie Buchanan
I am one of six kids. Our parents used to fight a lot, and at the age of six it got worse. My mother had my dad arrested in Missouri, and we left for Oklahoma City. He found us six months later, and he came to our house. He got into an argument with my mother, and he shot her five times. He went to prison, and my mom was in a coma for nine months. My siblings and I were scattered out with neighbors and family. After my mom recovered, she met a man who became my step-father. I didn’t like him at first. I was a daddy’s boy. He used to take his days out on me.
In my teens I hit the streets with my friends, and we would stay out late. We drank wine and got high on weed. We started getting into trouble. We broke into houses and stole anything we could sell. I started getting arrested when I was 14, and my mother and my brother told me I was no good just like my dad. They said I would end up in prison. I became a best friend to my sisters, and I watched over them and protected them.
My mother started making us go to church on Wednesday and Sunday. I started to like church. I would come home at night and find my mother on her knees by her bed with her hands high in the air and praying for God to protect me and keep me safe while I was out on the street and up to no good. I felt myself starting to change. I was 16, and I had been selling weed since I was 15. I fell in love with a girl from the neighborhood, and I had a son with her. This turned me around, and I had a somewhat normal family life. By age 20 I had a daughter and a house, and I was working in the oilfield. I was making good money. We were doing great. I prayed every night and every morning. I never stopped praying, even when I wasn’t living right.
The oilfield shut down, and I started writing bad checks to take care of the family. Drugs came into play, and I went to jail. We got divorced, and my ex-wife took off. I was raising my three kids on my own. I met another woman when I was 29. We got married, and we raised five boys, two girls, one grandson, and a nephew. We divorced after 17 years of marriage. My best friend’s two sisters died three months apart. I was devastated, and I started drinking. I was out of control, and I got arrested for two counts of lewd acts. I went to prison for the first time in my life.
When I thought I knew pain, my baby son died during my first year in prison. It was terrible, but God helped me through all of it. God was taking everyone I loved the most, and I realized that if I wanted to see them again I had to get right with God. I was released from prison, but I had no place to go. I was homeless for over 40 days. I was very happy when Hand Up Ministries accepted me.
Hand Up Ministries is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. It feels like home. Great things are happening here. Hand Up has a good staff and great people. David Nichols is doing a good thing here.
God has been blessing me. There are a lot of spiritual things going on with me, and I feel closer to God than ever before. I thank Hand Up for giving me a chance.
Tre' Shawn Horton
I didn’t have a good childhood. I knew my mother when I was little, but I didn’t know my dad. I have two brothers and one sister. I was the youngest of my mom’s kids. All I can remember are the bad things, never the good. I was always making my mom hit me by running away or being bad in school. I was 10 or 11 around that time. We moved to Oklahoma City when I was 12, and everything went downhill for me.
My so-called friend wanted to make some money, but not by selling drugs. He wanted to take things from people’s homes. They called 911, and I was taken into custody. I didn’t go to jail because I was 12. I was sent to a boys’ home for three years.
My mother and my sister brought me home when I discharged. I was 15, and I was living with my mother, my sister, and my brother. My mother was different. She was more chilled.
That was when I met my first baby mama, for those not familiar with modern slang, “baby mama” refers to the mother of one’s child. I was almost 17. My family moved around a lot, I didn’t know she had given birth to my son till I was 20.
I had two other kids by two different women. I committed my first big crime when I was 21, and I went to prison for four and a half years.
Smoking weed and having sex caused me to go astray from the Lord. I knew it was wrong, but I wanted to be cool. To be honest, I wanted to be somebody because I felt like I was nobody. My whole life I felt like my mother didn’t love me. I found out she did love me. She just didn’t love what I was doing with my life.
I am a new resident at Hand Up Ministries. I was in prison, and I was looking for a good program to help me be a better person. I came across Hand Up. I wanted more information, and Mrs. Lee helped me set it up. I didn’t want to leave Tulsa, but I didn’t want to be the same person I was before.
Thanks to Hand Up Ministries, I am now drug free. Hand Up has done a lot for me. They helped me get Sooner Care, food stamps, a state ID, and a license. They are helping me look for a job. They give me rides to my appointments, and they have helped me get clothing. They see the good in people, and they push us to be better. God did everything to put me here, and He put people who care about me in my life. I can learn from people at Hand Up, and I can be the son He wants me to be.
Thanks to Hand Up Ministries.
Doyle Smith
I was born in Roswell, New Mexico in 1960. My early life was good. I am the youngest of four siblings. I have two brothers and one sister. They all babied me. My life changed when I was in fourth grade. My sister was fifteen, and she was skipping school. I was riding in the backseat of a car with her, and we were rammed when a car ran a red light. My sister was killed. We moved to Oklahoma after that.
My dad opened up a plumbing business, and he did well financially. Our family was very close. My parents were very strict with my brothers and me. We ate dinner together every night, and at the dinner table we talked about our day. We loved each other very much.
I got married when I was 21. We had two children. I started cheating on her, and we got divorced. I started drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. I met my second wife, and we had a daughter. My wife got cancer, and she fought the cancer for four years. It was terrible to watch and not be able to do anything to help. I took her to chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Our daughter was four when my wife passed away. My daughter and I moved to Carlsbad, New Mexico. I had relatives in Carlsbad.
I met my third wife in Carlsbad, and we had one daughter. My wife and I did hard drugs, and we got divorced. I got custody of our daughter, so now I have two daughters. I was still doing drugs, mostly meth. I stared running with people who broke the law daily, including meth crimes and stealing. My waking thought was how to get high that day. I got caught several times with dope, I had CDS charges. I went to drug court, but I still didn’t learn anything.
The Lord was something I didn’t think about much until I went to prison. Now I believe in Him, and I pray to Him daily.
I learned about Hand Up Ministries in prison, and things are starting to look up. I am off drugs, and I am helping myself do better with the help of the Lord and Hand Up. Hand Up has given me a stable place to live. I have learned to follow rules and listen to others.
I enjoy life and just live. God has taught me to be a better person. He has also taught me how to pray. I paid for my crime, and it is up to me to live my life.
Mark Horsfall
I was born and raised in California. I was the third of six kids. I had a good childhood. I rode bikes and played ball with neighborhood kids.
I quit school in the eleventh grade, and I have been working since that time.
I met my first wife in 1989, and my first child was born in 1989. I caught my wife with another man, and I divorced her in 1990.
I met my second wife in Las Vegas 1991, and my second child was born in 1994. We moved to California, and my third child was born in 1996. My second wife left me, and she moved to Utah. We got divorced in 1997.
I met my third wife in 1997, and I had my fourth child in 1999. I was married to my third wife for 15 years. She cheated on me, and she had me thrown in jail for a battery I never committed. I was sentenced to 52 weeks of anger management class.
I moved to Oklahoma, and I worked for the sheriff’s department as a detention officer for five years until the detention center closed. I went back to driving a truck, and I lived in Ardmore, Oklahoma.
One of my kids came to live with me. I was charged with a sex crime in 2020. I spent ten months in the county jail, and I pled guilty. I spent two years and ten months in prison.
My case manager told me about Hand Up Ministries. I applied to Hand Up, and I was accepted. Hand Up is a good program. They give you a place to live, and they make sure you get to probation appointments and registration. They help with getting identification, and they get me to my medical appointments.
Hand Up also gave me a job on the maintenance crew. I have to show up for church and Genesis One. They require those who can work to get a job, and residents must pay program fees. The Hand Up staff will help us any way they can as long as we are doing that which is required of us.
I knew God had blessed me as soon as I arrived at Hand Up Ministries.
Gordon Westervelt
I grew up in a family dynamic that was considered to be dysfunctional.
My family was my mom, my dad, and three kids, of which I was the youngest. My siblings and I fought almost constantly. It was very physical. It was nothing for one of them to put another through a wall or destroy a refrigerator. My parents argued and fought verbally at least twice a day. For years I thought this was normal.
I never had a stable home in the traditional sense. We moved constantly, either living in tents or vehicles for a good portion of my childhood. Whenever we did have a house it usually never lasted very long. It was usually a few months to a year.
My teen years were work and little play. I started working in my early teens.
I went to prison in my early twenties, and I spent a little over a decade in prison.
I have always known of God, Jesus, and their love. However, as I grew, I saw more and more “Christians” hate and hurt people, so I stepped back from God because I believed the Bible was a man-made construct created to control others.
Prison was a blessing, because I stepped closer to God in prison. Prison saved my life and my soul. I learned that the Bible is of God, but it is distorted by the majority of “Christians.”
I discovered I was emotionally dead, except for severe anger. I knew that if God had not sent me to prison I would be dead or worse.
I examined my life, and I realized my childhood was beyond dysfunctional. I also realized that even though my family fought, they still loved God in a way. They also loved me. I wasn’t just a non-entity to be tolerated.
I went to Hand Up Ministries after I left prison. I found contentment, but not complacency, at Hand Up. The people here are all decent and kind people. I try to have more of a life outside of work. Hand Up saved my life, because I would not be alive if not for Hand Up.
I try to live by the two commandments, Jesus mentions in Matthew 22:36-40. I have explained it to others as, “Who doesn’t want to be treated unconditionally with love, kindness, and respect?” All of us want to be treated that way, but do we give unconditionally? I know I am loved unconditionally by God.
James Rose
I was born in McAlester, Oklahoma. My dad did not stay around. He left when I was two. My mom wasn’t around a lot when I was very young. My siblings and I stayed with family members. I stayed with my grandparents and two cousins until I was five, and then I moved back in with my mom. We never stayed in one place more than a year. I started smoking weed when I was 10. My mom was not really a mom, and I more or less lived on the street all the time. By the time I was 13 I had a fulltime job, and I was drinking and doing cocaine.
I started doing meth when I was 16, and it was all downhill from there. I was partying all of the time, and I was sleeping with any girl I could get. When I was 21 I met my first wife in a bar where I was working. It was all fun and games at first. I tried to get sober, but we realized we did not get along at all. We divorced when I was 23, and I started to drink again.
I made some very bad choices when I was 32, and I went to prison. It didn’t help. I didn’t change my ways. I still used drugs every chance I got. I spent six years in prison, and I went back to my old ways when I got out of prison. A few years later I met wife number two. I really loved this woman. We got married, and we had two kids. I tried hard to stay off of drugs, and I had a good job. She got me to go to church for the first time in my life. However, I was stuck in my ways. I didn’t do drugs all of the time, but I went overboard when I did them. I let the drugs the drugs take over, and I made the worst decision of my life.
I went back to prison. I did drugs and had fun during the first eight years of my prison sentence. I almost died of COVID, and from that point I made a change in my life. I quit drugs, and I started reading the Bible. I was accepted at Hand Up Ministries. It was God’s will for me to come here. It is all uphill from here in my walk with God.
Today I am in Charge of Hand Up Ministries maintenance crew, theysay I am doing great!
Bobby Thomas, Jr
I was diagnosed with cancer at fourteen months old, so I really didn’t have much of a childhood. I was in and out of the hospital. I went through full body radiation and chemotherapy. I relapsed when I was four and a half years old, and I was put on a list for a bone marrow transplant. They found a match for me in October 1995. My mother was by my side during this entire time.
We lost my dad to cancer in January 1995. They kept a close eye on me after my bone marrow transplant, but after ten years they told me I was free from cancer. I just had to be checked once a year to be safe.
Since then everything has been on the positive side. When I was young, my dream was to become a pro wrestler, and I pursued that dream when I turned eighteen years old.
I knew about the Lord when I was growing up, because someone was healing me. I didn’t turn my back on Him when I got older, but I wasn’t putting Him first. I was doing lots of drugs in 2016, and I went to prison. My sentence was two years of incarceration and five years of probation.
I found the Lord again during that time, and I was told about Hand Up Ministries at that time. I went back to the same habits after I got out of prison, and I became homeless. I was also charged with another crime, and I went back to prison in 2024.
My life now is much better. I have been clean since July 2024. I got back into church after I turned my life over to God.
This time I took the time to apply to Hand Up, and I was accepted. Hand Up has provided me with the opportunity to get my driver license, and I have a safe place to lay my head at night. Hand Up provides transportation.
Every day I thank God for everything. He has brought me through everything, and He will continue to bring me through everything. God has wonderful plans for me, and I know He will help me succeed.
Joseph Watson
I was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. I grew up in a very small town. My father was a business owner, and we had a strong religious background. I went to a Catholic school from first grade through third grade.
After an altercation, my sister and I were placed in public school. My childhood was very good, but my teenage years were not so good. I got into drugs and drinking alcohol. I was a one person crime wave.
I got married to my first wife when I was 21. Our marriage was an extremely volatile relationship due to drugs and alcohol. I got my first prison term when I was 23. I was caught up in drugs and selling guns. I also committed assault. My prison sentence lasted seven and a half years.
After prison I divorced my wife. I got off of drugs, and I found a new career doing industrial maintenance.
I met my second wife during this time, and at first things were good. I travelled around the country installing equipment for a large poultry company. I was making good money, and I had a child. After 15 years of marriage things got sour, and my relationship with my wife fell apart. I started using painkillers on top of whiskey, and I pretended to be happy in front of our child for her sake.
We moved to Oklahoma in 2004, and I took a job at a large food processing plant in the city. I thought a job without travelling would help mend my relationship with my wife, but things became worse.
I went back to prison in 2018 at age 52. I served three years of a 10 year prison sentence. Upon release I had no place to go. I had no family or friends in Oklahoma.
A prison counselor suggested I go to Hand Up Ministries as an alternative to spending the entire ten years in prison or being homeless.
In 2021 I was released from prison, and I found myself at Hand Up Ministries. While at Hand Up I found faith in religion again, and I got back into a career field I embraced before going to prison.
I have become dependent on myself to take responsibility for bills and holding a job. I am off of drugs, and I have a lot of support from the ministry staff to stay off of alcohol.
Today I am sober, I am working, and I have a place to lay my head. I also have friends who actually care.
Edgar Gravitt
I was born in Oklahoma City in 1945. I had a good childhood until I was 11. I have two older sisters, and I had two older brothers who are now deceased.
I went to University Heights Elementary School. I got a whipping from the principal for cutting class and swimming in a nearby creek. I also got a whipping from my dad. It was a long time before I ditched school again.
We lived on two acres, and we always had horses to ride. My dad was a Mason and a Shriner.
In 1956, my parents bought a two acre dairy farm in Bethany, and my parents got divorced in 1957. My dad moved out, and I got to where I was hard to handle.
My mom sent me to live with my grandfather on my uncle’s cattle ranch about 20 miles west of Eufaula. My aunt was a school teacher.
My family wasn’t religious. My uncle wasn’t religious, but he attended a Baptist church in Hominy. He made me go to church with him on Sunday night, and I liked it.
I learned to drive a tractor, and I did all of the plowing. I had to leave because Social Security was going to cut off my grandfather’s pension.
I hitchhiked to Oklahoma City to stay with my aunt and uncle. My uncle owned an excavating company.
I moved in with my mother, but I joined the Army a few years later. I was in artillery, and I was sent to Germany. I went AWOL twice, and I was kicked out of the Army.
I was always getting into trouble, and I went to prison in 1966. I have been to prison nine times. The longest I was out of prison was two years, and I would stay high when I was out.
I left prison for the last time in 2024. I applied to Hand Up Ministries when I was still in prison. I had no place else to go. I was too old to fight all of the time. I went to Hand Up Ministries in Oklahoma City, OK.
My sister would take me out to eat. The staff asked me if I would like to go to Chandler, but I said I would rather go to Wewoka. I get Social Security.
I like the environment here. I like the outdoors. I don’t have much time left in this world, and I have never done this well in my life.