ADDITIONAL TESTIMONIALS
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Jeffery Cargill
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.
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.
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.