My parents practiced witchcraft in Puerto Rico. As one of nineteen children, I was beaten and abused regularly. During one of her trances, my mother declared me the "Son of Satan." At nine years old, I tried to take my own life.
Brooklyn Gang Leader's Violent Reign
When I was fifteen, my parents sent me to New York to live with my older brother. I lasted a few months before my anger drove me onto the streets. By sixteen, I had joined the Mau Maus, one of Brooklyn's most violent street gangs. Within a year, I was their leader - feared by other gangs and the police alike. I ruled by brutality. I had stabbed people. I expected to die young and violently. I didn't care.
David Wilkerson's Bold Street Ministry
Then a skinny preacher from Pennsylvania showed up on our turf. His name was David Wilkerson, and he told me something I had never heard in my entire life: "Jesus loves you, Nicky. He will never stop loving you."
I slapped him across the face. "You come near me again, preacher, and I'll kill you."
He didn't back down. "You can cut me in a thousand pieces," he said, "and every piece will love you."
I didn't know how to fight that. If he had come at me with a knife, I could have handled it. If he had begged and pleaded, I would have laughed and kicked him. But love? I had no defense against love. I was running from it, and I knew it.
Gang Member Finds Jesus
Wilkerson organized a revival meeting in our neighborhood. I went there with my gang, ready for trouble. But as he preached about Jesus and God's power to transform even the hardest hearts, something happened inside me. I felt guilty - for the first time, I felt the weight of everything I had done. In a moment I cannot fully explain, I surrendered my life to Christ.
After the meeting, several of us who had been converted walked into the police station and turned in all our weapons - bricks, handguns, knives. The officers were stunned. They said if they had seen us coming, they would have shot us down.
Life Transformed Through Gospel Power
I went to Bible college, married Gloria, and returned to my old neighborhood to preach. I became the first director of Teen Challenge's residential center. The movement that began with David Wilkerson reaching out to gang members like me now operates in over 120 countries.
Jesus took a boy his own mother called the "Son of Satan" and made him a son of God. That is the power of the Gospel.
