David’s Story

I grew up in Rutherglen on the south side of Glasgow, with my mum, dad, and two brothers. The early years of my life were made very difficult by one of my brothers who bullied me daily. Anger & violence became a way of life for me, I lived my life in flight or fight mode. I was one of those ‘problem children’ in school, early on in high school I had already been arrested several times. A few months before I turned thirteen, my dad was diagnosed with cancer and died a few months later, leaving my mum to raise three sons.

My arrests became frequent as I experimented with alcohol & drugs. Throughout my early teens, my offending intensified, social work got involved, I was being suspended from school regularly, and I was back and forward to the children’s panel, but nothing was changing. I enjoyed the safety and the comradery of being in a gang, I found a sense of freedom and acceptance from my peers. I hung around with the older generation from my area at times, and they became the people I looked up to, we were looked at as the next generation who would carry on the reputation for violence in our area. When I was fifteen I began to gang fight which meant where ever I went I had to always be on guard, by this time I was being told by police that I would be going to jail as soon as I turned sixteen, the police told me this repeatedly from about the age of fourteen, as did others so I just accepted that was going to be the way my life went, and I was powerless to change it at that point in my life.

Three months after my sixteenth birthday I was remanded to HM YOI Polmont for my first remand, from then on, the next eight years were just a downward spiral of crime, substance abuse, and prison sentences, I was sent to jail twenty times in eight years, totalling around six and a half years in prison. I wasn’t free that often which led to me being quite institutionalized. When it came time to be released, I would be anxious and knew it would only be a matter of time before I was back in prison. There was one occasion in my early twenties I managed to stay out for around a year but other than that I wasn’t out longer than three weeks in that eight-year period. The more time I did the worse I got, my appetite for violence grew, as well as my resentment towards the system I began to carry and use weapons, I sold drugs, and I was living in scatter flats and a hostel on one occasion.

My journey of faith was over a few years; I remember finding a bible in my cell on more than one occasion in prison, I remember reading it and trying to make sense of it, I recall praying to God if you are real, help me because I hated who I had become and the way I was living. Whilst doing a two-year sentence I began to attend prison fellowship groups in HMP Barlinnie, as I reflect, I can see that God was guiding me, there was something inside me challenging my lifestyle and prompting me to look for help, I attended an alcohol awareness course because I thought if I overcame the booze things would get better. Halfway through this sentence I was transferred to HMP Kilmarnock, and it was there that I publicly decided to follow Jesus, volunteers from the group helped me find a church in Glasgow and during this period I was able to remain out of prison for the longest time I had ever stayed out, I also had bouts of sobriety during this time but I was still involved in crime, I had my feet in both camps and inevitably I ended up back in prison in 2012.

I spent nine weeks on remand, this gave me time to reflect and recommit my life to Jesus, I was released in January 2013 and to date have been out for prison for over a decade, I reconnected with my church, and began to serve.  I felt led to go to bible college for two years where I grew in the knowledge of God and began to learn what it means to follow Jesus. In 2015 along with a team we planted a church in Rutherglen, where I led a group and an evangelism team. My conversion was public, and God was using me to reach people from my area, old enemies, old friends, and some residents, including my mum and my brother before he died in 2014. It was around this time that I met my wife, to whom I have been married since 2016 and we now have two precious daughters.

I had an unshakable desire to go back to prison, as a visitor I never knew what that would look like. I became a volunteer with PFS in 2018 and very much enjoyed visiting prisons to share the gospel with people, subsequently, my current role as Projects Manager was advertised within the organization, ten years ago I was a man who had his freedom removed, a person who didn’t fit in with society, now I coordinate, organize and facilitate getting the gospel into Scottish prisons through our amazing team of volunteers. My life was a mess, I believed that the way I was living I would end up dead or in jail for the rest of my life, but thankfully God had other plans, and now he has commissioned me to set the captives free! I am thankful for the call that God has put on my life to visit prisons, but I am more thankful that I get to leave at night and go home.