I wish to thank Darren Reed, my friend and brother in Christ, for sharing this amazing testimony. I pray that his words will touch your hearts as powerfully as they have touched mine, as he gives glory to God for miraculously bringing him through an unimaginably difficult situation.
Sometimes as Christians, God gives us extremely difficult situations, so that we will see not only that He will get us through – that He is there, but to strengthen our faith. This testimony is my life example of the faith of God.
In 2005, my wife and I were foster parents. We had a sibling group of three. Two girls, one boy. The oldest of the three was a girl. She was eight years old. At that time, we were their first foster family.
Fast forward to 2011. In April of 2011, we are no longer foster parents, but we have moved on. We get a phone call from a police department saying: “You need to come in so we can talk to you.” They specifically wanted to talk to me, so my wife went with me. Being legally blind, I did not drive, so I needed someone to take me. My wife obviously was going to support me through whatever lay ahead. We didn’t know what the officers wanted. We didn’t know what was going on. We just knew they asked us to come in for questions, and we went.
When we got to the police department, they began asking questions about when we were foster parents. They asked if we remembered the sibling group, and of course we did. They then began to tell us that the oldest daughter was claiming that I had inappropriately touched her when they were in our home. After getting over the initial shock, I didn’t know what to expect. My wife and I, … We talked about it, and we went through everything, and I professed my innocence. Other than my wife, no one wanted to hear it. No one wanted to believe it. They let us go home.
Not knowing what else to expect, as the days and weeks went by, I continued to remain very nervous, wondering if or when the police would come to arrest me. A number of weeks went by. I began to get a little bit more relaxed, thinking nothing would come of it.
On 27 May 2011 at 5 PM, which was a Friday, a knock at my door. There were approximately six to seven officers there to arrest me, and they said: “You’re under arrest for child seduction, child solicitation” … just various things. They let me put my shoes on, and I was extremely nervous. They then handcuffed me, and because we had moved from the area that we originally were foster parents in, the car ride back to the jail was about forty-five minutes. The entire time, they put me in the front seat of a police car with my hands tightly restrained behind my back. And I rode that entire time in that manner.
I was booked, processed, and put in a jail, and put in a cell by myself. They had to put me by myself because of being blind. It was for my protection. Not only that, but because of the charges I was looking at, I knew that I had to be by myself for my own safety. No matter what jail you’re in, no matter what country you’re in, the minute someone thinks you did anything to a child, your life is automatically on the line.
A few days go by. I am assigned a public defender and public lawyer. I meet with him, and we start talking. I immediately told him I wanted to take a polygraph test which would indicate my truth in this matter. However, the police department refused to let me do a polygraph. Also during this time, a court date was set, but that court date was months and months away, after 1 December. 1 December was a date that was set for my lawyer and the prosecuting attorney to talk with the alleged victim. That was going to be her deposition day, so I knew I had to wait until 1 December before anything would happen. I did not have the money to post bond, so I had to sit in jail from twenty-seven may until 1 December.
The first few weeks, I was absolutely terrified. Being blind was one thing but being told that you could be facing fifty years of your life behind bars terrified me. At that point in the first two to three weeks, I was more terrified that someone in the prison would end my life because of finding out, even though I didn’t say one word. I knew that it was impossible to keep everything under wraps. I knew eventually inmates would start to find out about what my charges were and why I was there, and I started praying for God to take my life by His hand and not the hands of another prisoner.
I was so terrified because I couldn’t see an attack coming, that when I would shower, I would shower extremely fast, because the water pressure was so loud I couldn’t hear very well in the shower. It would echo, so I wouldn’t be able to hear anyone coming at me. So I tried to make sure I was in and out as quickly as possible. And each day for the first two or three weeks, I continued to ask God to take my life by His hand, and not at the hand of someone else, being extremely terrified. Then I began to fear I would spend the rest of my life behind bars because no one was going to believe me, because they kept refusing me the polygraph test.
Eventually I got into a routine. The cell block that I was in held about sixteen to eighteen prisoners, and they kept us all together. By keeping us all together, I got to know the fellow inmates around me. We got a relationship between one another. Although during that time there were few new inmates that would come in and out, the majority of the time I spent with the same people. After the first three weeks or so, once I began to get into a routine, I still had the fear of spending the rest of my life behind bars. There seemed to be no progress on my case, but what I had noticed is I went from praying quietly. We had evening prayer groups. I just sat and would stay quiet. Eventually, I started to pray out loud with the guys. WE would go around the group, and those who wanted to, could add to the prayer. I went from being quiet to leading the prayer groups.
During this time, to show God’s hand in everything, another inmate was brought in. he was huge! He was big! He had tattoos all over him. He was bald. He seemed like a mountain man, but he turned out to be a gentle giant. Something inside me had told me, although I had not shared my story with anyone, something told me it was okay to share with him. So one day when he asked me what I was in there for, I began to explain the situation to him. And he looks at me, and he says: “Is her name? …” And he said the girl’s name. And I said: “yes!” And I was stunned at how he knew that. He just happened to be dating her aunt. And he told me: “She’s known for this in terms of lying.” She lies about everything. We know it’s not true. She’ll say whatever she needs to get her way.”
Now at that particular time, I had not been angry with her – even before I knew this, because all I thought was this is a scared child for whatever reason. I had found out that the reason she claimed I had done something to her was because the authorities were attempting to put her and her siblings back into the foster care system. It was at that time that I found out that my wife and I had been the only foster care family that they were with, six years earlier. Therefore, she had claimed that I had done something to her because she was afraid for her and her siblings to be put back in the system. It was in an effort to not only stay out of the system, but to continue doing what she wanted to do with her life. But she was more afraid, and I knew she needed more help than I did. And so people asked me: why were you not angry with this child? And I told them: because she is afraid. She’s fourteen. She’s afraid, and she did what she thought she could do to stay out of the foster care system. So I had been praying for her, and I continue to this day. But after meeting the young man who was dating her aunt, he had told me … he said: “I will talk to her,” (Meaning his girlfriend), “and see what we can do to help you.”
A week or two goes by. He had visits with her. He had talked to her. She said for my lawyer to contact her, and she would be a witness for me against her own niece, because she knew it wasn’t right what she was doing. And I couldn’t believe it! Of all the times, of all the people, of all the ways that things could happen, for him to come in at that time! … I knew God had His hand there.
I went from again not wanting to pray out loud, to praying out loud, to leading prayer group every night, and to leading Bible studies. I never thought I would be in that situation. I also … at some point I was in there for 188 days, and at some point I had a feeling something said: it’s gonna be okay. You’re not gonna be behind bars for fifty years.
On 1 December 2011, my deposition was scheduled for one pm. So all that morning I was nervous. I didn’t know what was going to happen, and I knew they would be talking with the girl first. Then my lawyer would come and let me know what was going on.
So later that afternoon, they come, and they take me out, and they say: “You have an attorney visit.” I get in the room with my lawyer, we sit there, and he waits a little bit. He doesn’t say anything, and I’m nervous, thinking he’s about to deliver the worst news possible. And the first thing he says to me is: “how would you like to go home today?” I broke down in tears and I said: “Are you kidding me?” he said: “No. She admitted that she was lying. She said nothing had happened.”
And that afternoon, after 188 days of fear … after 188 days of not knowing what was going to happen – of being away from my children, my family, … (The only people I saw on a regular basis were my wife and my pastor), … I was set free, and God was there with me every day.
So no matter how bad things get, no matter what fear Satan tries to use to get us to turn from God, to get away from God, to ignore God, we must always hang onto it. Hang onto the truth of God – to that faith that we started with when we first gave our lives to Christ. We know we must hang onto it no matter what. Satan tries to play games, but God always wins. We know Christ has the victory. And I thank God every day that I went through what I had to go through. I have become stronger. I have become closer to God, and He has used me in ways I never saw possible. Blindness can’t stop me. That fear didn’t stop me. And as long as I stand with Christ, nothing will stop me.