My King had me go to one of the parks in Commerce City to meet up with three gangs. I had a bunch of frisbees and Nerf footballs in my pickup to entertain them. As I got near to the park, I noticed a bunch of vehicles parked on every side of the park. Each set of cars had a gang attached to them. I watched as all three gangs began to converge to the center of the park. They all looked extremely angry as they were approaching each other. Some of them even had their pistols drawn. God said, “Sonny, drive your pickup onto the lawn and cut them off from each other.”
I always get nervous about doing this because many times I get in trouble for driving on the grass. But it is interesting I’ve never physically got in trouble with the park ranger while the gangs are carrying pistols. They are a mile away. After the gangs surrender their lives to Jesus, they will say, “You know it’s my job to tell you to stay off the grass with that large pickup. But off the record you have my support.”
As I drove my pickup between the three gangs, I rolled my window down and asked, “What’s up?”
One of the gangs knew who I was. The leader said, “This is Sonny. Everybody just leave him alone. He is a good guy and he brings food to the gangs. That’s his ministry. You guys better not touch him. If you touch him my boys are going to start shooting you. So just listen to what he has to say. Then we will get on with our business.”
The other gangs were surprised at his response and asked, “You know this guy!?”
The leader replied, “He is a man of God. Just leave him alone.”
I began to think back when Blue Mustang specifically prayed that the gangs would not physically harm me in any way. I could see how God answered his prayer by having this gang leader stand up for me.
That leader then said, “There are a lot of people praying for this guy and this guy named Blue Mustang. So you just leave him alone.”
He then looked at me and asked, “Sonny, what are you doing? We have some business to do.”
I then said, “I brought tacos, cheeseburgers and cookies for everybody to eat.”
The leader then rephrased what I just said.
The other gangs said, “Move your truck or we will begin shooting at it.”
I replied, “Before you shoot me or my pickup, why don’t we sit down and have a good lunch. But let me pray for you guys before we do anything else.”
The leaders asked, “You want to pray for all of us?”
I replied, “Yes, you can shoot me and my truck later.”
They weren’t expecting the answer I gave them and they responded, “What!” They did not know how to answer my response.
I began setting up all the food and praying for all of them. They all began eating while I prayed. I then began walking around talking to each one of them and reading scriptures over them and asking them for prayer request.
One of the gang members whose name is Sammy asked “Sonny could you pray for my grandma she’s got covid real bad.”
Another gang member also said, “Sonny could you pray for my uncle? He has Covid real bad. He’s in the hospital and he is really sick.”
At this moment, they lost interest in shooting each other and were more concerned with me praying over them. All three gangs started giving me prayer requests. After they finished eating, I reached into my box of toys and grabbed a nerf football and said, “I know you guys are probably full but who can catch a ball.”
I began putting the boxes out with all the balls and Frisbees in them. All of the guys began grabbing a ball and started playing with them. I then grabbed a nerf football and said, “Anyone ready to catch a football?”
The one guy said, “Yes, I’m ready to go.”
I then said “Hut” like a quarterback would. The gang member then took off running and I was interrupted by a question and began talking to the guy. The gang member who went for the pass was not to happy and came back.
He said, “I went out for a pass and you just started talking to these guys. You better never do that again. If I run out for pass you are going to pass it.”
He took off again and this time I made sure that I passed it to him. It wasn’t a very good pass but he still caught it. That looked fun to the rest of the gang members and they started creating teams. Even God had to be part of this because competition is what got them fighting in the first place. But this competition ended up being a blessing from God. When God shows up, things do change.
After they played for while, I then asked them “who wants their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” I then began reading John 3:16 and Jeremiah 29:11 to them. I asked, “If you guys want to accept Jesus Christ today, your names will be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”
One leader said, “I’m beginning to get tired of this life. I am tired of looking over my back all the time. I am done with this life and I want a new life. I want a new purpose.”
After the leader made this confession, one by one they all began giving their hearts to Jesus Christ. I spent a total of 5 1/2 hours with these guys as they went through the process of accepting Jesus Christ into their lives. They kept on playing games. There were more balls and frisbees than they all could use.
Some of gang members grabbed a few of the balls and frisbees and took some of them over to the homeless to share with them. They said, “Sonny, we just wanted to share with them too so they could have fun like we are today.”
By this time it was getting close to suppertime. I have no idea who did it but a white van showed up with 39 pepperoni pizzas. Their excuse was there was a lot of mistakes made in ordering pizzas today and they did not want to throw them away. As I watched these guys I said to myself “I think that I know these guys” but I could not recollect where I saw them last.
The homeless guys were watching what was going on here and they were hoping that they might get something to eat when they saw all those pizzas arrive. A brave homeless guy asked if they had any extra food for them. The gang members then took some of the boxes of pizza to the picnic table near them and started serving them pizza.
I said to myself “How in the world is this happening? Gang members usually do not have a servant’s heart. In fact they live to serve themselves.” But yet again when you give your life to Jesus Christ he will change your heart from a selfish heart to a servant’s heart.
Forty minutes later all kinds of cars began showing up. Parents and family members were coming to pick up their sons who had been making phone calls home. It is interesting when families lose their sons to gangs how many of them come to know Jesus Christ. There still were at least 30% of the families though, who still did not acknowledge who Jesus Christ was.
The gang leader Ringo looked at his dad and said, “I’ve given my heart to Jesus Christ and my name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”
His dad then said, “Ringo, I have never heard you speak like this before! You have never talked about Jesus ever. ”
Ringo replied, “God is real. I want a new purpose in my life. His name is Jesus Christ. This guy told me there is either the Lake of Fire or heaven. I have chosen heaven.”
At this moment his dad started crying and he too accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior. The sons all had this effect on their parents. Many of those unsaved parents became saved today.
On Wednesday all three leaders got baptized at the same time. One of their dads runs a swimming pool/recreation place and opened it up to them so they could get baptized. The pastor from that dad’s church welcomed and baptized them all. It was a very big celebration.
If I would’ve known that they would’ve been doing this, I would’ve taken the day off just to celebrate with them. All three leaders are now meeting once a week having a Bible study. It is open for all those who were part of their gangs along with their families.
Only with God can you have three gangs that were ready to have a shoot out come to peace. I found out later that the gang that knew me claimed the turf of that park first. The other two gangs decided they also wanted to take control of that park. They were ready to find out who was the better man. Jesus ended up claiming victory when they gave their lives and their families to Jesus Christ.
The next time I met with the undercover police I asked, “Who delivered those pizzas? I saw you guys out working with us that day.”
They replied, “I don’t know Sonny, but maybe you don’t have to think about that.”
I had food for them too but it just was not quite enough. God gets the Glory and the Victory.
The park Ranger did tell me to stay off the grass at the end of the day. I talked to him about Jesus Christ then prayed with him. He ended up giving his heart to Jesus Christ before I left the park.