A ‘Monster’ to a Minister

The rain set early that day and the sullen winds were soon awake. Four young men crept in stealthily into Thiruvalla, a town in Kerala, with a purpose in their minds. They entered their planned destination, where an old couple welcomed them into their home and into their hearts. For the couple their young relative and his three friends was a welcoming distraction in the twilight years of their lives. Alas! Cruel fate had other plans! The young men, who were supposed to turn their bleak evening into that of fun and laughter, brutally murdered them. The motive behind the heinous crime was to find money to quench their thirst for drugs and immoral life. Within ten days, they were arrested.

The young relative was Reny George, the mastermind behind the brutal murder, a Juvenile delinquent and a drug addict. The media outcry that followed made him the synonym for terror and hatred in Kerala. Considering his young age & the antecedents of the case, he was sentenced to ‘Life imprisonment’. Nevertheless, the incident did not incite any feeling of remorse in him. Adorning a new role of the long awaited leader of criminals in jail, he continued his wanton ways and posed a constant headache for officials. He swore to himself that he will spend the rest of his life shackled to addiction. But his Creator who knew him before he was formed in his mother’s womb had other plans for his life.

While on parole, he had an encounter with Jesus in a prayer meeting and his monstrous life flashed before him as though in a movie. He wept and asked for pardon to his heavenly Father who transformed his life stained red with sin to that as clean as snow. Returning to the cell, he testified to the change in his life to the inmates. Slowly and steadily many hard-core criminals were transformed. He was released in 1995 on account of good conduct and started the Prison Fellowship Ministry in Bengaluru with his wife Teena.

Today the ministry takes care of children whose parents are in prison and carries out different welfare activities for the rehabilitation of prisoners, drug addicts, AIDS affected and socially ostracized people. The God who transformed Reny George from a ‘monster’ to a minister is still powerful enough to give you a new lease of life.