• Introduction
• John Bunjo - Uganda
• Jim Epley - USA
• Dario Luiz - Brazil
• Deo Musoke - Uganda
• Clive Addison - UK
• Paul Blakey - UK
• John Edwards - UK
• David Measures - UK

Jim Epley

Jim is from Jacksonville, Florida and is known as "The Ice Man". He has an amazing story that will appeal to all age groups and audiences and is great for an outreach event.

From Crime to Christ

The Jim Epley Story

One evening in October when I was far from sober, I carried home a load with manly pride. My feet began to stutter so I lay down in a gutter and a PIG came up and lay down by my side. I said "Its fair weather when good fellows get together" … till a lady passing by was heard to say, … "you can tell a man who boozes by the company he chooses". Then the PIG got up and slowly walked away!

This time the PIG wasn't walking away! PIGS were what we called policemen on the streets of Louisville, Kentucky where I grew up. This time I was trapped in the back seat of a "PIGPEN" (police car), and it wasn't the first time… I had been there over twenty times before!

BUT I THOUGHT IT WAS THE WORST TIME!!

Worse than the time I pulled a rifle on two cops in Mobile, Alabama. If I blow them away, I thought, there's a 50-50 chance I'll get away. And if I don't it's a sure bet I'm going back to prison. Worse than the time I robbed an all night Drive in restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky. Eight police cars chased us. This wasn't like the movies: They were shooting real bullets! Worse than all the times I had been busted: car theft, burglary, forgery, illegal gambling. Worse than the time they took my daughter from me! Worse than the Army. Worse than prison. Worse than anything that had ever happened to me!!

It was the worst time because my friend and Rap partner had just been shot by the Police as we attempted to rob an all night restaurant. And he was on his way to City Hospital with a bullet in his gut!! To make the situation even worse, the Police had just searched the trunk (boot) of my car and discovered burglar tools. NO! This time the PIG wasn't walking away.

Nobody starts out to be a thief! I didn't either. My dream as a kid, was to be a professional athlete. My heroes were baseball's Ted Williams and golf's Ben Hogan. I wanted to play just like them, but there were other heroes that influenced me more! In the racetrack environment of Churchill Downs, scene of the famous Kentucky Derby, I met gamblers and gangsters, hustlers and con artists. They had Alligator Shoes and Sharkskin Suits, Fedora Hats and Powder Blue Overcoats, Big Diamond Rings and Rolex Watches, Long Black Limousines and beautiful Blonde Girlfriends. All of them packed a roll of money that would choke the horses they bet on. I wanted to be just like them too! But it took lots of money. So I started to steal. You can tell a man who loses by the company he chooses!!

Nobody starts out at the top! I didn't either. I didn't become a criminal the first time I was arrested or went to prison. I was on my way the first time I lied to my dad or nicked small change out of my Mom's purse or swiped an apple from the corner fruit stand. No! I was on my way the first time I cheated on my math exam or smoked grass or drank booze or ran away from home when I didn't like the rules. Disobedience is rebellion and rebellion is sin and all sin leads to ruin! The biggest lie the devil tells us is that we don't have to pay for the things we do wrong.

"Be not deceived, God is not mocked: For whatsoever a person sows, that shall he also reap." (Galatians 6:7).

You can't plant weeds and expect corn or potatoes to come up. You can't plant disobedience and rebellion and expect God's blessings and Society's respect what you practice… You become!!

All Sin is Addictive! And Progressive! The first thing I stole was a golf ball, then a baseball glove. Within a few months I had graduated to robbing the drunks in Central Park. "Getting Away With It" made me even more bold, so now I began to use a credit card to open the lockers at basketball games, stealing the cash and valuables of the players. Cool Man, that was me. The Iceman, that's what they called me. Cool! Had everybody fooled: My parents and friends, teachers and coaches at Southern High School where I played varsity basketball and golf. Cool! Too smart to get caught! Cool! Until I got busted for the burglary of a used car lot sales office. No more "getting away with it" because of my age or because I could shoot a basketball or hit a golf ball further than you can point. My "getting away with it" days were over. I was reaping out of life exactly what I had planted! My dad convinced the Judge to allow me to join the military service instead of going to prison. Because of my record the only service that would take me was the US Army so became a "green beret" and a paratrooper with the 187 Airborne Regimental Combat Team in Korea and Japan. What you practice…you become!

Four years later I was back in the United States standing in front of a judge again, this time for stealing cars. Change of environment doesn't change the heart! "For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7)

I was still a petty thief! Selling US Army blankets on the black market, loan sharking and winning at poker and blackjack with a marked deck of cards in the army had taught me nothing. I had finally run out of "getting away with it". This time the judge didn't give me any options: "Do not pass go… Do not collect $200.00… Go Directly To Jail." MY Life Was In A Stutter So I Lay Down in The Gutter: Prison in North Carolina!

It was never my ambition to "go straight". I just wanted to find a way never to return to prison. Just as soon as they released me, I went right back to hustling and thieving. "Whatever goes around, comes around," the convicts say. Keys were the tools I chose to rob and steal this time.

Almost anything that was coin operated, I had the keys to open: Fruit machines, Jukeboxes, pinball machines, automobile trunks (boots) and some burglar alarms. Forgery was another one of our enterprises. One Friday and Saturday nights, dressed like construction workers, we would cash stolen pay roll checks with a phony ID and from Friday midnight until 6am Monday we ran a poker game. During the daytime we robbed the trunks of cars that were parked at bowling alleys, shopping centres, hospitals and medical offices, using a key I had filed down to "pick" the locks. Life was good and I was in the fast lane again, but what about the PIG? He was watching, waiting patiently to catch me again so he could put me away!

The occupational hazard of all criminals is arrest and prosecution. Consequently quite a bit of our time is spent in line-ups and courtrooms. To avoid one of these arrests Donny and I fled Kentucky and headed for California. Low on both money and petrol we stopped in Oklahoma and decided to stay. This little town, Enid, we thought was a thief's paradise: Tailor made for us! It was full of jukeboxes, pinball machines, one armed bandits, burglar alarms and automobile trunks. They were singing my song! Why go to California? Immediately we put our keys to work. We were back in the "fast lane" again. Too smart to get caught! Until we were arrested for a string of burglaries and robberies, convicted and sent to prison. Whatever goes around … surely comes around!

While in jail awaiting sentencing an ex-con came to see me. He told me about a man named JESUS CHRIST. But I didn't want Jesus. I wanted out! Sadly he shook his head and lefty, promising to talk to an attorney friend of his to help us. When I got back to my cell there was a book on my bed. It was about these four dudes ….. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They talked about this guy JESUS, and the miracles he did, and that he alone had the power to Forgive! All I had to do was ask him to forgive me and promise to change. It's worth a shot , I thought, so I said "hey Jesus, if you are real and you can do the things these dudes say you can, then get me out of this place and I will never steal again." Well the prayer must have worked, because the attorney found out that the arresting officers had performed illegal search and seizure and failed to advise us of our rights under the Miranda Act. The Judge reluctantly agreed. Without being able to use the things we had stolen as evidence against us, the prosecution had no case. They had to let us go… We were Free!! This time we walked away: cocky… with loads of manly pride!

The odds are against all thieves! We have to beat the cops every time we go out… They only have to beat us once! Donny and I tried the "straight life" for a while, but pretty soon the deceitfulness of riches and the desire to be somebody led us to pull one more job. Famous last words of most convicts. One last job! To make enough money to buy a nice cocktail lounge with a hidden room in the back for the "high rollers" to gamble. Then we wouldn't have to steal ever again. We could pay off cops and judges and be respectable! One Last Job! Prisons are full of fools who pulled One Last Job.

Bondsmen and attorneys had taken all our "Stash" in Oklahoma so we had to have some expense money for that "One Last Job". An all night restaurant right down the street from where I gre up was full of pin ball machines and a jukebox. That was our target. It was a few minutes past midnight when we entered. We didn't know the restaurant was owned by a policeman… Didn't know that the waitress would recognise us from the police list of "known thieves" and call the cops .. Didn't know one of them would fire without warning… Didn't know one of the bullets would hit Donny in the belly button. Never before had I ever felt so helpless. I couldn't stop the bleeding and I couldn't remove the bullet! Numbly I watched as the ambulance drove Donny away. Then they put me in the back seat of the PIGPEN. This time the pig wasn't walking away!

Sin will take you further than you want to go;

Keep you longer than you want to stay;

Charge you a price, you can never, never pay.

Sin costs too much!!

Nineteen years later a wealthy businessman would enter a motel room in St. Petersburg, Florida and begin to cry. Why should I be crying, he thought? I've got Alligator Shoes and Sharkskin Suits, Fedora Hats and Powder Blue Overcoats, Beautiful Women and Expensive Limousines, A Thriving Construction Business and A Luxurious Apartment… All the Scotch I can drink and all the "Grass" I can smoke… I play golf almost every day and gamble at poker every weekend. I eat in the best restaurants and run with the swingers. So why should I be crying?

Look where I've come from. Look What I've been through. I've climbed the ladder of success, one slippery rung at a time. I've escaped the gutter! I've escaped my past! I'm respectable and successful now!

Suddenly one word came! The same word I heard from my mother. The same word I heard from the ex-con in the Oklahoma jail. The same word I heard from Andy when he knocked on my door in Jacksonville and invited me to attend his Baptist Church

Jesus… That was the word… Jesus!

Why not give Jesus a try??

I've tried everything else! So I did and guess what? Jesus came into my heart the split second I asked HIM to: the very moment I told HIM that I was sorry for all the things I had done and not just because I got caught. My blackboard was wiped clean: All my past sins erased!!

I didn't have to "clean up my act". Jesus took me just the way I was! You don't have to be somebody special to become somebody special. You just need somebody special on your side: Jesus! Only Jesus can make you Somebody Special! Only Jesus could give me the happiness and peace that I had been searching for all my life. Happiness and peace - They're not for sale… But you can have them for free!

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold ALLthings have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Something beautiful, Something good. All my confusion, HE understood. All I had to offer HIM was brokenness and strife. And HE made something… Beautiful… out of my life! Jesus made me…

Somebody Special

But what about you? Everybody call you a nobody? Need to feel like somebody special? Searching for peace and happiness? Tried everything the world has to offer? No Answers? No Peace? Nothing Satisfies? Something Missing? What is it? What's missing??

You've tried everything else, so why don't you give Jesus a try??

Are you game? Splendid! Here's all you have to do:

1. Acknowledge to God that you have lived selfishly and that, in not honouring Him as Lord of your life, you have sinned and are separated from Him. "For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God" Romans 3: 23.

2. Repent by turning to Jesus and asking for His forgiveness of your past sins and for Him to help you to live as He desires. "Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish" Luke 13:3.

3. Believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for you. He took your sins upon Himself that you might obtain God's forgiveness. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.

4. Confess to God that you now take Jesus to be your Saviour and Lord of your life. "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved" Romans 10:9.

5. Receive Jesus as your Saviour now! "But as many as received Him, to them he gave the right to become children of God even to those who believe in His Name" John 1:12.

JESUS WON'T WALKAWAY

Jesus Christ is the same, Yesterday, Today and Forever…

Hebrews 13:8