Al was a young full-blooded Apache Indian. In his teens he was continually in trouble with the law, and it seemed he spent more time in jail than out of it. Time after time he escaped, but the last time seven mounted police caught him, handcuffed him, and put him in a solitary cell under maximum security.
His ankles were chained tether, everything was taken from him, and he was forced to sleep on the cold cement floor, without even a blanket. They put his food in through a small hole in the door, and for over seven months he lived in this solitary confinement. Seral times he tried to commit suicide, feeling he had nothing to live for.
But God had his eye on poor ruined, rebellious Al, and in wonderful grace He was working for his salvation and blessing, though he knew it not.
One day a native Indian missionary, who had himself been saved by the grace of God, came to the jail and preached the gospel to the prisoners. Al couldn’t see him, but he could hear what he said. At the time Al was on a hunger strike, hoping to end his life that way. The missionary sang,
Jesus paid it all!
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow.
The missionary told of how he, too, had been in a California jail, awaiting trial for armed robbery, but Jesus Christ had met him there in the prison and he had found Him as his Saviour. He had changed his life completely; for we read, “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us unto Himself by Jesus Christ.” 2 Cor. 5:17,1817Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; (2 Corinthians 5:17‑18).
That was the best news Al the Indian had ever heard. Now he, too, wanted to know Jesus. As he listened to the message, the Spirit of God began to work in his soul, convicting him of sin. His past life with all its sin and shame passed before him, and he was broken and humbled before God. “God is light” but He is also “love", and Al could see that Jesus had taken his place in the judgment he deserved and had died for him on Calvary’s Cross.
Down the hall the missionary was encouraging the prisoners to pray, and Al got down on his knees and prayed also. He could hear the words, “Lord Jesus, wash me in Thy precious blood, come into my heart, and change my life so that I might serve Thee.”
Sweet and wonderful was the experience Al had that day with the Lord—too wonderful for words! He felt the great burden of his sins lifted from his soul, and he was truly saved.
He still had to continue in solitary confinement for many days, however. The police captain would visit him from time to time, and Al told him he had received Christ as his personal Saviour. Then one day, perhaps to test the reality of his conversion, the police captain told Al they needed a man to guard the prisoners during the night watch, and he wanted Al to be the jailer.
Al made no attempt to escape this time. In the morning when the ladies’ matron came into the jail, she saw that he was a changed person. She went to the judge and soon after returned saying the judge wanted to see him.
“Al,” said the judge, looking at the prisoner’s records before him, “your records are in such confusion that I’m going to throw them into the waste basket. I don’t want to see you again in this court. You are free to leave.”
Six months before that Al’s record had been washed clean before God above by the blood of Jesus. Now his record below was cleared by the judge, and he was a free man.
Since then Al has traveled about preaching the gospel of the grace of God, especially to his own people, pointing others like himself to the Saviour whose love sets guilty sinners free, and brings them out of darkness into His marvelous light.
ML-12/17/1978