imprisoned

A pastor who was formerly imprisoned experienced a new life with God. Now he is advocating for others after falling in love with Jesus.

Pastor Aaron Chancy

Aaron was born in Berrien Springs, Michigan. But he relocated frequently as a child due to his parents’ military duty.

At the age of 16, he also was sent to a juvenile detention center. “While moving, I was losing pieces of me throughout life. And I never got those back. I was lost, and because I was lost, the streets found me,” he said.

“That was all I wanted to do in life. I knew with the streets comes either incarceration or death. So, when I got locked up the first time, I thought that was just part of life,” he added.

Being Imprisoned

Living in the streets, the now pastor learned to do things that would lead him to prison.

Robbery, selling drugs, and transporting marijuana were part of life.

Aaron was detained for the last time in 2005 on an assault offense. Nonetheless, it took until April 2008 for him to transform from a criminal to a man of God.

He persisted in engaging in unlawful activity during those three years without ever being apprehended by law enforcement. Then Aaron attempted suicide by drug overdosing when he was 25 years old because he was tired of his lifestyle outside of prison.

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But God met him. “I had a night where it was like God was revealing to me, ‘You need to make a change in your life,’” he recalled.

Formerly Imprisoned, Now a Man of Faith

The now pastor committed himself to reading a chapter of the Bible every day after deciding to change his course in life. He started researching various religions and rediscovered Jesus and the Bible.

“I was making a conscious decision, and I fell in love with Jesus,” he said.

His new home was the church. He quit smoking, drinking, and stopped hanging out with the wrong crowd w. Aaron discovered his calling as a pastor after reading a book on it in 2012.

“Everything in the book was just exactly the questions I was asking, the things I was looking for. This is what God was calling me to,” he said.

Formerly Imprisoned, Now an Inspiration

Aaron was appointed to lead a Syracuse church in April 2022 after working as an associate pastor in Queens and the Bronx.

One of the church members said, “There is an appreciation for people like Pastor Chancy who have a story to tell, who have walked away from God, who have been incarcerated, who had issues with drugs or whatever. You feel like you’re not so alone in the struggles of life.”

Chancy works with groups that assist young people and those who are incarcerated, and he uses his personal story to motivate change. “I want to continue to open up the church so that it goes beyond the four walls. If the people aren’t making a difference in the community, what’s the purpose of this building?,” he concluded.

Read the full article HERE.

God’s Love

God’s ability to change a person is beyond human capacity. His love embraces a human soul and heals it. And eventually, it leads more people back to Him.

The executive director of Jail Ministry, Keith Cieplicki, testified about Aaron’s life. “His life is just so rich with knowledge, experience, compassion and faith that he brings a tremendous amount to the jail and our jail ministry community. I see him and his love for people as a tremendous foundation for the future.”

What the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:39 (NIV) is indeed true: “Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Header image: Pastor Aaron Chancy, center, rallies for the Clean Slate Act, a proposal that would seal former incarcerated people’s conviction records in New York state, in Albany, New York, on Jan. 17, 2023. Photo courtesy of Kayla Skipper

Reference: Religious News