Hi my name is Bobby Preston. I am 18 years old from Queens, New York.

My mom did her best to raise me in a good home, despite the fact that I never knew my father, and the area we lived in was a tough part of the city. Until my mom married my stepfather we were forced to live between the worst parts of Queens and Manhattan , renting rooms from people to stay in because we could not afford an apartment. Once my mom got married things became more stable, but we still lived in a bad part of the inner city.

My mom and my stepfather always did their best to teach me what was right. They tried to keep me away from the influences of the streets, the drugs, gangs and crime that everyone seemed to be involved in. I remember that every Sunday, we went to church and I heard about Jesus and what he had done for me, but I never took it seriously. I just shrugged it off as something I did not need.

In elementary school I was picked on a lot, and had a low self-esteem. As I got older I decided in my heart that I was going to change that. I began to change the way I was living and stopped looking at the good example my parents had set for me. Instead I turned to the so-called popular crowd at school. Obviously, a lot of what was popular there was not good, and I began to get involved in a life of drugs and crime.   

                     
By the age of 15, I had been arrested 3 times for various crimes I had committed. I was smoking weed every day and formed a habit I could not break on my own will. I became physically violent with my family and would lash out at them and anyone else whenever I got angry, because of this I was sent to a psych ward several times. I also joined a gang and had to constantly watch my back, as I had made a lot of enemies that wanted to get even with me.

In the mean time, I violated my probation by failing a drug test, and was given two options: go back to jail or go to a program my mom found, Freedom Village U.S.A. I reluctantly decided to go to Freedom Village with all intentions of using it as a "get out of jail free card" so to say. 

After being at Freedom Village for about a month and seeing the examples of other young men who were living right and truly happy, I began to seriously think about my life and I started opening up my Bible. I remember reading Psalm 136 that talks about how God's mercy endures forever. That night I realized my hopelessness and understood that, while I had rejected Christ, He still loved me. I broke down and with tears in my eyes gave my life to Jesus Christ.

Since that day, I can truly say I have never been the same.

It has been three years since I first entered the program and I have been privileged to serve God in several different areas of ministry, preaching, traveling in a gospel singing group, food outreaches and many other things. I left the program in May 2008 and I am now serving God in my area and working to save up money for college next year, to pursue my calling: preaching. He has also mended my family situation and everything else I messed up before. 
   
God had been so good and what he has done in my life he can do with any life, no matter how broken and messed up. He loves you He knows what's going on in our lives no matter how distant He may seem He IS there and He cares.