Former gang members who used to live a life of drugs and violence shared how Christ saved them, saying "only Jesus can save," a news report says.
Gilbert Gonzalez of Arkansas was only 16 when he joined a gang, KFSM reported. His family was so rooted in the gang culture that he said his mother was actually proud of him for being part of a gang himself.
"My mom was proud that we were the next generation of gang members and just being around my uncles who would do drugs and we would be out there in the streets just beating up people," he said.
Gilbert's family hailed from California, most of them belonging to a group called the King Cobra gang, the Baptist Press reports. When they transferred to Arkansas, his uncles carried with them the same gang lifestyle they had from where they came from, and Gilbert and his brothers became part of The Kobras in Springdale.
His older brother, Robert, told the news outlet that he wasn't as involved as Gilbert was, but he didn't discourage him from fully immersing himself in the gang life either. Instead, there were times where he would encourage his brothers to keep drinking, taking drugs, and get into trouble.
However, Gilbert's moment of truth came when he had so much trouble going on in his life. According to the Baptist Press, between the ages of 16 and 21, Gilbert just lived a life of drug and alcohol addiction, violence, and running away from the police. After experiencing a second knife attack, the near overdose of a close family member, and the exhaustion of having to fight everywhere he went, Gilbert said he wanted out of the gang.
The real break he was looking for came in 2013 when he went to church with his then girlfriend Karen, now his wife. He would soon be baptized and share the Gospel with his family.
Robert said Gilbert, whom he considered the "worst" in their family, had changed and kept talking about Jesus. At first he didn't to hear about the gospel and stopped speaking to his brother. But then he too changed.
"Hearing the gospel for the first time and that it's only Jesus and there's nothing else that we can do," Robert told KFSM. "There's no Virgin Mary, there's no saints, there's nothing like that, there's only Jesus that can save."
"That's when it just broke my heart and I knew that's what I wanted," he added.
Today, the Gonzalez family spends more time in Bible study and in church than they do on the streets. They also share the story of how God saved them in an outreach event called "Kobras to Christ."
