Set Free, On The Edge

Pastor Al's Story

                He was born on April Fool’s Day, 1948 in San Diego, California.  His parents were both alcoholics and they divorced when he was a toddler. Of course, all the clichés apply.  He was physically and sexually abused as a child, he spent several years in foster homes; he was separated from his biological mother until he was twenty.  His father was in the Navy and his new stepmother tried her best to deal with the newly combined household containing 6 children.  He ended up with eleven siblings through his parents’ marriages and remarriages.  He did not know about or meet several of his siblings until he was in his twenties.  One sibling was discovered when his biological mother confessed, on her deathbed, to having a child that she gave away.  This child also became a drug addict.  Another brother killed himself by laying his head on train tracks and letting a train run over him.  Another brother died of AIDS. Most of his siblings have dealt with addiction and dysfunction.  Pastor Al’s father and stepmother became Christians when he was in High School.  Allen accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior at Lakeside Southern Baptist Church while a high school sophomore.  He became a Youth for Christ leader and, in 1966, went to California Baptist College in Riverside to become a music minister.  He attended on a church sponsorship, played basketball and was considered a “jock.”

While in college, he took his first drink of beer and it was all over.  He was in the grip of addiction from that very first drink.  Unable or unwilling to control his drinking, He was kicked out of seminary and he kicked his faith to the curb.  He went into the army and was stationed in Germany as a legal clerk.  He made buck sergeant fairly quickly. 

While in the army he experimented with hashish and hallucinogens.  He could not afford his habit, and being an enterprising young man, he began selling drugs to his fellow soldiers.  He smuggled approximately 40 pounds of hash back to the U.S. upon his honorable discharge from the army.  He associated with bike gangs and other people who shared his passion for sin.  I met him in 1973, when he was 25 and I was 15.  We moved in together within two weeks.  I shared his background.  We sought comfort in each other and drugs.

His first stint in prison was in 1974 for smuggling a pound of heroin across the Mexican border.  He went to Chino State Prison in California.  I was 16 and I waited faithfully until he got out.  With good behavior and lying his way through a favorable pre-sentence investigation, he was released in 1976.  We were married in August 1976 and started using the drug that had put him in prison.  We became heroin addicts.  He injected whatever drug he was trafficking in at the time. He barely glanced back at what his life had been with God.  He continued to deal drugs for 15 years.  His luck ran out in December 1988.  He was arrested for running the largest methamphetamine drug ring in the history of South Dakota (up to that time).  He was given a three and a seven year prison term at the South Dakota State Penitentiary. 

After he had been in state prison for about a year, he was arraigned on new federal charges relating to racketeering and conspiracy.  The RICO Act is a law that is used most often for the Mafia.  He was facing another five to forty years.  He could have been charged with being a habitual offender, which could put him behind bars for life.  He testified before a grand jury about the one person the DEA knew about.  Through a series of very bizarre circumstances, he found out that the person who was supplying and manufacturing meth was actually a deep plant for the government.  No one ever went to jail from his grand jury testimony.  The night after his testimony he asked God for help.  He was debilitated from a liver disease; he was beat physically, morally, psychologically and spiritually.  God finally had his attention.  On his knees in his cell that night he repented; he wept as he asked for forgiveness, help and strength.  As you know, when you ask with all your heart, God will answer your prayer.  Allen promised to serve God no matter what the outcome of his sentencing would be.  He promised to serve him in prison or in the community.  He felt peace for the first time in years.  He was sentenced to five years to run concurrent with his state sentence and he was not fined the one million dollar fine that can be imposed.  He thanked the judge for stopping him and for sentencing him to prison.  I think the judge was puzzled; not too many criminals are grateful and happy as they are led back to prison.     

  Meanwhile, I was homeless with two children in February 1991, in Sioux Falls.  My husband was still in prison.  Low-income Housing moved me into a home that was two doors down from the pastor of Ridgecrest Baptist Church.  The church kept reaching out to me, bringing me food, giving my children clothes, and offering moral and spiritual support.  I did not attend their church and wondered what they expected to gain because “nobody does this much stuff for nothing’.”   

When Al told me he “found God” while in prison, I laughed.  I thought the only reason he was saying this was because the phone was tapped, I was sure I’d get the real story later.  I was extremely skeptical when he stuck with this absurd “saved in prison” story.  I grew up in a family who despised God.  My mother was a witch, as was her mother.  My older sister was trained in the occult, also.  Allen never pushed God on me, but he was steadfast in his belief.  When he was finally released from prison, I thought things would go back to normal, but they did not.  He told me I could not use drugs anymore or he would go somewhere else upon his release.  I remember thinking that I would continue to play along until he let me in on the little secret; maybe he was just playing this until he got out.  I watched him become someone I did not know.  Everything about him was different.  He even looked different.  No more beard, long hair, biker leathers or swearing.  Who was this guy?  I was miserable and he was peaceful and content.  I finally asked him to give me whatever he had that had changed him so completely; he shared the plan of salvation with me and a 12-Step program of recovery. 

Today, he prays for God’s will in his life on a daily basis and, with the power that comes through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, works to carry out His will.  Pastor Al was licensed to preach by Ridgecrest Baptist Church in 1994 and was ordained by the Southern Baptist Convention on October 19, 1997.  He  worked at Hutchinson Technology full-time from 1992 until 2007.  He worked his way up from an entry-level operator position to a non-exempt manufacturing supervisor position.  He worked at Keystone Treatment Center in Sioux Falls and Canton from 1993 until 2009, retiring as their Senior  Spiritual Advisor.    He currently works at Volunteers of America, Dakotas as a community service coordinator and as the Volunteers of America, Dakotas Chaplain.  Pastor Al coordinates and disciples more than a dozen ministers within the agency while overseeing community outreach projects and church services.

He has always had a heart for addicts, alcoholics and convicts, because he carries these traits, also.  For quite awhile he felt led to initiate outreach work at the penitentiary, but the penitentiary wouldn’t allow him in, even as a 12-Step speaker, because he had been an inmate there. 

He kept working for the Lord and we were both certified as Life Support Ministry Facilitators through training at Glorietta, New Mexico in 1994.  We are still leading groups such as Making Peace with your Past and Living a Christian Marriage.  We are active in Christian 12-Step groups as well as secular 12-Step groups.  He continued to pray for an opportunity to go “back behind the walls.”  He started doing small things at first.  He was a speaker at the Impact of Crime on Victims Class at the Jameson Annex.  The prison asked him to make a “Prison Etiquette” film for new arrivals, an overview of what to do and what not to do inside the walls, very important if an inmate wants to stay alive and well during his stay.  HTI asked him to conduct a job skills/job fair class for prisoners who were about to be released.  He was getting the guys coming and going but he wanted to share Christ with the guys when they needed it most—in the midst of their despair.  He knows the hopelessness that lies between the going in and the getting out; he also knows that Christ can relieve that hopelessness.

In 2000, the South Dakota State Penitentiary contacted Pastor Al and asked him if he would be interested in being on staff as a chaplain.  Be interested?!  He now performs services at the penitentiary, coordinates Prison Fellowship Seminars and in 2001, created a Christian 12-Step group.  Christian 12-Step marries a relationship with Christ, Bible study, self-help and addiction treatment.  The response of inmates has been very encouraging.  God is leading more and more Christians into this type of outreach ministry.

We have two beautiful children.  Allen Jr. was born in 1979.  Skylar  was born while her dad was in prison and I was an IV heroin and meth (methadone and methamphetamine) addicted mother.  Her birth is a miracle due to the fact that while I tested positive for heroin at the time of her birth, Skylar tested negative for any illicit substances.  She is Daddy’s little princess and my reminder that God is great and merciful.

I want to emphasize Allen never went looking to promote himself.  He has gained access to the penitentiary through prayer; the penitentiary contacted him! The same thing is true with Keystone.  He “walks the talk.”  Currently he is being considered for a Presidential Pardon and I am a Drug and Alcohol Counselor at a treatment facility in Sioux Falls. In 2003, God led Pastor Al to Set Free San Diego, while attending an NA World Convention.  We toured the recovery ranch in Dulzura, attended church services in National City and met with men who were committed to serving Christ and ministering to the depressed, oppressed, addicted and convicted.  Pastor Al began praying about and researching Set Free Worldwide Ministry, founded by Pastor Phil Aguilar in Anaheim, CA.   Pastor Phil Aguilar allowed Pastor Al to ride as the only Set Free Servant for Christ in South Dakota in 2004.  Within another year, several men asked to become a part of the Set Free Ministry and disciple as Set Free Servants for Christ.  Set Free-On the Edge held its first church service on June 3^rd, 2006.   Set Free Ministries respectfully broke all ties with Pastor Phil Aguilar in January 2009, when we incorporated as our own church.

Sisters in Service formed as a women’s ministry and discipleship group.  God is leading us and growing us in amazing ways each and every day.  The depressed, oppressed, addicted and convicted make up the main body of our church today.  Pastor Al is a miracle of the saving grace of Jesus Christ, but he is not unique.  I see miracles everyday; I expect them because Christ promises them.  God bless and come check us out and party with the Lord any Saturday at 7 pm.

In Christ’s Service,

Teresa Peratt