Finding Freedom in Prison

I remember I was in the back of the car handcuffed, and as they drive away, I saw a glimpse of what they were doing.

They were celebrating that they caught a big drug lord, and they were taking pictures. But my wife was obviously distraught, saying, they took the father of my kids and also my husband. Welcome to Family Life Today, where we want to help you pursue the relationships that matter most. I'm Ann Wilson. And I'm Dave Wilson, and you can find us at familylifetoday.com or on our Family Life app. This is Family Life Today.

All right. So today on Family Life Today, we've got a sort of special program, don't we? We have a special treat because Kim Anthony is in the studio with us today. Yeah. She has a podcast called Unfavorable Odds, and your whole life is overcoming odds.

So Kim, welcome to Family Life Today. Thank you. Great to be here with you both.

Yeah. And it's pretty cool what you do, and a lot of our listeners know and a lot don't know. Your podcast is about what? It's about people who have overcome unfavorable odds and have seen Jesus redeem all that they've been through. And I will say this.

If you haven't listened, you need to start listening. Because you know when you go to church and it's baptism day and people share their stories? I thought you were going to say you go to church and it's bad. No.

Baptism day. It inspires you. Yes. And every one of these podcasts, you'll be uplifted and reminded how good and how big God is. Absolutely. Yeah, like today. So we're going to play an episode that you had a very interesting interview with a man who's now a pastor.

Yes. He's called Herman Mendoza and he was a young married man, 21 years old. He was struggling to make ends meet for him and his wife. And he decided to go work for his brothers who happened to be drug dealers. And he rationalized it because he was only counting money.

So he was counting like a million dollars a day for his family members. And then eventually he got sucked in and he started selling drugs and became one of the biggest drug lords in New York City at the time. But he got arrested. So he went to jail for his crime. But when he got out, he decided to set his life straight, which he did. But sometimes old demons will come back to haunt you. Herman, you had actually gotten a job doing legal activity.

Yes. I was a salesperson as a sorbet, selling sorbet ice cream. And I was really good at it. I was making money just to support my family, had an apartment. I was, you know, I was again, back again, nine to five.

And just when I went over to have this drink and I run into this guy, I get trapped in this sin again and I get caught right back into the same behaviors. And so I was working a nine to five job as a sorbet sales representative. And so I'm back in the enterprise, the business, you know, again, selling hundreds of kilos of cocaine. My second oldest brother gets arrested in Miami and they extradite him to New York because the case was out of New York. And when they extradite him to New York, we bail them out on a half a million dollars. So when he's bailed out, he says, what are you up to? And I explained, I said, I'm working again with the cartel. And he said, okay, I have a friend of mine that owns a trucking company. And he used to do a lot of my distribution. And he owned those 16-wheeler tractor trailers.

And he had a secret compartment in it where, you know, we house the drugs there to conceal it from the police. And he says, look, we can work with this guy. And I said, you trust him? He said, yeah to me.

I've been working with him for many years. So we start working with him and we give him 11 kilos. We first give him nine and then another two kilos.

Actually it was a total of about, I think, 14 kilos. Towards the end of the last kilos of cocaine that we gave him through one of my workers, he owed us money. And he kept on stalling us and say, I'll bring it next week, I'll bring it next week. So when he finally brought a portion of that money, he was still short about $80,000.

That's a lot of money. Yeah. Then we figured something doesn't sound right here, but we thought he was just trying to, you know, stall us for another week, you know, whatever the case may be. And this is the person you refer to in your book as John? Yes, that's John. Okay.

Yes. And this is, now Emilio and I, we find out one day that the money was in sequence, sort of all numbered in a way that seemed obvious to us that this money came from the drug enforcement agency. And my brother and I looked at each other and we said that we got a problem. Turns out that he was working with the DEA, drug enforcement agency. And from that day on, I was having people drive me around. I was just, you know, drinking alcohol to try to just figure things out, trying to find a way out to try to make some more money, make a few millions of dollars and flee the country.

Well, it didn't happen that way. One day we're driving and we get arrested in Manhattan and it was by the DEA agents. I tried to conceal, I had a little black book that had all my contacts in sequences.

I was trying to conceal that black book that had all my contacts. They arrested us, took me to MDC Brooklyn. And I was there for about a few weeks and got bailed out on a half a million dollars. Was that just money that you had floating around from what you made? Actually with the feds, it doesn't work that way.

They have to investigate where the money came from. So I put up a house that I owned, but it wasn't under my name. And then I put up another house that was owned by my oldest brother. And when I was released, the very first thing I want to do is drink and party. And I was like, I wanted to forget all the stuff I was dealing with.

And I was drinking heavily every morning. And I remember one day going to my attorney to have a discussion with him about my case. And he told me, he said, listen, Mr. Mendoza, you're facing 25 years because this is your second case and you were convicted already on 32 kilos of cocaine. And he says, your case is not looking good.

And that scared me. And I was like, man, so I decided to jump bail. I was supposed to go to court the following week and I didn't go and so I jumped bail. So I was now on the run and I had around six months on the run. Where did you go? I was staying at different girlfriend's homes, friends that had properties, that had apartments around the city.

Sometimes I would go to casinos, Atlantic city and stay there and just gamble and just drink all day, try to numb the pain and try to figure things out. And by this time, did you have three children? Yeah, by this time I had three children. And two of them were with your wife. And who was the other one with? The other one, when I was out in the world doing crazy stuff, I had a mistress and she became pregnant and we had the child, which was a blessing to have a child, which was not a blessing for me to commit adultery, but it happened to happen this way. And so I had three kids, right? And then you're looking at the possibility of 25 years in jail, you would miss out on their childhood.

Exactly, exactly. So I remember one night of partying and drinking, a drinking binge, and I decided to go home to see my kids. I was in a club, in a VIP, I was drinking, drinking Cristal and trying to, again, numb the pain. So I told my driver, I said, take me to my home. And I lived in a gated community. And he drove me there. He says, you sure you want to go to your house? I said, yes, I want to see my kids. As I entered into my property and I went home, I lay down early in the morning, my wife receives a phone call and the cops tell her, we have your house surrounded, tell your husband to open the door if he has any guns to toss out the window. The very first reaction was I'm going to escape. So I opened the back window and I tried to jump out. Cops is right there and they say they'll freeze, you know, so I get, I go back in the house and told my wife, listen, open the door. My life is over. And she opens the door and I remember it was a horrific scene because my sister-in-law was there staying over my house.

My kids were asleep. Cops come, you know, guns drawn. And my wife just develops this anger towards the cops, this, this strength of just fighting with the cops. And she says, you know, put the guns down. He's going to give himself in.

We have no guns in the house. And so I said, I'm here, you know, raise my hands and they handcuffed me. They were searching the house for it, for any guns. And so as they haul me into the adjacent car there, the marshals, it was the marshals, DEA agents, state police and local police. I remember I was in the back of the car handcuffed and as they drive away, you know, my wife tells me later on, but I saw a glimpse of what they were doing.

They were celebrating that they caught a big drug lord when they were taking pictures. But my wife was obviously distraught saying they took the father of my kids and also my husband. Now, rightly so, but at the time, you know, she didn't want to think about that.

She wanted to have her husband back. So we're listening to a clip of unfavorable odds of a man whose life just seems to be headed nowhere. Well, this sounds hopeless, like, oh, there's no way back after this one.

Yeah. And it was hopeless. He had children. It was possible that he would never see those children outside of those bars again.

Imagine being his wife, too. Watching your husband taken away and watching them celebrate the fact that they have caught him. Yeah. And I mean, again, you know, if you don't know the rest of the story, you're thinking the door just closed, it's done, it's over, second offense. He's not getting out again. He has shipwrecked his life. Yeah.

What could possibly turn anything good out of this situation? And? And just like God, he provides opportunity in the least likely of places. Take me back to when you were driving in the back of that car after they had arrested you in your home. So in the back of that car, and I lived again in a wooded area. So I was looking towards my left and towards my right.

And it's just pine trees, sort of a lonely road leading out to the major highway. And I told the marshals, I want you to open the back door because I want to end my life. I said, my life is not worth anything right now. And he said, look, you never know what could happen.

And he gave me a glimpse of hope. Which is odd in your situation. Yeah.

Yeah. Because I knew what I was confronting, but it was just a weird feeling. So I tried to gain my composure again because I knew I was going to prison and I didn't want to look weak. But I was obviously hurt. When I say hurt, meaning I was in a place of no escape. I knew that my pending situation was sort of like a doomsday for me.

And I would never see my wife again and my kids and never get to see daylight once again in the sense that I was never going to be freed out in society until my later years. So that reality set in. So they took me to a local jail. And I remember that my kids came over to see me with my wife. And my son and daughter wanted to embrace me and touch me.

And there was a separation, it was sort of like a glass partition between us with a handset, with a phone set. And that's the way I was communicating with them. And so my son and my daughter were saying, you know, dad, tell him to let you free, that you're going to be a good person.

You're not going to be bad. And he said, I just want to touch you. I just want to play with you.

Can you come around? Let them know, let them know. That broke me. That day my wife said, I'm not coming back to a prison ever with the kids.

And I said, rightly so, rightly so. So they extradited me back to New York and on the way to Brooklyn, they sent me to this unit called Five South. Little did I know that my brother was in Five North. Now my brother had given his life to the Lord and this was his prayer, father, send my brother to the same facility, same dormitory, so I can share the gospel with him. Because if not, they are going to kill him out in society.

Now just want to give your viewers an idea of the federal system. They never allow two brothers to be in the same case, to be housed in the same unit. That just doesn't happen. Well, God would have it no other way.

There will be no other recourse. I got sent to Five South. Someone heard my last name in Doza. So the guy wakes me up and in me, he says very quietly because in the prison culture, you don't wake up a prisoner from his sleep because that's his way of escape out of reality. So he kind of taps me lightly and he says, Mendoza, Mendoza. And I get up and he says, someone wants to see you next door.

And it's your brother. I'm like, oh my goodness. So I walked to Five South to the recreation area because they allow you to go to the recreation area and my brother sees me and extends his hands up in the air and he says, praise the Lord. Praise God. And I look at him and I say, praise the Lord. Praise God. I said, man, we're in jail.

What are you talking about? And he starts sharing. He goes, one day you'll know.

You'll understand. So he starts sharing the gospel little by little with me and he invited me to this church service, which I found interesting. And I sat on the back and I heard the preacher and he says, you know who you are. God is calling you to have a relationship with you. He loves you.

He wants to give you that peace that surpasses all understanding. I knew it was for me. I approached the altar, makeshift altar that they had there. And I just, I fell to the ground, I bowed down, got on my knees and cried out to God. I said, this is me.

I'm the sinner you're talking about. And the very next thing that I felt in my heart was a strong conviction of the things that I've done in the past. And I wanted to make amends and make it right. And I thought about my wife, obviously. I thought about my kids. I thought about my mom, my dad. I thought about the people that I hurt by spewing drugs without seeing them. Because again, I was in a different level.

So basically I was distributing the cocaine and giving it over to other organizations where they then themselves will distribute it out into different street corners or stash houses. So I wasn't physically seeing what was happening. But God was showing me the lives that I was destroying. And later on in my studies, it's sort of like the story of Joseph, that God takes Joseph, well, he was an innocent man, though, in my case, I was guilty, obviously.

But God takes what the enemy meant for evil, God turned it around for good, right? And I was understanding. I wanted to learn more about God. And so I grabbed the handset, I made a phone call, I contacted my mom, I said, Mom, forgive me for the things that I've done to you. I said, I'm born again.

I'm a Christian. And so she didn't understand this new conversion. She was like, skeptical. And she was like, yeah, Christian.

I'm like, but she goes, I'm happy for you. And then I wanted to contact my wife and I couldn't get through to her. So then I was praying for my wife and fasting one day for three days for her salvation with another inmate, fellow inmate. And she came over to the visiting area.

And I thought it was my attorney, I didn't even know. And I see her sitting across the room and I sat next to her and she said, look, I got bad news to tell you. And I said, hold up, I got good news to share with you.

Give me a few minutes. And I started to share my heart with her. I confess my sins. And we really started to speak to one another and the Holy Spirit was tugging on her heart. And she said, look, I want what you have. I want that Jesus that you're professing and you're speaking about.

You're more free in prison than myself, that I'm out in society. And she said, I want Jesus. She said to me, the reason why I came here was to let you know that I want a divorce.

I want to end this relationship. But now that, you know, hearing your story and Jesus touching my heart right now and knowing that there's a better life in Christ and that I can be fulfilled through the word of God, this is what I want. We're listening to Kim Anthony's podcast called Unfavorable Odds. And I'll tell you what, here in that story, I'm in tears.

I would have never dreamed it would turn like that. I tell you, it's the power of prayer. Think about how his brother prayed for his salvation and then he prayed for his wife's salvation and lives were changed.

And he's making an incredible impact today. Yeah. I mean, even his wife's line, you are more free in prison than I am as a free woman is the truth of the gospel. Well, I thought of Jesus saying, I have come to set the prisoner free. Yes.

Literally and figuratively. And isn't that what we all want? We want freedom.

And I love that his wife said that to him. You are more free than I am. And I'm not in prison.

Yeah. And I mean, there's so many lines in your interview, but even the police officer saying you never know what might happen is almost like God saying, I'm here, I've got a plan. It looks like you've failed it and I can never use you. And yet God is up to, I mean, I'm thinking of a marriage right now that's at the end and they're listening and thinking we're done. There's no hope.

You never know what God may do and Jesus can turn around anything. That's a great story. And you can hear more of the story if you want to hear the whole version.

How do they find that? Well, you can get the link at familylifetoday.com. We heard an edited version and there's more that we missed.

So I would say click on the link. God wants to use this story in your life. And I think he wants you to share it with others because this is a story that changes lives. And Kim, thanks for what you're doing. This podcast is amazing and the stories and the interviews that you have really push us to remember that God is faithful.

He is faithful. Thank you, Anne. You've been listening to Dave and Anne Wilson with Kim Anthony on Family Life Today. We've been listening to clips from episode 31 of Unfavorable Odds. You can hear the full episode with Herman Mendoza when you search for Unfavorable Odds wherever you get your podcasts. Or you can get the link in today's show notes at familylifetoday.com. We've also got copies of Herman Mendoza's book Shifting Shadows. Again, the website is familylifetoday.com.

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