Hello, I greet you in the name of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior.

Then reason for this revised testimony is because I am now living a revised life. The last time that I wrote my testimony for Precious Testimonies I was working my way through a 20-year incarceration.

Now I am working through life on the outside. Yes, brothers, and sisters I finally made it out. But just when you think you are out of one thing it seems you are in another. As James taught, “Count it all joy when you fall into temptation……”

Well I am still working on the “Count it all joy” part. But one thing I would like to share with you is the faith part of Jesus. Over my 20-year incarceration God has taught me through Jesus the Christ to believe what he says.

Now we all have heard this and we all are probably saying, “Ya, I know that”. Well knowing and living are two different things. The word tells us that the devil knows and trembles at godly matters. But we also know that he don’t live by faith in Christ.

Ask yourself, How do I really know something? It don’t have to be a godly thing. Just simply, how do you know something? 

How about the famous one. You know a chair will hold you up when you sit in it, right? Why? Well just because that is what chairs do, right?!

How about breathing? It’s very important, right? I mean everyone would know if you were not doing it! Yet we don’t even think about that and it’s a life death situation.

But what about the day when you're running or working really hard and you fall out. Boy, you start thinking about breathing then. Now it could have been years before you fell out. Millions of breaths that were not even thought of, but one small simple little fall out, and now your focused.

This is where I am at right now in life, or better said, my life in Christ. You see I had many set backs in those years of incarceration. Set backs meaning that I was standing in God’s word on what he said. Flat promises straight from the mouth of Jesus the Christ. Yet it didn’t happen……..and I wondered, WHY? 

4 years ago, I truly felt ready for the streets again. I had 16 years in under my belt. 16 years of serving the Lord, tithing, praying, fasting (when I had to). Been through many tests and trials, and well, was just getting tired of prison life. After all I was not around people that were put there for missing Sunday school. No, most were people wandering through life with no clue who they were and who was in control of them.

So I got down on my knees and prayed. Prayed to God that he would change the laws that it would allow me to go home. Pretty amazing right? Well we serve an amazing God. He did tell us that we must ask for those things in which we need or desire. O did I say desire, well that's another subject!

I had put in commutations, which is a form that prisoners can apply for every 2 years and if the governor wants, they can release prisoners with it. But they were always denied. So this was the last thing I knew to do because the courts were not going to let me go. So I prayed for a law to change.

Well about 6 months later, a law changed. So much so that the parole board was sending inmates letters to let them know they would be going before the board, years before they were supposed to, and yes, I was one of those inmates. 

YES, I said, prayers have been answered. I jumped up and down and praised God and gave testimonies in the church about this wonderful event.

Things moved quickly and the next thing you knew I was seeing the parole board. My dad was even up north during this time and was allowed to come to my interview, which went well. Everything  positive. Everyone was making plans for my release and I was giving all my things away cause Ha, God answered this one. 

Then the day came I got the letter from the parole board and it said the Judge denied their jurisdiction so I couldn’t go home. WOW, I was crushed. I mean God answered this prayer of mine changing a law that had never happened in the history of the department of corrections, WHY?

I was an Elder of the church at that time and had to get up front and tell so many people that I was not going home. WOW! Well I decided that this was not going to affect me as satan would have it. God had his reason and it was one that I didn’t know or maybe shouldn’t know.

I made it through all the talks of telling people the bad news and life moved forward. God helped me get all my things back that I had given away and life for me in the church kept moving forward, but inside the desire for freedom kept screaming out when I was alone. Thank, God for the Holy Spirit, our true comforter.

Then as things were picking up at church and the movement of the Holy Spirit was evident, we were all hit with a very hard one. They were closing our prison down. This meant that we all would be separated. The church would be torn apart and there was nothing we could do about it. I had a year and a half left and now this.

Well, we found out that our Chaplain, Chaplain Burrell,  was moving across the street to a level II prison. This made it hard on a lot of elders and workers of the church because the reality set in that we would not get to see our beloved chaplain anymore.

Ya, right, BUT GOD! This must be said. I went into his office and told him, "Chap, If you can, would you get them to raise my level so I could go with you to the level II prison?" Of course he smiled and said, "Brother, you know I can’t do that!" Well, I told him that I would be praying about it anyhow.

The day came for guys to ride out and ride out they did by the hundreds. Yet I still remained there. I was put with a group of guy’s who were helping close down the prison. Then we were told that 200 of us would be having our level raised to level II and going next door. No one knew who they were right away and people thought this and said that but slowly they left. Then came the day that I was told I was going next door. I was so happy because I was going to get over there and work with my chaplain.

Well I did go over there and the chaplain was already given clerks that were there before me. But I didn’t let that get in my way and I volunteered to work there for free. And man did I work because the place didn’t worship like we did at the other place.

Then one day, one of the clerks quit, and I thought I was a shoe in but the chaplain told me that I was too short- meaning that I would be seeing the parole board soon. It crushed me. I was there working for free and now I couldn’t get the job when it was opened. Then a couple of weeks after that the other clerk quit and Chap still said that I could just volunteer as a clerk and he would hire someone else.

But then the first clerk got into a fight and lost his job. That was when the Chaplain hired me; I was so happy! I was also seeing the parole board and knew that this was it - I would be going home soon.

So things went well with the parole board as I thought they would, and we (meaning my family and I) started making plans for my release.

Now during this time, between the two parole board interviews, I talked with a Christian friend of mine that wanted to start a house renovation company when he got out and asked me if I would be interested. Which I was, but he got out a year before me and most guy’s talk about these things but never do them. 

Well not the case here. This guy went and bought a house for me to live in so that I could work with him. So while he was getting this house fixed up, I get a letter in the mail from the parole board. A P-61 N.F.D. meaning a non fixed out date, meaning they had 30 days to let me go. Now, another miracle from God letting me out a couple of months early.

So I got my parole agent and he met my friend that had the house for me to move into and the parole agent hit us with the news that I could not live at that address. Here we are 3 weeks before my release and this. Well it turned out that my friend had another house he had bought to fix up for himself and decided to have me move there. So he began working on the preparation of the place, and a week before my release the parole board sent me a letter saying they made a mistake and I would not be released until June 25th, a little over 2 months away.

Now during these two months, I was also transferred to a level I prison. Put in a unit that had no jobs available. For me to live, I had to work because I had very little funds to live off of. So I decided to volunteer as the unit floor guy buffing and waxing their floors. The officers really like the floors but would not hire me for one excuse to another. After 3 weeks I found that another unit seen my work and said I could move over there and they would hire me. So I made the move and started working on their floors, but I found their promises to be the same and was working again for free. Then after 3 weeks, I was hired.

Now just a couple of weeks from the door and freedom, I started to prepare for freedom. Once out, things moved so very fast. I had many family and friend that would come over and see me over the first couple of weeks of being out.

But let me tell you that nothing had changed in the fact of tests and trials. The job with my friend didn’t work out. Although it is paying rent, that doesn’t really get you anywhere in life. So I have been looking for a job, which I have found very hard to navigate. See, with being on parole it brings with it many rules and regulations. These things limit you many opportunities when looking for a job.

But the basics of faith lessons that were taught to me those 20 years in prison still hold true to this very moment. Faith is strength. What must a person do to be strong physically? He must work out. So must a person work his faith.

When I got out, the neighbor across the street had a nice 4X4 pickup truck for sale and he was asking $3,100.00 for it. Well, I prayed about it. I prayed as though I was receiving that pickup truck. 

Two months after being out, still with no job, it happened. The guy came down to $2,000.00 and a friend of mine made a agreement with me to pay him back and now I own the truck.

Well it didn’t stop there. See, we all know I needed insurance. Well that has changed since 20 years ago too, and I found that I had to almost pay the rent amount just to drive. But God. I prayed about it and told God, that I knew He didn’t bring me this far to leave me hanging. Then some other friends of mine came to the rescue and paid for 3 months of insurance for me.

We must think outside the box. This is how Jesus lived and it must be the way of an active believer in Jesus Christ. We all know that nothing is impossible for Jesus. Well he has told us that we can do greater things than he did while he was on earth. So how much greater would it be than turning water into wine! Or feeding 5,000 people with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread!

I don’t know it all. As matter of fact I know very little, but I do understand what God was telling us in Malachi 3:10. He said “bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there might be bread in my house. Test me in this, and see  if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it!

STAFF NOTE:  Eric has written a book, titled:  UNDERSTANDING NEW CHRISTIANS IN PRISON

If you wish to contact Eric La Barge, his email address is:  ericlabarge3@gmail.com 

Or his mailing address is:  9255 Harvard Rd, Detroit, MI  48224

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Remember: All that we do in this life comes back to our God-given purpose which is to serve and glorify God. The money and assets we accumulate, the fame and power we've attained or seek to attain - all of the things of this nature will one day pass away, but those lives of others we impact for Jesus Christ will last for eternity, and we will be rewarded for the part we helped play by impacting those lives ... for eternity. (Matthew 6:19-21 is our assurance)