Thursday, February 23, 2012

Greg's Faith Story

Greg and Tammy are a young counple. They had been happily married with a daughter when the accident happened. It was a rainy morning in November 2005. As usual, Greg left home at 6:30am headed to work. He saw a van coming towards him and slowed to a stop and swerved to his right to avoid collision. In the process of swerving right the van hit his car and they both went left. The other car went into a ditch. Unfortunately the drive of the other car died. The other drive was trying to jump out of his vehicle and was not wearing a seat belt.


Greg was dazed and bewildered. He was scooted to the emergency room and was horrified when he passed the body the deceased on his way to the examination room. He overhead the deceased’s mother speaking to the body and that “ripped him to pieces.” He felt so awful! They wanted to arrest him there and then but his lawyer persuaded them otherwise. He was fortunate just to be able to spend the weekend at home and not in prison!

Greg’s first court experience was horrifying. The accident happened on a Friday. On Monday following the accident, Greg went to court. He was formally charged with manslaughter and put on bail. He had to wait in the holding area until his bail was sorted out which took hours! Greg has frequent flashbacks for the first three months. He would wake up in the nights having a nightmare. He did not even want to go in a car much less drive.

The really stressful part was when he had to go to court but no one turned up on the other side. The key witness – the girlfriend of the deceased never showed up. At first everyone would turn up but after a while they stopped coming because every three months the case was postponed. We were all hoping the case would have been thrown out. Everyone got frustrated and tired about a year.

At one point, three years later, it was looking like it was going to be thrown out. Greg started to feel confident. Then suddenly a new judge forcefully ordered the police to carry the key witness to court. He was a “no nonsense judge.” At that point the case restarted and he knew that it would not have been thrown out again. Greg felt frightened, nervous, anxious, depressed. Greg’s wife had mixed emotions but she supported him during this time. They went to court about 5 times a year for the first three years and then 7 times for the remaining years until 2010. Tammy was with him at every case. Each time the case was called this could be IT!! There was a lot of uncertainty during this time. Greg prayed a lot before each court case and his wife Tammy encouraged him. He knew that God was preserving him.
Greg said, “The case took 3 days to conclude. I remember when the verdict came back. I was standing in the dock and singing the acapella song, ‘Yes your honor I am at your mercy.’ I knew the case was 50-50. When the verdict was handed down I felt empty. (GUILTY OF Manslaughter). I kept holding on to God. I had to draw on every scripture I knew and sang songs to comfort me. When I remembered my wife, child and church members praying for me I drew strength from that. The Mona acapella group came to visit Tammy at home while I was incarcerated and that gave me immense home and strength, neighbors came to prayer meetings…I had lots of visitors. Tammy wrote letters and a sister stayed with her while I was in prison. I read my bible everyday and even had a bible class in jail. I knew deep down he would never leave me nor forsake me. I had that deep conviction. It took about three days before I realized I was behind bars. I was in disbelief. Eventually I had to adjust to the situation. Initially I felt lost but as time processed I became very confident in the fact that it would soon end. I gathered a lot of strength from Tammy.”

Letter from Greg
 
Hi everyone,

Things like sitting around a computer desk and typing to extremely great friends was once taken for granted but life lessons have taught me that things that we take for granted should be treasured and valued for life.

The mere fact that we can open our doors and smell the sweet aroma of the roses and not open our cells to the "sweet" aroma of stench is something we should be grateful for. The mere fact that we can sleep on a soft comfortable bed with an equally soft pillow at our necks, should not be taken for granted either. Can u ever imagine using a 2 liter water filled Pepsi bottle as your main source of head rest… and cardboards as your sheet to protect you from the chill factor or those nagging sand flies…Can u imagine your life being controlled by personnel who tell if and when you can have a bath?

Can u imagine being woken up by bad words in the mornings and put to sleep by bad words in the nights ?? Can u imagine mingling with known killers…Persons who otherwise we would have tried in every possible way to avoid eye contact much less conversing with them..I could go on and on but I will leave that for my abstract which I will be working on so other Christians can read and really appreciate the truly awesome power of Almighty God..

Brethren if we had any doubts about the power of Almighty God I just hope that my experience.. well at least everyone's experience with this case has strengthened our faith and belief..

One of my most gratifying moments was when after about 3 days in my remand I was no longer called Gregory but I was now called pastor, elder, preacher, bishop..The only thing left for them to call me was reverend and u know I would have had a problem with that title…

I tried to tap into the minds of a few of the inmates…I can vividly remember one "jailor" who was talking to me and he said his first duty when he got bailed was to "buss" open the head of the district constable who locked him up and also to kill everyone who was affiliated with the DC..I commented, What do u think about forgiveness ?? He looked at me in a quizzical way and disappeared from my cell without even saying he was leaving…This same jailor greeted me yesterday (Sunday), when I carried some food items for them and said pastor “yuh buss off”..Interpreted - you got off the case. I could have seen a different look in his eyes…That once cold look was now encompassed with a look of hope and change of heart.

I have had "jailors" admitting to me that they have killed, not only once or twice but many times…One jailor in particular commented that he really needs to change his lifestyle as he was forced to live this way due to the company he knocked heads with and the environment in which he lived. He said God sent me in here to see how they lived and what they go through…He even asked me to do a write up on ways to improve the penal system.

My cell mate (who by the way was the person who set up the bounce -about at Shaneil's last birthday party), commented that jail life is not my kettle of fish and that God sent me there to encourage and get an upfront view of their experiences.

I have so many other things to speak about that would serve to encourage everyone but I would probably end up writing a book.

In closing I just want to say officially to everyone that I am truly grateful for your prayers, fasting sessions, calls and well wishes. God has been great and I have yet again proven Him…God is real…God is a living God and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us..

Thanks to all my family members who rallied behind me during my time of trial and tribulation. This experience has indeed reinforced my perception of family and what it really means to me. I am just really glad to be a part of the Hays and Mcwhinneys. The church in general has been a rock and I was truly blessed to hear that brethren locally and internationally were praying for me.

Just to make it official I have been charged with a one year suspended sentence. I still have my driver’s license and I was not fined…Isn’t God truly amazing !!!!

Christians we can be a force to reckon with.. Be strong be vigilant and be committed to Almighty God…With him in the vessel we can smile at the storm.

TAMARA HAY – YOU ARE THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR. I HEARD OF PERSONS CALLING TAMARA TO ENCOURAGE HER AND THEY END UP HOLLERING DOWN THE PLACE AND TAMARA HAVING TO TELL THEM TO KEEP STRONG.. STRANGE IS’NT IT ?? TRULY A VIRTEOUS WOMAN…

MOM AND DAD- I COULD SEE THE PAIN IN YOUR EYES AS YOU SAW YOUR SON BEING TREATED LIKEA COMMON CRIMINAL. I SAW THE HURT IN YOUR EYES BUT U WERE ALWAYS THERE FOR ME…ALWAYS HAS BEEN AND NO DOUBT WILL CONTINUE TO BE THERE FOR ME.. WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS MY TRUE APPRECIATION.
THANK YOU…THANK YOU AND THANK Y'ALL AGAIN
Regards, Gregory

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