|
|
| David Chang |
David Chang is a man transformed—a badman turned pastor of a fledgling church in Majesty Gardens, one of Kingston's inner-city areas.
David's troubles began early. Having dropped out of school unable to read or write, he sought respect from the community, but respect was awarded to those who carried guns and went to jail. Petty theft led to robbery for which he was caught and convicted in 1983, beginning his first prison sentence.
His year in prison proved to be a training ground for his future 'career'—he learnt about guns and how to pick-pocket. This new-found knowledge was put to work when he joined a Montego Bay gang. His quest for respect culminated in his involvement in a murder and in 1990 he was convicted and sent to prison for eight years.
The first four years inside were spent in much the same way as before—hanging around with the wrong people and getting involved in prison gangs and fighting. However, things were about to change.
The first Sunday of December 1983 David woke up feeling light and happy—a group of Christians was coming into the prison to hold a church service and David intended to go. Of course, his motives weren't entirely spiritual—visitors meant girls and badmen like the attention of girls. He went to the room, checked out where the best group of girls was and went to sit near them. He sang out loud and clear—not to praise God, but to impress the girls.
But God had other plans for him—David describes the Holy Spirit coming down on him during the service and feeling a great joy inside him. There was a call for anyone wanting to become a Christian to go forward and David went up, knowing nothing about church. Sadly, this act didn't make much difference to his behaviour.
Later, he found that his name had been included on a list of those to be baptised. He had no intention of being baptised—badmen do not get baptised in prison, where's the respect in that? But the lure of the girls and material things meant he played along with the idea to keep up the attention.
One day he was troubled with bad toothache. The prison officers wouldn't let him go to the dentist, thinking it was just a a ’s ruse. There was another church group in the prison that day and they prayed for him to be healed—the pain went away and never came back. This time he took God seriously and was finally baptised on the first Sunday of February 1994.
Now a Christian in prison, he wanted to look for a wife. Still unable to read and write, he asked a friend to send a letter to one of the newspapers, asking for a pen friend. This provoked 14 responses, which reduced to four after his reply on prison paper. He realised that it was not good to rely on someone else writing his letters. One of the four, Dionne, told him not to worry—God would help him to read and write. He began attending the prison school, where he passed exams in two subjects.
 |
| David Chang showing his Jamaica Open Bible Institute diploma |
Four years' correspondence with Dionne led to their marriage on his release, followed by the birth of their daughter, Sarah-Lee.
Now a free man, David believed that God wanted him to go to bible school and to go back to work in one of the communities he had terrorised—Majesty Gardens. He applied to Bible school, failed the written test as he could still hardly read/write, and was rejected. This did not deter him and he went to see the principal, who finally agreed to let him study. His three years' hard work paid off when he was awarded a diploma and special award in July 2002.
David is now full-time pastor of the Covenant Community Church in Majesty Gardens and is due to be officially ordained in March 2003. Because he sees himself as a Kingdom-builder not a church-builder, he has also been reaching out to those in prisons and schools.
Finally, David testifies that, having tried many other things, only Jesus Christ is the answer.