Raymond

Dear Mr. Perez,
July 20, 2008 3:00 AM

My name is Raymond. I’m 22 years old. I’m half white and half Mexican. I’m sitting in jail, waiting to go to trail. I have a fiancée, Tiffany, and we have a beautiful daughter named Brianna. I’ve been in this jail for six months. I was recently given your book “I Lived to tell about it”. I received your book two days ago, and I haven’t been able to put it down. There are many things that you and I have been through. Your book has touched my heart. I also grew up with my mother who lost me, my older sister Cindy and my younger brother Jason, due to drugs. I was sent to a foster home at age 9. There I became a person I would never thought to have become. I would sneak out, go do drugs and steal, have relations with other girls all at once. I only could do wrong things. I would be moved from one home to another. Once every year I was placed in shelters. I joined a gang at age 13. I did pretty much the same things you did. I’ve done things I’m truly sorry for. I stayed in foster homes until I was 18, at which I found my mother. I moved in with her and finished high school. Nobody would have imagined me graduating. After I graduated high school, I decided to join the Army, maybe that would straighten me out, It did. While in the Army, I did things I was told to do. I joined in 2004 during the war. I was sent to Iraq. I did a year over there, came back and couldn’t stand myself. I asked God to come into my life, as I accepted him as my Savior. I met my fiancée in late 2005. Then I was slipping. I did cocaine at a party one night, and I paid a major price. I was drug tested the next day. I was kicked out of the Army in mid July 2006. I received a general with honorable conditions discharge. I moved home to Texas and started working with my step-dad. He owned a brick company. I did that for awhile. My mother and Tiffany didn’t get along, so we moved to Florida, where I worked with the mentally disabled. I did that for a couple months. My daughter Brianna was born January 17th, 2007. While having problems with my fiancée. The state of Florida took my daughter from me in July 2007. I was arrested in February 2008. I’m having a hard time mentally and spiritually. This is the only time I have really been in jail. I’ve been arrested before, but never spent time in jail. I haven’t gotten any clue as to when I’m getting out. I haven’t held my daughter in almost a year because of this.

I just finished your book this morning. I wanted to write to you and tell you Thank You. Your book has showed me how much I have been turning my back on God. There were parts in your book, like when you accepted God, that June 7th, 1979 night. I cried cause I need to start letting God show me the way. I wanted to thank you, and ask you to pray for me. Pray for my family, Tiffany and Brianna. I am not able to talk to them because of money issues. Your book touched my heart. Thank you very much. It had to be God who placed your book in my hands.

Thank you and God Bless!
Raymond
Pinelles County Jail