This is a guest post by Bethany Jarmul from Reach Northeast.
John Alarid has been many things in his life – a missionary’s son, a drug addict, a gang member, a drug dealer, a fugitive on-the-run, a criminal, and now, thanks to the life-changing power of Jesus, a pastor and church planter. He will be launching CityReach Church Springfield in Springfield, Missouri in March of 2016.
GROWING UP
John grew up around the things of God. His parents were missionaries, and he accepted Jesus at the age of four. However, his parents got divorced when he was in middle school and John began skipping school, drinking, and using drugs. “My uncles were involved in criminal life styles, and I looked up to them. They had big cars and big houses,” John says.
BAD DECISIONS
After graduating from high school, John attended the University of New Mexico. He started selling drugs and got involved with a gang. At 20 years old, John got his first cocaine trafficking charge. He dropped out of college to sell drugs and get high. He was in and out of jail until 1998. Being fluent in both English and Spanish, he started making fake IDs for Mexican cartel members to help them cross the border.
One night in 1998, outside of a 7-Eleven corner store, John stabbed a man during a drug deal gone wrong. “I thought, ‘Oh no, now I really did it.’” The man that John stabbed survived, but John went on the run from the attempted murder charge. John intended to flee to Mexico because he spoke fluent Spanish and had relatives there.
