My name is Ricardo. I am 27 years old and I was raised in the streets of San Bernardino. By the age of thirteen, I was heavily involved in gangs and drugs due to the obedience of my father. My mother was a hard working woman and unfortunately was always working so I had no parental influence or male influence for that matter so I followed the closest thing I had to a father  which were my homeboys from my neighborhood. Gangs and drugs ruled my life for a long time. It didn’t take long for me to know the institutional life—I was in and out of jail and prison most of my life. The fact that I had children didn’t even change me or slow me down. I never knew the damage I was causing my children, my wife, my siblings or myself. I was under some sick delusion that I was never addicted to drugs and that I could quit whenever I wanted; that the way I was brought up it was socially acceptable, but I was truly lost. It took me almost losing my life to gangs and drugs to realize that I needed help but I had no idea how to. So I reached out in desperation to any place that would help me so that I may gain some sobriety and little did I know what was to come and what I would find. God’s Ranch took me in broken and lost. My plan was to get sober and figure out my next move, but God had other plans for me. I had not yet known the Lord or if there was even such a thing, but the first time I was introduced to the Word of God, something that I can’t explain took hold of me and changed the way I viewed life. I knew then that I had a chance to redeem myself and have an honest chance at life with a clean slate. I just had to surrender my life to Him and He would always take care of me and mold me into the man I was meant to be all praise and glory to God. Thank You Jesus!

–Ricardo Carmona