Armando’s Story: From Darkness to Light

Armando has spent much of his life behind bars. Once a major drug trafficker in South Texas, his crimes included trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, and even working with corrupt prison officials to supply drugs inside the system. For years, his identity was bound up in power, violence, and the worship of Santa Muerte - ”the saint of death.” In his cell, he kept a shrine to this figure, clinging to the false promises it represented.

But on July 4th of this year, Armando experienced his own Independence Day. After months of hearing the Gospel and seeing God at work in the lives around him, he made a bold decision: he destroyed his shrine to Santa Muerte and surrendered his life to Jesus Christ.

From that moment, everything began to change. Soon after, Armando was moved temporarily into Building 11, where he met another inmate named Miguel. Their friendship quickly turned into something deeper. One day they opened their Bibles together at 11 a.m. and didn’t close them again until 3 a.m. the next morning. For nearly 16 hours they read, prayed, and shared what God was teaching them. The hunger for God’s Word was so strong that other inmates even asked the guards to turn off the fans so they could hear Armando preaching.

Not long after, Armando and Miguel were assigned as cellmates in another block. There, their commitment to following Jesus grew even stronger. Without access to a chapel or formal service, they filled their sink with water and baptized one another’s doing what they could with what they had to obey Christ’s command.

Now, both men are reading the Bible together every morning. Miguel has even expressed a desire to fast and seek God more deeply. Armando has been telling leaders, “I don’t care if my prison status never changes. I just want to be used by God.”

Armando’s journey is a powerful reminder that no one is beyond the reach of God’s grace. From trafficking drugs and bowing to idols, he is now leading others to the truth of Christ - right inside the very prison walls where he once fueled destruction.

What started with one man tearing down a shrine has become a movement of hope, discipleship, and transformation.