Meet Terrell Jones

We were lucky to catch up with Terrell Jones recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Terrell, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

Well, it all started when I was a kid in my mother’s womb. She was addicted to heroin and cocaine very badly. She was also a booster in the hood of Pittsburgh, PA. She did drugs so much while I was in her stomach that when I was born, I almost died at birth for having a ton of drugs in my system as an infant. The doctor told my family that If I ever did drugs in my life that it was a huge possibility that I could die. After I was born, my mother did a lot of deals with drug dealers and people from different gangs & mafias. She ended up owing some money to one of them that she couldn’t repay. Because she couldn’t repay them, they kidnapped me and held me for ransom. She ended up not being able to pay them. So she informed my entire family and police of my kidnapping. The search then began…After weeks of not being able to find me. One day after a long day of searching, everyone wanted to get something to eat. While entering the restaurant that everyone chose, one of the kidnappers ended up walking out of the restaurant with me in their arms. They saw me in his arms and chased him until they were able to recover me. I was unbothered and whole when they received me back. Sadly, two weeks later that crew ended up executing my mother. They shot her 4 times in the head and left her body in the back of a cab. At this point, all 5 children (1 brother & 3 sisters) moved to St. Louis, Missouri with my great aunt. Weeks after we arrived, her husband died of cancer. So she had 5 new children along with her own 3 children to raise all on her own. As I got older, I got really bad. I was attracted to street life very quickly. i started drinking beer and smoking weed. I started sneaking out a night hanging out with gang members. It got to the point where I didn’t want to follow my Aunt’s rules, so I ran away from home at the age of 12. I immediately joined the 19th street crip gang. The way you get initiated into a gang is to take a brutal beating. I got beat up badly because I was looking for love and significance. I started fighting other rival gangs along with robbing people and breaking into houses and cars. I ended up becoming homeless and started sleeping in crack houses and the back of stalled cars. I saw so many people get murdered in my face. It got really bad but then I got caught by the police and sent to juvenile for running away from home. So at the age of 14, I was sent to a boy’s home called Father Dunne’s Boys Home. I stayed there for 2 years. I got put on restriction at the boy’s home for something I didn’t do, got very upset, and ran away from the boy’s home at 16 years old. I’ve been on my own ever since that day. From the age of 16 to the age of 33 I lived a life of pure hell on earth. I ended up getting addicted to drugs as well. I started with cocaine and ended up on heroin as well. I had a gram-a-day habit. During that time I got robbed at gunpoint by my own best friend. He shot at my head in my house while forcing me to do the drugs with him that he robbed me. I have so many life-and-death situations that happen to me during that time frame. The two that forced me to wake up were as follows. One day, I got so high on heroin that while slicing meat at Shop n Save, I ended up cutting my entire ring finger off while working because I was so high. I ended up getting a settlement check for 7 thousand dollars. i took that money and bought a ton of heroin to sell, I wanted to stay as high as I could. The guy that sold it to me sent 3 masked men to my house to rob me of the drugs he sold me. That caught me at the back door with a 38 revolver gun pointed to my head, When I would give up the drugs, he pulled the trigger, When the gun jammed and he looked at it wondering why it didn’t go off, it gave me enough time to force him out the door and slam it shut. They had my son and cousin in my car at gunpoint as well. When I came out the front door to save my son and cousin, I saw they left them and took off running. I didn’t know God then but I knew it was a higher power that saved my life because revolvers don’t jam! God stopped that bullet from going off. The last one woke me up. I saw my sister one day in 7-Eleven and was so high that I didn’t even know who she was. When she came tp my house the next day and told me. I knew it was time for a change. I ended up moving to Atlanta, GA. I believe that move saved my life because I never returned. I shared this same testimony on my Pastor’s show called “Your World With Creflo.’ After the taping, I met with Pastor Dollar and he told me he believed that God saved me from all of that because of my purpose. I believe when Jesus found me and I accepted Him as Lord, He helped me to understand that He saved my life all of that time for one purpose and one purpose only, to tell the world about His goodness and what He’s done for all of mankind. Died on the cross for people like me to be saved from the street life that I had no way of changing. I am now ministering as a Pastor at World Changers Church International with my Spiritual Dad, Creflo Dollar.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

My name is Terrell Jones and I have a podcast called ” The Grace Exchange” This interactive podcast where we exchange our thoughts for God’s thoughts on the Gospel of Grace. We have a segment on Thursdays called Thursday” ‘s Thoughts by Terrell. Where I go live on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram & TikTok and share my thoughts on whatever topics God gives me for that week. I also bring on different guests and answer any questions about the Gospel of Grace. I also allow any guests who have questions to come up on the live stream and ask any questions they have in regards to better understanding the Gospel of Jesus. Our goal of this Podcast is to tear down the doors of religion and teach the truth about how God loves this world and sent His Son to die for the sins of the entire world. All He wants from mankind is to accept what His son has done and develop an intimate, one-on-one relationship with Him.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The three to four most important qualities I’ve learned from my life are resilience, persistence, endurance & determination. The best way to grow in these areas is to do things that take you out of your comfort zone. You can never grow in your comfort zone. Most importantly, develop in knowing God for yourself.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I’m looking to collaborate with anyone who has a heart for people and also a passion for helping people better understand the love of God. I believe there are people reading this and God will touch your heart to collaborate with me to join this revolution of helping people understand this wonderful, too-good-to-be-true news about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s too much bad, religious teaching out here that misrepresents God. I believe the people that read this will already know in their hearts it’s something they want to collab on. I welcome any one that feels led by God to join me in this movement!

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