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Finding God on the Streets (Part 1 of 2)Opening: Excerpt: Pastor Dimas Salaberrios: …made it down south and that’s when I hit Street God status. I mean, we started makin’ money like I’ve never seen before. We were in the middle of several drug wars, 3. I mean, I mean, 3. End of Excerpt. John Fuller: Today on Focus on the Family, you’ll hear how that man went from a high- level drug dealer, known as a “street god,” to pastor and evangelist. Your host is Focus president, Jim Daly, and I’m John Fuller. ![]() Jim Daly: John, I met Pastor Dimas Salaberrios at a Salem radio event in Philadelphia just a couple years ago and I was so impressed by his love for the Lord. And once I heard his back story, I was even more impressed—I mean, this is a man who has overcome incredible odds and I know our listeners are gonna be fascinated by his story. Especially if you have a prodigal child and, maybe, you’ve lost hope. As you’ll hear, Dimas is living proof that no one is beyond the reach of God. No one. And Dimas Salaberrios has been a pastor for many years and has shared the gospel on every continent except Antarctica. John: Oh my. Jim: I’m sure there’s some penguins that need to hear the gospel! John: Maybe after this broadcast, he’ll get an invitation to go down there! Jim: There you go! He is the president of Concerts of Prayer, greater New York, and wants to spend the next few years mobilizing Christians to participate in large outreach events in major cities where people really need to see God’s love in action. He’s the author of the book, Street God, which tells his life story in more detail. John: And here’s Pastor Dimas Salaberrios, speaking at Harvest Fields Community Church in the Bronx on today’s Focus on the Family. Body: Pastor Dimas Salaberrios: So today I want to share with you my testimony and one of the reasons why is, the Bible says in Revelation, chapter 1. Satan by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Audience: Amen! Hallelujah. So, I want to tell you a little bit of my story. I didn’t always look the way I look right now and I just want to walk you through some really tough things, some hard things, some very real things I experienced. Now growing up, I grew up in Queens, New York in the Hollis area of Queens. This area was called Cambria Heights. My mother was a principal. My father was a captain of correction and an Air Force guy. So, I came out of the house where those, be like manicured lawns, you know. It be a very beautiful surrounding, but a couple of blocks away is where a lot of the crazy stuff would go on. And I remember, you know, my mother got me to the best school district. Her and my father had separated and he lived in Bayside, Queens and my mother still stayed in the house by Cambria Heights. So, we got into this all- white school district in Bayside. So the school took us on a trip to see the movie E. T. Any of y’all remember seein’ that? E. T. phone home, you know. And I remember, I left out of there. I was so happy. I was like 9- years- old and I said, “Man, I wish I could just ride my bike and just launch into the air, you know. I mean, that was my dream. But then when we came out of the theater, we started to walk and there was a big sign of the movie that’s coming out called Scarface. And I looked, I said, “What’s up with that?” And many of you may remember this, but Scarface was going to be … it was gonna be rated X, not because of pornography, anything like that, but it was gonna be rated X for the power of the content. So, at age 1. 0, I went in there, saw that movie and it had a real negative impact on my life. I left out of there with a dream of becoming a ‘Street God.’ I left out of there with a dream of becoming one of the largest drug dealers in New York City, at age 1. And you know, by age 1. I finally went back to middle school and I remember I was walkin’ the halls and I saw one of my friends. And this is not, you know, one of these stories like, you know, whenever we think of a drug dealer, we think of somebody with a black hoodie in an alley, like you’ll, “Come over here, my man. You know, I got the stuff.” You know, no, it wasn’t like that. It was a fellow classmate pulled out this bag of these little dots of mescaline tabs, which looked like a tip of a No. And he said … he said, “Yo, man,” he said, “you want to buy these?” He said, “I’m sellin’ ‘em for $3.” He said, “Yo, it will rock you all day. You’ll be laughin’ all day.” And I remember I was like, I didn’t believe him. I was like, “That little dot, you’re tellin’ me could do something?” He was like, “Oh, yeah.” I said, “Man, here’s $3, man. You’re frontin’.” And I took … I said, “What do you do with these?” He said, “You gotta swallow it.” So, I swallowed it. And you know, back in the day, I don’t know if people still do this today, but we were big on writing these little notes to girls that would say, “I like you. Laughter) Do you like me? Yes or no?” (Laughter and Applause) So, I wrote this girl this note and you know, a half an hour went by. I was like, “I’m feelin’ the thing.” Forty- five minutes go by, I’m like, I’m great. Then the girl walked down and she looked at me and she said, “I like you.” And I said, “You like me?” (Laughter) And the drug kicked it. I started cryin’, walkin’ down the hall, “She likes me.” (Applause) “Oh! Oh! Tamara likes me.” (Laughter) “Oh!”And then I was sittin’ in a class and I could not control my emotions. Laughter) And then walked in the principal with this man with him and they said, “Today we’re gonna have a special assembly on drugs.” I sat there. My heart was poundin’, ‘cause you know, at that age, you just feel like teachers know everything. I was like, “I’m busted.” I was like, “They’re gonna know.” And I remember I went into that assembly and the guy was talkin’ and the giggles just came over me and the guy just looked at me and I knew he knew. But then he kinda second guessed himself, like “this kid’s 1. Nah, no way and just kinda went on. Now I was there and at that point, I told my friend, I said, “I never want to take it again. I’m good.” And then my friend said, “Well, why don’t you help me sell it?” And then I said, “Oh, yeah, I could do that.” And then I became also a drug dealer at age 1. Then we took it out into the streets and I’d walk around sellin’ the mesc tabs. Then I kinda realized very quickly, I wasn’t gonna become Tony Montana [ref to Scarface movie] by sellin’ mesc tabs. So, then we found out that this girl in the neighborhood had like a pound of weed. I went to her, started hustlin’ weed, you know, did pretty good with that. And then I remember, you know, we sold out all the stuff and she didn’t know how to get more and one day we were walkin’ down to Mc. Donald’s and I went down to Mc. Donald’s and I’m … I’ll never forget it. This guy from my neighborhood, he had this beautiful Cadillac and he was only like 1. And I was like, “Dag, look at that car.”And I remember my friend said, “Yeah, man, he’s a crack dealer.” And then it went into my head, crack! That’s the way I could get a car. Laughter) I was like, “this is the way I could really do this thing.” So, I went and started working for them, hustling for them, learning, you know, the ropes, learning about jail and … and how to not get busted and stuff. And I started to get arrested from time to time, but my father, since he was the captain of correction, he knew a lot of judges, so I was getting passes over and over again. And also, my mother had money, so she always kept me with a paid lawyer, so every time I went I’d, you know, I’d get a dismissal. I would get, you know, a slap on the wrist, probation, another probation, one- year probation, a five- year probation. Over and over again, I kept getting this break until one day, the only day that I was really, really sorta innocent (Laughter), I came out [of] the house and I’m walkin’ and I was goin’ down to check on some of the workers and all these cops pulled up, surrounding me and I was like, I’m good. I’m not runnin’. I don’t have anything. And then when they pulled up, they took the drugs off this dealer that they had in the back of the car and they came and put it on me and they said, which is my street name, Daylight, they said, “Daylight, beat this one.” And I was like, oh, man. And when I went to court and I had my lawyer, he came and he said, “Look,” he said … he said, “You’ve been arrested nine times already. You’ve beaten nine different drug cases.
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