I am a hundred and four. In October I will be one hundred and five. When I was in Chicago, I had a Chicago church on the south side. That’s where Al Capone would take his people that were not faithful and dump them, not far from where my church was. There came a knock at my door and there was a man saying; “Can I see you?” I said; “Why sure, come in.” He was Al Capone’s, right-hand man. He said that there was a Moody student that led him to Christ. He said; “Now I’m going around, I wonder sometimes if they are going to really get rid of me, but no, they let me wander around.” Al Capone said that if you really got religion your free to go. I am coming to your house and I want to sale roofing. I said; “I will pay you, sir. If you talk to my trustees, you can deal with them. I’m the minister.” But that man poured out his heart to me. He told me that he was Al Capone’s, right-hand man. We had sawed-off shotguns. We’d go from one place to the other, one beer joint to the other and sale Al Capone’s beer. Of course, when they saw our sawed-off shotguns they were like; “What are you two doing?” That’s the kind of business I was in. I said; Okay God, whoever you are, hop to it and give me all this blessing that they talk about.” Let me tell you, God sure hopped to it! He took away all kinds of desires. I was a Christian. Al Capone said that if you would really get religion you don’t have to stay with my outfit. You’re free. Then after a while, Al Capone wanted to give me, as a minister, some food. Baskets of food. So we could help the poor. So I said; “Okay.” I went into a house, a room. Let me tell you, I saw that gang of gangsters. Their faces looked so gaunt. Right there, they could have taken me and dumped me somewhere else. Otherwise, we would never have survived. It’s a miracle that it all happened. So I could tell you all kinds of stories.
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