My Story

By Randy Rich

My dad was a cop and a good father. He took me camping, skiing, on motorcycle trips
and on vacations. In addition to being a full time police officer, he worked overtime,
special duty and he ran his own photography business on the side. He did all of this so
that we could have a nice life. And even though my parents divorced when I was a
teenager, I had grown up in a family full of love.

My parents took me to church as a kid. In my teenage years I always wanted to know if

God was real but I wanted to know for the wrong reasons. I wanted to know what I could
get away with. I never cared who Jesus was – I just wanted to know if God was real,
because if He was, I figured I would have to follow His rules. I would call to God for
help if I had gotten myself into trouble but I didn’t look to him any other time. As a teen
and into my early twenties, instead of turning to God for answers, I turned to philosophy.
I figured if I could prove that God was not real, then I could do whatever I wanted – have
sex with whoever, steal, lie, etc. All I was really interested in was MORE for ME – more
sex, more beer, more money, a bigger house, nicer cars and motorcycles, more stuff for
me. I even thought that if I could prove there was no God I could share that with others
and be famous.

One night when I was 21 my dad called me from work just to see how things were going
and to tell me that he loved me. I told him that I had a date tomorrow with a girl I’d met
at work and he was very happy for me.

After we talked he went back to work patrolling the freeways of Columbus and I went
back to drinking some beer with my friends. About one in the morning he pulled over a
traffic violator. The driver didn’t have a license on him so my dad put him in the back
seat of his cruiser. Well, apparently this man had possibly done a crime earlier in the day
and thought my dad knew about it. As my dad ran a computer check for his license, the
man reached up, grabbed my dad around the neck and wrestled my dad’s gun from him.
He then shot my dad three times in the head and the neck. The man got in his car and
drove away. My dad lived long enough to call for help on the radio but died on his way
to the hospital.

Thanks to some civilians following the suspect and thanks to street officers doing a great
job, the killer was arrested within minutes. His name was James Rattler.

My mom used to say that “God does everything for a reason,” but I couldn’t figure out
His reasoning for this. I was pissed at God, IF there was a God.

When it was time for the case to go to trial the prosecutor told us that Rattler was willing
to plead guilty if he didn’t get the death penalty. That was all I needed to hear. If he was
willing to plead guilty then he must actually BE guilty and he was just looking for the
best deal. I wanted him dead. I wanted him to get the death penalty and if he didn’t, I
wanted to kill him myself. I kept trying to think of ways to get into jail to kill him
myself.

But we decided it was safest to take the plea deal and he was sentenced to LIFE in prison
with no chance of parole for 33 years. I resorted to just hoping that he had a miserable
life in prison.

I tried to go on with my life. I got a career. Before my dad was killed, I was in the hiring
process to become a Columbus Police officer myself. He never got to see me achieve
that goal. I was hired in August of 1986. I got married, got a house, had kids and
graduated college. I did all of the things that I thought would bring satisfaction to my
life, but nothing seemed to satisfy me completely. After my dad had been dead about
seven years, I started to REALLY wonder if God was real. If my kids ever came up to
me and asked me if God was real, I wanted to have an answer for them. But, I also
wanted to know if He was real because I had reached a new low. I was considering
cheating on my wife for purely sexual reasons. As if I hadn’t cheated on her enough with
pornography and lust.

At one family event, I sat and listened to my step-father – a person I used to avoid
because he would talk about Christianity so much. He said, “Randy, you can be the best
person you know how to be, you can follow the Ten Commandments as best you can and
give money to charity but still not make it to heaven.” This puzzled me but it got me
curious. He gave me a bible and told me that Jesus was God who came to earth as a
person. I wondered, “If God came to earth as a person what would he say? How would
he answer our questions? How would he answer MY questions?” Fortunately, the bible
my step-father gave me had the words of Jesus written in red and as I read the New
Testament, I loved getting to those red words. I’d put them to the test. I wasn’t a
believer yet but I kept reading.

Then I read the part where the disciples were on a boat in a storm and they were petrified
that they were going to die. Jesus wasn’t worried, he was asleep. They woke him up
saying, “Lord save us! We are perishing! But Jesus said, “WHY ARE YOU FEARFUL,
O YOU OF LITTLE FAITH?” It was as if he was talking to me. Here the disciples had
been with him and seen him do so many miracles; healing the sick, bringing the dead to
life and yet they were worried about their own butts. I could just hear Jesus saying to me
“WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO TRUST ME, REALLY TRUST ME? YES, I WORK
IN OTHER PEOPLE’S LIVES. ARE YOU GOING TO LET ME WORK IN YOUR
LIFE?” At that point, I made a conscious decision to trust Christ with my life. Basically
I gave him my life to see what he would do with it, because what I was doing was
messing it up. I felt a sweeping peace flow through me and most all of my old
philosophical questions were answered in an instant. In an instant, I KNEW God was
real. I didn’t’ have to wonder anymore. My first thought was, “I have to tell people
about this, I’ve found the answer.” Remember when I wanted to PROVE God wasn’t
real? Well here was God proving to me that He was real so I wanted to tell people. But
I’m a shy, quiet introvert who doesn’t feel comfortable around people. I also knew that I
didn’t want to be a ‘pushy Christian’ and turn people away from Jesus. I figured I’d just
share it with family and some friends but God had different plans.

A few months later, my family and I were on vacation and we took a tour of Alcatraz –
the prison for the “worst-of-the-worst.” A former prisoner named ‘Whitey’ Thompson
was selling a book he had written about his life. He had turned his life around after
prison and even had a U.S. President offer to clear his record years after he had served all
of his time but Whitey declined. I read the book and he never asked for sympathy, he just
wrote about his life in and out of prison. These are not his words but I learned that he
grew up in a family with no love. His father was an abusive alcoholic and his mother
abandoned the family and him when he was four years old. He made a decision at an
early age to never trust another person. After he had been in prison for several years,
the guards came to his cell one day and said, “Come on out you’ve got a visitor.” Whitey
said, “No, I don’t.” They said, “Yes, you do. Now come on out!” He told them, “You’ve
got the wrong man. There isn’t a person on this earth who would come to visit me.” He
was right. It was a mistake. He said that because he had been in prison for fifteen years
strait without one visitor or one letter. When I read that, it stuck to my heart. It didn’t
matter to me whose fault it was – his fault, his parents, society’s fault – to think that
someone could be that alone in life bothered me.

My thoughts quickly turned to James Rattler. I started to wonder how he grew up and
what prison was like for him. I couldn’t hate him any more. Christ had taken the hate
out of my heart. I actually cared about him. Late one night the Holy Spirit led me to
write this letter to him.
To: James Lumpkin-Rattler

You’ve never met me but we have a connection. You killed my father. What I
want you to know about me is that I am a Christian, which means that I believe in God, I
believe in Jesus and I believe that Jesus died for all sinners. I have sinned and am not a
perfect person. You have sinned and are not perfect. We never will be perfect. Nothing
on earth will ever be perfect. But the Lord forgives. He Loves You. He can answer any
question you have about life. But you have to ask. To do this you just need to talk to
him by praying.
You and I probably grew up in very different ways. I was lucky to be born into a
family full of Love. My dad worked very hard, and did the best he could at being a father.
He spent time with me, took me places, taught me, punished me when I needed it, told me
he was proud of me when I did something good, and often told me he loved me. I don’t
know much of your family life growing up. But if you did not have this kind of
relationship with your family, I’m sorry. You may feel that nobody in this world Loves
you. That is wrong. God Loves you. He made you and God does not make junk. Yes,
you have done some terrible things in the past. But that is the past. God forgives you and
if he can then so can I. You may have to spend years and years in prison for what you have
done but Faith can get you through it.
I need to tell you that my dad’s father died just a couple of years before I was born
and he never got to see his grandchildren. My dad once told me that he wanted to live long
enough to meet his grandchildren. That did not happen. He was killed one day before he
could have met the lady who is now my wife and just two and a half years before his first
grandson was born. He never got to meet any of the four grandsons he now has. This is
what is hardest for me to deal with and what makes it so hard for me to forgive you. But I
know that he will meet them all in heaven. I know that God does everything for a reason
and we may not always understand why he does what he does. Because my dad was killed
I appreciate life on earth more because I know the time we have here is only temporary.
I don’t like to force my religion on other people. But God has saved me. You hear
that all the time and don’t always think about what it means.
Here is what God has saved me from:
• A world of Hate: I could hate you for what you did but that would not bring my
father back. I could teach my kids to hate you or hate black people or hate poor
people or hate rich people but then the world would not get better it would get
worse. More people would die and more kids would not have fathers and I would
fail to see the beauty in this world.
• A world of Sin: I could say that you sinned against me by killing my Dad so I
should be able to kill someone in your family or kill you. But that would not make
things better only worse.
• A world of Greed and temptation: If I only think about myself then I’m not doing
what is best for my family and your family and all people on earth.
• A world of no Hope: There is hope. For you and for me. The bible says that the
three most important things are Faith, Hope and Love and the greatest of these is
Love.

You may not know much about religion, you may not even know how to read. You
may not know how to go about learning about God. I will help you. You may even be
muslim which I don’t know much about. I can only say that if it teaches you to hate
anybody, it is wrong. If you want to learn about God there are three easy ways to start.
1. Pray to God. Ask him to help you understand. Ask him to forgive you for
things you have done in the past.
2. Ask a minister, pastor, or priest any questions you have about life or God.
3. Learn about Jesus. Here is a secret- Jesus is God- he came to this earth and
helped people. He told us what we need to know. What he said and did is
written down in the New Testament of the bible. You can either read parts
of it or have someone read it to you. It will change you. A lot of the people
in the bible were in prison when they wrote it.

I wish you Peace and Happiness (it can be found inside prison walls). Here is a
prayer given to us by God which I say several times a week:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against
us
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever
Amen.

From
Randy Rich
(mailed sometime in 1997 or 1998)
I mailed that letter on faith but I didn’t tell ANYBODY about it. I knew it was right in my
heart and I knew it was right in God’s eyes, but I figured no one would understand. I didn’t
tell my wife or my mother. I especially didn’t tell any of the police officers I work with. I
figured I never would. Some of the officers I worked with were there the night my dad was
killed. I had this feeling, that just like I used to think, that most all cops thought that all
killers should be executed, especially a cop killer.

A few months later I got a letter from Rattler and before I read it I was scared and excited
at the same time. I was scared that he might say, “Screw you, I didn’t kill your dad,” or
“Yea, I killed your dad and I enjoyed it.” Or would he make a lot of excuses and blame
my dad? He didn’t do any of that. He said he cried when he read the letter. He said he
didn’t know how I could forgive him after all the pain he’d put me through and he said he
couldn’t stand to look at himself in the mirror and he wished he could end his life.
We’ve written back and forth now for several years and I truly think he’s come to the
Lord, but I can NEVER judge that. That’s between him and God. I have enough trouble
judging if I’m being a good follower of Jesus (Christian) on a daily basis.

But that’s only a small part of the story. Since I wrote that letter my life has changed.
You see, I thought I was doing it to help Rattler to know God better but God surprised
me. I found out it helped me and even others just as much or more. God used it to open
my eyes and to grow my faith.

I showed the letter to my wife and my mom and neither thinks I’m crazy. In fact, my
wife seems to understand me better and our marriage has been strengthened. She used to
think that I just bottled up my anger inside of me and that someday I was going to
explode. She was probably right; before I accepted Christ into my heart. She talked me
into giving a copy of my letter to a friend who hated his mother for some terrible things
she had done to him. They hadn’t spoken for years. I didn’t want to give it to him
because I’m a keep-to-myself kinda guy. But after he read the letter he called his mom,
told her he forgave her and now they’ve patched things up. Now his mother comes to
visit him and her grandchildren. Wow! A grandmother now visits her grandchildren all
because I handed a guy a piece of paper. I liked this feeling of being used by God for His
good.

That began the process of me sharing my story with others and following God’s lead
even if it led me out of my comfort zone. Not too long after that a few of my friends
mentioned to me that there was an ongoing prison ministry team in the area and
suggested that I join. I initially thought that a cop going into prison to interact with the
inmates might not be a good idea. My current assignment on the department is S.W.A.T.
and the criminals we lock up don’t usually see too much of us. They’re usually more
ticked at the lead detectives. But I had worked undercover narcotics for years and
wondered what an inmate might do if he found that out. Or worse, what if I ran into one
that I had locked up? I’d always heard that you cannot trust any of them but I was
learning that you can trust God. All of those negative thoughts that would have kept me
from going into prison were not enough to outweigh how important it was for others to
come to know how much God loves them. I felt a little bit like a “lamb being led to
slaughter” that the bible talks about but I didn’t care. I had the Joy of the Lord and I
wanted to share it.

So I joined KAIROS Prison Ministry which is a national and international ministry that is
now in 32 of the United States and several other countries as well. I knew that KAIROS
put on three day weekends for the Inmates which were similar to the Cursillo/Walk-to-
Emmaus type weekend that I had attended months earlier. My Cursillo weekend was life
changing and it helped me to not be a closet Christian any more and it helped lead me to
write that letter to my father’s killer. If you want to know God better or if you want to
see how God works through people, I recommend that you look into such a weekend in
your area.

So when I joined the prison ministry team I knew vaguely how it worked but I had no
idea what to expect. I discovered that I would be on a team of 50 men going in to give a
short course on Christianity to 42 inmates. Those 50 volunteers were from as many
different Christian dominations as you can imagine (Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, small
churches with odd names, even Messianic Jews and more) but throughout the team
meetings we set aside ALL of our differences and became a united “Body of Christ”
going in to share the Love of Christ with the men inside. The first part of my personal
assignment was simple enough; serve drinks and cookies to one group of the inmates
throughout the weekend. But the second part of my assignment would definitely lead me
out of my comfort zone and, if the Evil One would have had his way, I would have
“chickened out” and quit. I was assigned to give a personal witness talk to the whole
group. Probably my biggest fear in life is talking to large groups of people. Buying dope
undercover and going on SWAT missions is ok but public speaking scares the hell out of
me. But I knew that God was (and is) in control so I did it.

I wish I could put into words how amazing, how awesome and how powerful it was to
watch God work on that weekend. Those words will have to suffice for now. Our God is
amazing, awesome and powerful! Near the end of the weekend, during a song, I saw a
heavily tattooed white inmate holding up a songbook to share it with a black inmate.
Both were leaning in close to read the words. I don’t know why this caught my eye but it
did. After the weekend, I came to find out that the white inmate was the leader of the
Arian Brotherhood, a white supremacist gang, in the prison. A few days after the
weekend, this leader met with some of his gang in the chapel. In the presence of prison
staff and the warden, he told them he was dropping out of the gang. He said he loved
them like brothers but he loved his black brothers also. Subsequently, he had death
threats by his old gang but they subsided and, as told to me by the warden, he became a
peacemaker in the institution. And that’s just how the weekend affected that one inmate
on the weekend. There were 41 other inmates, prison staff and corrections officers and
more than 50 volunteers who all got to see God working on that weekend. I later came to
find out that this sort of thing happens all the time on Kairos weekends throughout the
country and throughout the world.

One of the main goals of Kairos is not to get these men out of prison, but to help them
change the environment in which they live from an environment of hate and mistrust to
one of love and concern for themselves and others. During a weekend we begin each
presentation with the following Kairos Community Prayer: “Jesus, Come join us as we
seek your will for this community in this environment. Teach us to love others as you
love us. To give ourselves as you give yourself. That the Kingdom of God might be made
present to all.” Let me tell you, it works (God works) because the environment at this
prison was changing. At this point, Kairos had been at this institution, Marion
Correctional, for three years and prior to that it was considered - by prisoners and staff -
to be one of the rougher prisons in Ohio. “Officer Down” calls for Corrections Officers
were commonplace and the staff had to deal with all kinds of reports of assaults and other
problems. But after Kairos and some other programs were implemented, prisoners and
prison officials from other institutions around Ohio started referring to this prison as
“God’s House.” I later spoke with a Warden from another prison who said he was at his
wit’s end trying to quell the violence at his institution and wanted to somehow bring
peace instead. He said he toured Marion to see how they did it. He learned about Kairos.
He spoke with one Corrections officer who said it was now ‘boring’ because ‘officer
down’ calls were so infrequent. That warden then allowed Kairos into his prison. I later
got to see his relationship with the Lord grow and some peace come to his institution.

Seeing God work so powerfully in my presence got me hooked as it does so many other
Kairos volunteers. I have served on at least one weekend a year since 1999 and the
miracles never cease. On several occasions I’ve seen the Warden’s biggest trouble
makers become some of the Warden’s biggest helpers. After a Kairos weekend one
prisoner confided that he had spent his years in prison planning how he was going to kill
four people that testified against him. He said he didn’t even mind if he had to come
back to prison for it. But, after his weekend he said he was able to forgive them and now
he knew he wouldn’t be coming back when he got out.

I know that a prisoner could say that he ‘got religion’ in order to impress a parole board
but when I look at them I look at their actions. One former gang leader, after going
through Kairos and trusting the Lord, later took on the role of leader of the silent choir in
the chapel and learned sign language to lead a group of forty inmates in a beautiful
display of various Christian songs. They looked beautiful to me but he probably
wouldn’t look very manly or cool to his old gang members. He also now subjects
himself to extra strip searches and shackles so that he can be transported to Juvenile
detention centers to talk to teens about how his old way of life is no way to live. Jesus
said, “I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly!” (John 10:10). That
man has a ‘life’ sentence but now he would tell you that he has an abundant life and he
always seems to have a smile on his face. He’s constantly helping the warden and those
around him. He may die in prison but, prayerfully, he’s helping some of the young
‘tough guys’ who will be released back onto our streets.

I served one weekend in Ohio’s maximum security prison where racial tensions between
the whites, the blacks and the Hispanics were very high. On the second day I got up to
go to the restroom during a break. While I was waiting to be let into the caged bathroom
by a Corrections Officer I asked him, “What do you think of all of this (Kairos)?” He
said, “If you had this same group of inmates out on the yard at the same time it would be
a bloodbath.” I turned and looked back at the group of inmates I had been sitting with.
Not one had gotten up on the break to smoke or go to the restroom or to go talk to
friends. Instead, the group of three whites and three blacks were actively working
together to finish a poster drawing that we had been working on. At the closing
ceremony of that weekend the inmates individually went to a microphone to tell what the
weekend meant to them if they wished to do so. While one black inmate was at the
podium, he said to the other prisoners, “As far as my influence goes, and I have
influence, the violence stops now.” He then walked over to a male Hispanic inmate and
publicly hugged him.

I’ve seen a Pagan worshiper, a Buddhist and a Muslim begin to follow Christ after Kairos
weekends. I’ve seen Corrections Officers come to the Lord also and I’ve seen countless
other miracles. To a non-believer, I could not prove these miracles but I don’t have to. I
know that God changes people and works miracles because He changed me. I was
completely self-absorbed person until Christ came into my heart. Now, there is not one
area in my life that God has not made huge improvements on. He has blessed my
marriage, my relationships with my kids, my finances, my stress level, my ability to be a
police officer and every other aspect of my life as I continually turn to Him. I know that
none of the prisoners that I visit deserve God’s Love but I never deserved it and still
don’t. And you don’t deserve it either. But He loves you anyway.

God’s been showing me how He works through love and forgiveness. He keeps blessing
me with peace, understanding and joy and I want YOU to have those in abundance.
Forgiveness is huge. It’s how you’re going to make your marriage last. It’s how you’re
going to deal with a boss that you may not agree with. It’s how you’re going to make it
through your shift without using excessive force on some ‘knucklehead’ that seems to
desperately deserve it. Turn those problems over to God and let Him take control. He
doesn’t take sides, He takes over. I’ll be praying for you.

God Loves You and So Do I,

Randy Rich

Below is a collection of scriptures that relate to my testimony and if you decide to share
my story with others please add these scriptures.
 To hate or judge

Matt 5:21-22
Jesus said, “You have heard that people were told in the past, ‘Do not commit murder;
anyone who does will be brought to trial.’ But now I tell you: if you are angry with your
brother you will be brought to trial…and if you call your brother a worthless fool you
will be in danger of going to the fire of hell.”

1John 3:15
“Those who hate others are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal
life in them.”

James 1:20
“Human anger does not achieve God’s righteous purpose.” (Another translation says
“The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”)

1John 2:9-11
“If we say that we are in the light, yet hate others, we are in the darkness to this very
hour. If we love others, we live in the light…But if we hate others, we are in the
darkness; we walk in it and do not know where we are going, because the darkness has
made us blind.”

1John 4:20
“If we say that we love God, but hate others, we are liars.”

Romans 10:6-7
“You are not to ask yourself, who will go up into heaven? Nor are you to ask, who will
go down into the world below?”

Romans 2:1
“If you think you can judge others, you are wrong. When you judge them, you are really
judging yourself guilty; because you do the same things they do. God judges those who
do wrong things, and we know that His judging is right.”(NCV)

Romans 11:32
“For God has made all people prisoners of disobedience, so that He might show mercy to
them all.”

God can change people

Ezekiel 11:19
“I will take away their stubborn heart of stone and will give them an obedient heart.”
(One song puts it this way: “I will break their hearts of stone, give them hearts for love
alone.”)
2Cor 5:16-17
“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once
regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” (NIV)

Luke 15:7
Jesus said, “I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than
over ninety-nine respectable people who do not need to repent.”

Matt 9:12-13
“Jesus heard them and answered,… ‘Go and find out what is meant by the scripture that
says: It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices. I have not come to call
respectable people, but outcasts.’”

1Peter 4:6
“That is why the good news was preached also to the dead, to those who had been judged
in their physical existence as everyone is judged; it was preached to them so that in their
spiritual existence they may live as God lives.”

Romans 3:20
“For no one is put right in God’s sight by doing what the law requires; what the law does
is to make us know that we have sinned.”

Matt 19:26
“Jesus looked straight at them and answered, ‘This is impossible for human beings, but
for God everything is possible.’”

What we are called to do

Matt 5:44
Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may
become the children of your Father in heaven.”

John 21:22
Jesus talking to Peter about a disciple said, “If I want him to live until I come, what is that
to you? Follow me.”

Romans 12:17-21
“If someone has done you wrong, do not repay him with a wrong. Try to do what
everyone considers to be good. Do everything possible on your part to live in peace with
everybody. Never take revenge, my friends, but instead let God’s anger do it. For the
scripture says, ‘I will take revenge, I will pay back, says the Lord.’ Instead, as the
scripture says: ‘If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them a
drink; for by doing this you will make them burn with shame.’ Do not let evil defeat
you; instead, conquer evil with good.”
Matt 18:21-22
“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, if my brother keeps on sinning against me,
how many times do I have to forgive him? Seven times?’ ‘No, not seven times,’
answered Jesus, ‘but seventy times seven.’”

Matt 6:14-15
Right after giving the disciples the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus said, “If you forgive others the
wrongs they have done to you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do
not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done.”

What Jesus did

Romans 5:7-8
“It is a difficult thing for someone to die for a righteous person. It may even be that
someone might dare to die for a good person. But God has shown us how much He loves
us-it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!”

Luke 23:34
When Jesus was on the cross He said this about the people who were killing him:
“Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”
Unless otherwise stated, scriptures are from the “Today’s English Version-Good News Bible”
_______________________________________________________

Jesus forgave his own killers and He forgave us. When we turn to Him, we then see how
we persecuted Him. When we hate and persecute other people, we hate and persecute
Christ. Matt 25:45-46 says at the final judgment “The King will reply, ‘I tell you,
whenever you refused to help one of these least important ones, you refused to help me.’”

I’ve heard that, “Bitterness is a poisonous drink that we make for someone else but end
up drinking ourselves.”

I have also heard it said that, “To forgive is to set a prisoner free. The prisoner you set
free is YOURSELF.”