Deval Ellis

And when you get to that point, not to cut you off, when you get to that point, that is like the point where you know that In church, they say, you know that you know that you know. You know, and when you're able to get to that point, it's nothing that anybody could tell. Even if you're wrong and even if you fall from grace, you still know that you have your father and that he has you.

And when you get to that point, not to cut you off, when you get to that point, that is like the point where you know that In church, they say, you know that you know that you know. You know, and when you're able to get to that point, it's nothing that anybody could tell. Even if you're wrong and even if you fall from grace, you still know that you have your father and that he has you.

I told him not to start.

Don't forget visiting them while they was in prison.

And I would say to you too, you just have to have your own relationship. And once you have your relationship, ask God for clarity. God will give you clarity whether he sent it through Wes, if he sent it through Ms. Lawrence, if he sent it through the pastor. It might be a child or one of your kids.

You know how you were saying about being more personal? I feel like that's why we're having a hard time right now reaching this generation. For sure. Because churches be rooted in tradition. And we cannot be. In order to reach this new generation, that's what I do. I devote my time to children now, especially at-risk children.

The only way we're going, we can't reach them how Grandma done reached us. We have to reach them where they are. Let's just get them in here. And they need the love. Yeah.

Well, we definitely know my faith was tested when I was in prison. Even though I knew I was wrong, like I broke the law, and not just the law, but I went against God and I knew better. We all know to whom much is given, much is required. But I can say that my faith was really tested in the thick of it. I knew I wasn't not gonna do 30 years. I knew I wasn't gonna do 30 years, but it's like,

Faith will make you look crazy. People will begin to think you were crazy. So when people were asking me when I was going home, I would say next year and next year will come and I'll still be there. And then it got to the point where I woke up and I told him, I said, don't call me Angie anymore. Call me free. Because I felt like every time somebody said free, they were in agreement.

And so I wouldn't even answer to the officers. Call me free. Call me free because that's what I'm going to be. I'm going to be free. And I'm going to go. I begin to write my book in prison. And people would say, what is she writing a book for? She is crazy. Her time is getting to her. I'm writing a book because guess what? It's not a New York Times bestseller yet, but it's published.

It's a seed. And I begin to tell God, I said, now God, I'm helping everybody else get out of prison. I had started writing motions for people and they were leaving. And the hardest time came when I watched my friend leave. They told me I was in, it was during COVID. And they called up there. I was in confinement. They said, Corinne got immediate release. And I was like, wait a minute, Jesus.

Wait one minute. Now, wait a minute. I'm helping everybody else go. And it's working for them. And then it really was hard because this girl was not going to file for clemency. And I encouraged them. I'm like, no, you've got to file. You've got to file. Yeah. And I said, well, here. She said, I don't know how to do it. I said, take my application. Take my name off of it. Put your name.

Just change the information. Y'all, President Obama granted her clemency. Mine's got denied. My paper, that's my, and I said, well, I called my father boohoo crying. And I'm like, daddy, what's up with your guy? What's your homeboy saying? Because how is crystal free? And I'm still in prison. And that was my paperwork. But that was a time that I really had to be like,

I cried, and for three days laid there, but then I had to get up and wash my face, and I had to continue to start back to throw, God say, throw it in his face. You know how people throw something in your face, they did for you? That's what I do with God. God, you said that you would set the prisoners free. All right, hello, I'm still a prisoner. When are you going to set me free?

And I begin to say, you know, Greatest he that's in me than he that's in the world. I had to begin to speak that thing over my life. And you know, January 13th, I walked out of prison. A free woman.

You don't understand it. Crystal, Crystal Reed. Had you not been there, Crystal would still be there.

For the good of those who love the Lord. But Lord, you know for yourself. When you're in the middle of it, you can't see. You'll be like, now God, what you up to? Or it was times I'd be like.

Yes.

Yes. Yes, for sure. Always.

God sent the, I call her my mother of another color. She, you know, Caucasian woman. And when I tell y'all, this lady fought for my freedom as if she had birthed me herself. Mm-hmm. She fought and she said, I'm going to see you to the end of the door. And that's what she did. So when she came into my life, it was like, okay, I'm still here.

And then just the things that was not even directly tied to my freedom, like me asking God to keep my parents, because that was a fear of mine. You know, I was older when I got in trouble. I was 30 years old. My parents was already in their 50s. So I was saying, God, please don't allow my parents to leave this earth. Why? So he covered me. Yeah. Doing COVID and all of that. Yeah. He covered them.

He kept them. They 73. They alive and well and not on any blood pressure medication. Lord, keep my kid, you know, and he did it. So it was times that he always showed me like I got you and even some of the officers. was super nice to me when I was in confinement for 17 months.

17 months confined in a room because the government is just trying to get me to tell other people using me as intimidation factor. It was still like God still had me in that moment. He still kept me. He was just like, no, you my daughter. I got you. And I used to tell them to, you know, some of the guards that sneak me, you know, fool because they just felt bad.

And I would tell them, y'all, when I go home, Y'all gonna see me. Y'all gonna see me. Even, you know, girls that thought I was crazy and say, oh, don't pay no attention. She's just crazy. She's crazy. She's lost her mind. Her time has got to her. But now they're on my social media saying, you said this was her doing.

Yeah, but I continue to give God all the glory because it is him who I live and I move and I have my being. And I also know that I have a greater responsibility. For sure. And we have to carry that. But definitely times that my faith was tested. And even now coming home, you know, you want things to happen the way that you want them to happen. And I look and I feel like I'm not where I want to be.

But I thank God that I'm not where I could be. You know, so. Yeah, even throughout this walk, as I continue, I'm free in mind, body and spirit. But it's still times that I have to be like, OK, Lord, where you at? You said you was going to do such and such and you haven't did it. And even being here in this moment, I have to say it like the way that I met Ashana. Right.

Met her through somebody, a mutual friend. And she said to me, she said, didn't you just get an award in church? Didn't even know we attended the same church.

Yeah, but just things that I told her, you know, shared my deepest dreams with her and how she's been able. I believe God put people in your life to aid you along, to carry your dream, you know, through. And then just sitting here, just sitting here amongst y'all, you know what I mean? Just thankful in this space and in this time. It's just another that God's saying, I got you. Yeah. I got you.

Yeah, I got you.

That's right. What about you?

That's my story, long and short of it. Thank you for sharing that. Angela? I grew up in church, actually, just like you. I went to church for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My father was a pastor, so I'm a PK kid. And going to church, that's what you did. If it wasn't choir rehearsal, junior missionary board, it was just everything. Saturday, they sold dinners. It's a fundraiser.

So I grew up in church, but for me, it was different. The church was everything because that's all I knew. That's what my life was patterning around. And eventually, I got older and came to Atlanta, went to Clark Atlanta University. I graduated, but I made a left turn. and I got caught up into a big drug conspiracy case. As a first time non-violent offender, I was sentenced to 30 years.

Yeah.

I'm the supplier.

And it's just like, wait a minute, Jesus. I was looking as I didn't kill anyone. you know, physically, but what I realized is I killed a lot of people's dreams. I messed up generations to come from just one person using drugs. I didn't sell on the corner. I sold kilos. So you just think a thousand grams is in one kilo of cocaine.

and one of the directors, Jackson. He was an atheist when y'all started filming that movie. I just found this out. He was an atheist and now he saved his kids at Christian school and everything.

He said he came from, he told me this like just last week and he was saying it came from y'all prayed every day before y'all got started and everything. And I just was like, you what? I said, you was, he's like, no, I was an atheist. I just did not believe anything. And he's saved now. No one is too far behind.

That can ruin a thousand lives, but you don't look at it when you in the thick of it. But I never lost my faith. And I knew that once the word is embedded in you, people can take whatever they want to take from you. But one thing they cannot take is that word. And I stood on it.

And I never seen the righteous forsaken.

They have to get to me. Let's move that part out.

And even though I was wrong, even though I had fell and hit rock bottom, I still was able to look to the hills for what came of my help. My help came from God. So I'm sitting here. So obviously I didn't do the 30 years. So that's my story. That's my faith. I stick to it. And I know I am a beacon of light when I walk into a room. I know the gift that's within me that God has trusted me with.

Boy, give me some of that. Give me some of that. Give me some of that.

Everybody, I have a book out, Pit to Palace Mentality, and it's 10 Key Principles to See Your Way Through Your Worst Situation. There's some good principles in there. It's available on Amazon. Also, my nonprofit, it's almost tax time, y'all need a write-off, Chance to Change, and it's geared towards children who parents are incarcerated. And right now, we have a heavy focus on fighting crime.

And before I used to say I was part of the problem, but now I'm the solution. And I tell anybody on the mountaintop that it was God that did it for me.

We know the gun violence is Super high in Atlanta amongst the ages of 12 to 16 years old. So we're trying to stop that trajectory or whatever. And the podcast is on all platforms. Break free. You spell P-H-R-E-E. I still go by that. Break free. So it's available wherever audio is. It comes on YouTube every Tuesday. Make sure y'all tune in. Make sure y'all support your girl.

Crystal, I want to thank you for allowing me to be on your platform.

Thank you for giving me a space to speak, and you didn't even know me. Thank you for taking a chance on me. And to the viewers, I want to tell y'all that nothing is impossible with God. Amen. Luke 137, nothing. That is so good.

And if it's too short, the mother's coming out with the cloth. Baby, you all right? Right over that lap. Right over that lap.