God's Road to Manson & Me

By Rick Jones

"For nothing shall be impossible with God..."

"Why me, God?" I asked.

"Because only you can do this," the Holy Spirit replied.

This is the true and compelling story about how walking in faith, hand in hand down GOD'S ROAD opened my eyes to a world for which I had no blueprint.

GOD'S ROAD to Manson and Me will

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Jan 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781647730857

Book preview

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God’s Road to Manson and Me

Rick Jones

Trilogy Christian Publishers

TUSTIN, CA

Trilogy Christian Publishers

A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive

Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2020 by Rick Jones

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www. zondervan. com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc. TM

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www. Lockman. org.

Scripture quotations marked NKJVare taken fromthe New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. , Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without written permission from the author. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

Rights Department, 2442 Michelle Drive, Tustin, CA 92780.

Trilogy Christian Publishing/TBN and colophon are trademarks of Trinity Broadcasting Network.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-64773-084-0

ISBN 978-1-64773-085-7 (ebook)

Contents

Dedication v

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction xiii

1. Our Big Move 1

2. God’s Ordained Call 9

3. Heaven to Hell 23

4. Blythe, Here We Come! 35

5. Ironwood State Prison 43

6. God’s Call for Duty 53

7. Lil’ Beirut 68

8. Home Sweet Home 85

9. Gang Banger or Drug Dealer? 94

10. Are You Kidding Me? 105

11. The Desert Welcome 122

12. Walking Dead 142

13. Automatic Pilot 153

14. What Next? 171

15. Won’t He Do It? 185

16. Baby B 200

17. Welcome to Corcoran 215

18. The Journey Begins 223

19. Faith Tested 232

20. God Cannot Lie 248

21. The Manson Whisperer 258

22. His Own Words 272

23. Broken Spirit 275

24. You Idiot 283

25. Gone, but Not Forgotten 288

26. Living Water 295

Conclusion 300

Epilogue 301

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my loving and patient Father, Almighty God. You have given me wisdom beyond measure and an understanding that is priceless.

The One and Only true God who is Faithful until the end. Luke 1:37 FOR NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD.

I would also like to dedicate this book to all of the hundreds of thousands of lives that have been lost due to the world’s coronavirus pandemic! My heart bleeds for all of the families affected. God feels your pain and your loss, and He mourns with you. Continue to be strong, keep the faith, and the Lord will see you through.

Acknowledgements

To my beautiful, faithful, and loving wife, PTJ aka Ampobble: Your strength is immeasurable. What a journey this has been. I know I have been a hardheaded, stubborn man at times! (You’d better not be agreeing with this! Lol.) God has been so good to us! We’ve never missed a meal or skipped paying a bill! The struggle was real, but the promised land was everything that we could have imagined and more! Love you until our last breaths.

I’m blessed to have had many friends over the course of my journey. I can’t list you all due to lack of space, but you know who you are! However, I’d like to thank my brother Big J for holding me up. God did it! TJ, my Lil Chihuahua, God bless you, my dear friend. Thanks for always looking out for me and for giving me a place to rest my head. Shay (Chicken Hawk), soldiers for life. Love you, man! Timothy (Teach) Jones, words cannot express how I feel about you. You’re NOT a nephew, but my brother! Love you more than you know! (Keep doing what you do, your time is coming! ! ! ) Also, nephew Ant J, I see you! Thanks for sweating it out with me in 100+ degrees! Lol!

To my mother and father. I thank my mom for raising me with all the love a mother could give! I’ll see you again in the clouds. I feel you all around me everyday. Miss ya! Dad, thanks for raising me to know right from wrong, which put me on the path of becoming the godly man that I am today! We are different, but SO MUCH alike! Your blood runs through my veins. I am your son, you are my dad, and nothing can ever change that! Hey, I guess I did alright. Never went to prison! Just worked there! Lol. Love you.

Special love to Baby B. You were right, God had you watch over me! Thanks for having my back, partners to the end! Big Strap, thanks my friend if you ever need anything, you know where to find me. Lil Charlie, love you, brother! Always praying for God’s wisdom in your life. EJ, we are brothers first, never forget that! You will always be my big brother, thanks for all you have done for me. Love you. Maria, I will never forget what you’ve done for me. Love you, sis. Leon and Tina (BT), love you both! Thanks for our beautiful six grandchildren. Continue to raise them up to know the one and only true God. BOBO, Catfish, Choco, My Dj, CJ and Russ J, you ALL are engrafted into my life to the end! We grew up as children together, and now we are strong men of God! Thanks for being there, always supporting me in whatever I did! Love you guys! Pastor Mark Williamson so proud of you. Thanks for having my back lil brother when I was weary with Luke 1:37 Conference Call, love you. Pastor Carl Lockridge, my new found brother. Couldn’t have been a Luke 1:37 CC without all your help. God Bless you! Charlotte (Bo Derek) Scherry Scott, Jackie B, , Bo & Toni (Hollywood), Susan G, love you guys. Pops Jimmy & Reeda love ya! Pope, I didn’t forget you! (HALLELUJAH!). My brother from another mother, we go waaaay back, House of Blues-Sunset. We have come a long way! YES, the future is bright! LOVE U, MAN! Shilpa, love you, sis. Thanks for your continued prayers and support. And my goddaughters, love you! To my cousin who has always stuck closer than a brother, King Will. Love you, cousin! Proud of the godly man you have become! Darlene, love you, sis! Kim D, don’t give up the good fight! We rest when we die. Juan aka Johnny boy, thanks for the inspiration for my cover! You definitely have skills.

This book would never have come to fruition had it not been for my friend and brother in Christ, Mr. David A. R. White. David’s obedience allowed God to use him as a vessel on a Saturday afternoon in an empty parking lot, where he encouraged me that my story needed to be told. That meeting forever changed the course of my life. Thank you, my friend. To my reader, Andrea, I forgive you for being so hard on me! Thanks for all your help and belief in me! At least toward the end, I got my five stars! Lol, love you. Nancy Bowser (ND)…my girl! What can I say. God has sent many angels my way, but you are by far one of the most precious ones! You took the baton and ran a winning race as my personal editor! This book is what it is because of your hardwork, dedication and professionalism! Couldn’t have done this without you! God prepared you for a time such as this! Your experience of having written your own five wonderful books was paramount! Love you and brother JMBO. My big brother, Mikey, thanks for ALWAYS having my back! Yes, you can be my driver! Love you. Brother Mark, you are a VERY integral part of this book. If it weren’t for you inviting me and buying the tickets to the Man Alive Conference, David and I wouldn’t have had our discussion that day. Love you, my lil big brother. Loralee, love you, sis! You were the first one to read the first draft! I know it must have been very painful to read with all the errors, but you didn’t mention a word other than how much you loved it. THANKS!

Thanks to my spiritual brother, Bishop Lacy Sykes. SO PROUD of you, man. You don’t even know how you have inspired me to reach for the stars! Love you, Sister/Pastor Karen Sykes, for standing by your husband as a godly woman should! Pastor Chris, thanks for your kindness, encouragement, and prayers! Love you. Joyce, Dorothy, Jeanette, Peggy and Ruth, the sisters I always wanted! Love you guys. T-dog, goggles (Ittybitty), I thank God for you! Love you more than you know! Remember, I’m always just a phone call away. Lorna, you have been there from the VERY beginning, and I know you will be there to the end! Jerry is smiling down from heaven on us! Love you, sister. Dusty, the journey has just begun! Since I could never convince you to go on any transportation runs with me, you owe me BIG-TIME! There will be many road trips in the near future! God sees your commitment. Keep up the good fight. Proud of you, brother! To my long-lost sister, Myda, and brother, Dave (HohuBaby), I thank God for bringing you both back into my life after twenty-eight years. GOD IS SO AWESOME!

To my AMAZING legal team—Felix, Andrew, Michael, and Phyllis—you are a godsend! Love you guys.

To anyone whom I might have forgotten, please charge it to my mind and not my heart! Love you.

Last but not least, to the woman God knew I needed in my life for the strength to finish this race. He placed her in my life until her homegoing at 104 years young—my Momeee! The lessons she taught me were inestimable, and there will never be another! Thanks to her, I have learned to place everything in the good Lord’s hands and NEVER reach to take it back out! Rest in peace, MOMEE. I know you’re watching over me and your Pammy!

Finally, whew...lol...to my Trilogy/TBN family! To my management, editors, and award-winning design team who all worked countless hours on God’s Road to Manson and Me, making it a dream come true! I couldn’t have imagined the end product. Your skill set is UNPARALLELED! I can’t thank each and everyone of you enough, THANKS!

Special thanks to Matthew and Laurie Crouch for continuing to be visionaries and seeing the need for a Christian publishing department at TBN. Creating a partnership with Trilogy, TBN continues to elevate Christian values and content all around the world, bringing God’s message to all who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Well done, thou good and faithful servants.

I knew this moment was coming before I even wrote down a single word! God’s Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and told me that I would be signing with your company. So, it was a no-brainer when I received your email and subsequent phone call informing me that you were very much interested in publishing God’s Road to Manson and Me. God is FAITHFUL! Get ready, because God has a mighty work in store for us.

Introduction

Oftentimes it’s a dark and lonely road toward God’s destiny and purpose for one’s life. This is the true, compelling, and untold story how through obedience and blind faith, God, through His Holy Spirit, gave me an assignment that I was told that only I could do. This assignment led me to the most unlikely of friendships, to form a bond unlike any other.

This bond was with none other than the infamous murderer Charles Milles Manson until the time of his death. This story is about redemption, forgiveness, and judgment for all. We know that God is no respecter of persons. He forgives all who boldly come to the throne of grace confessing their sins, accepting His Son, Jesus Christ, as Lord and Savior.

I give praise and glory to God, the head of my life, and Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. What a journey this has been. Father, You have shown me that no matter what, You will never leave me nor forsake me. To know that You have chosen me, entrusting me with this important assignment, so that You may be glorified through my work, words cannot explain.

For the faith that I have acquired through my spiritual blindness, hardships, and disappointments, I am ever so grateful. Who would have thought that after trying to run away from my Nineveh, as Jonah tried to do and was swallowed up by the great fish, I would soon have to face my own great fish as God turned me back to the pathway that He had predestined for my life!

I remember early on in our married life that my wife awakened me out of a deep sleep. She informed me that I was murmuring in my sleep and that my feet were moving swiftly back and forth in a running-like motion. She asked what I was dreaming about. I told her it was a bad dream, and that I was running out of prison!

News alert: You can’t run away from God’s plans for your life. In saying that, my new life journey began on February 22, 2010. That’s when God opened the door for me to walk through as He had previously done three times before. However, this time was different. There would be no more running from my Nineveh. God made it so that I had no choice in the matter. After losing millions of dollars in the stock market, I needed a job! Without hesitation, I obeyed the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and my journey began with the State of California Department of Corrections.

My long road of loneliness, heartache, disappointment, depression, and murder showed me that during the lowest times of our lives, God is faithful and loves unconditionally. He will carry us through it all. Remember the two footprints in the sand analogy? The one set of footprints that we see in our lives is God carrying us all the way. All we have to do is trust Him with everything, no matter what the circumstances may look like. In the end, we will see God’s hand in all of it, and most importantly, God will be glorified.

God, may all those whom You lead to read this book be highly blessed and favored beyond measure with the truth of Your Word, in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.

1

Our Big Move

I remember the day like it was yesterday—February 22, 2004. My wife, Theresa, and I were relocating from the big city of Los Angeles, California. What a blessed day that was. That was the day when our heavenly Father picked us up and moved us to our beautiful forty-acre ranch, nestled in the hidden hills of the Sequoia National Forest. We had been in search of a more peaceful and carefree lifestyle. Or at least that was the plan. My godly wife was just going along for the ride. She was supporting her husband’s wild and crazy dream of being a cattle rancher, a black cowboy.

God has always given me the desires of my heart. This time was no different. It reminds me of the early sixties’ television show called The Beverly Hillbillies. Our lives were parallel, but different. Now that I think about it, a racist neighbor once called us the Black Beverly Hillbillies.

Now, you have to understand the history of this community. We were the first Blacks to have moved into this lovely small community, with a population of 1,308 residents. I didn’t care who lived there or what they thought about me. All I knew was that I fell in love with the neighborhood the moment I first laid eyes on it! I had found my piece of heaven here on earth.

I remember getting out of the landowner’s truck that first day to view the property. I had to open a wire gate so we could enter. The gate was a stick-and-barbed-wire gate. I had never seen a gate like this before, so it literally took me five minutes or so to open it up.

Theresa later told me on the drive back home that the owner was laughing while watching me struggle. He said, Look at that ol’ city boy.

On our ride back home, I said something out of character to Theresa. I’m buying it.

She said, What?

I said, I’m buying that ranch!

She could not believe what she was hearing. You have to know me. I never make quick decisions. I have to go back and forth, forward and backward from A to Z, making sure all of my i’s are dotted and my t’s are crossed. Then I go back over it at least ten more times.

After purchasing the ranch, the previous owner and I shared many laughs together over the years. He taught this ol’ city boy many things about country and ranch living. My good friend has since passed on. I thank God that He gave me the opportunity to share His Word with my friend on many occasions.

I remember he would ask me if I thought there was a God. I would say, Absolutely! He would say, Yeah, there’s gotta be something out there.

We prayed many times together. I truly believe in my heart that he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, and that he is in heaven now, building roads and surveying God’s properties for Him.

As I was on my quest for peace and quiet, unbeknownst to me, God had started His own plans for me.

Mosquitoes from Hell

Living the ranch life was all I had hoped and dreamed of. We woke up to beautiful, crisp, and clean air! No smog, no traffic—just cows in front of our mobile home, mooing and grazing. I remember working outside all day long with my shirt off, fixing fences and moving cattle on my quad with my two German shepherds nipping at their heels, and not one mosquito bite. I thought to myself, I truly have found paradise.

That winter it rained cats and dogs, as the old folks used to say. Of course, we needed it. There had been a three-year drought, from what I had been told. Never had we experienced so much rain in a season.

As spring and summer approached, I was back at my duties, preparing the ranch for the summer. However, this summer would be very different. Due to all the rain, the cattle could not keep up with feeding down the land, so the grass was very, very high. It didn’t dawn on me the words that my friend had told me when I expressed to him how beautiful it was out here and that there were no mosquitoes.

He had told me, "Mosquitoes breed in the high grass, so make sure it’s always