Eight months before his release from federal prison, Rob Lewis decided to do away with his life.
"Rob Lewis died on Nov. 11, 2011. Now I'm a new creation in Christ," said Lewis, a Prairieville evangelist and founder and president of Go Ye Ministries, which holds crusades, community block parties, food giveaways and other evangelistic outreach throughout the Baton Rouge area. "It takes sacrifice. You have to completely die to the world. You got to die to yourself."
Food giveaways is one of the avenues Go Ye Ministries uses to reach out to the community.
Lewis was finishing a 10-year sentence in North Carolina for international drug trafficking when he got saved and dedicated his life to Christ at the age of 34.
"It's nothing but the grace of God," said the 47-year-old New York native, who has also lived many years in Florida. "I went from being like the devil himself, serving the devil and a menace to society and being a drain on society to show God's got his hands on me and completely changed me."
Lewis said he had engaged in criminal activity for "monetary purposes," but God started showing him the purpose of his life through a new, Bible-believing cellmate and some "divine appointments."
"I grew up in the church, but I went the other way," he said. "When I saw that guy always reading his Bible, I told myself I got to get back to doing that stuff," he said.
'We go into different cities for two to three days and just bless the socks off the cities,' says Rob Lewis.
Lewis was questioning his faith at the time, but the new cellmate inspired him to re-examine his beliefs and embark on a journey of spiritual discovery.
"I said to myself that I have eight months to go before I'm being released, so I'm going to spend the rest of my time in studying and finding the answer to that question before I go home," he said. "I was living a life basically in darkness."
Lewis prayed that God would show him the light and reveal himself.
Go Ye Ministries hosts events such as food giveaways in the community.
"I said to God, if you show me you're real, I would never turn my back on him ever again, and I would serve him for the rest of my life," he said.
Three prison incidents or signs in one day further convinced him of God's existence and movement in his life.
There was a powerful experience at breakfast as Lewis was captivated by a stunning TV picture of Jesus on the cross.
"This was the first thing for that day," he said.
The next sign was while he was getting a haircut.
"I noticed there's this ceramic angel from the ceramic shop sitting right in front of my face. I said, 'That's No. 2. This is getting crazy,'" he recalled.
The third incident occurred after Lewis was returning a piece of paper to an acquaintance in another area of the facility. As he turned away, he heard a voice tell him to go back and talk to the man.
Go Ye Ministries reaches out to community with small and large-scale events.
"I was going crazy having a conversation with myself," he said. "Back then, I didn't know who it (the Holy Spirit) was. Now I know."
It was during that conversation with the man that God showed Lewis one of the man's books on the wall. It was the best-selling "The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus" in which Lee Strobel shares his spiritual journey from hard-core atheist to building a convincing case for Christ.
"That book answered every skeptical question I had," Lewis said. "I said, "All right, Lord. I'm all yours.' … After I got saved, I was full-blown in this thing. I could not read enough books. There wasn't enough time in the day to read the Bible."
Later, God showed Lewis his calling as an evangelist through a TV appearance by famed evangelist Billy Graham.
"This is what God called me to do," he said. "This is what he put me on this earth to do, so I'm just walking in my calling."
Upon his release from prison, Lewis returned to Florida where he received training in evangelistic ministry. He learned how to conduct crusades and community events and win souls for Christ. He led crusades in the Miami area before moving to Louisiana in 2016. Lewis has hosted smaller gatherings as well as large-scale evangelistic events in the New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas, particularly with the Rev. Butch LaBauve and River Ministries International of Addis.
"We go into different cities for two to three days and just bless the socks off the cities," said Lewis, who founded Go Ye Ministries about three years ago.
Go Ye Ministries' latest event to minister to and bless people was the Festival of Life in March at the Gus Young BREC Park in Baton Rouge. Seventy-five other ministries partnered in the free event. Lewis said there was more than $50,000 in giveaways (groceries, electric bikes, bills paid), and a vehicle was presented to one winner each of the three nights. More importantly, more than 600 people were saved.
In addition to the free neighborhood events, at least one other large-scale one is planned before the end of the year.
Lewis shares that the grace God extended to him is available for everyone.
"God can reach anybody anywhere," he said. "There's literally nowhere anybody can go on this earth where God can't reach them."
That includes those behind prison walls, he said. Lewis remains active and passionate about prison ministry.
"I can relate to them," he said. "I tell people all the time to get rid of the mentality that you can't make it or you can't do it because you've been arrested or you've been in prison. That's a lie straight from the devil. Anything you want to do, if you put your mind to it, if you put your heart behind it, if you go after it with everything you've got, you can achieve it. I don't care who you are."
For more information, go to goyenow.world or email [email protected].