A Recovery Journey - How Mark Miles Found Purpose and Hope

Mark Miles Jr., also known as Meezilini the Messenger is a former gang member and pimp who has turned his life around and now serves the community and the Lord. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Mark grew up in a challenging environment but managed to find a path to redemption through faith. His journey from the trenches to becoming a motivational speaker and community leader is a testament to the power of resilience and transformation.

EA and Mark dig deep into Mark's past, discussing his upbringing in Portland, the influence of his family, and his descent into gang life and criminal activities. They explore the turning points that led Mark to change his life, including the tragic murder of one of his associates and his subsequent incarceration. Mark shares how his time in prison and a profound encounter with God transformed him, leading to his current work in ministry and outreach to at-risk youth.

This is a story of transformation, the impact of faith, and community outreach and you should find this episode particularly inspiring. Keywords like "gang life recovery," "faith transformation," "community outreach," and "motivational speaker" weave their way throughout this episode.

Contact:
Facebook: Mark Anthony Miles Jr.

Instagram: Measly the Messenger

YouTube: Measly the Messenger

Potential Listener Questions:

1. How can someone involved in gang life find a path to redemption and transformation?
2. What role does faith play in recovering from a life of crime and addiction?
3. How can community outreach programs effectively support at-risk youth?

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If you are recovering from anything, this recovery podcast is a daily dose of positivity. I speak on mindfulness, and share thought processes and affirmations to help with your recovery journey. Recovery is not just about substances, recovery is needed for all kinds of addictions and thoughts and ideas that you may be addicted to. This podcast is for you!

Transcript

0:30

If it's a seed of destruction, man, it's always going to produce destruction. Welcome, welcome. I appreciate everybody continuously supporting affirmations for recovery. This is the podcast that I talk about recovery and recovery is a mindset. It's not a substance and people always get that misconfused. So today is a special day, guys. Very special day. This interview means a lot to me. Just to watch this young man persevere. I've seen him come from the gang life to serving for the Lord, right? And, you know, it's a lot in between too, right? There's a lot that went in between. So I'm going to let him introduce himself. My brother, man, tell my people about you a little bit about you in the air and we're just going to dive in. Yeah, man. My name is Mark Miles, junior man, also known as Measly, the messenger. But directly from Portland, Oregon, man, you know, born and raised in Portland, Oregon. Like he said, man, just coming from the trenches in Portland, Oregon, man, grew up in a good family home, man. You know what I mean? My mom was away, but my dad was there for me growing up. My mom has been in recovery now for 30, I want to say 30 years now. Wait a minute, stop the press. That's a big deal. I like to celebrate everything, especially when it's talking about recovery, man. So yeah, shout out to mama, man. Congratulations. Yeah. So you said mama was, so mama had a drug. I didn't know that, bro. I grew up with you. I didn't know mama had substance abuse issues. Yeah. So my mom, man. So, so Arnella was my stepmom. My mom, yeah, my dad, my mom divorced when I was real young. My mom struggled for most of my young life all the way. She got clean when I was 15 years old. That's when she got clean. So she was kind of, she was there, but she was in and out. I would do like certain weekends at mom's house. You know what I mean? So yeah, me and my sister have the same mom. Angie. Aaron and Marlon, they have the same mom. Okay. See, I didn't know. I've been knowing your family since pops was like heavy in the coaching and just making sure he was like a, he was a community activist type dude. We lived in the same neighborhood and pops was like the man. We used to kind of pops house play, play basketball, just really hanging out. Yeah. Pops on the corner. Seventh and homing. Yeah. Yes, sir. Like, you know what I'm saying? I was, I was rocking with you even before you even decided to even play with the games. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. So I'm saying, and you grew up from a solid home. So tell us, how did you go from a solid home to like being in the games, bro? Like what happened? Well, you know, so it has, it's a bunch, it's a, it's, it's like a dumbo pot, right? But it was a lot has to do with the environment. Cause remember crack hit, crack hit that area hard. Hard. We actually watched, we actually watched our neighborhood from being outside playing basketball, being able to do that to shootings every night. You know what I mean? Dudes wearing red rags, you know what I mean? They kind of, it was a culture shock because it almost, it was almost like overnight. You know what I mean? And we was in a position to where we was, you know, you already know me and you, we were in a position where we actually had a community and we actually seen, we actually were able to witness the destruction of it. Yes. You know what I mean? Like, like step by step. And so it was, it was the environment played a part in it. You know, just the culture, the, uh, the TV, the things that I watched. And then also like my mom's side of the family. So, so we had me and me and my brothers and my sister, we had a debt. We grew up in the same house, but we had a different, um, experience in that house. Right. Because it was, for me, it was a broken home because although I had a stepmother there, I didn't have my real mother there. Right. You know what I mean? So, um, always, always kind of felt like, kind of like the outsider. That's crazy, man. That's crazy. Yeah. And so, um, not, not saying that my, uh, you know, mama Neil was, wasn't, um, wasn't loving, right. But it was just the way I processed it, you know what I'm saying? And then on my mom's side. So like I said, I would be over there on the weekends, uh, you know, summertime, stuff like that. And my mom was on drugs. So my mom sometimes would drop me off at grandma's house, aunties in the house, auntie, you know, they, they struggling with drugs and addiction. So that whole side of the family was hustlers and, and drug and, um, uh, drug dealers and drug addicts. So I would get that influence from that side of the family. You know what I mean? So it was kind of like a, it was kind of like an unbalanced kind of my dad trying to teach me something inside the house, but the culture is telling me something. My mom's telling me something, you know what I mean? The music that I'm listening to now and the things that I'm watching. So it was really like an optional choice for me where it wasn't for Aaron and Marlon because they didn't have that option. It was more like they seen the environment, but the option wasn't, wasn't, wasn't so, um, so, um, accessible. Yes. Good work. You see what I'm saying? The option wasn't accessible to where, when I wanted to actually get into hustling at 15, I can call my auntie and be like, auntie, you know where to get some work from? You see what I'm saying? Where Aaron and them, even if they, even if they had that intent, they didn't have access to that kind of environment. You know what I mean? It's so crazy. I didn't even know that I was growing up with y'all. I thought something totally different, man. Y'all was like, like the Cosby show, bro. Y'all had the Cosby family. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, bro. It was, I mean, it was like, like a lot of the stuff that my dad implemented in me saved my life though, right? In the streets. Yes. And it was cause, cause my dad would implement stuff that was universal truth, right? Stay off the, stay out the limelight. Like he would say that before I was even in the streets, he would say, man, you know, the limelight is not, uh, the limelight is not for, uh, he used to say things like you, you guys shouldn't be in a limelight so much. And that means like, stop letting people see you all the time. You know what I mean? He would tell us stuff like, don't go the same way twice, you know, switch it up. Don't, don't, don't let, don't, don't let people see your routines, things like that. You know what I mean? He would implement those things in me. So when I got into the streets, that kind of helped me play the shadows. He used to come, come tell me, even when I was in the streets, man, people was too many people seeing you because they'll see me on the block on Albina, my uncle Leonard's and then they'd be like, man, I rode by and see Mark out there on Albina and Killingsworth. You know what I mean? Wrong place for him. Yeah. Yeah. So my dad, he would come see me because by that time I was out the house, you know, I left the house at like 16 years old. So at that time, my dad would come see me at my girlfriend's house that I was hanging out with. And he would be like, man, stay out the limelight. You know, I told, I always taught y'all men to, you know, you know, stay out the limelight. Then he started telling me, man, play the shadows, man. You know what I mean? He was, he was implementing me in things that he knew. So he knew I wouldn't go get out the streets at the time, but he wanted me to survive. So he would give me wisdom on look, man. Cause he from Detroit really. So my dad had a history too before he came out to Portland. So when I was 14, I moved to Detroit. My dad sent me to Detroit. I stayed out there for a year and a half. And then I came back that year and a half. I learned more about my dad than I did in the 14 years that I was in the house with him. I knew about, yeah, yeah. So he was a player, you know, you know, that's how, if you know, I got an older brother that I met later, Marcus. I didn't know. Yeah, yeah. He lived in, he moved in Portland with us when he was 18. So he'd been in Portland now for about 20 something years. But I met him when I used to live in Detroit. I met him when he was 18. I think I was 15 years old. You know what I mean? And, you know, pops had a baby. He had a son before he, he didn't, he didn't even know he had a son. I know pops too. Pops is a great man. Not a good man. A great man. Great father, great sister. You know what I'm saying? A pillar of the community, man. So he changed when he had us as when he, when he had us, he came on from the Navy. Then he came, he moved to Portland from the Navy and he started to implement change in his life, you know, started to get more, more involved in his faith and things like that. When I moved to Detroit, I seen a different, I learned a different side of him. And I met his friends. Them dudes was gangsters. Them dudes was coming home from prison and things like that. They was killers. Yeah, real dealers, real, real dude. My dad got stabbed when he was like 16 years old. You know what I'm saying? 17 years old. So he had the wisdom of the street. He just wasn't in there involved in it no more. So he would come, Hey man, you need to play the shadows, man. Don't go the same way twice. You know, dudes would find your, you know, dudes would find your, your routine, man, and set you up, things like that. You know what I'm saying? So my dad was, he was, he was a wise, I mean, he is, I'm talking about he was, he is a wise man and, and kept me alive. Um, even, you know, even, you know, even though he didn't want me to go that route, he knew that if I can keep him alive long enough, you know, the things that I planted in him. Yes. I couldn't stress that enough. You know, as a father, I definitely understand that now. You know what I mean? Cause I have a father as well. And I, and I, at some point I did what I wanted to do, but having a great father, never, it all, it never leaves you the stuff that they put into you. Even though we decided to do whatever we want to do, I've been there and I've done that. But when I decided to wake up, I always remember what my dad had planted in me. And I know that you had the same kind of energy, you know what I'm saying? Your dad placed a lot in you. So when you drove down the wrong street for a little while, once you decided to go back the right way, you already had a, you already knew where to go. Yeah, I had a, I used to call, I call them breadcrumbs. I had the breadcrumbs to follow, you know what I mean? Like to follow back home. And another thing is my mom. So when my mom got in recovery, it showed me something else too. So even though, even by that time I was, I was smoking weed and doing my drinking and stuff like that. But once you start, I started, you know, uh, going to like her, her, her year anniversaries and things like that, going to the meetings, what it did was it got me, um, unconsciously or indirectly involved in recovery at a young age, where when I was ready, I knew about the steps. So those were also breadcrumbs too, because it showed me that what I was doing, it showed me that the way that she taught me, like, you know, partying all the time, it told me that, okay, something is wrong about this because she's trying to fix it. Yes. It puts something in my head at a young age, like, okay, this is not the way because my mom's trying to fix it. You know what I mean? So if it was, if it was the way that she wouldn't be trying to fix it. So it kind of planted that seed in me once I, uh, once I started to get older, getting in trouble, going to prison, coming home, just all this other stuff. And when I was ready, those, even those seeds was like, okay, um, how to take these steps. Hey mom, hey mom, I'm on the fourth step. I'm on, you know what I mean? And so it was things like that. So both, both of my parents, my dad was more strategic because he was, because we need as a male, as a man, we need our fathers. Absolutely. Um, but when, when it was ready, when I was ready to clean, get, get clean, I knew the steps on how to do that through my mom. So, so let's go back a little bit. Cause you said, you know, get clean. I know firsthand a lot of the story that I'm going to ask for, right. I've been there. I watched it. It's they, they making movies about you, bro. Like for real, some of the shit you've encountered, like from the gangs, the pimping, the pandering. And I remember specifically like a few years ago, maybe, maybe five, 10 years ago, there was a situation where, you know, uh, uh, one of the young ladies that you had been working with, you know, from a prostitution standpoint, she came up murdered. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And tell us a little bit about that, bro. How that, how that, uh, how that affected you and, you know, and, uh, when these days. Man. Yeah. So, uh, in 2013, man, uh, uh, me and, um, me and a few of my girls, cause I was like, like you said, I was in the pimp gang. I lived the pimp lifestyles. And I'm transparent and open cause I, you know, cause God's delivered me from that man. And, um, so I'm always open to tell, to, to tell a testimony, you know what I mean? So, yeah, so I was in the game, man. And so, um, we were in Hawaii, um, Ivanice Harris, man, uh, uh, uh, rest in peace, man, rest her soul, man. She was, she was, uh, she was a beautiful soul, man. Um, uh, she was, she was with me at the time. It was about eight years. She was with me. You know what I mean? And, uh, I had, I had two other girls, you know what I'm saying? That was out there. And, um, yeah, so we were, we were just in the lifestyle. We, we, we, we made a trip out there for the last three years around, around our birthdays, kind of celebrate our birthday, go get some money, hang out, you know what I mean? Party a little bit. And, um, so this time it was maybe two days before birthday. She went, she ended up missing. And, um, we were, we were putting out flyers looking for, you know what I mean? Um, and then, um, a day after two days after her birthday, I think it was two days, they found her body. She killed, she was, she was murdered by a master sergeant, a Marine sergeant. I mean, a master sergeant in the Marine Corps, they ended up finding them later on. Um, maybe about a month later, um, they did some investigation, ended up finding them through videos and things like that. He got court martial, went to prison. They gave him, I think, 25 years to life. Um, and then they end up indicting me. Indicted you? Well, not for the murder. They indicted me for, um, for, um, bringing her out there. So transportation of a prostitute basically was the charges, was the man acting a federal, federal, um, it's like promoting prostitution, basically. Right. Right. In the federal court. And they ran away. The man that I'm telling you, they'll find a way to get you. Oh yeah. Yeah, man. You know what I mean? And so, yeah, so that affected me, bro. So when it first happened, it, it, it, it really struck it. It really, it really blew me away. I, I, I, I didn't know how to process it, bro. I spiraled out, you know what I mean? Like I was, I was coked up, man. I was on, I was on, you know what I mean? I was, I was drunk every night, just, just trying to deal with it. You know what I mean? Trying to numb myself, more women, more, you know what I mean? I felt trapped to the game now, almost chained. It was more like, it was kind of like, like if you was in the, if you have, if anybody out there that was ever in the gang and lost a homie in the gang, you feel obligated to never leave that gang because your homie died for it. Right. And really that's a, that's a, um, that's a deception. Yes. But that's, that's how I felt. I felt like I could never leave this game. You know, I'm always going to be a part, I'm, I'm, I'm going to go even more harder. Yes. Because she died for me, trying to give me some money, trying to, you know what I mean? Being loyal to me in this, in this, in this lifestyle. So I'm going to always be in this lifestyle to honor her. That's what I felt like, bro. But, um, deep down inside, I was scared too, you know, because I still had all these other women. And when you go through something like that, it becomes almost like, um, it's a, so much, it's a traumatizing event. And it becomes like a fear in you that this will happen again. And it could, you know what I mean? Yeah. But it's more like now every woman can get that. Well, this, this I'm almost paranoid now, you know what I mean? So, so it was like, um, yeah, so it brought me down to a dark place, shame, guilt, hurt. And then, um, and then when I went to prison, I, um, when I was in my first little two, three months, I sobered, you know, it was sober. It was sobering time. And so I couldn't numb the pain. I couldn't, uh, I had to face it, you know, yeah, I had to really live it, bro. I had to live in it. I had to, I had to sit in it, man. I had to swallow it and chew it. But when they indicted you, I mean, when they indicted you, I'm just going to narrate this story a little bit. When they indicted you, did you get convicted for, for, for taking her? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I ended up pleading, I ended up pleading out to a, um, to a lesser charge. Okay. Because first they, they tried to get me, they had a bunch, they, what happened was they were already investigating me before Ivanese. So a year before that, they were already, I was already under their radar. There was some informants that came out and they put me on their radar for about, almost about a year and some change before that. Hmm. And so after, but after she, after she died, when she went missing, I went public. So I kind of threw myself in the, in the, in the writing of fire because we were, we were on the news. We were actually looking for, you know what I'm saying? Because I knew something was wrong. Me, I knew something was wrong because that's not how, that's not how we get down. Right. So I'm like, man, she, something is going on. We call it in the hospital. We call it in the jails. We call it, you know what I mean? Her mom ain't heard from her. She called her mom every day, like her sisters. And then we were like, man, I'm like, something is wrong. And so it compelled me to say, you know what? I'm not going to be hiding in the shadows about this, man. I'm feeling relieved. I'm going to step up. We went on a media campaign. If you seen this girl reached this number right here, I went to, we went to a reporter to the, you know, to the police. I came clean with them and this is what we was doing. And I had to give myself, I had to give myself up because I was so, I was so finding her was so important to me. You know what I mean? And I didn't know how much time we had, you know what I mean? And I knew something was wrong. You know what I mean? So I'm like, I know she did. I know, I knew it wasn't like she just made a move and just left. You know what I mean? She wasn't that type. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm like, man, this is something serious. And so, um, yeah, so I basically put myself in a fire. And then when the feds, cause I was, I was under investigation by the federal government when the government got a hold of this and they seen me, they already had me, you know, following me already before that. Yeah. I was already on a radar and I became public enemy number one after that. And so then they was, you know, they got to tap in my phones and yeah, it was, it was, it was intense, man. How did you wind up doing for all that? Three years. Damn. The first day was so first, man, it was all God though, man. It was really. So first day was talking about 15 years. Right. They was trying to give me, they was trying to give me the, um, throw the book at me. Yeah. 188 months. That's what they was trying to throw the book at me. Yeah. What happened was the woman that was on my case. So Amanda Marshall, she's a, she was the federal prosecutor overall. She was the top. Oh, she was the, uh, attorney general. Attorney attorney. Yeah. Not the attorney general, but she was, she was right under the attorney general. Okay. So, um, what happened was man, so she got in not indicted, but she got, she got caught up in a, um, she got caught up in a scandal, right? Cause she started dating a prosecutor by the name of Scott. Karen had an affair with him. And when they found out and got wind of this affair, cause he, I think he blew it up because she was like harassing him or something like that. I can't remember, but I wasn't, I was sitting in the count. I'm not in the county. I was at the FTC awaiting trial and all this. So all this came about, they moved her off of everything. Like she had to resign during, during my case. And she was like, she was one of the females that was kind of like trying to get on me. Um, boom. So she had to get resigned. Stacey Beckerman. She was actually the prosecutor on my case. And she, you know, these are two women and they, they're there. They had tunnel vision when it came to sex trafficking at that time, of course, that was what the thing was sex trafficking, get these men up, these scumbags off the streets. And so Stacey Beckerman was invested in this case, but she got promoted to judge. And when she got promoted to magistrate judge, her caseload, she had to take that. That was an opportunity for her. So her caseload was spread out to everybody. Most people got a lady by the name of, um, uh, I forgot her name. She, but she was a, they called her, they called her, they called her a pit bull. Right. She was a pit bull. She was an up and coming, up and coming, um, uh, prosecutor, uh, federal prosecutor. And, um, she got a lot of, a lot of the due cause it was an indictment. It wasn't just me. It was, it was like an eight count indictment on like eight other brothers that, um, that they brought in. Most of them dudes got hurt. I ended up getting a dude by the name of Craig Gabriel. He wasn't invested in sex trafficking. He was more, um, more of a prosecutor for, um, for, uh, uh, uh, reservations in a native reservation, Indian reservations. Oh, so he was like, like, like immigration. Well, yeah. Well, anything on the native reservations are federal. So anything that happened, any crime, like even, even like, like murder and on the murder in the regular, you know, the city that's a state charge murder and the Indian reservation, that's a federal charge. Okay. So he deals with a lot of those federal charges on native, on the native lands. Got it. And so, um, you know, he, he just kind of picked up the case because she, her case at this had to be spread it out. Um, but, um, that was by the grace of God, because like I said, he wasn't invested in the case. And so when he started getting the details about the case and then seeing that I have a niece, his family supported me, there was no impact. You know what I mean? So usually in the victim impact, the prosecutor will say, okay, this is, we can't go lower than this amount of time by respect, respecting the victim's family. Right. But the sister victim's family is on my side. Then there's no, there's no need to kind of, kind of have a, a, a regular, a regulatory sentencing guideline. Right. You know what I mean? So as a niece, mom, she wrote a letter to the judge. She wrote a letter to the prosecutor. I have a niece mom, um, Pat. Wow. I didn't need a sister. She wrote full support of me, man. And so, and I love them to death to the day, man. You know what I'm saying? They love me. Um, and her, her dad, you know, rest in peace, man. A good, good soul too, man. Um, they were all in support of me because they knew that, you know, they knew the truth. You know what I'm saying? They knew that we were in this lifestyle together. I wasn't no forced thing. It was, she was doing this before I met her. I didn't bring her into it. It was just like, I'm doing this. She was already doing that. Let's team up and do it together. You know what I mean? So it was, it was more like that. Um, and so, um, they, and I treated her right. You know what I mean? So as far as the lifestyle, I didn't put hands on her. I didn't, you know, mistreat her. I gave her what she wanted. We was riding benzes together, matching benzes. You know what I mean? We were, we were, we were always sharp. I'm buying her stuff. I mean, so we had our own place, our own house, you know, so it wasn't like, as far as the game was concerned, you know what I'm saying? I know we're getting like near the end of the interview, but I definitely want to make time to talk about like what you're doing today. Cause I know that God, I know I see firsthand, like I said, I've known you since the beginning, middle, and now where you are today. And I just see the work that God is doing. I want you to testify. I want you to take a moment and just talk about what you're doing today, how God is using you and uh, how can people support you? Yes, sir. Yes, sir, man. I really appreciate it, bro. Yeah. So, you know, so like I said, during the time that, um, I found the Lord, man, you know, I gave my life to Christ, man. It was, it was, um, it was a powerful moment. I had an encounter with God, man. Um, I, I can't explain it. I can't explain it. I can't explain it except for the fact that it was supernatural, man. It was a supernatural encounter that I had with God in my cell. I surrendered. I told him to come into my life. Um, I cried out to him, man. I got on my knees. I mean, it was, it was, it was, and I just felt him in my, I felt his presence for the first time in my life. I felt his love for the first time in my life. I knew it was him. I knew he forgave me and he gave me a new heart, man. He gave me a new perspective. I started having a new desire to read the word. So I was reading the word. I was locked up. I only had like five months left. And I always say this because really, man, I had my own plans. Like I wasn't done with the game. It wasn't like I, it wasn't like I was praying for him to get me out of trouble. I was already sentenced. You know what I mean? Like I was already done with my time. I only had five months left. Right. And after doing that kind of time, five months is like you sitting on the toilet. Yeah. I'm done. I'm done with this. I'm finna come home. Right. I got plans. I was finna rap. I mean, I was finna do my rap thing. Me and Smurf had two real records. We wrote Moneybag Boys. I wasn't done with that. You know what I mean? I was, I was, I wasn't trying to get any prostitutes, but I was, you know, I had plans on managing strippers. You know what I mean? You said managing strippers? Yeah. I was gonna manage strippers. I mean, I had, I had this all written down, bro. Right. I was going to take pictures, put them in like magazines, you know, try to put them in the little, cause in prison, you know, you got the little magazines and stuff. So I'm like, I'm going to put them in magazines. I'm going to put, make calendars and stripper calendars and send them to the dudes in prison. I had my little game plan. I was going to kind of tippy toe with, you know what I mean? I had like six albums I had written down. You know what I mean? All about the game. Just, you know, whoop. Man, God rocked my world, bro. Rock my world. You know, when we make plans, they say, when we make plans, God laughs, you know what I mean? And so I had these plans, but man, God rocked my world, bro. And it gave me a new heart, a new perspective. I seen what I was doing. Exploiting women were wrong. You know what I mean? I never really seen it like that. Cause, you know what I mean? It was, it was, I just didn't process it that way. You know what I mean? And so he showed me how to be a man, how to be a true, a real man and provider, how to be faithful. You know what? One of the girls who were with me was my bottom, Jill. She's still with me through the whole thing, man. Through me abusing her and just letting off all my anger and my pain on her, man. Even going to prison, they took everything. She was, she was raising my two boys. You know what I'm saying? Cause she was my baby mom too. And she just was loyal to me and stayed down to me. Now she's my wife. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, bro. We celebrate that too, guys. Because we definitely do not celebrate enough. So make sure you, man, talk about that. Drop it in the channel. Tell my boy, congratulations, man. He'd been through hell and back. You know what I'm saying? Now he's doing God's work, man. So what kind of, what type of work are you doing? Yeah, man. So, so God just sent me out there, man. I started doing ministry, outreach ministry, giving stuff to the homeless, praying for people. Uh, we started going state to state. Um, I do, I, now I changed my music up from, from gangster music to gospel music. So I came home and started doing like, um, Christian hip hop. Locked in with brothers like brother, uh, uh, Brian trail from kingdom music. Uh, uh, Antoine Hill from kingdom music, man. I had my brother and a pastor tone that was with me, man. Yeah. So we started doing a lot of stuff, man. We started going like to Spokane. My brother's triple R gang, um, uh, real recognized real, uh, ministries. Um, we started going to Spokane, California. Um, I had another, another ministry out there. Uh, PhD ministries, um, uh, prayer healing and deliverance ministries under, uh, uh, prophet David Gurley and pastor Russell, uh, Russell Dickerson, um, out there in Eugene and, uh, LA long beach. Man. So I was just, just, just going wherever God was sending me, man. You know what I'm saying? Uh, we started a church, planted a church pastor for a minute, man. Uh, yeah. Now today, man, I moved to New York, uh, Syracuse, New York, but, um, man, we got a Bible study with nothing but gangsters, man, like ex gangsters, new gangsters, like dudes, dudes that's still straddling the fence. Yes. They just, they just want something different. You know what I mean? So we started a Bible study. It started with just four of us and it just expanded, man. I, I publicly denounced Crip. You know what I'm saying? Um, I publicly, I publicly denounced in renounce Crip, man. You know what I mean? Uh, my set, I don't like to promote my set or nothing like that. So just know that I was a Crip. Um, and, uh, yeah, bro, I publicly did for 30, it took 30 years, 30 years for me to publicly say, man, this is evil. It cannot be reformed. It cannot be changed. It has to be rooted and it has to be destroyed. You know what I mean? And believe me, I tried to figure out ways to reform it. I've tried ways to try to, but what God revealed to me is, is, is you cannot reform a seed. If it's an apple, if it's an apple seed is going to produce apples, it's going to produce pears. It's not going to change. And so if it's a seed of destruction, man, it's always going to produce destruction. And for, for, for 50 plus years, we seen the seed produce nothing but destruction, nothing but chaos, nothing but hurt, nothing but broken families, man. And so, yeah, I had to stand up against it, man. And so, yeah, man, but by doing that, the push, I got a little pushback, but I got to embrace by the younger generation that's, that's able to see it. And like, man, I'm feeling what Meezy's saying. And sometimes before we hang up, bro, there's sometimes we have to, especially the OGs, man, especially the dudes that, that, that's been around. You don't know the, just because you may be removed from the block, these young dudes remember you and they respect you and look up to you. Yes. A lot of times when we want to be approved by them. And so what we'll do is we will be far removed from it, but we'll throw the hat on, right? We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll come around with the blue on and the, and the red on and the, you know what I mean? We might get in the picture and throw up a sign with them. Right. Or, or as you speak to them, you change the letters and the words just to. Yeah. You speak in the, now you speak in the lingo, but you, you're really a professional and you, you can change your ways. And so when you, when you in the workplace, you don't talk like that. Right. But now when you in the homies, you cousin and this and that y'all right. But what you're doing is you're making it almost impossible for them to do it, go a different direction because they're looking to seeking your approval. So if you make it okay to say, bro, no, this ain't the right way. If you make it okay to say for them, when they see, I'm talking about by example, if you make it okay, by example, by saying, man, y'all need some jobs. Y'all need to get it. Y'all need to get off this stuff, bro. Y'all need to move. You start making it. Okay. Now, why are you wearing? I remember, I remember even when I was in the street, I started wearing red because I never cared. Even though I was a criminal, I used to wear red because I used to say, I'm, I'm, I'm disguised. I'm disguised. I remember dudes started wearing red when they used to always wear blue. Right. You know what I mean? So when I, now I think back of those things and I think how, how much influence that a, that a dude who got respect in the street has, man, if you really want to save your youngsters from getting killed, your young homies from getting killed, man, remove, make it okay for them to remove themselves. Yeah. You know what I mean? Make it okay for them to say, man, I want to get a job. I want to live. It's okay to live, bro. You know what I mean? Like it's, it's okay to live, man. It's like, like if my young, like if your young homie say, man, bro, I want to live. Your job is supposed to help them lead them to living a better way. Period. So that's, that's what we're doing, bro. We're doing this Bible study. Many went from four. Now we got 20 to 25 dudes on blood and crips though. Yes. Enemies, bro. We done squashed these with dudes. I'm on the phone. Like, Hey man, I'm here on my Bible study, bro. Hey, can he, can y'all come to it? You know, man, let this thing go. And, and bro, and it's been, man, God has been moving in that man. You know what I mean, bro? I'm proud of you, bro. That's why I wanted to have this interview with you. And I want to, and I want to be more intentional. I want to check in with you maybe every three months, every couple of months just to, just to push, help you push that agenda. Cause I'm a God-fearing man, bro. And I've done, I've done my share of dirt, right. But I've never, I've never, I've never not known where God was in my life. You know, I had my own issues with the streets based on my association with God. Right. Man for sure, bro. Hey man. Hey, you know, and I'm proud of you too, bro. You know what I'm saying? We go from the ground up, man. And, uh, you know, the stuff that you're doing, man, and recovery and just, just the outlets and the encouragement, bro, and the things that you're doing and the impact that you're making, bro, just keep it up, man. That's what we're here for, man. Absolutely. Thank you. So what, how, if somebody wants to join the, the, um, the zoom call like that, that I want to, I want to come just to be there just for the energy, bro. I ain't, I ain't. Hey, so you can, you can reach me on Facebook, right. You can reach me on Facebook, Mark Anthony Miles, Jr. Or you can reach me at miscellany, the messenger T a miscellany, like, just like on here, the messenger on. So, um, that's all my social media accounts, really. That's, uh, Instagram as YouTube, that's, uh, Facebook. You can always reach me there, man. And, um, you know, I just dropped the clothing line called beastie, uh, beastie athletic where it's for, it's for the dudes. That's, you know, the, the, the, the men and women out there, man, that's, that's about that athletics, you know, getting in the gym, working out, it helps to motivate you because you can see your muscles as you work out. You know what I mean? You can see the progress that you're making. The fabric is beautiful. So yeah, man, I, I, I'm just, I'm, I'm doing pre-orders now, so I haven't launched it fully launched it yet, but man, it's crazy because I've been getting pre-ordered after pre-orders and I'm like, dang, I didn't, I didn't really, I didn't expect it to move like this, but man, God is good, man. And so yeah, man, miscellany, the messenger on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, man, you can reach me there. DM me, man. I'll send you the link on Tuesday, man. And we, you can join us, man. We, we, we just some brothers, you know, it's no judgment, brothers is just trying to do something. Hey man, everybody, I'm going to take that word out your vocabulary officially today, not trying brothers. Yeah. Okay. Brothers doing, man, trying like for people that want to, that, you know, they want to fail at some point. No, but doers. Yeah. You doing your brother. I saw somebody even talk about it. I saw, um, I think it was, um, yeah, that I forgot his name. Spank went to one, man. He was powered up. Hey, Spank locked in, bro. He's at everyone. Spank is at every Tuesday. Spank is there, bro. Shout out to Spank for the work you're doing too, man. When I shot him out, man. All that shit, everybody that's doing something in the communities, bro. I want to just shout y'all out, man. Keep doing the work. Cause that's, there's no replacement for doing the work. You can't buy recovery. You have to work for it. And this is another form of recovery. That's why I wanted to have you, bro. Cause you talk about God, bro. You came from shoot them up. Bang, bang to bang for banging for Christ, man. That's important, man. And I love you even more today than I did when we was kids, bro. Cause I love the message that you're putting out. Anything I ever can do ever, ever, ever to support you, man. Big your mission up. Just send me the message, bro. It's automatically shared. That's the world we live in now, right? We gotta, you gotta be pushing people's messages, bro. If you really, if you really support somebody, the best thing you can do is share. Share their message. So I'm gonna be more intentional with that. Cause I want the people that follow you and the people that want a place to come. Cause there's people, man, that don't know where to go, bro. They just, they, they lost in the sauce. You know how it is. So I love what you're doing for the community, bro. Shout out to you, bro. 100. Yeah, man. I appreciate you, bro. Appreciate y'all. Love y'all, man. Look, man, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, man. That's all I can say is I surrendered to the Lord and he changed my life and he blew my mind, man. Love you, bro. I love you. Hey, anytime, man. Let me know, man. Let me know. I'm gonna have you on the show, man, every three months. I'm actually going to send you the link, man. You just schedule it out, bro. Cause that's what it is. I'm going to always tap in with you. I want to support the clothing line. I want to support the mission. Yes, sir. That's my job. Okay. So guys, make sure you guys tap in, man. Tap in, call me on Al. That's my main sponsor. O-W-W-L-L is for today's working entrepreneur. I'll send you my link. I'll send you everything, bro. So all you gotta do is just follow the yellow brick road. Yeah. Cause I was just from the, I was just from the note, put it in my notes. Yeah. Yeah. I'll send you the link. All you gotta do is click it and then download it and follow it. I'm on that like nobody's business, man. It's a great platform. And then shout out lastly to my production team, Ocean Tree Creative. If you haven't heard of them, bro, you need to tap in with them. If you need any production, any kind of post pre, they are the ones. Okay. They do all of my work. They're going to take this, edit it and make it pretty for us. And then they scheduled a release. They do everything for me. So always shout them out, man. Every show, every episode. I could not do this. I would not be here without them. I'm just a personality. They do all. Yeah. I love you guys, man. I love you, Mark, man. If you ever need me, bro. All you gotta do is send me the text. I'm there. 100. Already. Already. Already, bro. Love you, bro. Love you too. Until next time guys. Take care of yourself. Make sure you take care of yourself and each other. Let's go. Post-production is done with care by Ocean Tree Creative.