AMAZING STORY
David Rocha: No Match for the Power of Prayer
By Rob Hull
The 700 Club
CBN.com -“They’re calling me names. They’re calling me beaner, wet back. How could they treat me like this? I didn’t understand - because of the race I was born into?
David Rocha grew up in a Christian home in northern California, but anger over race discrimination he experienced as a child turned to hate. He found a sense of power and unity by starting a gang. “I knew that no matter what, I had my homeboys regardless of what happened. It became instantly violent - Stabbings, jumping, beat up, houses vandalized…”
As an outlet for his anger he started rapping about gang life. He went by the name Sir Dyno and soon had a following among Chicano youth in northern California. “It was a release for me. I was able to pour myself in that and so I was just widely embraced and I loved it. I loved the attention. I loved that power that came with it.”
David started selling drugs to make ends meet. “The money was just outrageous with methamphetamine. I knew that the drug cartels in Mexico were bringing it in and my entire thing was ‘How do I get connected to somebody that’s bring it directly from Mexico?’ and I finally worked up to that point to where I was getting it at a price that was just completely - where I could just make thousands of dollars.”
Money was pouring in. But David says his life was empty and without meaning. “It was dark. It was evil. It was never satisfying. I had fame. I had fans. But I didn’t have peace. I would begin getting checks, $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 checks continuously with my music. It was never enough. It just felt as if it was empty. I was chasing something that I couldn’t catch.”
His mother knew his life was out of control, she asked God for help. “She never stopped praying for me. As a matter of fact she had a verse she always told me. It was in Joshua, ‘As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord.’ I always believed in God. I always had respect for God. I always had reverence for God. I just didn’t want to serve God. I wanted to live my life…not only was I a drug dealer and a gang member but the music that I was doing at the time also and I didn’t want to give any of that up.”
Every day he lived with the idea that his life and his criminal empire could come to an end. “I didn’t care anymore. I didn’t care. So many things had happened by this time with my friends so many things had happened with my gang. I had lost a few friends; a few of them had gotten murdered by this point. So selling drugs, risking prison was just an everyday part of life. It was normal to go to prison and it was just a matter of time when I would.”
He didn’t know it yet, but several law enforcement agencies were building a case against him. The sale of meth to an undercover agent landed him in prison for six years. David was finally ready to surrender to God. “They put me in solitary confinement because of the ties I had to prison gangs. It was there in that cell I remembered the change in my father from being an alcoholic to never drinking. I remember to this day, I said, ‘Lord, if you can change me the way you changed my father then change me… because I can’t change.’ It was at that point that I surrendered. It was as if thousands of pounds lifted off of me; hate, anger, violence, lust, all of these things that I was carrying just lifted off of me. It was just the most amazing thing that I had ever felt.”
“I always remember one of the verses that my mother would tell me, that I would read as a child, where it said that God said, ‘I will take out your stony heart and I’ll put in a heart of flesh and I will put in my spirit, a new spirit in you.’ That’s what I was looking for. I wasn’t looking to be a better person on the outside; I was looking for light to be on the inside where there was darkness, where there was emptiness. That’s what I wanted. The only one I knew could do that was Jesus Christ. He was the only one. He’s the only answer.”
David went through Bible College while in prison and was released in 2009. He pastors a church in Modesto, California and says he’s thankful for his mother’s prayers all those years. “She never gave up. I accepted Christ at 32 years old, maybe it wasn’t as fast as she would’ve like, but you know what, prayers are always heard.”
“The Bible says that those prayers, that God hears every prayer and sees every tear. So I would say for any parent out there that has somebody that’s in gangs, that’s in drugs - don’t give up, because God is stronger than the drugs and God is stronger than the gangs.”
“It doesn’t matter how deep the crime, how deep the sin you might think, we all need a Savior. The world needs a Savior and that Savior is Jesus Christ.”
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