Nathan Carr: Journey from Incarceration to Ministry | Changed Podcast Episode 21

Summary:

Nathan Carr shares his journey from a life of drugs and incarceration to finding faith and starting a ministry. He recounts his encounter with God while in jail and how reading the Bible transformed his perspective. Nathan emphasizes the importance of community and support in recovery and highlights the need for resources and rehabilitation for those leaving incarceration. He encourages listeners to make time for reading the Bible and seeking God's guidance. Nathan's story serves as an inspiration for those seeking change and redemption.

Takeaways:

• Encountering God can lead to transformation and a new direction in life.
• Reading the Bible can provide comfort, guidance, and a deeper understanding of God's favor and obedience.
• Community support and accountability are crucial for successful recovery and reintegration.
• Providing resources and support for individuals leaving incarceration is essential for their successful transition.

Chapters:

00:00

Introduction and Background

01:12

Incarceration and Encounter with God

04:07

Reading the Bible in Jail

07:00

Recovery and Ministry Work

09:21

Starting Resurrected Ministries

10:23

Importance of Community

12:19

The Value of Reading the Bible

13:23

Leaving a Legacy and Helping Others

16:42

Advice for Supporting Incarcerated Loved Ones

18:11

Providing Resources and Support

18:41

Closing Remarks

Description:

In this inspiring episode of the Changed Podcast, host Brent Stone welcomes Nathan Carr, whose life story is a testament to the power of transformation and faith. Nathan candidly shares his challenging journey from a life dominated by drugs and crime, leading to incarceration, to an extraordinary encounter with faith that changed his path forever.

While in jail, Nathan experienced a pivotal moment when he heard a fellow inmate reading the Book of Job. This experience ignited Nathan's curiosity about the Bible, leading him to seek solace and guidance in its pages. His transformation began with an emotional night of prayer and continued through diligent study of the Bible, which offered him comfort and a deeper understanding of God's favor and obedience.

Upon release, Nathan's dedication to his newfound faith didn't waver. He actively participated in addiction recovery programs, eventually leading and mentoring others in similar circumstances. Recognizing the lack of resources for individuals leaving incarceration, Nathan embarked on a mission to provide support and rehabilitation through his ministry, Resurrected Ministries. His focus is on establishing Christ-centered recovery homes and building a supportive community for those in need.

This episode is not just a story of personal redemption but also a call to action. It highlights the importance of community support, accountability, and the profound impact of encountering God. Nathan's journey serves as an inspiration for listeners seeking change, redemption, and a deeper connection with their faith.

Join us in this moving episode as Nathan Carr shares his remarkable story of faith, recovery, and the power of change.

Creators & Guests

Guest

Nathan Carr

Nathan is a guy that exemplifies God's grace. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for selling drugs and while in jail God got a hold of him. He heard another inmate reading the book of Job and it changed his life. Nathan did get out of his mandatory 20 year sentence and God has been using him ever since. He has gone back to his roots to help pull others out of drug addiction through his ministry, "New Life Recovery". Please stay tuned and reach out to learn more.

What is Changed?

Welcome to 'Changed' a podcast celebrating transformative encounters with Jesus Christ. Each episode unfolds powerful testimonies of profound life changes, providing inspiration for your spiritual journey. Join our community, drawing strength and encouragement to deepen your relationship with God. Witness the irrefutable evidence of lives dramatically changed by His love. We're here to inspire hope, reinforcing God's relentless pursuit, and sparking the desire to seek a life profoundly transformed. Let's chase after God together. Your journey to deeper faith starts here.

Brent Stone (00:00.342)
Hello and welcome to the Change Podcast. My name's Brent and I have my friend Nathan Carr with me today and we are so excited about this episode of Changed. And today I'll tell you, Nathan, he was introduced to me by another guest that we have had on the show previously and that's Leah. And Leah has done so much with her ministry and Nathan, she introduced me to Nathan and his ministry with what he's got going on.

It is just so powerful. Nathan, thank you for being on the show here with us today. I'm going to first just ask that maybe you give everyone a little bit of your background, but also answer the question, what was your encounter with Jesus that left you changed? And I'll kick it over to you.

nathan (00:33.926)
Yes.

nathan (00:44.38)
you. All right. I'm Nathan Carr. I probably started out my journey living the wrong life. I was heavy into drugs and selling drugs for 26 years. I ended up in jail and during that time in jail, I was really struggling. I was looking at 20 years minimum mandatory, which means I had to do the 20 years.

Brent Stone (01:12.47)
Was that in Virginia? Okay.

nathan (01:13.88)
Yes. Yeah, that was locally. And, uh, so being incarcerated, I was really struggling with a lot of stuff. And there was a young kid, I call him a young kid because he was like, he barely 18 years old. He was in there reading the book of Job every night. Once we locked the sales down and everybody was in the room for the night and the lights were out. You'd hear somebody reading the Bible. And, uh, yeah, yeah. I mean, really loud.

Brent Stone (01:29.102)
Sure.

Brent Stone (01:40.298)
Like out loud. Awesome. Really loud.

nathan (01:43.6)
I'm screaming it so everybody could hear it. And the book of Job really started hitting home to me. And, you know, being in the situation I was in, I had a lot of money. I had a lot of materialistic things, you know. I felt like I had it all before I got arrested, although I had nothing because I didn't have God. And during that moment, you know, I started realizing

how important the story was and how it was showing God's favor over this man. And, you know, this guy was so obedient to God and how God rewarded him for that obedience. And it really intrigued me and it got me excited about the Bible. And so July 7th, 2017, I really hit a spot one night. I was just...

Begging, crying out to God, pleading, you know, get me out of this situation. You know, I'm looking at, I'm going to be in my late sixties whenever I get out, you know, my family is going to be gone. You know, I was going to lose family members and things like that. And I was really struggling with it. And I just started praying, you know, I'm familiar with prayer and have grandparents that were church founders.

My grandmother was worship leader for decades and my grandfather was a pastor. So I was familiar with the word, but I never lived it. And I really reached out to him that night and man, I slept better than I've ever slept in my entire life. I cried like a baby, but I slept better than a baby. And it was really cool. The next morning I got up and I called my mom and she could sense a difference in my voice, you know, and I wasn't worried no more. I wasn't.

Brent Stone (03:18.091)
Sure.

Brent Stone (03:28.986)
awesome.

nathan (03:39.356)
panicking, I was okay, I was content with where I was at, which is kind of hard to say being content in jail. But it was a lifesaver, and she broke down on the phone and was crying, and she told me, she was like, the Holy Spirit met you last night. I realized that it was tears of joy, and I didn't know what that meant yet. I just knew it.

Brent Stone (04:07.115)
Yeah.

nathan (04:07.656)
different and it felt good and I liked it and you know it's real peaceful. So I ended up transferring pods and going back to the pod where the guy was at and he had been transferred to a different facility to Middle River and a couple of them probably about I'd say about two or three weeks had gone by and nothing really was going on in the pod. There's a lot of tension, a lot of fighting, a lot of arguing.

Brent Stone (04:10.668)
Yeah.

nathan (04:36.684)
you know, it was back to normal jail. And one night God was like, you need to read the Bible. So I grabbed my Bible, I walk over to the door and I'm standing there, there's a light out in the hallway, kind of shining in my room. And I just opened it up. I didn't have any particular verses picked out or anything like that. And I just started reading out loud. And the next morning, a guy comes up to me and he was like, how'd you know I needed to hear that?

And I was like, what are you talking about? He was like, you are spot on with some things I'm dealing with in my life. And I was just, I was kind of caught off guard. I was like, wow, God, God used me for that. And it was, it was a pretty cool experience. So I did that for the next seven months. And literally almost every day, somebody would come up to me and would thank me or would want to know what book that was out of.

Brent Stone (05:25.94)
What?

nathan (05:35.82)
and things like that and ended up doing Bible studies with guys and stuff like that. I had no clue what I was doing, you know, but God was leading me and directing me and I was just, I was being obedient like Job was and it really turned out really good. And, you know, so once I got out that landed me in addiction recovery because I was, I was a heavy addict and started working with Celebrate Recovery at the Nazarene Church.

and did some things like that. Well, I'd gotten out on bond. So surprisingly, I got out on bond. We got the right judge. We got the right timing. It worked out really good. So I'm out on bond and I go to celebrate recovery and get involved in that. I had to go back for my sentencing and it started hitting me again. I was getting paranoid and scared and things like that. So I ended up getting just another nine months.

So during that nine months, I'm in Middle River and I do a 52 week Bible study in 52 days. I read the Bible from Genesis all the way through Revelations. I even read the stuff in the back of the Bible that didn't have anything to do with anything. Like I literally read the whole Bible. And it was just really comforting, you know, to be able to have that time because I know out here in the real world, you don't have that.

Brent Stone (06:49.576)
haha

nathan (07:00.304)
like you do whenever you're in jail. And it really built my strength and my faith and my growth with God. And it was really impactful in my life and made a serious change. So whenever I got out, finally, after the nine months, I got back into Celebrate Recovery, did a step study, ended up leading the step study, did leadership training and sponsorship training.

I've been a leader there now for almost six years. I've been clean for almost seven years. No drugs. And, you know, it's been really cool. I even joined on with Virginia Mennonite Missions and started doing some mission work and prison ministry and working with the jail and inmates whenever they get out of the jail. Sponsored guys that are in multiple different prisons throughout the state of Virginia.

Brent Stone (07:34.166)
Wow, that's awesome.

awesome.

nathan (07:57.596)
Uh, it just kind of felt like God was calling me to some other things. And, uh, so a guy that I sponsor at Celebrate Recovery, he was telling me about this girl at Grace Covenant Church, who you all know as Leah. And, uh, that's how we met. And for nine months, roughly, I, I tried asking her out and, you know, I was.

Brent Stone (08:21.521)
Hahaha

nathan (08:22.596)
really drawn to her because it was kind of the female version of me. You know, she had gone through all this stuff. And I just, we really connected. And funny thing is we ended up, she remembered one night that we had actually met in our past life. And, uh, I had kind of helped her with a place to stay for a couple of days because she was in some trouble. And it was just weird how God had worked on both of us and then brought us back. And.

Brent Stone (08:28.758)
Yeah.

nathan (08:52.048)
put us into this situation. But so I started going into new life recovery at Grace Covenant. Been going there every Thursday for a little over three and a half years or so. And just started feeling like there was more that I needed to do. And it was really weighing on me that there's no rehabs around here. I've been working with recovery and sending people all over the place.

And God was like, open up a rehab. Help those that were like you, get the help that you've gotten. And so that's been my focus. We started our own ministry, Resurrected Ministries. And, you know, I've been doing that now. We got our nonprofits set up. Things are going good. Trying to get some money raised to buy a facility to open the first Christ Centered Men's Recovery Home in the Valley.

Brent Stone (09:21.728)
Yeah.

nathan (09:52.992)
And it's been rewarding by saying yes, and just doing what God calls you to do, it's been a blessing. Since then, me and Leah have conjoined our ministries, and once we get a men's house open, we're gonna open a house for the women. She'll oversee the women's house, I oversee the men's house. We're trying to conjoin our boards together and our mission support teams together, and things like that, start raising money.

Brent Stone (10:13.248)
Yeah.

nathan (10:21.348)
get this thing going.

Brent Stone (10:23.842)
That's so awesome. You know, I hear this and I'm just like, you know, how many people are...

nathan (10:25.201)
Yeah.

Brent Stone (10:35.69)
listening to this and it's just, it's admirable that you listen when someone else was, you know, was reading the Bible and some people might think that, oh, well you're kind of a captive audience. Well, I mean, not necessarily. I mean, you could probably figure out ways to tune it out or ignore it or whatever. And you didn't.

nathan (10:54.904)
Oh yeah. Yeah.

Brent Stone (10:59.798)
And for anyone that's in that scenario, it's just really inspiring. But then also, I think about it from never having to be in that scenario. It's like, well, how much valuable do you think that it is for somebody that's not having to have to choose whether or not they're incarcerated or what they're going to do with their time? What if there's somebody that's not there? It's like you're saying like, what's hard out in the real life to

nathan (11:27.557)
Yeah.

Brent Stone (11:27.566)
find time to do this stuff, but how vital is it for people to find time to read the Bible and do this stuff? Because it's not about the Bible as a set of rules, it's about what's God saying to you. And if you never make time to see what he wrote to the entire population of the world, because he wrote it with this type of – people hear the living word of God. Well, it absolutely is a living word and as you read it, you'll find that

nathan (11:37.028)
Yeah.

Brent Stone (11:54.418)
It hits every single person in a different way if you're in a spot to receive. A lot of people, they're just not in a spot to receive, but if they make that time and they go seeking God, I just believe that it's probably one of the most best investments of their time that they could do more so than anything else. I talked to a lot of people, Nathan, and they tell me a lot that they could be.

nathan (12:03.148)
Yeah.

nathan (12:12.828)
Yeah.

Brent Stone (12:19.934)
working to provide for their family. They could be doing these different things and you know, we got to do these things, right? We have to be able at some point to be able to take care of our family. But really, if it's all God's anyway, you know, why don't more people just lean on him? Like, you know, why don't more people just take that time and read his word? Yeah, I don't know. But I so appreciate your

nathan (12:39.076)
Good question.

Brent Stone (12:47.818)
Your your account I was gonna say your story, but it's your account and story just doesn't do it justice It's your account of what happened in your life and We're thankful for that. Is there anything else that you'd like to leave people with as we're as we're coming out here I mean you so greatly just put together what you're doing to walk out this change that you've experienced You're impacting other people you're going back and saying hey come with me. I've walked this road and

nathan (13:13.038)
Yeah.

Brent Stone (13:13.174)
Jesus showed me a way out. I'm gonna help you find your own way out with Jesus' help. Like is there anything else along this path that you'd like to leave our listeners with?

nathan (13:23.632)
Yeah, well, what's really important, you know, coming out of that situation, being incarcerated, I had a lot of support. You know, my mom's church, they was sending people in to visit with me, sending me scripture to read and study and things like that. And whenever I got out, actually, one of the elders from the church, he's retired pastor there.

He's the head of my mission support team now. They gave me a place to stay. And that was one of the reasons the judge was cooperative to let me out. So, you know, just having that community surrounds you and kind of keep you motivated and hold you accountable for your actions and willing to listen, willing to help, willing to teach you, you know, all the things that you need to get back on your feet. You know, that's so important.

You can't get out and go right back to the same people. You can't get out and think that everything's gonna be okay without putting in the effort and putting in the work. Literally, hands down, this was not possible. This was never to happen, but God made sure that it did. And being able to have something like that to lean on, like you're saying, why aren't these people laying on them? And their faith is little.

Just like you said, your faith is like a mustard seed. And I've struggled with that from time to time. We're human, we want things right then and there. And whenever you're dealing with God, it's on his timing. And there's no rush in that. And it's... It's...

That's something that's really discouraging sometimes, you know, as humans, we want it right then and there. We want our fast food. We want our internet to load. We want all these things. But what we really need to want is the love of Jesus. And, you know, I feel sorry for people that don't have that type of community surrounding them. And that's what I'm trying to do is, you know, we're going to have a one year program for guys to come in straight from jail, straight from prison. And

nathan (15:41.04)
teach them how to walk by faith, teach them job placement skills, teach them how to manage their money, teach them how to do recovery. And all this is gonna be done through Christ. And I think it's gonna be real successful once we get things up and running. But it's important to have that community. That's one thing I've liked about New Life is Leah's really focused on community. Community makes a difference.

She's seen it in her past, you know, her uprising into Christianity and being involved in leadership and groups. And it's worked for me, it's worked for her. It works for about anybody that wants it to work. You have to want it to work. You know, if you don't want it, it don't matter what you do, it's not gonna work. But I think it's really important to surround yourself with a good church.

Brent Stone (16:27.424)
Amen.

nathan (16:35.94)
good supporters and things like that. You know, that'll help you be more successful if you're coming out of a life like that.

Brent Stone (16:42.97)
Is there any advice you'd give people that like, let's say they're listening to this show and they have a loved one that's incarcerated and they're trying to give them resources to community like this. Where would you send them?

nathan (16:48.57)
Yeah.

nathan (16:53.861)
Yeah.

Send one to me. Seriously. Yeah. So we haven't gotten a website put together yet. Yeah, once we have a house and everything, Liz is going to help me do a website and things like that. But I have an email, phone number, anybody can contact me anytime if they need any resources. We have really been digging in a lot on.

Brent Stone (16:58.35)
Sure. I like a website or we'll put that stuff. We can put that stuff in the bio too for the show.

Brent Stone (17:06.656)
No problem.

Brent Stone (17:12.351)
Okay.

nathan (17:24.024)
getting the resource folder put together and we've gotten a lot from job placement skills to doctors to glasses to any kind of help that you might need You know to get started and get back on your feet We've gotten about all the resources there is here in Augusta County and Rockingham County We've been meeting with both of the reentry resource council meetings and things like that In both counties and it's been really helpful

Brent Stone (17:27.873)
Awesome.

Brent Stone (17:44.75)
It's awesome.

nathan (17:53.72)
You know, there's things out there that we didn't even know existed. You know, so we're kind of plugged in with all that now and we're able to help people now until we get a home. Uh, so, you know, anybody can contact me anytime you need to, you know, there's no problem, you can give out my information or whatever.

Brent Stone (18:04.141)
Yeah.

Brent Stone (18:11.614)
Yeah, we'll make sure it's in the show bio. So if you're listening to this show, just know that we're going to have on the show notes, you can go and you can find Nathan's contact email. And if you have a loved one or a friend that's looking for these resources, please get you know, get in get in get contact Nathan if I can speak contact Nathan and then Nathan can help direct you on what you need to do for

nathan (18:13.669)
Yeah.

nathan (18:39.728)
Yeah.

Brent Stone (18:41.41)
for your loved one or friend that's needing these resources. So Nathan, thank you so much for just, just blessing our listenership with coming on here and sharing your testimony and then sharing what you're doing about the change that you've experienced. And for everyone that's listening, thank you so much. And until next time, keep walking out your change.

nathan (18:48.014)
Absolutely.