Take Heart

On February 2, 1996, Saulo’s life changed forever. He and two other juveniles planned to rob a convenience store. One friend robbed the cash register, and the other shot and killed the 61-year-old man behind the counter. Saulo, the only one of the three old enough to drive, drove the getaway car.

All three boys were eventually caught and tried for their crimes. At that time, trying Saulo as a juvenile would have meant a sentence of only five years.

The judge chose to try him as an adult, which meant life behind bars in an adult facility.

Saulo would later learn that he was the only one of the three co-defendants for whom the victim’s family tried to advocate, asking the court not to try him as an adult.

He vividly remembers the night before his sentencing. “I was in the holding cell in the county jail, and I was just so desperate, so afraid,” he said.

During his waiting period at that jail, Saulo had been given a Bible. “I remember sitting my Bible down on this concrete bench against the back wall in that cell and then kneeling down in front of that Bible and just crying and pleading with God to have mercy. (The Bible) fell open to Psalm 27, and when I got to the last two verses, it said, ‘I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.’”

Saulo said the verse provided the exact encouragement he needed.

“I took that as God's promise that He wasn't going to leave me there to die in prison and that He would show His mercy and His grace toward me.”

Not long after beginning his life sentence at Brooks Correctional Facility in Muskegon, Michigan, Saulo found Moody Radio. He remembers moving the antenna of his small radio around to try to get better reception near the tiny window in his cell.

“(I was) listening to the sermons and the music and just allowing that to saturate my spirit, my mind, and my life in a place like prison,” Saulo said. “To me, listening to godly men and women was a model for me of who I should be as a Christian.”

One night Saulo heard a song by Third Day, “God of Wonders,” that lit a spiritual spark in his heart. Saulo began learning to play the guitar and eventually helped lead worship in prison church services for nine years.

Mary Engle, then an area director for Prison Fellowship, met Saulo through his participation in The Urban Ministry Institute at Brooks Correctional. “As a juvenile lifer,” Mary said, “Saulo had to work through a lot. But God restores. Saulo and others became warriors for each other and fought battles of the mind and spirit that not many of us are able to comprehend. He loved leading worship and teaching others. He struggled, but he learned to overcome.”

Michigan laws were changing regarding the sentencing of minors to life in prison. Saulo had been behind bars for 23 years with three years of disciplinary credits for good behavior when he learned that he could possibly be resentenced from a life sentence to 25 to 60 years.

It would take the yes votes of at least six out of 10 members from the parole committee for Saulo to even have a chance at a hearing. He later learned that all 10 members of the committee voted to give him that chance.

After 3 1/2 hours of interrogation, Saulo’s heart sank when the panel member from the attorney general’s office did not vote in favor of parole.

But then another panel member spoke up.

“The parole board member reminded the panel that the attorney general’s office can only make a recommendation. It doesn’t determine whether someone will actually get parole or not,” Saulo recalled. “That parole board member looked at me and said, ‘I don't believe that the person who committed that crime is the person who's sitting here today.’”

It would be three agonizing weeks before he would hear the panel’s decision to commute his sentence and grant him a four-year parole. After completing a specialized six-month reentry program, Saulo was free.

Not long after Saulo was released, Mary Engle from Prison Fellowship crossed paths with Saulo at a job fair. Mary had recently begun working with Mel Trotter Ministries, a Christian outreach addressing the needs of the hungry and the homeless in the Grand Rapids area. She introduced him to MTM’s supervisor of security, and soon he was hired.

Over the last few years, Saulo has advanced with the organization. “Despite my background, they’ve entrusted me with so much,” Saulo said. “I went from being a security person to being the director of intake services. I get to make such a good impact on our guests, and it's been a huge blessing.”

Mary Engle isn’t surprised that Saulo has taken on a new role at Mel Trotter Ministries. “He sets the example for all who struggle to leave behind the ugliness that life can bring,” she said. “With his experience and his desire to treat others with dignity no matter where the guests are in their walk in life, Saulo can talk to the guests or to staff from a place where many cannot. God chose him to leave his prison cell to show others what God can do.”

Saulo was blessed with many merciful experiences while he was in prison, but one experience stands out above the rest.

“To meet the family of the man that we murdered,” Saulo said, “to see them face to face in the visiting room and to hear them say, ‘We forgive you, and we expect great things from you.’ For me, that was like a chance at redemption.”

Moody Radio is still regularly ministering to Saulo’s heart. “I still listen to Moody,” he said.

“Moody has been such a huge part of my life. It's made an impact in my life, and it continues to do that with its messages, its music, and its commitment to being a source of inspiration to so many people who are seeking.”

The words of Psalm 27 that Saulo first read in a jail cell in 1996 will stay with him forever. “What God did back then when I was young and full of fear and uncertain about my future,” Saulo said, “He said to wait for Him, to be strong and take heart and wait for Him—that I would see His goodness while I was still alive. And I did!”