Gorman Woodfin
CBN.com
“I was sent to a maximum security prison which housed about 1,100 convicts. I was at the time just 17.”
On November 16, 1989, in Miami, Florida, Matt Kern faced a 60-year prison sentence. Even though he was a teenager, he was housed with career convicts – most, more than twice his age.
Violence ruled the prison yard. Matt tells The 700 Club, “I was a 17-year-old kid that was trying to survive. So my reaction to that environment was to become as violent or more violent than they were.”
Until seventh grade, Matt had been a model student in school. Then something happened, he started hanging around with a bad crowd. He thought they were having more fun.
“Started with going to the classes late, hanging out in the halls a little too long. You know, then eventually it leads to skipping school altogether, then drinking and smoking cigarettes and it’s a slippery slope.”
Soon they wanted bigger thrills, and began stealing cars.
“We just used to break into the vehicles and then we’d have them for the rest of the weekend. Sunday we’d ditch them somewhere.”
Then one weekend, one of his friends decided to bring a gun. Instead of stealing a car they were going to car-jack one.
“We didn’t think that the gun would be used. It was for a threat. You expect that they would get away from their vehicle and you would just take their car. It was the first time we had done anything like this.”
Late that night, a teenage boy stopped on a dark, quiet roadway. He thought was a going to help some guys with a broken down car.
“The friend that I was with pulled the gun on him and this other guy who stopped was a young kid as well, and he refused to give up his car. Came towards my friend who had the gun. At that point my friend shot him. The victim of the robbery, he died on the scene from the gunshot wound.”
Before the victim died, he gave a description to the police, and one month later they were arrested and charged with murder.
“If you’re involved in a felony and somebody gets killed, everybody involved in that felony gets charged with the murder. So all of us were charged. So I realized then it was serious.”
Matt was sentenced to 60 years and was sent to a maximum security prison. For four years he lived in this jungle of violence, fighting at every turn to protect himself.
“So if I thought there was a problem, I would strike out. I would stab somebody. I would pipe somebody. I would hit somebody. Just to try to make a reputation for myself.”
Then after one fight, Matt had beaten the other inmate so severely he went into a coma. He wound up in solitary confinement. But for the first time—he felt guilty. He started reading a Bible that his father had given him years before.
“I didn’t know what to do with that guilt. I wanted to address it somehow; I wanted to get rid of it. I picked up the Bible that my dad sent me and just started reading it. The guilt didn’t completely go away, but I felt like I was addressing it somehow. That this is what I needed to do.
Matt spent a year in solitary confinement, reading his Bible. He says that’s when he became a new man.
“I could feel, like a fire within me. It was a change from my perspective of my surroundings and my world. I realized God had touched my heart. I understood from Scripture what that meant. I knew that from that day on, I was changed. I was still a sinner. I still had done a lot of things bad. I was still in prison, but I knew I was on the path of getting my life together, of committing my life to Christ. And trying to live a life that was going to glorify Him.
“The simplicity of it just amazed me. I can give God all of my brokenness and my sin and in return He gives me grace and peace and everlasting life.”
When he returned to the regular prison population from solitary confinement, Matt faced all the enemies he had made over the years.
“I’m saying to everyone, ‘I’m a Christian. I’m not going to react violently. I’m not going to be that person I was.’ And I received a lot of threats. But God was faithful in protecting me.”
Matt reconnected with his family and wrote them about the changes God had made in his life. His father had been working on a campaign to get his son released from prison.
“They put together a clemency packet and submitted to the clemency board, which is the Florida cabinet and the governor. Before Governor Lawton Chiles passed away, he granted me clemency.”
After 10 years behind bars, Matt was released. Years later, he shared his story at a meeting where he met Connie. They married and now have four children.
Connie says, “None of us deserve what God’s grace is to us. I think just seeing what God has done in his life and continues to do, that’s amazing to me.”
“It was almost too simple,” Matt says. “I’m reading these passages, these quotes from Jesus, that ‘if you believe in Me, and you confess My name, you will have everlasting life.’ It’s so simple a statement, yet so powerful.”
一个原本在校表现优异的模范生，甚么原因让他在17岁时就要面临60年的刑囚？并在一千多名惯犯中求生？他没有杀人，但在狱中他只能变得比别人更加凶恶才能立足。
「我被送到一个最严密的监狱，那里关了1,100名罪犯，那时我才17岁。」麦特．柯恩（Matt Kern）透过CBN谈到那段生命的改变。
1989年11月，住在美国佛罗里达迈阿密的麦特被判60年刑囚。即使他只是个17岁的孩子，在狱中，他必须周旋在上千个年纪都比他大上一倍的惯犯当中。
一个青少年，为了让自己能在暴力横行的监狱中生存，他必须比其他人更加暴力，这是麦特当时不得不的选择。
不过，麦特以前却不是这样的。七年级以前，他一直都是学校的表现优异的学生，直到他认识了坏朋友，只因为他觉得他们比较有趣，爱玩与好奇心却令麦特走偏了路。平日在校麦特是「最有价值球员」，到了周末，却跟一群坏朋友偷车狂欢。
他说：「一开始先是迟到，在走廊跟朋友晃久一点。后来就干脆集体翘课，喝酒、抽菸…然后愈来愈离谱。」
很快，他们追求更刺激的事物，开始偷车。麦特说，他们撬开车子，驾着车到处玩一个周末，等到星期天时再把车子随便丢在一个地方。
某个周末，朋友带了一把枪来，于是那天他们不偷车了，准备用那把枪抢劫车子。他们想用那把枪来威胁，以为亮出枪之后，别人就会吓得弃车走人。
当天晚上，他们在一处漆黑宁静的路上拦下一部车，拿出预备的枪，准备威胁驾驶。驾驶也是一个青少年，拒绝给他们车，走近拿枪的朋友，同伙朋友一慌，开了枪，对方当场死亡。
一个月之后，他们被起诉谋杀。在重大的谋杀案件，所有涉案的人都会被起诉。他因此被检方起诉60年监禁，并在最严密的监狱受刑。起初他在少年监狱服刑四年，但为了自保与获得尊重，他不断与人逞凶斗殴。「如果我认为那是个问题，我就会除掉它。用刀捅人、或打或揍，目的就是要在其中建立自己的地盘。」麦特说。
但是某次斗殴，麦特下手太重，把一个囚犯打到昏迷，因此被关进了禁闭室。在禁闭室里，突然间，麦特第一次，对那个被误杀的人感到一股强烈的愧疚感，这些年在狱中打杀斗狠，也从不为自己犯下的罪有任何感觉。一个人在禁闭室里，他不知道该如何处理这股陌生却难过的感觉，他想要抒发、想要除去这种难过的感觉，所以拿起父亲在多年前带过来的圣经，开始读起来。愧疚感虽然没有完全离开，但是他却感到心中稍许释怀。在禁闭室整整一年，麦特靠着圣经撑过来。他说，从此他变了一个人。
「我感受到，像有一把火在我里面烧。我明白，神已经触摸了我的心，因为我从经文中了解到，从那天开始，我就改变了。我是一个罪人，做了这么多坏事，我还在监狱中，但是我知道我正走在一条找回自我的路上，我已将生命交托给基督，我应该活出荣耀祂的生命。」麦特说。
「我只要将自己的破碎与罪交给主，神就会给我恩典、平安与永恒的生命。这么简单的事让我感到完全不可思议！」
但是当他关禁闭结束之后，回到原来的囚区，多年来所累积的仇家正虎视眈眈等着他…..。面对这样的情况，他已改变了，麦特只对他们说：「我已经是基督徒了，不再暴力，我不再是以前那个我。虽然陆续仍威胁不断，但是神真的是信实的，祂保护了我。」
麦特再度与家人取得联系，写信回家中告诉父母自己的转变，当时他父亲一直持续不断为儿子申冤，寻求儿子能无罪释放的管道。麦特的父亲于是将儿子的转变，向佛罗里达州政府请愿，当时参议员奇利斯（Lawton Chiles）为其周旋，麦特终于被无罪释放了。
10年的牢狱之后，麦特终于自由了。多年之后，在一场见证分享中遇见柯妮（Connie），两人一见倾心，携手成立家庭，育有四子。
妻子因麦特的温柔与谦卑而感动，婚后育有四名子女。
「当我认识他之后，才发现他的谦卑与慷慨，他是个非常温柔的人。本来以为他应该会是个大老粗之类…」妻子柯妮说。「我们没有任何一个人得得神的恩典。但是看见神在麦特身上所做所有的奇妙事，真的非常稀奇。」
「这实在太简单了。」麦特说。「我读了圣经中耶稣所说的话，就是要相信祂，尊祂的名，就能拥有永生，如此简单的宣言。然而，这力量却是难以想像的大。」
翻译：基督教今日报
