“Mr. Wormstadt, since it looks like you insist on doing life on the installment plan, I here now give you your next installment to the Nebraska Department of Corrections of 40-60 months.”
That’s what the district court judge told me on July 31, 2000. I was in this judicial system since age 12 and, naturally, it looked like what she told me that day was going to come to pass. But God had different plans for me. Just two weeks before that I had an encounter with the Living God and was able to stand in front of the judge forever changed (2 Corinthians 5:17).
From that time on, prison turned into a training ground and it was a time set apart with God in which I learned of his kingdom I was adopted into and who I was in Christ. As I approached my release, a man who had discipled me while I was in prison gave me the opportunity to live with him and his wife and make a fresh, new start in Manhattan, Kansas. I decided to take him up on his offer and started my new life with Jesus with just the clothes on my back!
Over the last 16 years, God continues to be faithful. I have been married to my wife, Lori, for over 13 years, am self-employed, am on the elder board at Tru Community Church in St. George, Kansas, and am raising two sons.
To be honest, I went back to court in April 2017—but this time it was to finalize our adoption with the boy whom we fostered for 3 ½ years!
My passion now involves living for Christ and proclaiming the victory that he has won—for us and for those still incarcerated, physically and spiritually. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). I know this to be true.
