Lesson 10 Explore 4: Once a Gang Member, Never Without His Gun | Bible Changes Lives

IMAGE 1 PICTURE DESCRIPTION: Annunziato Lugarà and his wife Carmen

THE BIBLE CHANGES LIVES I Never Went Anywhere Without My Gun

As told by Annunziato Lugarà

• YEAR BORN: 1958
• COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: ITALY
• HISTORY: VIOLENT GANG MEMBER

IMAGE 2 PICTURE DESCRIPTION: Annunziato Lugarà with long hair and a beard, before he changed his life

MY PAST:

I was born and raised in the suburbs of Rome, in an area made up of the poor working class. Life was tough. I never knew my real mother, and I didn’t have a good relationship with my father. I grew up learning the rules of the streets.

By the time I was ten years old, I had already started stealing. At age 12, I ran away from home for the first time. On more than one occasion, my father had to pick me up at police headquarters and take me home. I argued with people constantly—I was violent and angry with the whole world. When I was 14, I left home for good. I started taking drugs and living on the street. Not having anywhere to sleep, I would break into a car and stay in it until the early morning hours. Then I would look for a water fountain so that I could wash up.

I became really good at stealing—anything from bag snatching to robbing apartments and villas during the night. I started to gain a bad reputation and was soon invited to join a notorious gang, which allowed me the “opportunity” to upgrade to robbing banks. Because of my aggressive personality, I was soon a respected member of the gang. I never went anywhere without my gun; in fact, I slept with it under my pillow. Violence, drugs, stealing, foul language, and immorality became my way of life. The police were constantly on my heels. I was arrested several times, and I spent years in and out of prison.

HOW THE BIBLE CHANGED MY LIFE:

On one occasion when I was let out of prison, I decided to go and visit one of my aunts. Unbeknownst to me, my aunt and two of my cousins had become Jehovah’s Witnesses. They invited me to attend a meeting of the Witnesses. Out of curiosity, I decided to go with them. When we arrived at the Kingdom Hall, I insisted on sitting near the door so that I could keep an eye on those who came in and out. Of course, I was armed.

That meeting changed my life. I remember thinking that I must be on a different planet. I was greeted by people with warm, friendly smiling faces. I still have a vivid picture in my mind of the kind, honest look the Witnesses had in their eyes. This was certainly a million miles away from the world I was used to!

I started to study the Bible with the Witnesses. The more I learned, the clearer it became that I had to change my lifestyle completely. I took to heart the words recorded at “The one walking with the wise will become wise, but the one who has dealings with the stupid will fare badly.”

I realized that I needed to distance myself from the gang. That was not easy to do, but with Jehovah’s help, I succeeded.

For the first time in my life, I started to have control over my actions

I also cleaned myself up physically. With much effort, I stopped smoking cigarettes and using drugs. I cut my long hair, got rid of my earrings, and stopped using bad language. For the first time in my life, I started to have control over my actions.

I had never enjoyed reading and studying, so it was a real challenge to concentrate and apply myself to Bible study. However, as I made the effort, I gradually came to love Jehovah, and something started to change inside me—my conscience began to bother me. I often had negative feelings about myself, doubting that Jehovah could ever forgive me for all the bad that I had done. In those moments I found a lot of comfort in reading about Jehovah forgiving King David after he had committed serious sins.

(2 Samuel 11.1-12.13: At the start of the year, at the time when kings go on campaigns, David sent Joab and his servants and the entire army of Israel to bring the Ammonites to ruin, and they besieged Rabbah, while David stayed in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the rooftop of the king’s house. From the rooftop he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman, and he reported: “Is this not Bath-sheba the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” Then David sent messengers to bring her. So she came in to him, and he lay down with her. (This happened while she was purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Afterward, she returned to her house. The woman became pregnant, and she sent a message to David: “I am pregnant.” At this David sent a message to Joab: “Send to me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was getting along, how the troops were getting along, and how the war was going. David then said to Uriah: “Go down to your house and relax.” When Uriah left the king’s house, the king’s courtesy gift was sent after him. However, Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the other servants of his lord, and he did not go down to his own house. So David was told: “Uriah did not go down to his own house.” At that David said to Uriah: “Have you not just returned from a journey? Why did you not go down to your own house?” Uriah replied to David: “The Ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. So should I go into my own house to eat and drink and lie down with my wife? As surely as you live and are alive, I will not do this thing!” Then David said to Uriah: “Stay here also today, and tomorrow I will send you away.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem on that day and the following day. David then sent for him to come and eat and drink with him, and he got him drunk. But in the evening, he went out to sleep on his bed with the servants of his lord, and he did not go down to his house. In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. He wrote in the letter: “Put Uriah in the front lines where the fighting is fiercest. Then retreat from behind him, so that he will be struck down and die.” Joab had been carefully watching the city, and he stationed Uriah where he knew there were mighty warriors. When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of David’s servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite was among those who died. Joab now reported to David all the news about the war. He instructed the messenger: “When you finish speaking to the king about all the news of the war, the king may become angry and say to you, ‘Why did you have to go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the top of the wall? Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who threw an upper millstone on him from the top of the wall, causing his death at Thebez? Why did you have to go so close to the wall?’ Then say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.’” So the messenger went and told David everything that Joab had sent him to tell. Then the messenger told David: “Their men overpowered us, and they came out against us in the field; but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. And the archers were shooting at your servants from the top of the wall, and some of the servants of the king died; your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.” At that David said to the messenger: “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Intensify your battle against the city and conquer it.’ And encourage him.” When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband Uriah had died, she began to mourn her husband. As soon as the mourning period was over, David sent for her and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But what David had done was very displeasing to Jehovah. So Jehovah sent Nathan to David. He came in to him and said: “There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many sheep and cattle; but the poor man had nothing but one small female lamb, which he had bought. He cared for it, and it grew up together with him and his sons. It would eat from the little food he had and drink from his cup and sleep in his arms. It became as a daughter to him. Later a visitor came to the rich man, but he would not take any of his own sheep and cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” At this David grew very angry against the man, and he said to Nathan: “As surely as Jehovah is living, the man who did this deserves to die! And he should pay for the lamb four times over, because he did this and showed no compassion.” Then Nathan said to David: “You are the man! This is what Jehovah the God of Israel says: ‘I myself anointed you as king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul. I was willing to give you your master’s house and put your master’s wives in your arms, and I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And as if that were not enough, I was willing to do much more for you. Why did you despise the word of Jehovah by doing what is bad in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword! Then you took his wife as your wife after you killed him by the sword of the Ammonites. Now a sword will never depart from your own house, because you despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite as your wife.’ This is what Jehovah says: ‘Here I am bringing against you calamity from within your own house; and before your own eyes, I will take your wives and give them to another man, and he will lie down with your wives in broad daylight. Although you acted in secret, I will do this in front of all Israel and in broad daylight.’” David then said to Nathan: “I have sinned against Jehovah.” Nathan replied to David: “Jehovah, in turn, forgives your sin. You will not die.)

Another challenge was sharing my faith with others in the door-to-door ministry.

I was terrified that I would meet someone whom I had hurt or wronged in some way in the past! But gradually I was able to overcome my fear. I began to find real satisfaction in helping others learn about our wonderful heavenly Father, who forgives so abundantly.

IMAGE 3 PICTURE DESCRIPTION: Annunziato Lugarà clean-cut and happy, after changing his life

HOW I HAVE BENEFITED:

Learning about Jehovah saved my life! Most of my former companions are dead or in prison, but I have a truly satisfying life and a future to look forward to. I have learned to be humble and obedient and to control my volcanic temper. As a result, I enjoy better relationships with the people around me. I am happily married to my beautiful wife, Carmen. Together, we find great joy in helping others learn about the Bible.

Oh, and I now do honest work—it sometimes still involves banks, but instead of robbing them, I clean them!

[End of article.]