When I was nine, I made the front page of the newspaper. I hated it. It happened because we were so poor my mother had put my sister and me into the Christmas fund. Then some kids made fun of me at school I vowed I would do whatever it took to be rich.
I was born and raised in Vancouver. My parents divorced when I was five due to my father’s drinking problem. My mother was so over protective, I built up walls against her. My friends and I began to break into cars to steal change to play video games.
ln high school, I progressed to breaking into cars to steal stereo systems, wheel rims and other parts. I also started smoking marijuana and drinking. At 19, I switched to a safer crime — selling marijuana to the kids at school.
I was introduced to an American and started to smuggle marijuana into the USA, but got caught after a few months and went to prison.
After I got out, I continued to sell marijuana in Vancouver and then was introduced to cocaine. I used it myself and loved it. Soon I was running a 24~hour dial—a- dope cocaine delivery service, selling to everyone from prostitutes to businessmen.
I started to supply other dealers and recruited friends to work for me. I was driving fancy cars, hanging out with strippers and partying.
It was a very fast lifestyle — and a dangerous one. When I was 25, I was kidnapped and extorted for a lot of money after that, I couldn’t trust anybody I became harder, more lonely more isolated and full of hate.
One summer evening, I was driving to Calgary with seven kilos of cocaine in a hidden compartment of my car. I remember thinking how lonely depressed and, empty I was. I had no real friends — some of the people I knew were shooting each other and ripping each other off I looked up at the stars and thought that there must be a creator. Then the thought came to me that I, too, had been created and for something bigger than the life I was living. I said, “God, if you are real, show me?
Back in Vancouver, I felt I needed to move before I got shot. I was driving out to Surrey when I saw a cardboard sign on a pole about a house for rent. I felt drawn to call the number. A young man named Peter owned the house; he was living down-stairs and renting the upstairs. When I walked upstairs to look at the place, I felt a peace I had never felt before. I knew I had to live there.
After I moved in, I talked to Peter every once in a while and felt a peace around him. I could see he was a genuine person. When his friends came to visit, I could see the true friendship they had for one another, a bond of love quite unlike what I and my friends had. I found out they were Christians, and every time I was around them, I would start to feel guilty and ashamed of who I was. .
One day Peter asked if I wanted to come to church with him. I laughed and told him that if I walked into a church, the stained glass windows would shatter.
Three months later, as I was driving my sports car into Vancouver, I noticed a church on the corner and a sign which said, “My sheep hear My voice? It was like time froze. I saw a vision of Jesus. I felt peace and knew that He was waiting for me.
Then the vision was gone. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. When I got home that night, I went straight to my room and fell onto my bed.
Within a few minutes, God said, “Get up. I want to show you something? I walked to the living room and saw the leather couches, the TV and the games — everything I had bought with drug money. It looked dirty to me. Then I felt led to open my front door and look at my cars. I slammed the door, saying, “Take this away! I don’t want it anymore!”
I ran to the living room, fell to my knees and began confessing all of my sins. I knew I was a sinner in need of a Savior, The next morning; I called my mom and told her I was sorry for the trouble I had brought her. Then I called Peter and told him that I wanted to give my life to Jesus;
He led me in prayer, and as soon as I said, “Jesus, come into my heart? I felt a rush" come pouring into me and dropped the phone. I was now a believer in Jesus Christ.
I eventually got rid of my cars and everything else that had been obtained through drug dealing. I would spend hours reading the Bible. Later, I started to preach at my church (First Century Church) and share my story at a few other churches.
I got a job washing the windows of restaurants and businesses. One afternoon, I was washing the windows at an expensive furniture store at Granville and Broadway I was holding a bucket of soapy water and trying to move past the people when my squeegee got caught on the purse of an attractive woman. She looked at me with disgust. I felt embarrassed and quickly ran to my van.
I said, “I quit this pathetic job! God, is this what you called me to be? I want to preach for a living, not wash windows! I used to drive up to restaurants in my fancy sports cars, and people would show me respect. Now You have called me to be a squeegee boy?
God said, ‘Are you finished?”
I said, “Yes, I am finished with this low-life job?
God then said, “Shawn, I have put you here to teach you humility You are not ready yet?
I continued washing windows, but with a different attitude. I got a different job driving a recycling truck for three years. Every day I would ask, “Lord, am I ready?” and He would say “Not now?
In the summer of 2010, I was praying one morning for direction, and I heard the Lord say “Look around you? I looked around, and the words came out of my mouth, “I live too comfortably!” Then He said, “Get rid of everything!”
So I got rid of my furniture and moved into a small room with no kitchen. A Christian brother thought that maybe I was going too far, but I was at peace, Two weeks later, God said, “I’m calling you to Peru?
A few months before, my aunt had gotten mixed up in a drug smuggling ring, had been arrested and had been thrown into a Peruvian prison. She had also developed ovarian cancer. All I could do was pray for her. I never thought God would call me to go there.
Shortly afterward, my friends Dolphe and Gloria Hoffman told me their daughter Crystal Powell had ministered in the same prison in Peru five years earlier. The next thing I knew, my air fare was paid for, and I was flying down there with her.
When I arrived, I was able to visit my aunt, encourage her and lead her back to Christ. I would visit her during the day and go into the ghettos in Lima at night to tell my story to drug dealers and teenagers. So many people were giving their lives to Jesus that we planted a church.
The third week I was there, I was able to get my aunt sentenced sooner so I could try to get her back to Canada. She had slipped into a coma due to the chemo treatments, so the court came to the hospital to sentence her. With the judge and prosecutor was another prisoner, who had been with my aunt when she was arrested.
He was in chains between two guards. Seeing an opportunity I told him who Jesus was; I explained that Jesus had given everlasting life to me and it was also available to him. We knelt down, and I led him to Christ in front of the whole court.
My aunt died the next day; but I knew she was in a different place. And God used her situation to give me the opportunity to start preaching.
Elias, the Christian Brother I was staying with in Peru, coordinates evangelistic crusades for an organization called International Commissions (wwwszic-world.org). He asked if I would preach in a crusade in Chile, replacing a preacher who had cancelled. After a 20-hour bus ride, I preached at the crusade, and many people came to Christ. I also spoke in a prison, where 15 prisoners - and their guard — gave their lives to Jesus.
God later provided enough money for me to go back to Peru to preach in another crusade in the highlands, where 532 people gave their lives to Christ.
Whether I return to Peru to preach in more crusades or preach here in Canada, I am willing to be a part of whatever God will do.
Shawn McGill can be reached at