A convicted felon in Kentucky, who nearly died after abusing drugs and wound up in a rehabilitation facility, has become the subject of a heartwarming story after going viral for getting baptized while wearing an ankle monitor.
Kris Mitchell said coming to Jesus Christ was the “best decision I have ever made in my life” in an interview with Kentucky Today wherein he explained how his rough past led him to faith.
Mitchell, a resident at Protea Behavioral Health Counseling facility in Somerset, said he almost lost his life before entering rehab.
“I was found dead in the VFW parking lot in Frankfort,” he said. “They had to shock me back, and then I was in the hospital for three days.”
Soon after that, he was arrested after the friend he was riding in a car with was pulled over with drugs and a firearm in the vehicle.
“My friend had asked me to ride with him to get his driver’s license. On the way there, we got pulled over. There were drugs on him but no drugs on me, but they found a firearm in the vehicle, and they put me in jail because I’m a convicted felon,” Mitchell explained. “I was locked up on a Wednesday, and by the next Tuesday someone saw my mug shot and got the ball rolling for me to get into rehab after the 28 days in jail.”
After he got to the facility, Mitchell still struggled with the urge to use drugs. That is when someone told him about a Barnesburg Baptist Church rally.
“The guy who preached touched me. I’m usually the kind of person who sits back and won’t say anything,” Mitchell said.
He felt called to be saved, but there was just one problem — his court-issued ankle bracelets could not be submerged in water.
A heartwarming video captured from the May 18 baptism shows a team of men carefully lifting Mitchell’s legs in the air and lowering his upper body into Short Creek in Pulaski County:
“I didn’t want to tell him to wait … I didn’t want to turn him away,” Barnesburg Baptist Pastor Jordan Burks told Kentucky Today in an interview. His plea was “for God to make a way.”
“We had six people who helped him into the water and got around him,” Burks added.
The caption on the video states that “ankle bracelets are no match for Jesus.”
“It’s the best decision I have ever made in my life,” Mitchell, 45, told the outlet. “I was lost before that day. I went from being in active drug addiction for the past 30 years to the Lord working miracles in my life today. My wife is back in my life now, as well as my daughter, who wouldn’t speak to me. I am blessed today, even though I am still in rehab.”
He added that after being raised in a violent home, grieving his brother who was murdered, and becoming a convicted felon, Jesus gives him hope.
“I tried many times to stop using and was close [to] ending my life because I didn’t want to be sick any more. I’ve been in and out of prison most of my adult life because of drug addiction. Even though I’m facing going back to prison for something I did while I was in active drug addiction, I have found peace and happiness in my life,” the newly saved man said. “I give my praise to the Lord because I couldn’t do it without Him. He is truly showing me the way. I have peace in my life today and I know no matter what happens to me, He is going to guide me and show me the way. He will not let man put on me more than I can stand.”