There’s a Woody Allen quote that says, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” Before we are born, God comes up with a plan for our lives. Because He has a plan for your life, God may see fit to put you through certain things, but it’s always for a reason. For 39-year-old McDonough, Georgia pastor Terrell Scott, God used his life as an example that just because your life starts one way, that doesn’t mean it will end that way.

When Pastor Scott graduated high school in 2000, he was on his way to college with a wrestling scholarship. His life was filled with so much promise, but there was a downside. Pastor Scott sold marijuana and crack cocaine. He also ran a McDonough Housing Authority Complex. In his sophomore year, Scott was arrested for cocaine trafficking, but that didn’t stop him. He kept in touch with the drug dealing and gang banging lifestyle while in prison.

While in solitary confinement, Scott cried out to God, asking him to change his life and turn it around. His high school friend Brandy even helped him on his way to getting to know the Lord. Brandy and Pastor Scott eventually got married and started their own church called the Passion-Life Church. They may only have less than 100 members, but they still find a way to put their message out into the community.

In 2015, the Scotts started the River Refuge/Malachi Project to help low-income families and children. The ministry’s mission is based around Malachi 4:6 which says, “And He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.” At first, the project was run out of the Scott’s home, but they’ve expanded into a home within the McDonough Housing Complex, the same place where Pastor Scott sold drugs in the past. On Thursdays, members of the Scott’s church walk around the housing complex and give out grace bags, which are filled with hygiene items, snacks, and other goods.

Pastor Scott’s story is a prime example of how God will give you trials and use them for your greater good. He started out selling drugs in a housing complex, yet God turned his life around and now he’s able to give back and minister to the same community. The funny thing is God orchestrated for Pastor Scott’s life to go the way it did. When he cried out to God while in jail, that was when God knew that he had enough and changed his life right in that instant. This also goes to show that God can turn your life around in a flash, but you must be willing to meet him halfway. You can’t say that you want your life to change and expect God to do all the work.

Pastor Scott may have planned to go to college and be a wrestler, but God had other plans. From being a drug dealer to ministering in the same housing complex he sold drugs in, God used Pastor Scott’s trials and turned them into triumphs.