My father was a robber
My father was a
famous man
in our area, but not
for the right reason.
You see, he was
a robber and he
killed people. My
name is Panom. I was born in 1960 in Thailand. I
am the fourth of six children – five boys and one
girl. My father was a robber because he thought
this was the best way to take care of his family.
Always moving
When I was a child we moved from place to
place because the police were always looking
for my father. The wanted to put him in prison.
Many friends of our family were robbers too.
The leader of a village where we lived at one
time was a bad man. He always asked my father
when he wanted someone killed or something
else bad to be done. I was the son who my
father loved most, so I always knew what he
was doing, even when I was very young. This
robbing and killing was the only life I knew.
"I will kill you"
In one village where we lived, there were two
gangs of robbers. There was always big trouble
between the two gangs. One of them was my
father's gang. One day his gang went out to
kill the members of the other gang. My father's
younger brother was killed. The police came
and the other leader and some of his gang were
put in prison. My father was told that the leader
said, "When I am freed from prison, I will come
to kill all of you."
After some years that gang came out of prison.
They went to our village, wanting to kill the
village leader and all my father's gang. There
was a lot of fighting between the two gangs and
the village leader was killed.
The bomb failed
My father was at the funeral with many
people from the village. The other gang put a
bomb near where everyone was standing. But
it did not go off.
The police and my father's gang chased the
bombers as they escaped in their car. They
came to where a railway line crossed the road,
just as a train came along. The bombers could
not pass, so they jumped out of their car to
escape. But the police shot them all dead.
I followed my father
After this we moved again to another place.
You will not be surprised to know that by this time
I was in my father's gang. I too had become a
robber and a murderer. In 1998, I was arrested
and sent to prison. The judge sentenced me to
death. The next year my sentence was changed
to 33 years in prison.
It was in 2006, when I was in the prison hospital,
that I heard the good news about Jesus Christ
for the first time. A man called Jongming told me
that Jesus will forgive all the wrong things we
have done in the past, even the very bad things
I had done. As he told me about God sending
Jesus into the world to take the punishment that
we deserve, I thought about my life. I felt as
though I had always lived in a very dark place
and only Jesus could set me free.
I told God I was sorry for all the bad things I
had done. I was still in the prison, but suddenly
everything in my mind and body was free. The
darkness I had felt became light. Now Jesus
helps me to know more and more about God.
He is my best friend, right here in prison.
I have been in prison for over ten years, but
I will soon be allowed to come out. I am in the
prison hospital because I have asthma, but I
talk to God every day and believe that he is
healing my illness. I thank him for all that he
has done for me.