He's well-qualified to minister to prisoners

Volunteer Anthony Torres takes his life message to Hernando jail prisoners, and they listen.

By Gail Hollenbeck, Times Correspondent
Published February 16, 2008

Like mother, like son. Anthony Torres, center, and his mother, the Rev. Nilda Comacha, are overcome with emotion during his ordination ceremony. Next to Torres is his pastor, the Rev. John Grossi.
	[Special to the Times]

ADVERTISEMENT Minister Anthony Torres feels well qualified to talk with prisoners about God and salvation.

BROOKSVILLE - When Anthony Torres was ordained into the ministry last December, he had an unusual audience - about 40 prisoners.

Torres had the distinction of being the first prison ministry volunteer to have his ordination ceremony held at the Hernando County Jail among his "flock." Also attending were Torres' wife, Carmen; his pastor and wife, John and Sherral Grossi, and two other volunteer ministers.

The following week, there was a similar ceremony before Torres' family, co-workers and friends at his church, Springs of Life Family Church.

It was a proud moment for Torres.

"The chaplain and my pastors felt that there is a calling of a shepherd for prison ministry and evangelism in my life," he said.

"I always knew it. When they ordained me in the church, they couldn't fit all the people. I'm a people person."

Chaplain Mary Ellen Kerr, the programs coordinator for the jail, recommended Torres for ordination with the Missionary Church International and officiated at the jail ceremony.

"He's gifted in evangelistic work, and he feels his calling is jail ministry," Kerr said of Torres. "The residents respond to his message with great enthusiasm because he's very energetic and he's very exciting when he comes in to preach."

Torres, a custodian supervisor at Powell Middle School, is one of more than 80 volunteers who conduct services at the jail. Programs officer Will Ingersoll said Torres' ministry is distinctive.

"The message that he preaches is a message of hope and healing," Ingersoll said.

"I've never met a more positive person when it comes to sharing the Gospel and that the Lord can help them overcome the situations they are in and the problems that have brought them here."

Ingersoll pointed out that Torres' message to the prisoners is that, for now, they are where they belong.

"He tells them there's a penalty for the sin and for the crime that's committed, but his message is that the Lord can still keep you through it. He lets them know they're here for a time being and the Lord's going to do what he needs to do, and when you get out you're going to be a better person for it."

Torres said he is straight up with the prisoners.

"I go in there and minister to them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I give them my testimony and make them aware if God could do it for me, why can't he do it for you? But I cannot pray, 'Lord, get this man out of here,' because you broke the law and God made law."

Torres, 47, is well qualified to deliver such a message. He says it is by the grace of God that he is not either dead or in prison himself.

"I started from the bottom, working my way up," Torres said.

Born and reared in Brooklyn, N.Y., Torres watched as his father abused drugs and his mother became dependent on alcohol and pills.

"I loved my dad very much, but he was always in jail," Torres said. "I never had a father or father figure at home. My mother was the father, the money maker. I thank God for my mother."

Torres' father was shooting drugs into his veins and stealing money to support his habit. His mother would take Torres and his brother and sister with her to Puerto Rico, off and on, to avoid being around their father.

A breaking point came for Torres when he was 13 and his mother packed up his younger brother and went to Puerto Rico, leaving young Anthony with his father.

"I was too young. I was working as a dishwasher. I was dropping out of school, and she left me with my father, who was a junkie," he said.

"When she didn't return, he began selling everything in the house. I would try to come home from work and try to go to school, but I wasn't doing good at school. I gave my father the money I made for rent. But one day I came home and they had an orange thing on our door saying we had 72 hours to get out."

Torres dropped out of school and advanced to the position of oven boy at the restaurant where he worked. His father went back to prison, and Torres moved in with his sister. When his mother came back to Brooklyn, he moved back with her until, at age 17, he met his first wife, Peggy.

"It was puppy love. We were five years together, and that's when (children) Anthony came and Nicholas," Torres said. "But when I got married, instead of becoming an adult I became a hoodlum."

Despite his hatred of drugs, Torres had married into a drug-dealing family. His wife smoked pot, and he began to do the same.

"I started drinking beer. I started trying acid, Valium and a little bit of angel dust," he said. "That almost killed me."

After taking a course, Torres became a truck driver. But he continued to get high on the weekends. In an attempt to make something good of his life, Torres joined the Army National Guard and got involved with martial arts, giving up drinking and drugs and channeling his anger into something safe.

"It was killing my marriage," Torres said. "I loved my wife. But after two more years, I said 'enough is enough.'"

After Torres left Peggy and his sons, he became depressed. He was determined not to be a deadbeat dad and made sure to continue to support his children. He began to smoke crack cocaine and had times of feeling suicidal. He also sold drugs. His younger brother did as well, and eventually was killed while fleeing from a robbery.

"My mother had become a born-again Christian," Torres said. "She had been one of my drug suppliers, but she changed her life around after she had a rude awakening and said, 'What am I doing? I'm killing you.' She said she was going to rehab, and during that process she met a lady that was born again who introduced her to the Lord. Then she had an encounter with the Holy Spirit and she was never the same. She started going to Bible institute and got her four-year degree in Bible studies. Today she ministers at the same prison with me. She ministers the 8 o'clock service in Spanish."

Torres said that after his mother became a Christian, he attended her church, repented and was saved.

But he still had a desire for drugs.

"My pastor suggested I go to Teen Challenge," Torres said. "He said for some people healing is a process, because in my heart I still liked getting high. While I was there, I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit. I learned how to read. I learned how to write a lot better. I was never the same."

Torres took Bible courses and courses on how to minister to prisoners. He began preaching and teaching. About four years ago, he moved his family here.

When he shares his life story with prisoners, Torres tells about his own two brushes with the law. While in his 20s, he spent 10 days in prison in connection with a drug investigation, and four years ago he was under investigation for conspiracy to receive a bribe in relation to a money scam involving a relative to whom he had loaned money. Torres said he was innocent both times, and the courts agreed. He was exonerated.

But those two close encounters and the memory of his father's and brother's tragic lives have given Torres a heart for prison ministry, and he is happy to share his personal testimony with prisoners two or three Sundays a month. He also participates in special services, such as an upcoming revival where he will preach and play the bongos.

Today, Torres is pleased to have a nice home and a good job so he can provide for Carmen, his wife of 14 years, and their two young children.

He is also proud that his older sons are doing well. Anthony Jr. recently served a tour of duty in Iraq, and Nicholas is attending college in New York. He's thankful their lives will be different than his was when he was their age.

And he's grateful to God for how far he has come.

"Everything people told me I couldn't do, when I placed it on the altar, my God has done it," he said.

"When you pray and you ask God to break those shackles and those curses from the past, it works. Prayer works."

[Last modified February 15, 2008, 21:49:35]