Drug Lord Saved by Grace

“That’s where I used to sell drugs at and beat people up—I beat a lot of people up.”

Driving through Marion, Indiana, Daniel Baker remembers growing up on these streets and living in chaos.

“Some people owed me money and so to scare people, I’d get violent with them and blow their vehicles up or burn something or commit arson. Very bad stuff.”

Daniel grew up in a violent, abusive home. Soon after his parents divorced, the seven-year-old was molested by a family member. He told his parents, but they dismissed it.

“I remember feeling very much unloved, abandoned. I didn't know how to deal with any of those emotions. I didn't even know how to comprehend the emotions that I was going through. And so, I got in this state of like rage and anger, especially towards God.”

Daniel soon began getting into fights, drinking, smoking, and using drugs.  At sixteen, he decided to become a drug dealer.

“The things that attracted me to selling drugs was power, money. I had influence over people with drugs. People wanted drugs. I had what they wanted and then if things didn't go my way, it looked like me being violent towards you. I was here to sell drugs and destroy lives.”

While Daniel found success as a drug dealer, his personal life was in chaos.  

“I got married at nineteen, and it was a very toxic, codependent relationship. We said we loved each other, but we cheated on each other. We beat on each other and did all those things that I’d seen my parents doing.”

After a year of marriage, he caught his wife cheating and was arrested on domestic violence charges.

“I was in this position of being all alone and afraid, 'cause I had nobody left. My entire drug empire was falling apart. Everything that I had worked so hard for had just been being ripped right away from me to the point that I had like nothing left.”

In his cell was a Bible. 

“‘I was like, “Okay, well, God, if, if you're there, this is the chance, like, now's the time to show me.” And so, I slid my hand in the Bible, and I started reading. It was a story about a man named Samson and how he married an adulterous woman. It was like God was showing me in that moment, ‘I see you. I've never left you.’”

Even then, Daniel couldn’t accept it.

“I felt really unworthy; I didn't believe that anybody would find interest in me, that anybody would care, that anybody would be genuine to me.”

So, when he was released, he went back to the streets and tried to rebuild his empire. He ended up strung out on his own supply and homeless.

“I was going to die on the streets, or I was going to die in prison.”

There was only one bright spot in his life: a local church.

“When I didn't have any food, they fed me. When I was homeless, they literally let me stay in the church building.  They took a lot of time out their day. They went out of their way, and they didn't ask for anything, and that really softened my heart.”

However, it would take Daniel another year of addiction and homelessness to turn to God. At age twenty-two, he was arrested on numerous charges and sentenced to nineteen months.

“‘I started to cry out to God, for him to help me out of the insanity that I was living. 'cause I felt like I kept doing the same thing over and over and over again, and it just kept ending in the same way. I was broken. I had lied to myself for so long. I was definitely at that point of like, ‘Wow, I've gotta give up control.’ I prayed and I asked God to help me see the truth behind all the lies. And I grabbed the Jesus Calling book and started reading. And it said, “Rest your eyes on my face, the lover of your soul.” It spoke to me, like, God was telling me, ‘Look to my face. I chose to show myself to the world through Jesus. Look to Jesus. You're going to find the truth when you look to Jesus. It's only through Jesus that we're going to get to heaven. There's no other way.’

That was the moment where my heart was like, “Okay, God, I'm all in. Like, whatever you have for me, I will do it. I will do what you tell me to do.”’

As Daniel got clean and began reading the Bible daily, his heart and mind began to heal.

“The biggest part that it changed was my belief that it is possible to change, and that God loves me and is going to meet me right where I'm at. I don't have to be perfect to have a relationship with him. There were lots of voices in my head telling me to do bad things. And I started to really read the word, follow what the word was telling me and listen to God and his voice. And as I did that, those voices faded away.”

When Daniel was released in 2020, he started making amends for his past mistakes and started serving the community. In fact, he retrieved a car he’d stolen and abandoned in another state, repaired it, and returned it to its owner. That was the start of his nonprofit organization, Disciple of Christ garage. He also started three Christian rehabilitation houses nearby, where he shares the hope he’s found in Christ daily.

‘“God is like, ‘I am here, and you can depend on me. And I'm not gonna be like the world. I'm not gonna leave you hanging dry or lead you in ways that are gonna be destructive.’ All of the things that I was striving for and trying to get on my own power, in my own ways, as soon as I surrendered to God and his ways, he gave me all of those things. If I had just believed that it was that simple from the start, that would've saved a whole lot of time.’”

To learn more about Daniel Baker click the Link!  

To learn more about Disciple of Christ Garage click the Link!