Tony Anzelde lived alone; he was a member of a bike gang, a drug dealer and a fighter. He carried a gun and had a ten-inch blade in his boot as a back up. He loved his gang and his only ambition was to join the New York Hell’s Angels.
He was a hard man with a cold heart and the sort of person you would say was beyond redemption.
Then one day his mother had another child, a little girl. She was born with Cerebal Palsy and all of her limbs suffered paralysis. When Tony looked into the cot at his little sister and she took hold of his little finger there was a connection made, he was moved by the thought of what this innocent little soul would be made to suffer through this illness. For the first time in his life he had feelings for another human being. The suffering of this little child had broken through the cold, hard, exterior of his heart.
Embarrassed by his feelings Tony ran home to his flat to be alone. There, for the first time in his life, he called out to God and wept bitter tears of repentance. He asked God for a miracle, “If you heal my little sister of Cerebal Palsy, I will not join the Hell’s Angels!”
The following week he went to his mother’s home and was told something extraordinary. At the center where his little sister was receiving her physiotherapy treatment they noticed that the little girl could now move her legs independently for the first time. The following week she moved her arms and slowly but surely over the coming weeks a healing took place.
Tony’s prayer was answered! At the time he was writing a book on the Hell’s Angels and the gang colours across America. He took that book and threw it down a sewer. “There was a release,” he said, “like a screeching from within me, that let go of me, and I had a sense of peace that I had never known before.”
“Now shall the ruler of this world be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” (John 12:31&32)
