Search for Power Concluded in One Person

“I started going to other witches, other warlocks. And it was like an everyday thing. I was told by these witches and warlocks that I was supposed to be one. That this is what I was called to do.” Richard Lorenzo thought he had finally found his purpose in life, something he’d been searching for since he was a young boy. He recalls, “What's the purpose of this life? Why, why do we live to die? That was always in my mind. And it used to torment me a lot.”

Initially, making money was Richard’s goal. What it could buy and who it could influence. Soon he was chasing the life he saw on TV and in the movies. Richard says, “Wanting to have the girls, wanting to be popular, wanting to get the car and...and see the things. And, you know, have the things that I see in music videos.”

He rarely did drugs yet started selling marijuana in high school. Richard saw it as the easiest way to make money so he could invest in legitimate companies. He recalls, “I had this drive again, to always get money in every situation, legal or illegally try to get on top, try to make it to where I could start a business or something, make the millions of dollars or whatever it was. And make it. I wanted to do something with it and not just be another one of those statistics locked up in jail or killed.”

After two years of college, Richard dropped out and joined the Navy, looking for some stability. What he found was a new market to sell marijuana. Before long he was buying weed in bulk and shipping it across the country. He says, “So, in my mind, I thought success or money, or, you know, having the financial, like freedom would bring that fulfillment.”

Then, in 2018, a drug package worth $20,000 went missing. Although it was a small fraction of what he was making, Richard flew into a rage. He recalls, “For some reason, I wouldn't let go of it. I felt rejected. Like how I used to feel when I was younger. When I had a friend that stole from me or when I was bullied. Like, it was that feeling of rejection that fueled that drive to figure it out.” Seeing Richard’s obsession with finding the thief, his girlfriend, Carline, suggested they visit her uncle, a Haitian voodoo priest.

After Richard’s discharge from the Navy in early 2019, the two flew to Haiti to meet the priest. He recalls, “When I met the guy, I felt it, you could feel like a presence. It felt eerie. You just, you could feel like it was, it was off. He had to drink alcohol and do a whole ritual dance and all that stuff to summon an ancestral spirit. And then the spirit will possess him and begin to speak. And then, the spirit started speaking about my past and the spirit only spoke in Creole. So, then the girl I was with had to translate. And then she would tell me things like, he said this, he said this. And it was some spot-on stuff about my past.”

Richard never got an answer about the missing drugs, but his curiosity was piqued. So, when he returned home to California, Richard dove into witchcraft and forgot all about his missing drugs. He says, “I would see different rituals they would do. It was weird. I felt uncomfortable. It didn't feel comfortable at all. It was exciting and it was, again, it was like a satisfaction to the flesh. I thought that this was the purpose to life. I thought that this might be my calling. This is what God wants me to do, you know, whoever God was.”

A couple months later Carline got pregnant and the two moved to Florida to be closer to family. That’s when Richard noticed something odd: Christians started showing up in his life. He says, “I met a barber, his name is Paul. I was telling him...him about my, the voodoo I was doing. He was like, 'I don't do that. I'm a Christian.' He stood firm on the gospel. He didn't waiver.” Richard also met another man who invited him to church. After several weeks, Richard finally relented and went. He recalls, “And as I was walking in the church. I felt an overwhelming feeling of peace. The atmosphere was light, which is the complete opposite of how it was in those witchcraft stores. I looked to the stage, they were practicing for worship. And I see my barber on the stage, it was like, this is too coincidental. I started feeling like, this might be real, this might be real. When they opened up for service, they started playing “Reckless Love,” how he leaves the 99 for...for the one. That was the first time I felt the presence of God. I began to cry, to weep. The pastors laid hands on me, prayed for me at that service. And I still didn't believe.”

Despite his doubts, Richard bought a Bible and started reading it in search of that peace he had felt. Then, a month later, alone in his apartment, something clicked. He says, “I put down the Bible and it was this real realization that hit me in my mind. I just was like, it’s Jesus. It has to be. And then it, like, it hit my mind and my heart, like, I felt like this faith, I felt faith, belief. I was like God, Jesus, He really is the answer. He’s the way. I fell to the ground crying profusely and I just felt like everything shifted. Everything shifted. I just knew that it was Jesus Christ. When I encountered that light, that love, that peace, everything shifted, like the desires of my heart literally changed.”

Richard threw away all his witchcraft paraphernalia and surrendered his life to God. He started going to church and sharing his testimony with everyone around him, including Carline. He recalls, “She broke down crying, gave her life to Christ too. And then eventually we both got baptized together. And we went and we got married at the courthouse alone on her lunch break.”

Today Richard is a pastor and street evangelist who wants everyone to find their purpose in a loving relationship with God. He says, “The whole meaning to life is to love and serve because we're here temporarily. Nothing that we attain in this world. Traveling, women, cars, clothes, success means anything because we're gonna all die and we can't take it with us. Don't get caught up in culture and the world and, and the things that don't matter. Really embrace that question. What's the purpose of life? And it'll lead you to start seeking and you will find that is Christ.”

Discover more about Richard Lorenzo and his ministry by visiting his YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@RichardLorenzoJr-RROC