At the age of 12, Diaw picked up his first guitar. Naturally inclined to music, he taught himself how to play within three months.
To Diaw, it seemed like this was what he was born to do. He dreamed of working as a musician, traveling with a band, writing his own songs. Diaw couldn’t imagine doing anything else with his future.
Raised by his grandparents in Thailand, Diaw, the oldest of four siblings, seemed to routinely get into trouble. His family cautioned him many times, but being involved with the music scene he tended to be associated with a bad crowd of friends all too often.
Many years passed by, and while Diaw did reach some level of success with his music by his mid-20s, he then made one very bad decision. He chose to misappropriate some funds at a company where he worked. This act landed him in prison.
With a six-month sentence to serve, Diaw was scared when he first entered the Ratchaburi Central prison in Thailand. Having only ever heard stories of prison life from movies and television, he expected to be met with a very threatening environment on the inside. However, he encountered something in the prison that he would never have expected, and it changed his life for the better.
Three months into Diaw’s sentence, he passed a room where a group of Christians were worshipping together. He didn’t know what they were doing, but his love for music made him go and see what this group was about.
Diaw started to spend time with them and asked if he could play in their band. He had never heard the gospel before and didn’t understand anything about Jesus. He started to read the Bible, but he didn’t understand it and it only seemed to confuse him more.
One day Diaw began to write a song. It was a song that was unlike any other he had written. It came from his heart, from a heart touched by God’s love, even though he had yet to understand the full meaning of that love. Diaw’s song seemed to speak the words that so many of the men involved in the Christian fellowship had wanted to express:
“Life behind these high walls contained only suffering and paying the price of our mistakes. Once in prison, is there anyone who should be concerned with our lives anymore? But, I met some Christians. They took me from the terrible things in my life, by telling me many wonderful things about God. Now my path is heavenwards.
“I want to say thank you that you have shown me the path to salvation. I was blind, but now I can see. From now on, I will remember this love that You have given. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this prison ministry.”
After Diaw asked God to come into his life, he began reading the Bible again. This time, what had previously confused him suddenly seemed to make sense. He prayed every day in the prison that someone would take him to learn more about God. Diaw knew Noiy , the leader of the YWAM team who ran the church in the prison, but he never expected that Noiy would take him under his wing.
Along with 50 other inmates, Diaw joined the YWAM Prison Discipleship Training School (DTS), even though he knew that he would soon be released from the prison. After two weeks of the Prison DTS, Diaw was released from prison and he returned home to tell his Buddhist family that he would be moving to YWAM Ratchaburi to learn more about God. While his family didn’t understand, they could already see that there was something different in Diaw and they allowed him to go.
Diaw will be applying to complete his DTS with YWAM in Chaing Rai in the North of Thailand in September. He wants to grow more in his relationship with God. He has no money to pay his DTS school fees, but he is going in faith that God will provide for him somehow.
Since writing that first song in the prison (click here to listen), Diaw has written another 30 Thai worship songs. He studies the Bible every day, and is serving alongside YWAM Ratchaburi, living and learning together with their staff each day.
Diaw’s song has been sung over and over in the YWAM Ratchaburi Prison DTS. It is sung with raw emotion by men who truly understand that God reached them in a place where they did not think anyone cared.
Diaw’s dreams of having his own band and writing his own songs have not changed—but now his heart is to use that dream to bring the message of the gospel to others who have never heard it.
Click here to view the original article at YMAM.com.
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