“I honestly don’t think I would be alive right now if I hadn’t found Jesus.” At 39 years old, Darnell Okra had stage four kidney disease, a fractured marriage, and little reason to hope as he sat in a jail cell. That’s when he opened a Bible.
Three years ago, Darnell and his wife, Anna, began searching for what they believed to be the one true church. “Satan was trying to sift us like wheat,” said Darnell. “And he was trying to keep us from learning about the Adventist faith.”
At first, they visited Catholic, Mormon, Baptist, and Pentecostal churches, but none of them felt right. Then they were invited to an Adventist church. Worshipping on Saturday felt strange. No other church they had attended met on that day. Still, Darnell decided to give it a try.
After that first church service, Darnell began attending Bible studies on Thursday nights, though he rarely went to church on Saturday. He was overwhelmed by stage four kidney disease, had gout in his hands, wrists, and feet, and was trapped in active addiction. He was exhausted. “I was in pain, in addiction and angry at myself all the time,” he shared. “I wasn’t being obedient to the Lord, so I know I wasn’t treating Anna right.”
When pain goes unaddressed, it spills over.
One day, an argument with Anna escalated. A neighbor called the police, and Darnell was taken to jail, where he remained for 45 days on a $200 bond. During that time, there were no letters or phone calls between them. Believing his life was over, Darnell turned to God again.
“I prayed to the Lord. I said, Lord, I don’t know how You’re going to fix me. I don’t know how You’re going to fix my marriage, but it seems like every single thing that I want to do, I can’t ever do.”
Each Wednesday, someone would come to the jail to lead Bible studies. Each prisoner was given a Bible during the meeting, then asked to return it afterward. One day, Darnell didn’t.
“I don’t know if it was the convict mentality inside of me or what,” he said, “but I took the Bible, put it in the waistline of the jail jumpsuit.” Darnell gestured to his thigh, recalling how he slid the Bible under his pants. The instructor, thinking he didn’t have one, gave him another. When it came time to turn the Bibles in, he returned one, but casually walked back to his cell with the other.
From that day on, Darnell read that Bible daily. Slowly, it changed him. Some of Darnell’s cellmates couldn’t read or write, and he found the Lord helping through him, unaware that God was working behind the scenes on his own case.
When Darnell was released, he connected with Bible worker Christian Hunt, who introduced him to Pastor Bailey Schmidt and Corey Meidell. Together, these three took Darnell under their wings and helped him rebuild his life. At the time Darnell was homeless, sick with kidney disease, gout, and rheumatoid arthritis, and unsure of what to do next.
Christian and Bailey set him up on a new health plan. He stopped eating meat and, as he put it, switched to “all greens.” Gradually, his kidney function improved from 18 to 24 percent. Corey took him out into nature to hike and bike together. At the same time, Darnell became deeply involved in church life, attending services and groups six days a week. His life turned around. He had been sober for six months and had moved from Oklahoma to California to begin a treatment program.
Around this time, Anna contacted him. She remained in Oklahoma, stuck in the same exhausting cycle of drugs and alcohol, day after day. “I reached out to him,” Anna said, “and I said, I know you’re out in California—maybe I could go too.”
From that day forward, she knew her prayers had been answered and that she could finally join him and he could be the leading husband that she could follow. Rebuilding their marriage wasn’t easy, but both credit Jesus for guiding their healing.
Healing rarely happens alone; it often begins with a brave step forward, together.
For the past three years, Darnell and Anna longed to be baptized, yet something always seemed to interfere. Each time they prepared, their treatment program relocated them, forcing them to start over at a different Adventist church, with a new Bible worker and a new baptism study.
Finally, last November, nine months after they moved to Lincoln and began attending Piedmont Park SDA Church, their baptism seemed possible.
However, even then, obstacles arose. Around the time they were talking about baptism, they were asked to leave their home after being falsely accused of smoking in their apartment. They were given 60 days to vacate. Darnell told Pastor Smerdis, the associate youth pastor at Piedmont Park, that they’d have to postpone the baptism.
Weeks passed, and the frustration returned. On Friday, November 21, Darnell made a decision. “I was like, we’re getting asked to leave because of something we didn’t do. We don’t smoke. So I told the pastors, I said, now I don’t care what’s going on. I have faith in Jesus. I said, we’re getting dipped November 22.”
Although Pastor Smerdis wasn’t sure arrangements could be made so quickly, Pastor Halfhill, the lead pastor, texted Darnell that night: We’re going to do this tomorrow.
Standing by the water on Sabbath morning in church was both nerve-wracking and exhilarating for Darnell and Anna. He was worried about not being accepted because of their past, but this doubt was quickly erased when their church family welcomed them with open arms.
For some, baptism is a ceremony. For Darnell, it was a line drawn between who he was and who Jesus was calling him to be.
- Darnell and Anna Okra praying and rejoicing with Pastor Smerdis and their church family at Piedmont Park Church.
Darnell’s early life was marked by instability. He grew up in a home where drinking, drugs, cussing, pornography, and physical abuse were the norm. Loving his neighbor wasn’t in his rulebook. God and church were absent from his childhood, and he saw things no 10-year-old should ever see. But now with Christ, life looks very different and is the complete opposite of what he was taught growing up.
At one time, Darnell’s mornings were loaded with drugs, alcohol, and conflict. They are now stocked with prayer, Bible reading with devotionals, and tea with Anna. They are also rebuilding their relationship with their sons day by day.
“I have more hope today than I’ve ever had in my whole life,” Darnell said. “I want to spend the rest of my life doing whatever the Lord wants me to do for Him. I want to have a lasting legacy of something that has to do with Jesus Christ.”
Rebekah Fingerson is a senior Secondary Education major at Union Adventist University preparing for graduate study, driven by a deep love for research and thoughtful conversation. When she isn’t writing or studying, she can usually be found with a growing stack of books nearby expanding at a rate she prefers not to calculate.
