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A NEW FAMILY: Roads to Rome keyboardist Kevin O'Neal is the third of four brothers. But when he was 14, his parents divorced and he felt completely alone.

"The New Jersey streets became my family," he says. "I started hanging with the wrong people and got involved in drugs. I helped start a gang. I carried weapons all the time. I hardly went to school."

SOMETHING'S NOT RIGHT: When he was about 16, Kevin hooked up with Young Life, a non-denominational youth ministry. "I realized something wasn't right," he says. "There was something missing in my life. I felt like what I was doing— the drugs, the alcohol—made no sense."

Kevin decided it was time to make some changes. He started going to classes. He got a job to help his mom. He even started going to church. Kevin also had another "buffer," as he calls it, that kept him from bad choices: his music. He loved it and he was good at it. Joining every band he could—marching band, pep band, jazz band—kept Kevin busy and off the streets.

MADE IT ALL RIGHT: Shortly after high school graduation, Kevin visited one of his brothers in North Carolina. There, he went to church one Sunday and was fascinated by the choir. They seemed to be so happy and fulfilled. Watching them, he prayed, "God, if you're real, let me feel what they feel for you." Suddenly, and for the first time in his life, Kevin felt God was real and could change his life. "I began to worship so hard," he says. "Right then, I decided to turn my life around."

In North Carolina, it was easy for Kevin to follow Christ. But then, he got back to New Jersey. "I had to tell my boys I couldn't do all that street stuff anymore," he says. "They thought I was joking. It was very hard to live this new life. But my music made the difference.

"I started playing drums in church and was surrounded my new, believing friends. Not only did God use music to call me from that life, but it became my place to minister. Through all those bands and all those nights of practicing instead of being in the streets, the Lord was sharpening my skills and preparing me to minister for him. All roads have led to what I am doing right now."

Copyright © 2007 by the author or Christianity Today International/Ignite Your Faith magazine.
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