August 5, 2025 • 30 mins
Hear the heartwarming transformation of a killer turned Jesus freak. Hear how Louis Dooley entered prison at 19 with two life sentences and already planned to kill a third for sending him a care package.
”I kind of looked around and I was like, ‘Who is this, the welcoming committee or something?’
"And so I look in the box and there were a bunch of snacks, some socks, underwear, t-shirts, all things I didn't have. And so my first thought was ‘I got to kill this guy because where I'm from, you don't give somebody something for nothing!’"
Hear how a piece of paper that night gave him a new life sentence of freedom in Christ.
Louis was served two life sentences plus 100 years in prison, and amazingly, this is where his life begins. He made God a promise from prison and Louis never looked back. He received parole, got married, and is the leader of Philemon House ministry. He is the author of Prison Saved My Life.
Louis’ book, Prison Saved My Life
One80 Episode 55, The Prison Story of Michael Buhrman
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Louis Dooley (00:01):
I kind of looked around and I was like you know
who is this?
The welcoming committee orsomething?
And so I look in the box andthere were a bunch of snacks,
some socks, underwear, t-shirts,all things I didn't have.
My first thought was I got tokill this guy because, where I'm
from, you don't give somebodysomething for nothing, and so I
(00:27):
figured I would eat some of thesnacks, make him think I took
the bait.
Margaret Ereneta (00:30):
wait till later that night.
Figure out what it's going tolook like as I go, try to take
this man's life.
Louis Dooley had three deathsentences and the guy in jail
who just gave him a welcome boxWell, louis was planning number
four Amazing show today.
This is Margaret Araneta.
(00:51):
Welcome to Lewis's 180.
Louis Dooley (00:54):
Man life had its challenges for me growing up in
East St Louis, illinois, andbeing a biracial kid in an
all-Black area made it all theworse with all the drama and
things that were taking placearound me.
With all the drama and thingsthat were taking place around me
with gangs and drugs and thingslike that, and I didn't really
have an escape because beingoutside I was picked on a lot by
my peers because I lookeddifferent, and so I couldn't
(01:16):
really find refuge in the homebecause, although my mother was
loving and sweet and kind, as amom would be, my father was
quite the opposite, very meanperson, very abusive, not as
much verbally as physicallyabusive to myself and also to my
mother and so I saw a lot ofviolence outside the house.
I experienced violence outsidethe house because I got in
(01:38):
fights and beat up all the time,and then I experienced violence
in the home, and so it wasreally a challenge growing up
trying to figure out like why amI where I am?
Why do I look the way I look?
Why was I born to the parents Iwas born to?
Just a lot of questions.
I had A lot of hurt and painturned into some anger at an
early age for me, and as lifewent on, I kind of poured myself
(02:00):
into school and that was aplace that didn't judge me.
It was a place where I foundthat I was pretty smart.
I made really good grades inelementary school.
I also went to some spellingbees when I was in elementary
school and it was there Idiscovered I wanted to be an
attorney because mygreat-grandmother used to watch
a lot of Perry Mason back in theday.
As I was progressing in school,a time of change came about
(02:21):
because my mother wanted to moveme to a different area that had
better schools and that wassafer, around my seventh grade,
eighth grade year, and so Ifound myself with a new school
around pretty much all whitestudents now.
Never had a white teacherbefore, never had a male teacher
before.
People treated me different, alot less violence, but still
being treated differentlynonetheless, and so it kind of
(02:43):
like started all over again, butstill being treated differently
nonetheless.
And so it kind of like startedall over again, minus the
violence at school.
And the school district I wasin was a lot higher and better
than what I came from and sowhere I was like a pretty much
straight A student.
Before I got my first E, I gotmy first F and I was failing
pretty much all my classesbecause they were years ahead in
(03:03):
curriculum than what I was usedto.
Margaret Ereneta (03:06):
Lewis was trained in the school of hard
knocks.
It was so difficult.
It's hard to imagine thebeliever we now know.
But God works in the difficultof our lives.
Listen in.
Louis Dooley (03:16):
So I was trying to figure that stuff out.
My mother was working two andsometimes three jobs.
My father would be running thestreets doing whatever it was he
was doing dealing drugs,womanizing, things like that and
so I was just trying to figureout being a teenager, you know,
trying to make the basketballteam, playing on the football
team, trying to make thebaseball team because I really
(03:37):
love sports and didn't make anyteam except the football team.
And then, just out of nowhere,one day when I came home from
school, my mother told me myfather had been murdered and I
just rocked my world and for asmuch as I was scared to death of
this guy man, I love this guymore than anything on the earth,
you know and so that reallyhurt.
(03:57):
And then that hurt again turnedinto anger.
I just kind of felt like youknow, what am I going to do with
this?
Things aren't going right atschool, Things aren't right at
home.
My mother was trying to figureit out on her own and here comes
little Louis, you know, nocounseling, really no, anything,
just me trying to figure thingsout.
Margaret Ereneta (04:18):
So sad, but now, as we'll see, we're
entering into the tug of Lewis'sdark side and the drag that
brought him to his rock bottom.
Louis Dooley (04:31):
At school, a different crowd was always
present, the kids who were up tono good, and I had managed to
stay away from that crowdbecause I was just scared if I
got in it then my father wouldkill me, because he knew that
life, because he was in thatlife, and although I was very
curious about that life, Istayed away from it.
Well, now that threat was gone,the interest that I had
(04:52):
continued to grow, and thosekids really didn't have much
judgment for me.
They were the burnouts, thestoners, the undesirables that
you find in every kind of school, the outcasts, if you will.
And so I wasn't an outcast typeperson, but started hanging out
with those people and I waspresented with choices with
drugs and alcohol, and I justjumped into that stuff.
(05:13):
I found out that I reallyenjoyed it.
I also enjoyed nice things thatI could never have, like Air
Jordan, tennis shoes and trendyname brand clothing, and so the
method I found in order toacquire these things were
selling drugs.
And so I started selling weedwhile I was in high school and
by the time I managed tograduate high school, which was
(05:34):
definitely like a lot of helpand a lot of cheating.
I graduated from sellingmarijuana to selling crack.
And that's when things took ahuge turn, because the
individuals that smokedmarijuana were much different
than the individuals that smokedcrack, and the people where I
got my drugs from were even moredifferent.
And so I started being aroundguys that I didn't know, known
(05:56):
killers, known thieves, and I'mjust like, hey, I'm just trying
to get some products so I canmake some money.
And so with being around thatcrowd, a lot of violence came my
way.
I found myself on the other endof a gun, several times being
robbed, and I thought, man, Idon't like this, and so I
decided not to quit but to pushthe gas pedal and accelerate
(06:18):
things by me acquiring guns so Icould protect myself.
And I bought some guns off thestreet, which I was kind of
leery of, and then I thought youknow what, let me just go rob
some gun shops for guns.
And so I did that a few times,and now I'm armed, I'm selling
drugs, I'm in the street.
It's a recipe for disaster, andthat's what it turned into a
(06:39):
disaster where things culminatedwhen I was 19 years old, I was
convicted of attempted murderand first degree armed robbery
and sentenced to life plus 100years in prison and I was
shocked, to say the least.
I felt like my life was overand, as they, you know, I was in
the courtroom and they took myclothes, they took my dignity,
(07:02):
even felt like they took mymanhood, and they put me in a
cell.
And I had got arrested multipletimes in the past and, you know
, stayed there a few days or aweek and got back out, so no big
deal.
But this time was differentbecause I got life in 100 years
and I'm trying to wrap my mindaround it.
Like what does that mean?
Do I do life die?
Come back and do 100 years?
Like what do I do with this?
(07:22):
I've never heard anything likethat.
Margaret Ereneta (07:24):
It's hard to see how quickly Lewis's life
spirals, and now he findshimself in jail, about to go to
prison, on actually three lifesentences.
Louis Dooley (07:36):
And so I get into the dorm area which was pretty
much the norm, I was used tothat I found an empty bunk
because there were no open cellspretty used to that and I sit
down and before I could reallyget my bearings, another guy
approached me with the orangejumpsuit on, like mine, with a
cardboard box with a lid on it.
He just set it on the floor,walked away.
(07:57):
I kind of looked around and Iwas like you know who is this?
The welcoming committee orsomething.
And so I look in the box andthere were a bunch of snacks,
some socks, underwear, t-shirts,all things I didn't have.
My first thought was I got tokill this guy, because where I'm
from, you don't give somebodysomething for nothing.
And so I figured I would eatsome of the snacks, make him
think I took the bait, wait tilllater that night, figure out
(08:20):
what it's going to look like asI go, try to take this man's
life.
And so later that night came hewas in a cell.
I approached his cell asquietly as I could, I rushed
inside and when I got in there Ifound him and two other men
with these books open.
They were Bibles.
I didn't know it at the timeand I kind of stopped in my
tracks.
I was like whoa, like what'sgoing on here?
(08:41):
I only thought it was oneperson in there and it's a one
man sale.
So obviously I wasn't too goodat, you know, plotting and
planning.
And so the guy continued toread and at some point he
stopped and he looked at me andhe said you believe in God?
I said no, man, I don't believein God, I believe in evolution.
And that was just something Ipicked up in high school.
I wasn't raised in the church,None of that kind of stuff.
(09:03):
I say I was raised heathen.
And so he handed me a littlepamphlet which was a Bible track
.
Again, I didn't know that atthe time and I took it.
And now I looked up at me as ifto say, OK, you can leave now.
So I did just that Walked backto my bunk, I sat down.
All the adrenaline that I hadgoing from that I was going to
(09:23):
go, try to put my hands on a manand take his life, something I
hadn't done before.
All that adrenaline startedwearing off.
I was getting high before trialevery day, smoking cocaine and
smoking weed, so that the highwas wearing off and reality was
really setting in and I haddetermined that I no longer
wanted to live, that if I couldjust be dead, that would be
(09:45):
better than spending the rest ofmy life in prison.
I don't like pain, especiallyself-inflicted pain, so I didn't
try to kill myself, but Idefinitely was wanting to be
dead.
So I couldn't sleep.
So I opened up this pamphlet andstarted talking about God.
It talked about creation, youknow, Genesis 1, Genesis 2.
(10:07):
It talked about his greatestcreation, which was man, Adam
and then Eve.
And then it talked about sinthat everybody has sin in Romans
and I was like sin, Like whatis that?
And it described sin.
It talked about that it wasdisobeying God, you know.
And it listed some sins and Ifound myself in many of those
sins it listed.
(10:28):
And then it said that everybodywho sins and dies will be
separated from God eternally.
And I was like, wow, well, ifI'm a sinner, if everybody's a
sinner, then everybody's goingto be eternally separated from
God in a place called hell,which I heard of heaven and hell
(10:50):
, and I heard one was good, onewas bad, and if I had to choose,
I would choose the good one.
But that was the extent of mythinking.
And so I just was sitting heretaking all this in.
It was like a fire hose, if youwill, of information.
Even though it was just a Bibletrack, it was a lot to
comprehend.
English was my best subject inschool.
I read a lot at some point inmy life, so my comprehension
level was pretty high.
So I was really understandingthis and I truly believe, as I
look back, that the Holy Spiritwas really working on my mind,
(11:13):
working on my heart, to help meunderstand things.
And then, lastly, it startstalking about this man named
Jesus.
That a man named Jesus came tothis earth, born from God, and
he was a perfect man, unlikeevery other human.
Thus he was without sin.
And then he came with one majorpurpose, and that was to die to
pay every man and woman's debtof sin that they had.
(11:34):
And I understood that and I waslike, well, if I have a debt
that needs to be paid, then Inever want to pay a debt, by the
way.
And so it's like, if somebodywants to pay it for me, hey,
come on with that.
And so it talked about Jesuscoming and dying for my sins,
shedding his blood, him takingmy place, and I was like, wow,
(11:57):
like if this is real, then thismatters.
It talked about me putting myfaith and trust in Jesus,
believing in his miraculousbirth, his sinless life, his
atoning death and then, lastly,his resurrection and then his
ascension.
And it said if you put yourfaith and trust in Jesus,
confess your mouth to Lord Jesusand believe that God raised him
from the dead Romans 10, 9, and10, that you will be saved.
And I was like man, I want tobe saved.
(12:18):
If they said, raise your hand,I'd have raised my hand, I'd
have did jumping jacks.
I wanted to be saved.
And raise your hand, I'd haveraised my hand, I'd have did
jumping jacks like I wanted tobe saved.
And it was mostly I didn't wantto be living in the
circumstances I was living in.
So I had a spark of faith ifyou will.
And then I prayed my firstprayer.
I said, God, if you really real, for real, I'm going to serve
you for the rest of my life, butthe minute you show me, you
(12:40):
ain't real.
No-transcript.
Margaret Ereneta (12:53):
In that first prayer ever, Lewis is
transformed and you'll noticethe next day.
He has discernment.
That's new.
Louis Dooley (13:01):
That night I went to sleep.
I woke up the next day.
One of the first things thathappened was other people who
were incarcerated, who haddifferent faith beliefs, would
approach me.
You know they were evangelizingfor everything.
I had Jehovah's Witness.
I didn't know about any of thisstuff.
How true it was, how not true.
I was just seeking God and Iremember a guy who was a part of
(13:22):
a Muslim.
I call it a denominationbecause you have the Muslims
that most of us know, but thenyou have the Moorish Science
Temple of America, then you havethe Nation of Islam, which was
made famous and maybe evenstarted by Louis Farrakhan.
So you have different types ofMuslims, if you will, or
different sex, and so this oneguy was in one of those and I
(13:43):
remember him approaching me andhe was saying you need to
proclaim your nationalitybecause obviously I'm not white,
my mother's Italian, myfather's black, so I'm half
white, half black, but I don'tlook white.
Everybody thinks I'm PuertoRican.
And so he says you need toproclaim your nationality.
You know, like, stand up asbeing a minority.
(14:03):
And like, stand up about that.
And I was like, wow, really.
And he was also saying, likethese blonde haired, blue eyed
devils, and that's why I raisedan eyebrow.
I was like, oh, and I said Isaid well, if I join this, my
mother is white.
Could she be a part of this too?
And he was like, absolutely not.
And so quickly, as I was tryingto vet, if you will, these
different God groups to seewhich ones were right or if they
(14:26):
were all right, it was veryeasy.
I feel like the Lord washelping me and the Holy Spirit
was moving.
It was very easy for me todetermine if there is a God and
there is, and he createdeverything and he did, and all
the people in the various colorsand the various areas all
around the planet he created.
And if he was a God of lovewhich he definitely is John 3,
(14:48):
16, how would he love onesegment of individuals and not
another, especially based on thecolor of their skin?
And so I was just quickly likeyou know what God can't be in,
that he cannot be in that,because that can't be God.
And that was just something Ibelieve the Holy Spirit revealed
(15:09):
to me.
And so I was easily able todiscard them as a credible group
to be learning from, about God,and I count that as a gift,
because they're as corrupt ascorrupt can be.
I learned.
Years later those guys came tome.
They brought me my first Bible.
They taught me how to pray.
We would read the word together, we would sing songs together,
(15:30):
and this was day two of me beingin the county jail, while all
these men around me were waitingto go to trial, mostly for
murder.
And so about 30 days passed.
I ended up getting to prisonand along the way, god was just
revealing himself to me in manydifferent ways to kind of show
me.
In that prayer I believe thatyou know, if you're not real,
I'm not going to serve you thathe was showing me, that it was
(15:53):
no doubt that he was real andthat Christianity was the
correct path to get to God.
And so I continued serving theLord where I was at.
I got a job in the chapel.
Within the first week of beingin prison, I met a ministry
called Set Free Ministries wherethere was a young man coming in
passing out Bible courses fromEmmaus Worldwide so we could
learn the Bible.
(16:13):
And I'm like well, you know,the Bible was a daunting book,
to say, or let me rephrase itthe Bible is a daunting book.
It's man.
It's the greatest book everwritten by God Only book written
by God, I believe.
But, man, there's a lot in itand it's not so easy to
understand then and even now.
And it's like, well, if I'mgoing to serve God and if he
(16:33):
wrote this book, then I need toget to know who he is, and if he
wrote this book, then I need toget to know who he is, and if
he has something for me likeexpectations or blessings, maybe
both I want to find out whatthat is and I couldn't really do
it on my own.
I had read through the entireBible in about 20 something days
.
Margaret Ereneta (16:48):
Did you get that?
Lewis read the whole Bible in20 days.
Louis Dooley (16:54):
And I probably got a very small fraction of a
percent of what the whole booksaid.
But I read through it because Ihad tons of downtime, of course
.
The first after Genesis andExodus it got kind of rocky.
Going through the prophets waskind of weird.
Getting to the Gospels mademore sense, and then the
epistles, which the main one wasmy favorite book and still is
(17:15):
is James so clear, spoke to methen speaks to me today.
So it was helping me understandGod a little bit but what he
expected of me a lot as Ientered into the epistles in the
New Testament.
And so I started taking theseBible courses.
I was going to every churchservice and Bible study that
they offered.
I started learning aboutdifferent denominations.
(17:35):
I learned some of the servicesI was going to probably weren't
Christian and so I stopped goingas I was learning the word of
God and kind of testing what thepeople that from the outside
came to teach and weighing itagainst the Bible.
You know, studying to showmyself approved, you know.
So that I'm not ashamed, I wasjust doing that.
I had my job in the chapel, Iwas going to church, I was
(17:56):
serving the Lord and I justdecided that I'm going to be
here for the rest of my life andI'm going to serve the Lord, no
matter where I'm at, whetherI'm going to be in prison or out
of prison, I'm going to servethe Lord.
I ended up getting two more lifesentences because one of those
gunshot robberies caught up withme.
So at one point I had threelives and a hundred years and I
(18:16):
took the two lives as a pleabargain, which a plea bargain is
when you admit your guilt andyou take the sentence that they
offer you.
That was the maximum sentence Icould have gotten if I would
have went to trial and got foundguilty, but I felt God just
saying hey, you know you'reguilty, quit running, don't take
your poor mother down to thereagain with another trial, and,
(18:36):
hey, take your lumps.
So I humbled myself and I tookmy lumps and I remember reading
a verse that talked about thatpeace that surpasses all
understanding.
I pray and ask God to give methat peace, because I knew I
would need that more than ever,because that was pretty much in
my mind sealing my fate, becauseI was appealing the first crime
(18:57):
I went to prison for and if Iwon my appeal, there's a chance
I could have got a lessersentence or I could have got it
overturned and gotten out.
But since I took that plea, Iwould have to plead insanity or
I was beaten into a confession,which neither are that easy to
prove.
So I just figured I was justsigning my own self up to be in
prison for the rest of my life.
God gave me peace.
(19:18):
I got an opportunity to see Godnot only work in my life but
the lives of countless others.
During my incarceration therewas a closeness with God that I
felt that I haven't felt sinceI've been out, and it was a
blessing.
Every day in prison was astruggle in more ways than one,
but every day was a blessing aswell, because you learn to cling
(19:39):
close to Christ when you're upagainst it.
And being a Christian in prison, you're almost always up
against it because of yourfellow prisoners who like to try
to take advantage of people whowear the name of Christ.
Margaret Ereneta (19:54):
We asked Lewis about Christian persecution in
prison.
We asked Lewis about Christianpersecution in prison, which is
very real, and he says you'regoing to have to go to his book
called Prison Saved my Life.
The link is in the show notes.
Louis Dooley (20:07):
It's amazing and so I was just doing my time,
playing sports, going to Biblestudy, had opportunities to
start leading Bible studies, hadthe first prisoner led Bible
study that that prison everallowed.
So that was an honor and aprivilege and it was cool
because we would go evangelizeon the yard and then we'd invite
these guys to the Bible studythat my mentor would teach and
(20:29):
he was like way in the cloudsand these young guys was like I
mean, I was young myself, likemy mid twenties.
These guys were, you know, 16,17, 18.
And they're like man, we don'tunderstand this guy, like
explain it to us.
And so I was like man, we needlike an introductory Bible study
.
Margaret Ereneta (20:43):
You'll see here how amazing Lewis's
transformation is.
He's not only being a man ofGod studying the Bible
ferociously, but he's also doingwhat it says he's becoming an
evangelist in prison.
Louis Dooley (20:58):
So the prison approved it.
So now the men that we wereimpacting and influencing and
witness to on the yard as weplayed handball, basketball and
stuff like that, lift theweights.
Now we would have a formalBible study where we come out of
(21:24):
our house unit, sit downtogether, open up the word of
God and really, really wrestlewith the scriptures and try to
help them understand and speaktheir language, because that
that's the language I speakanyway.
And so, man, I found my place.
It was a wonderful place to beand then, all of a sudden, after
13 years, I got a letter fromthe parole board saying they
wanted to interview me, and Iadmit I was a little excited,
but reality was more prevalentin my mind, and that reality was
you ain't going home no timesoon, if ever.
And so I went to the hearing.
It went really quick, which wasway different than I was told
(21:45):
and what I expected.
And then they said I'd get ananswer in six weeks.
Six weeks came.
I sat before a man who read apiece of paper to me that said I
was scheduled to be released injust two and a half more years,
and I just started crying andsaid thank you, jesus.
That was 2007.
And in August of 2009, I wasreleased after 15 and a half
(22:06):
years and it's unbelievable.
It wasn't through an appeal.
I had no attorney, I hadnothing in the court system.
I had nothing but my faith inChrist, and I was blessed to be
where I was and to be workingfor the Lord, doing what I was
doing, and I was content withthat.
I really was, because I knewthat heaven was my home.
(22:28):
I knew that was eternity.
Didn't know how many years Iwould have here on earth, but I
knew it would pale in comparisonto eternity with him, and so
that is what the Lord impressedupon my heart and my mind and
that's what I was trying my bestto live out.
Margaret Ereneta (22:43):
God is so amazing in Lewis's story, things
that are insurmountable topeople, like three life
sentences, god says OK, and hedoes what he's going to do Just
cancels the debt, like he didwith his salvation.
Louis Dooley (22:57):
Then I get out.
I had met a young lady sixyears prior to that through a
mutual friend.
We had ridden back and forth.
I proposed to her when I gottold I was going to be released
in a few years.
We got married and that broughtme up to the Chicago land area
from East St Louis, illinois.
And I joke and tell people Imoved to Beverly Hills because
(23:18):
where I'm at now is not BeverlyHills.
I've been there but compared towhere I'm from, it's Beverly
Hills.
And so I got up here.
I was overwhelmed.
My mother was dying and died afew months after I got out.
My great-grandmother, who wasin her early hundreds, died a
few weeks after I got out.
But I got the blessing of beingable to see them because it
would have crushed me.
(23:39):
It would have crushed me hadthey died when I was his cat.
So God was kind, he was so kindto me to let me spend time with
them.
And so I get out.
I'm eager to work.
This was the joke amongst meand my brothers in Christ man.
When I get out I'm going to geta job at one of my three
favorite places McDonald's,burger King or Taco Bell.
(23:59):
And if they all give me a job,I'll work all three.
None of them would give me ajob, and I don't blame them.
Who would take a 35-year-oldman who never had a job, with
all of these violent crimes androbberies on his jacket?
I probably wouldn't have givenme a job, and so that was very
disheartening, and I remembertalking to my mentor saying I
(24:20):
just want to go back.
I just want to go back toprison.
I had a life in there.
I had people I look forward tobeing a part of their life.
People look forward to me beinga part of their life, and not
in a prideful way, but I wassomebody and I had need, and
those people in there couldfulfill that need.
(24:42):
Christ was fulfilling my need,and I just was kind of lost out
here, couldn't find a churchthat I felt like, I connected
with no smartphones, and so Ihad to get out of my
incarcerated mind and step up tothe plate in the real world,
and so eventually the Lordopened the door and another
miraculous way for me to get ajob with the company.
I learned a lot, I grew a lot,and then an opportunity came for
(25:02):
me after about a year and ahalf to work for Set Free
Ministries as the regionaldirector for the state of
Illinois, which meant trying toget the Bible studies that he
may, as worldwide produces, intojails and prisons all over the
state, and I also had to learnhow to raise support, which was
totally new for me.
I said, hey, I'm going to do it, lord, and I'll know quickly if
(25:23):
it's what you want me to do,because if you provide, then I
guess it's a yes.
And so I quit my job for nopaycheck.
I jumped into full-timeministry.
So since then I transitionedfrom Seffrey Ministries to also
working for Emmaus to help themgrow their ministry inside the
jails and prisons with the Biblecourses.
And then along the way, at somepoint we decided that we wanted
(25:46):
to do more ministry to prisonersand not just on the inside,
because there's a great need onthe outside when guys get out,
getting jobs, having a good,safe place to live, resources
like food and transportation andclothing.
And so my wife and I startedgoing into our local juvenile
prison for a couple of years.
These young men just needed asafe place, some resources and
(26:08):
some godly people around them tohelp them do great things and
get to know Christ, and so mywife and I were like man, it'd
be cool to bring some of theseguys to live with us.
We had a 501c formed calledPhilemon House, based on the
book of Philemon, and all of asudden, a guy comes out of
nowhere and says I want to helpyou guys get a house.
(26:29):
Helping young men who are injuvenile prison ages 16 to 21,
transition from getting out bycoming to live in the house with
us.
We help them with spirituality,we help them with academics,
life skills, financial things,because if you're going to be a
productive member of society anda Christ follower, you need to
learn how to live in this worldin a God-honoring way.
(26:51):
So we do that, along withplanting Bible studies in Cook
County Jail, which is one of thelargest jails in the United
States.
And then we also help incorrespondence ministry, where
these Bible studies get mailedto prisons all over the state,
and so that's what we do, and soit's been a long ride since
February of 1994 to now in 2025.
Margaret Ereneta (27:13):
For Lewis's last question.
We asked him to give us adviceChristians who know people who
are coming out of prison or jailhow to support them.
Louis Dooley (27:23):
And here's what he said If you know someone that
has a felony or been in jail orprison, the first thing I would
say that's good to know is thatpsychologically there's a lot of
things going through a person'smind.
Our country and even our stateof Illinois right now they've
banned the box, so there used tobe this box that says, if
you've been convicted of afelony, check this box that no
(27:44):
longer exists on the jobapplication they can ask you
that in an interview.
But at least if you can get aninterview.
But even though there may beopportunities, psychologically
there could be things going onin that person's mind.
So oftentimes we can be pushy,we're trying to get a person to
do more or to live up to astandard that we may feel like
we have to live up to, but notunderstanding the psychological
(28:08):
trauma that that person may haveexperienced while they were
incarcerated and just bethinking some lies in their
minds that say may be plantinglike you're not good enough or
or you did these wrong thingsand so you don't deserve these
opportunities.
And so I would say not to betoo pushy but also, if you see a
person kind of dragging, to tryto help lift them up and show
(28:29):
compassion and love towards themin their situation, and not
just overlook it.
So if you have a friend orloved one, just know that
there's things going on in theirmind and it could be causing
them to act a certain way.
It could be causing them to doa certain thing, and so be kind
and gracious, be a shoulder tocry on sometimes, be a person to
(28:52):
offer them advice if they needit, and just don't overlook them
and just accept them for whothey are, but don't overlook
that trauma that they've beenthrough and acknowledge that.
I think to be open to a personthat's incarcerated, ask them
what their story is.
If they're willing to share,man, what's your story?
And if they say, I don't wantto share, that's fine.
(29:12):
If you ever, I would love to toget to know you, man.
That's a great thing.
A lot of times people has beenincarcerated, no matter how long
they can feel like they justwon't be accepted by people who
haven't been, and just somebodyshowing them acceptance and just
saying I want to get to knowyou and you can tell them
whatever you want to tell themand if it's genuine, they'll
know.
And you want to tell them, andif it's genuine they'll know,
(29:35):
and that just makes a personfeel alive.
Margaret Ereneta (29:36):
Thanks for listening today.
If you want to hear more aboutLouis Dooley's ministry Philemon
House, or you are interested inthe full testimony in his book
Prison Saved my Life, check outour show notes the links are in
there and make sure that youshare today's 180 with your
people.
It may be the best news theyhear today.
I kind of looked around and I was like you know
who is this?
The welcoming committee orsomething?
And so I look in the box andthere were a bunch of snacks,
some socks, underwear, t-shirts,all things I didn't have.
My first thought was I got tokill this guy because, where I'm
from, you don't give somebodysomething for nothing, and so I
(00:27):
figured I would eat some of thesnacks, make him think I took
the bait.
Margaret Ereneta (00:30):
wait till later that night.
Figure out what it's going tolook like as I go, try to take
this man's life.
Louis Dooley had three deathsentences and the guy in jail
who just gave him a welcome boxWell, louis was planning number
four Amazing show today.
This is Margaret Araneta.
(00:51):
Welcome to Lewis's 180.
Louis Dooley (00:54):
Man life had its challenges for me growing up in
East St Louis, illinois, andbeing a biracial kid in an
all-Black area made it all theworse with all the drama and
things that were taking placearound me.
With all the drama and thingsthat were taking place around me
with gangs and drugs and thingslike that, and I didn't really
have an escape because beingoutside I was picked on a lot by
my peers because I lookeddifferent, and so I couldn't
(01:16):
really find refuge in the homebecause, although my mother was
loving and sweet and kind, as amom would be, my father was
quite the opposite, very meanperson, very abusive, not as
much verbally as physicallyabusive to myself and also to my
mother and so I saw a lot ofviolence outside the house.
I experienced violence outsidethe house because I got in
(01:38):
fights and beat up all the time,and then I experienced violence
in the home, and so it wasreally a challenge growing up
trying to figure out like why amI where I am?
Why do I look the way I look?
Why was I born to the parents Iwas born to?
Just a lot of questions.
I had A lot of hurt and painturned into some anger at an
early age for me, and as lifewent on, I kind of poured myself
(02:00):
into school and that was aplace that didn't judge me.
It was a place where I foundthat I was pretty smart.
I made really good grades inelementary school.
I also went to some spellingbees when I was in elementary
school and it was there Idiscovered I wanted to be an
attorney because mygreat-grandmother used to watch
a lot of Perry Mason back in theday.
As I was progressing in school,a time of change came about
(02:21):
because my mother wanted to moveme to a different area that had
better schools and that wassafer, around my seventh grade,
eighth grade year, and so Ifound myself with a new school
around pretty much all whitestudents now.
Never had a white teacherbefore, never had a male teacher
before.
People treated me different, alot less violence, but still
being treated differentlynonetheless, and so it kind of
(02:43):
like started all over again, butstill being treated differently
nonetheless.
And so it kind of like startedall over again, minus the
violence at school.
And the school district I wasin was a lot higher and better
than what I came from and sowhere I was like a pretty much
straight A student.
Before I got my first E, I gotmy first F and I was failing
pretty much all my classesbecause they were years ahead in
(03:03):
curriculum than what I was usedto.
Margaret Ereneta (03:06):
Lewis was trained in the school of hard
knocks.
It was so difficult.
It's hard to imagine thebeliever we now know.
But God works in the difficultof our lives.
Listen in.
Louis Dooley (03:16):
So I was trying to figure that stuff out.
My mother was working two andsometimes three jobs.
My father would be running thestreets doing whatever it was he
was doing dealing drugs,womanizing, things like that and
so I was just trying to figureout being a teenager, you know,
trying to make the basketballteam, playing on the football
team, trying to make thebaseball team because I really
(03:37):
love sports and didn't make anyteam except the football team.
And then, just out of nowhere,one day when I came home from
school, my mother told me myfather had been murdered and I
just rocked my world and for asmuch as I was scared to death of
this guy man, I love this guymore than anything on the earth,
you know and so that reallyhurt.
(03:57):
And then that hurt again turnedinto anger.
I just kind of felt like youknow, what am I going to do with
this?
Things aren't going right atschool, Things aren't right at
home.
My mother was trying to figureit out on her own and here comes
little Louis, you know, nocounseling, really no, anything,
just me trying to figure thingsout.
Margaret Ereneta (04:18):
So sad, but now, as we'll see, we're
entering into the tug of Lewis'sdark side and the drag that
brought him to his rock bottom.
Louis Dooley (04:31):
At school, a different crowd was always
present, the kids who were up tono good, and I had managed to
stay away from that crowdbecause I was just scared if I
got in it then my father wouldkill me, because he knew that
life, because he was in thatlife, and although I was very
curious about that life, Istayed away from it.
Well, now that threat was gone,the interest that I had
(04:52):
continued to grow, and thosekids really didn't have much
judgment for me.
They were the burnouts, thestoners, the undesirables that
you find in every kind of school, the outcasts, if you will.
And so I wasn't an outcast typeperson, but started hanging out
with those people and I waspresented with choices with
drugs and alcohol, and I justjumped into that stuff.
(05:13):
I found out that I reallyenjoyed it.
I also enjoyed nice things thatI could never have, like Air
Jordan, tennis shoes and trendyname brand clothing, and so the
method I found in order toacquire these things were
selling drugs.
And so I started selling weedwhile I was in high school and
by the time I managed tograduate high school, which was
(05:34):
definitely like a lot of helpand a lot of cheating.
I graduated from sellingmarijuana to selling crack.
And that's when things took ahuge turn, because the
individuals that smokedmarijuana were much different
than the individuals that smokedcrack, and the people where I
got my drugs from were even moredifferent.
And so I started being aroundguys that I didn't know, known
(05:56):
killers, known thieves, and I'mjust like, hey, I'm just trying
to get some products so I canmake some money.
And so with being around thatcrowd, a lot of violence came my
way.
I found myself on the other endof a gun, several times being
robbed, and I thought, man, Idon't like this, and so I
decided not to quit but to pushthe gas pedal and accelerate
(06:18):
things by me acquiring guns so Icould protect myself.
And I bought some guns off thestreet, which I was kind of
leery of, and then I thought youknow what, let me just go rob
some gun shops for guns.
And so I did that a few times,and now I'm armed, I'm selling
drugs, I'm in the street.
It's a recipe for disaster, andthat's what it turned into a
(06:39):
disaster where things culminatedwhen I was 19 years old, I was
convicted of attempted murderand first degree armed robbery
and sentenced to life plus 100years in prison and I was
shocked, to say the least.
I felt like my life was overand, as they, you know, I was in
the courtroom and they took myclothes, they took my dignity,
(07:02):
even felt like they took mymanhood, and they put me in a
cell.
And I had got arrested multipletimes in the past and, you know
, stayed there a few days or aweek and got back out, so no big
deal.
But this time was differentbecause I got life in 100 years
and I'm trying to wrap my mindaround it.
Like what does that mean?
Do I do life die?
Come back and do 100 years?
Like what do I do with this?
(07:22):
I've never heard anything likethat.
Margaret Ereneta (07:24):
It's hard to see how quickly Lewis's life
spirals, and now he findshimself in jail, about to go to
prison, on actually three lifesentences.
Louis Dooley (07:36):
And so I get into the dorm area which was pretty
much the norm, I was used tothat I found an empty bunk
because there were no open cellspretty used to that and I sit
down and before I could reallyget my bearings, another guy
approached me with the orangejumpsuit on, like mine, with a
cardboard box with a lid on it.
He just set it on the floor,walked away.
(07:57):
I kind of looked around and Iwas like you know who is this?
The welcoming committee orsomething.
And so I look in the box andthere were a bunch of snacks,
some socks, underwear, t-shirts,all things I didn't have.
My first thought was I got tokill this guy, because where I'm
from, you don't give somebodysomething for nothing.
And so I figured I would eatsome of the snacks, make him
think I took the bait, wait tilllater that night, figure out
(08:20):
what it's going to look like asI go, try to take this man's
life.
And so later that night came hewas in a cell.
I approached his cell asquietly as I could, I rushed
inside and when I got in there Ifound him and two other men
with these books open.
They were Bibles.
I didn't know it at the timeand I kind of stopped in my
tracks.
I was like whoa, like what'sgoing on here?
(08:41):
I only thought it was oneperson in there and it's a one
man sale.
So obviously I wasn't too goodat, you know, plotting and
planning.
And so the guy continued toread and at some point he
stopped and he looked at me andhe said you believe in God?
I said no, man, I don't believein God, I believe in evolution.
And that was just something Ipicked up in high school.
I wasn't raised in the church,None of that kind of stuff.
(09:03):
I say I was raised heathen.
And so he handed me a littlepamphlet which was a Bible track
.
Again, I didn't know that atthe time and I took it.
And now I looked up at me as ifto say, OK, you can leave now.
So I did just that Walked backto my bunk, I sat down.
All the adrenaline that I hadgoing from that I was going to
(09:23):
go, try to put my hands on a manand take his life, something I
hadn't done before.
All that adrenaline startedwearing off.
I was getting high before trialevery day, smoking cocaine and
smoking weed, so that the highwas wearing off and reality was
really setting in and I haddetermined that I no longer
wanted to live, that if I couldjust be dead, that would be
(09:45):
better than spending the rest ofmy life in prison.
I don't like pain, especiallyself-inflicted pain, so I didn't
try to kill myself, but Idefinitely was wanting to be
dead.
So I couldn't sleep.
So I opened up this pamphlet andstarted talking about God.
It talked about creation, youknow, Genesis 1, Genesis 2.
(10:07):
It talked about his greatestcreation, which was man, Adam
and then Eve.
And then it talked about sinthat everybody has sin in Romans
and I was like sin, Like whatis that?
And it described sin.
It talked about that it wasdisobeying God, you know.
And it listed some sins and Ifound myself in many of those
sins it listed.
(10:28):
And then it said that everybodywho sins and dies will be
separated from God eternally.
And I was like, wow, well, ifI'm a sinner, if everybody's a
sinner, then everybody's goingto be eternally separated from
God in a place called hell,which I heard of heaven and hell
(10:50):
, and I heard one was good, onewas bad, and if I had to choose,
I would choose the good one.
But that was the extent of mythinking.
And so I just was sitting heretaking all this in.
It was like a fire hose, if youwill, of information.
Even though it was just a Bibletrack, it was a lot to
comprehend.
English was my best subject inschool.
I read a lot at some point inmy life, so my comprehension
level was pretty high.
So I was really understandingthis and I truly believe, as I
look back, that the Holy Spiritwas really working on my mind,
(11:13):
working on my heart, to help meunderstand things.
And then, lastly, it startstalking about this man named
Jesus.
That a man named Jesus came tothis earth, born from God, and
he was a perfect man, unlikeevery other human.
Thus he was without sin.
And then he came with one majorpurpose, and that was to die to
pay every man and woman's debtof sin that they had.
(11:34):
And I understood that and I waslike, well, if I have a debt
that needs to be paid, then Inever want to pay a debt, by the
way.
And so it's like, if somebodywants to pay it for me, hey,
come on with that.
And so it talked about Jesuscoming and dying for my sins,
shedding his blood, him takingmy place, and I was like, wow,
(11:57):
like if this is real, then thismatters.
It talked about me putting myfaith and trust in Jesus,
believing in his miraculousbirth, his sinless life, his
atoning death and then, lastly,his resurrection and then his
ascension.
And it said if you put yourfaith and trust in Jesus,
confess your mouth to Lord Jesusand believe that God raised him
from the dead Romans 10, 9, and10, that you will be saved.
And I was like man, I want tobe saved.
(12:18):
If they said, raise your hand,I'd have raised my hand, I'd
have did jumping jacks.
I wanted to be saved.
And raise your hand, I'd haveraised my hand, I'd have did
jumping jacks like I wanted tobe saved.
And it was mostly I didn't wantto be living in the
circumstances I was living in.
So I had a spark of faith ifyou will.
And then I prayed my firstprayer.
I said, God, if you really real, for real, I'm going to serve
you for the rest of my life, butthe minute you show me, you
(12:40):
ain't real.
No-transcript.
Margaret Ereneta (12:53):
In that first prayer ever, Lewis is
transformed and you'll noticethe next day.
He has discernment.
That's new.
Louis Dooley (13:01):
That night I went to sleep.
I woke up the next day.
One of the first things thathappened was other people who
were incarcerated, who haddifferent faith beliefs, would
approach me.
You know they were evangelizingfor everything.
I had Jehovah's Witness.
I didn't know about any of thisstuff.
How true it was, how not true.
I was just seeking God and Iremember a guy who was a part of
(13:22):
a Muslim.
I call it a denominationbecause you have the Muslims
that most of us know, but thenyou have the Moorish Science
Temple of America, then you havethe Nation of Islam, which was
made famous and maybe evenstarted by Louis Farrakhan.
So you have different types ofMuslims, if you will, or
different sex, and so this oneguy was in one of those and I
(13:43):
remember him approaching me andhe was saying you need to
proclaim your nationalitybecause obviously I'm not white,
my mother's Italian, myfather's black, so I'm half
white, half black, but I don'tlook white.
Everybody thinks I'm PuertoRican.
And so he says you need toproclaim your nationality.
You know, like, stand up asbeing a minority.
(14:03):
And like, stand up about that.
And I was like, wow, really.
And he was also saying, likethese blonde haired, blue eyed
devils, and that's why I raisedan eyebrow.
I was like, oh, and I said Isaid well, if I join this, my
mother is white.
Could she be a part of this too?
And he was like, absolutely not.
And so quickly, as I was tryingto vet, if you will, these
different God groups to seewhich ones were right or if they
(14:26):
were all right, it was veryeasy.
I feel like the Lord washelping me and the Holy Spirit
was moving.
It was very easy for me todetermine if there is a God and
there is, and he createdeverything and he did, and all
the people in the various colorsand the various areas all
around the planet he created.
And if he was a God of lovewhich he definitely is John 3,
(14:48):
16, how would he love onesegment of individuals and not
another, especially based on thecolor of their skin?
And so I was just quickly likeyou know what God can't be in,
that he cannot be in that,because that can't be God.
And that was just something Ibelieve the Holy Spirit revealed
(15:09):
to me.
And so I was easily able todiscard them as a credible group
to be learning from, about God,and I count that as a gift,
because they're as corrupt ascorrupt can be.
I learned.
Years later those guys came tome.
They brought me my first Bible.
They taught me how to pray.
We would read the word together, we would sing songs together,
(15:30):
and this was day two of me beingin the county jail, while all
these men around me were waitingto go to trial, mostly for
murder.
And so about 30 days passed.
I ended up getting to prisonand along the way, god was just
revealing himself to me in manydifferent ways to kind of show
me.
In that prayer I believe thatyou know, if you're not real,
I'm not going to serve you thathe was showing me, that it was
(15:53):
no doubt that he was real andthat Christianity was the
correct path to get to God.
And so I continued serving theLord where I was at.
I got a job in the chapel.
Within the first week of beingin prison, I met a ministry
called Set Free Ministries wherethere was a young man coming in
passing out Bible courses fromEmmaus Worldwide so we could
learn the Bible.
(16:13):
And I'm like well, you know,the Bible was a daunting book,
to say, or let me rephrase itthe Bible is a daunting book.
It's man.
It's the greatest book everwritten by God Only book written
by God, I believe.
But, man, there's a lot in itand it's not so easy to
understand then and even now.
And it's like, well, if I'mgoing to serve God and if he
(16:33):
wrote this book, then I need toget to know who he is, and if he
wrote this book, then I need toget to know who he is, and if
he has something for me likeexpectations or blessings, maybe
both I want to find out whatthat is and I couldn't really do
it on my own.
I had read through the entireBible in about 20 something days
.
Margaret Ereneta (16:48):
Did you get that?
Lewis read the whole Bible in20 days.
Louis Dooley (16:54):
And I probably got a very small fraction of a
percent of what the whole booksaid.
But I read through it because Ihad tons of downtime, of course
.
The first after Genesis andExodus it got kind of rocky.
Going through the prophets waskind of weird.
Getting to the Gospels mademore sense, and then the
epistles, which the main one wasmy favorite book and still is
(17:15):
is James so clear, spoke to methen speaks to me today.
So it was helping me understandGod a little bit but what he
expected of me a lot as Ientered into the epistles in the
New Testament.
And so I started taking theseBible courses.
I was going to every churchservice and Bible study that
they offered.
I started learning aboutdifferent denominations.
(17:35):
I learned some of the servicesI was going to probably weren't
Christian and so I stopped goingas I was learning the word of
God and kind of testing what thepeople that from the outside
came to teach and weighing itagainst the Bible.
You know, studying to showmyself approved, you know.
So that I'm not ashamed, I wasjust doing that.
I had my job in the chapel, Iwas going to church, I was
(17:56):
serving the Lord and I justdecided that I'm going to be
here for the rest of my life andI'm going to serve the Lord, no
matter where I'm at, whetherI'm going to be in prison or out
of prison, I'm going to servethe Lord.
I ended up getting two more lifesentences because one of those
gunshot robberies caught up withme.
So at one point I had threelives and a hundred years and I
(18:16):
took the two lives as a pleabargain, which a plea bargain is
when you admit your guilt andyou take the sentence that they
offer you.
That was the maximum sentence Icould have gotten if I would
have went to trial and got foundguilty, but I felt God just
saying hey, you know you'reguilty, quit running, don't take
your poor mother down to thereagain with another trial, and,
(18:36):
hey, take your lumps.
So I humbled myself and I tookmy lumps and I remember reading
a verse that talked about thatpeace that surpasses all
understanding.
I pray and ask God to give methat peace, because I knew I
would need that more than ever,because that was pretty much in
my mind sealing my fate, becauseI was appealing the first crime
(18:57):
I went to prison for and if Iwon my appeal, there's a chance
I could have got a lessersentence or I could have got it
overturned and gotten out.
But since I took that plea, Iwould have to plead insanity or
I was beaten into a confession,which neither are that easy to
prove.
So I just figured I was justsigning my own self up to be in
prison for the rest of my life.
God gave me peace.
(19:18):
I got an opportunity to see Godnot only work in my life but
the lives of countless others.
During my incarceration therewas a closeness with God that I
felt that I haven't felt sinceI've been out, and it was a
blessing.
Every day in prison was astruggle in more ways than one,
but every day was a blessing aswell, because you learn to cling
(19:39):
close to Christ when you're upagainst it.
And being a Christian in prison, you're almost always up
against it because of yourfellow prisoners who like to try
to take advantage of people whowear the name of Christ.
Margaret Ereneta (19:54):
We asked Lewis about Christian persecution in
prison.
We asked Lewis about Christianpersecution in prison, which is
very real, and he says you'regoing to have to go to his book
called Prison Saved my Life.
The link is in the show notes.
Louis Dooley (20:07):
It's amazing and so I was just doing my time,
playing sports, going to Biblestudy, had opportunities to
start leading Bible studies, hadthe first prisoner led Bible
study that that prison everallowed.
So that was an honor and aprivilege and it was cool
because we would go evangelizeon the yard and then we'd invite
these guys to the Bible studythat my mentor would teach and
(20:29):
he was like way in the cloudsand these young guys was like I
mean, I was young myself, likemy mid twenties.
These guys were, you know, 16,17, 18.
And they're like man, we don'tunderstand this guy, like
explain it to us.
And so I was like man, we needlike an introductory Bible study
.
Margaret Ereneta (20:43):
You'll see here how amazing Lewis's
transformation is.
He's not only being a man ofGod studying the Bible
ferociously, but he's also doingwhat it says he's becoming an
evangelist in prison.
Louis Dooley (20:58):
So the prison approved it.
So now the men that we wereimpacting and influencing and
witness to on the yard as weplayed handball, basketball and
stuff like that, lift theweights.
Now we would have a formalBible study where we come out of
(21:24):
our house unit, sit downtogether, open up the word of
God and really, really wrestlewith the scriptures and try to
help them understand and speaktheir language, because that
that's the language I speakanyway.
And so, man, I found my place.
It was a wonderful place to beand then, all of a sudden, after
13 years, I got a letter fromthe parole board saying they
wanted to interview me, and Iadmit I was a little excited,
but reality was more prevalentin my mind, and that reality was
you ain't going home no timesoon, if ever.
And so I went to the hearing.
It went really quick, which wasway different than I was told
(21:45):
and what I expected.
And then they said I'd get ananswer in six weeks.
Six weeks came.
I sat before a man who read apiece of paper to me that said I
was scheduled to be released injust two and a half more years,
and I just started crying andsaid thank you, jesus.
That was 2007.
And in August of 2009, I wasreleased after 15 and a half
(22:06):
years and it's unbelievable.
It wasn't through an appeal.
I had no attorney, I hadnothing in the court system.
I had nothing but my faith inChrist, and I was blessed to be
where I was and to be workingfor the Lord, doing what I was
doing, and I was content withthat.
I really was, because I knewthat heaven was my home.
(22:28):
I knew that was eternity.
Didn't know how many years Iwould have here on earth, but I
knew it would pale in comparisonto eternity with him, and so
that is what the Lord impressedupon my heart and my mind and
that's what I was trying my bestto live out.
Margaret Ereneta (22:43):
God is so amazing in Lewis's story, things
that are insurmountable topeople, like three life
sentences, god says OK, and hedoes what he's going to do Just
cancels the debt, like he didwith his salvation.
Louis Dooley (22:57):
Then I get out.
I had met a young lady sixyears prior to that through a
mutual friend.
We had ridden back and forth.
I proposed to her when I gottold I was going to be released
in a few years.
We got married and that broughtme up to the Chicago land area
from East St Louis, illinois.
And I joke and tell people Imoved to Beverly Hills because
(23:18):
where I'm at now is not BeverlyHills.
I've been there but compared towhere I'm from, it's Beverly
Hills.
And so I got up here.
I was overwhelmed.
My mother was dying and died afew months after I got out.
My great-grandmother, who wasin her early hundreds, died a
few weeks after I got out.
But I got the blessing of beingable to see them because it
would have crushed me.
(23:39):
It would have crushed me hadthey died when I was his cat.
So God was kind, he was so kindto me to let me spend time with
them.
And so I get out.
I'm eager to work.
This was the joke amongst meand my brothers in Christ man.
When I get out I'm going to geta job at one of my three
favorite places McDonald's,burger King or Taco Bell.
(23:59):
And if they all give me a job,I'll work all three.
None of them would give me ajob, and I don't blame them.
Who would take a 35-year-oldman who never had a job, with
all of these violent crimes androbberies on his jacket?
I probably wouldn't have givenme a job, and so that was very
disheartening, and I remembertalking to my mentor saying I
(24:20):
just want to go back.
I just want to go back toprison.
I had a life in there.
I had people I look forward tobeing a part of their life.
People look forward to me beinga part of their life, and not
in a prideful way, but I wassomebody and I had need, and
those people in there couldfulfill that need.
(24:42):
Christ was fulfilling my need,and I just was kind of lost out
here, couldn't find a churchthat I felt like, I connected
with no smartphones, and so Ihad to get out of my
incarcerated mind and step up tothe plate in the real world,
and so eventually the Lordopened the door and another
miraculous way for me to get ajob with the company.
I learned a lot, I grew a lot,and then an opportunity came for
(25:02):
me after about a year and ahalf to work for Set Free
Ministries as the regionaldirector for the state of
Illinois, which meant trying toget the Bible studies that he
may, as worldwide produces, intojails and prisons all over the
state, and I also had to learnhow to raise support, which was
totally new for me.
I said, hey, I'm going to do it, lord, and I'll know quickly if
(25:23):
it's what you want me to do,because if you provide, then I
guess it's a yes.
And so I quit my job for nopaycheck.
I jumped into full-timeministry.
So since then I transitionedfrom Seffrey Ministries to also
working for Emmaus to help themgrow their ministry inside the
jails and prisons with the Biblecourses.
And then along the way, at somepoint we decided that we wanted
(25:46):
to do more ministry to prisonersand not just on the inside,
because there's a great need onthe outside when guys get out,
getting jobs, having a good,safe place to live, resources
like food and transportation andclothing.
And so my wife and I startedgoing into our local juvenile
prison for a couple of years.
These young men just needed asafe place, some resources and
(26:08):
some godly people around them tohelp them do great things and
get to know Christ, and so mywife and I were like man, it'd
be cool to bring some of theseguys to live with us.
We had a 501c formed calledPhilemon House, based on the
book of Philemon, and all of asudden, a guy comes out of
nowhere and says I want to helpyou guys get a house.
(26:29):
Helping young men who are injuvenile prison ages 16 to 21,
transition from getting out bycoming to live in the house with
us.
We help them with spirituality,we help them with academics,
life skills, financial things,because if you're going to be a
productive member of society anda Christ follower, you need to
learn how to live in this worldin a God-honoring way.
(26:51):
So we do that, along withplanting Bible studies in Cook
County Jail, which is one of thelargest jails in the United
States.
And then we also help incorrespondence ministry, where
these Bible studies get mailedto prisons all over the state,
and so that's what we do, and soit's been a long ride since
February of 1994 to now in 2025.
Margaret Ereneta (27:13):
For Lewis's last question.
We asked him to give us adviceChristians who know people who
are coming out of prison or jailhow to support them.
Louis Dooley (27:23):
And here's what he said If you know someone that
has a felony or been in jail orprison, the first thing I would
say that's good to know is thatpsychologically there's a lot of
things going through a person'smind.
Our country and even our stateof Illinois right now they've
banned the box, so there used tobe this box that says, if
you've been convicted of afelony, check this box that no
(27:44):
longer exists on the jobapplication they can ask you
that in an interview.
But at least if you can get aninterview.
But even though there may beopportunities, psychologically
there could be things going onin that person's mind.
So oftentimes we can be pushy,we're trying to get a person to
do more or to live up to astandard that we may feel like
we have to live up to, but notunderstanding the psychological
(28:08):
trauma that that person may haveexperienced while they were
incarcerated and just bethinking some lies in their
minds that say may be plantinglike you're not good enough or
or you did these wrong thingsand so you don't deserve these
opportunities.
And so I would say not to betoo pushy but also, if you see a
person kind of dragging, to tryto help lift them up and show
(28:29):
compassion and love towards themin their situation, and not
just overlook it.
So if you have a friend orloved one, just know that
there's things going on in theirmind and it could be causing
them to act a certain way.
It could be causing them to doa certain thing, and so be kind
and gracious, be a shoulder tocry on sometimes, be a person to
(28:52):
offer them advice if they needit, and just don't overlook them
and just accept them for whothey are, but don't overlook
that trauma that they've beenthrough and acknowledge that.
I think to be open to a personthat's incarcerated, ask them
what their story is.
If they're willing to share,man, what's your story?
And if they say, I don't wantto share, that's fine.
(29:12):
If you ever, I would love to toget to know you, man.
That's a great thing.
A lot of times people has beenincarcerated, no matter how long
they can feel like they justwon't be accepted by people who
haven't been, and just somebodyshowing them acceptance and just
saying I want to get to knowyou and you can tell them
whatever you want to tell themand if it's genuine, they'll
know.
And you want to tell them, andif it's genuine they'll know,
(29:35):
and that just makes a personfeel alive.
Margaret Ereneta (29:36):
Thanks for listening today.
If you want to hear more aboutLouis Dooley's ministry Philemon
House, or you are interested inthe full testimony in his book
Prison Saved my Life, check outour show notes the links are in
there and make sure that youshare today's 180 with your
people.
It may be the best news theyhear today.
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