Luke’s childhood and family...
were far from all bad. He was raised by two loving parents who kept him in church as much and often as possible. He says he has felt God calling him since he was 16 years old, and that God chased him all the way to the county jail where he says he had a Jonah experience. He was stuck in a single cell, underground for more than a year and was forced to confront himself.
He sat in that cell with nothing but his thoughts and a Bible, and God finally broke through. He realized that he needed to make a change and it was better now, then never. He committed himself to Jesus the Christ. Within those walls he found Jesus and he has not looked back since.
Luke’s grandfather, a retired pastor, told him early on in his incarceration that “God has a prepared place for a prepared man:, and Luke took that to heart. While at the Maximum-security prison (OSP) in McAlester, OK he studied scripture and educational books as if it was his job. His days would consist of waking up around 6:30 am and begin the day with studying until 6:30 or 7:00 pm each evening. He was transferred from Maximum after 19 months and sent to OSR-a high medium security- in Granite, OK. He continued his studies and eventually got a job in the Library. His sentence was overturned from Life Without Parole to Life with the possibility of parole. It was at Granite that he was given his first opportunity to preach by a man named Rev. Alexander. He also began to take college courses.
The majority of his family lived on the east coast of the United States and it was difficult for them to visit as Luke was so far away from them. Having his sentence modified they requested that he be transferred to Florida. He went to Florida as an interstate compact transfer in 2007 where he spent 4 years before returning to the OK prison system. Florida had relatively no opportunities for self-improvement. He could not continue his college ambition, and was only able to complete some Christian classed taught by the chaplain and a carpentry vo-tech because he had favor with the facilitator.
He returned to Oklahoma in 2012...
and was sent to Lexington Correction Center. He began summer classes at Rose State College almost immediately upon arrival. He was offered a position in the Friends for Folks dog program where he helped to train many second chance dogs. One of his dogs received a humanitarian award for his work with patients at Griffin Memorial Hospital and Luke was in the second documentary film about Oklahoma dog programs entitled Basset Tales. He continued growing in leadership with Christian Men’s Association and Toastmasters as the president of the Lexical Club. He worked in the infirmary helping the nurses and medical staff care for terminally ill inmates. In 2015 Luke started working for a company in the P.I.E. program called TruEnergy. He worked through the various positions until finally becoming a manager (Team Leader) and working with a team of inmates furthering the company’s goals and his personal team goals set by him and the team.