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Chapel with Keanon Hurst - Midwestern Seminary
From Prison to the Pulpit: Midwestern Seminary Student Finds New Life, Purpose in Christ
"KANSAS CITY – Having spent over a decade of time behind bars, coupled with a long history of drug abuse, Keanon Hurst is perhaps one of the last people you would expect to find on Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s campus, let alone behind a pulpit.
A native of eastern Nebraska, Keanon describes himself in childhood as “the outcast who would do and say things to just get attention.”
“It was obvious from a young age I was headed down the wrong path,” he said.
However, it wasn’t until November 1991, that Keanon’s life would completely change: “When I was 12 years old, I was in a bad hunting accident, and I shot myself in the left leg. I remember my dad cut open my overalls, put a tourniquet on my leg, and carried me to my grandma’s house for over a mile on his shoulder. From there I was rushed to the hospital.” Hurst would be in that hospital for the next six months.
While at the hospital, Keanon explained how he quickly became addicted to the morphine the doctors were administering to him for the pain in his leg: “They gave me this little morphine clicker, where once an hour I could administer morphine to myself because I had the button.
“At twelve years old I was introduced to drugs before I even knew what drugs really were,” he said. “From that point on I was off to the races. When the doctors would come into the room, I would click the button; when my parents came in, and I didn’t want to talk to them, I would click the button. Looking back, I found myself hitting the button just to hit the button…. There I was, 12 years old abusing drugs.”
At the age of 14, Keanon’s doctors refused to give him any more morphine, at which point he quickly transitioned to alcohol and marijuana: “At that point, I was already an outcast and just a bad kid, and it was only getting worse. By 15 I was introduced to meth, which quickly became my drug of choice. And by 17 I had dropped out of high school.” By this time, Hurst was breaking the law just to get meth and alcohol.
On his 18th birthday, Keanon was arrested for the possession of illegal drugs and forgery. “I was sent to prison for the first time at 18. It was like a badge of honor for me. As soon as I got out, I went right back to what I was doing – meth and alcohol.” Keanon would go on to repeat this cycle for the next 20 years. “From the time I was 15 till the time I was 35, I spent in and out of prison. Ten of those years I spent in prison and ten of those years I spent using drugs.." from the article: From prison to the pulpit: Midwestern Seminary student finds new life, purpose in Christ