Maynard LaVallie has a story to tell. He’s telling it in song. He’s telling it from the heart. From experience – because he’s been there.

LaVallie shared his testimony of accepting the Lord at special meetings at the Living Water Assembly of God Church last week, while weaving in his special blend of inspirational, lively music.

Maynard LaVallie was raised on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota, not far from the Canadian border and the International Peace Garden.

The sixth of 19 children, LaVallie quit school after the eighth grade, weary of the strict discipline and structure of boarding school. Problems with concentration and comprehension at school left him discouraged and angry his frustrations incited a feeling of no hope with no vision for the future and he became caught up in alcohol abuse and violence.

At 19, he joined the Navy in an attempt to make something of his life, but went AWOL right out of boot camp. The lack of a high school diploma, his drinking problem, and the AWOL factored into an undesirable discharge.

His experience with the Navy only increased his anger and hopelessness. His wanderings led him to the oil fields and coalmines of Wyoming, fast money and fast living.

"I guess I’m the worst one of the bunch, at least my brother says – and they all say. I was the violent one. Just the kind of guy who had no direction," LaVallie said of his family. "There’s nothing wrong with living day by day. We should live day by day, but when there is no goal, no vision, people perish."

"Hopelessness creates anger," he said, "You get angry at society and everyone. You become a bomb ready to go off."

That anger and frustration culminated in a bar room brawl one day in Gillette, Wyo. While wildly swinging a shovel and nearly killing two people, he was hit over the head with a whiskey bottle. The incident landed him in the county jail awaiting trial and the possibility of 14 years in prison.

He was 28 years old and his life was about to be transformed by a chance encounter with a man who spoke of how the Lord could change his life.

"I don’t even know his name, I don’t even know what church he belonged to. I don’t even know if he was a minister. But I remember the message," LaVallie recalled.

"When I sat in that jail cell I realized, for the first time in my life, that my life was out of control. I never looked at my life as out of control before, because I guess nobody told me it was."

LaVallie said the simplest prayer, "God, if you can change my life like this man said, I challenge you to change my life."

He didn’t know who the man was or what denomination he was. It doesn’t really matter, LaVallie says, they’ll meet in heaven someday. The man’s reward, he says, is the work he did on earth.

"The gospel can transform and change your life," LaVallie now admits. "When you take a trip, you pack and get ready. So it is with the life that is coming. You make preparations for the future. It’s a road map."

After the meeting, he wrote a letter to his sister, who was a Christian, and said he wanted to give his heart to Jesus. But in the back of his mind, he thought that if his brother-in-law managed to get him out on bond, he’d run – get lost in humanity.

"You see, you never quit running. The easy way out is always to run instead of facing things," he confesses. "It stems from when I was a child I think. Instead of dealing with the hurt, you get tough. A blister becomes a callous. People’s hearts are that way because of all the pain and hurt. They have so much misery; they don’t know what to do about it. They become so hard, it takes God years to break those walls down."

LaVallie recalled his sister saying, "No, leave him in there a little longer."

Finally, LaVallie said he come to the conclusion that if he ran, he would only be caught sooner or later.

His sister made the stipulation that he had to talk to her pastor as a condition of posting bond, which he reluctantly did.

"I drove around the church three times; I didn’t want to go in. I finally told myself, ‘Why am I doing this. This is sissy stuff. This ain’t for me. This is for deadbeats. This is for people who can’t handle their lives.’"

Although the meeting was awkward, LaVallie prayed with the pastor to receive the Lord – and felt a hand placed softly on his shoulder.

"What stands out most is when I opened my eyes when I finished praying and saw this man weeping," LaVallie recalled. "I didn’t understand why, but he understood the miraculous thing that was happening in his office."

That day was a new beginning for LaVallie – the resurgence of hope and a vision for the future. The pastor later presented him to the congregation and he was baptized.

He had made his public stance and began serving the Lord by attending Bible study class. "If you go to school but don’t study, you won’t pass. If you want the awards, you have to give something. If you want to make a marriage go, you have to work at it. If you want to be a doctor, you have to be trained. It’s the same way with Christianity," LaVallie said. "You have to be disciplined, you have to learn how to serve God. It also teaches you to respect other people, love other people."

After 25 years out of school, LaVallie attended Central Indian Bible College in Mobridge, S.D., earning an associate of arts degree and a three-year Biblical studies degree. And he’s only 14 credits away from a Bachelor of Arts degree.

After college, LaVallie became Chaplin and supervisor at the Grand Forks Rescue Mission in Grand Forks N.D., for two years. In 1992, he took on the challenge of director and administrator of a rescue mission in Rapid City, S.D., supervising 11 employees at that facility.

LaVallie then spent a year as field representative for his alma mater, Central Indian Bible College, represent the college in the Upper Midwest as a fundraiser and recruiter.

He is now a full-time evangelist, traveling all over the United State and Canada, sharing the gospel at coffee house, jails, prisons, and churches.

"I have a church," LaVallie said. "My pulpit is the world."

Last November, LaVallie completed recording an audiocassette featuring 12 inspirational songs in which he sings and plays guitar. It includes many of the songs he sings while resenting his message – a message of hope and a vision for the future.