Testimonials: Peter Garbo

Testimonials: Peter Garbo

(This testimonial was written by one of our incarcerated students, sharing their faith and study of God’s Word.)

I was born on August 3, 1973, to parents who were somewhat happily married. My dad was raised Catholic but left the faith after graduating high school. He worked hard for the post office in his hometown but drank a lot and was very reclusive at home. My mom stayed home and cleaned all the time. She smoked and occasionally had a beer. It seemed like half of my hometown’s residents went to one Catholic church on Sunday, while the other half, including my grandparents, went to the other Catholic church in town. We were the only family in town that didn’t go to church. I asked my mom why we didn’t go to church like everyone else, and her only reply was, “People worship God in their own way.” My mom would occasionally say some prayers with me before bed, but that was the extent of my religious experience growing up.

I also craved attention, appreciation, and acceptance. Since I was an only child, I always got that from my mom and grandparents but never from my dad or the girls I tried to date in school. Then, I started getting bullied by friends who claimed to be educated Catholics. At the same time, I found my dad’s porn collection. Whenever he wasn’t getting drunk or arguing with my mom over everything, I would watch his porn tapes and look for his porn magazines. After elementary school, I wasn’t getting the good grades I used to get. Then, my Hungarian grandfather passed away, and I was devastated. At the same time, my so-called Catholic friends were trying to get more involved with girls, porn, and sex. One of them convinced me to do sexual things with him to satisfy himself. I was very confused about my sexuality.

While my mom and I were trying to help my grandmother after my grandfather’s passing, my mom came down with five kinds of cancer at the same time and passed away soon after. My so-called friends told me to “toughen up” and not think about my mom’s passing. I was also afraid of living with my dad alone. He made me feel like I had to make everything in the world perfect for him so he didn’t have to deal with any problems and could have another drink.

During my senior year of high school, I decided to make my dad happy by joining the U.S. Army. My grandmother was upset because of my decision. She made me feel like I had messed up some kind of biblical prophecy by not working at General Electric after high school, where my mom and grandfather had worked. So, she told me to come to the hometown of Johnstown, PA, to be baptized. That way, if I died during boot camp, my soul wouldn’t go to hell. So, I got baptized as a Lutheran. While I was in the army, I occasionally went to church, usually at the behest of a girlfriend. After she left, my life centered around partying and porn. I met the occasional girlfriend, but it never lasted long. Just before my tour at Fort Bragg was up, I met a woman who wanted to move to New York with me. After we got together, we got married, and she was pregnant with my son. So, I decided to join the army again. After our son was born, my wife showed her true colors. She partied, did drugs, and cheated on me with other men all the time. But the more I tried to push religion on her, the more she pushed back. Her antics caused us to lose custody of our son and got me kicked out of the army.

I lived in her hometown of Martinsville, VA, and found religion. I bounced from a Baptist church to a Catholic church to a Lutheran church. Then, I met my second wife online and moved to Newport News, VA, and started working at the shipyard there. I wanted to go to church on the weekends, but my wife was more interested in work, watching TV, and surfing the internet. She made sure I had no communication with any family or friends in New York. I was still craving appreciation, attention, and acceptance from my wife, our daughters, her family, and coworkers at the shipyard. But I got no appreciation from anybody at the shipyard despite all my hard work, and my wife, kids, and her family treated me like a child because I wasn’t perfect by their standards. Our relationship and finances were going downhill. My wife was cheating on me, and I found out we were drastically behind on the mortgage. She was always blaming everything on me, so we decided to get divorced.

After that, I spent my weekends at bars in Norfolk, VA. Every spare minute I had was spent on porn sites, either watching porn or trying to find a female partner to engage in alternative sexual lifestyles. My dad passed away, and I felt devastated once again, even though he never treated me like a son and I never gained his approval, acceptance, or attention. I wound up inheriting the family fortune and invested heavily in the stock market. I had a good job, money, and kids, but I felt my life was still going downhill and was missing something vitally important.

In early 2020, I met a young woman online who was into really alternative, kinky things and had a 10-year-old daughter. I told her everything I wanted to do with her sexually. A couple of months later, I drove to Richmon, PA, to meet her and her daughter. When I showed up, I was met by five to six police officers with guns drawn. They told me I had been talking about all my sexual fantasies to a 10-year-old the whole time. My whole world came crashing down—what was left of it. While I was locked up at the Richmon City Justice Center, most everyone wanted to either make fun of me or harm me physically because of my crimes. When I talked to my lawyer, she told me that there was no young woman with deep, dark sexual fantasies, and there was no 10-year-old daughter. It was the cops I was talking to the whole time online. It was all fake.

I started spending my Sunday mornings in jail participating in Bible study with my newfound friends, Paul and Will. Paul was studying theology for college. I started reading the books he was using for his studies. I got an NKJV Bible from the jail chaplain and read it from Genesis 1:1 to the end of Revelation. Then, I read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Between these two books, I figured out what was missing in my life and what I needed to fix my life: God. I realized that because I didn’t have a relationship with God, He neglected to have a relationship with me.

After I was sentenced, I took a deep dive into Christianity, starting with Bible study courses. Then, I heard about International Christian College and Seminary. I applied, had my lawyer pay off the tuition, and made sure I was going to ace the course on biblical studies. Today, I’m at Coffeewood Correctional Center, going to Catholic services every Thursday and Sunday. I play drums and sing in the Catholic choir. I bring a wealth of information to Bible study. I have found the acceptance, appreciation, and attention I have been looking for in fellow Catholics and Christians. I have quit the alternative lifestyles I was in. My relationships with my daughters and my current ex-wife have improved. I now have over a hundred Bible study certificates and soon will earn my associates in biblical studies through International Christian College and Seminary. I am enrolled in another Bible college and am also an ordained minister. People here at Coffeewood wonder why I’m happy all the time. I tell them that I found God and have a deep relationship with Him. I plan to start an online ministry and become a spiritual counselor.

Peter G.