ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - It's been four years since the prison system called Rashad Younger not by name, but as inmate number 1438116.
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The first time Rashad walked into the Roanoke Valley Juvenile Detention Center he didn't go willingly. He was 16. He hung with a group of guys who stole a women's purse.
It was an arrest that would lead to four more sentences behind bars. It sounds like a grim future, but for the street kid it was to be expected.
"For me as a young immature kid it was kind of like your street credit, like you get locked up it was a good thing," explained Rashad.
Trouble began when his single mom went to work and he had time on his hands.
"As she was at work we started hanging in the street, with kids in the neighborhood, and that led to smoking weed and hanging out and selling drugs and things like that."
Things - that led to more crime. Beating up a drug snitch and violating probation smoking pot. Every time he got out of jail he tried, but just couldn't turn his life around.
"Especially as a teenager, that's how I fell back into it, because it was like no one positive around to help me out or no one to guide me and steadily going back into the same environment," Rashad recalled.
During Rashad's third stint in the juvenile detention center things would start to change.
One Sunday night, Pastor Warren King came in to speak to the young men and made a connection with the quiet kid.
"Quite honestly, Rashad was like many young men that I met down here. In fact, he didn't really stand out, he was very quiet, very reserved," Pastor Warren said.
"He really wanted to connect with me. He said it seemed like I don't belong in here, because I was smart, intelligent, so he gave me his card and told me to call him when I got out," said Rashad.
Rashad did give him a call.
In fact, he started going to church with Pastor Warren.
"We played basketball together, hung out together and actually tried to disciple him into following Christ and teach him how to make some good decisions," Pastor Warren recalled.
Rashad tried making good decisions, but soon fell back into old habits like selling drugs on the streets.
At 20-years-old he was heading jail again; this time for two years behind bars.
"I wanted to change my life, better my life, so when I got out in 2012 I reconnected with Pastor King. I called him I was like do you remember me."
The two connected yet again, laying the ground work for a friendship that continues today.
"It was some time later after he had put his faith in Christ and after he had spent some time in jail that he really turned his life over to the Lord and we reconnected and we've been serving together kind of ever since," explained Pastor Warren.
Serving together in the same place Rashad served time.
On Sunday nights, the two along with other volunteers, stand before troubled teens and tell their stories.
"I don't want them to make the same mistakes I made, like even when I got out how I failed the first time. Just pretty much show them it's a better a life, you can go to college, and you can be what you want to be in life instead of being in the system," Rashad said.
"When he comes into speak they have an immediate connection because they grew up in the same environments, had the same difficulties and same disadvantages, so he's going to be able to reach them in a way that perhaps I can't," Pastor Warren said.
Rashad's been out of jail for four years now, has a family, full-time job, and even his own cleaning business, but his passion is to one day standing behind a pulpit.
"I just try to focus on God and reading the Bible, that's what keeps me in line and try to live a life like how Jesus lived."
Pastor Warren says Rashad's story offers the young men ... "Hope," said Pastor Warren, "Hope. I mean, a lot of the kids that are in here, these young people they don't see any hope, they don't think they can change and I think Rashad is living proof that there's hope and that they can make it."
Rashad once wore the same jail issued shoes and clothes, but now he stands before the teens a changed man with plans to go from prison to preacher.
If you're interested in volunteering to speak to teens at Roanoke Valley Juvenile Detention Center email Keith Farmer info@straightstreet.org.