Dealing Dope to Preaching Hope

Milyce Pipkin: 

Hello and welcome to The Table Podcast where we discuss issues of God and culture. I'm Milyce Pipkin along with the Hendricks Center. Joining us today with our topic, going from dealing dope to preaching hope is this guy, Dimas Salaberrios. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

How you doing? 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Thank you so much for being here. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

What a joy to be here and to be in this Dallas Theological Seminary. This is big time for me. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Really. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah. Yeah. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

I can hardly believe that, with your big testimony? 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

I'm a Chuck Swindoll fan. Good friends with Dr. Tony Evans, and many other great ministers that's come from here. Yeah. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Yeah. I can certainly see where you're coming from. We've had some wonderful men and women come through this seminary, do some great things for the glory of the Lord. Your story is going to be for His glory. Is going to be one of those really good things here at Dallas Theological Seminary here on The Table Podcast. We're so glad to have you, Dimas. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Honored to be here. Yeah. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Okay. I'm just going to start with a little background. Now I got to know you through the Evangelical Press Association in May of 2023. There I heard you as the keynote speaker at the awards banquet that evening. When I heard your testimony of how you went from dealing dope to preaching hope, I was like, "We've got to have that guy on." Yeah. 

I want to start off with an introduction of you, because who you are is more important than who you were. Then we'll get into who you were and how that resonates for us today. Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you're doing now. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Right now I do two things. One is I mobilize pastors and leaders to pray and to seek after God and I've done that for a lot of years. I was in charge of doing that for 5,000 churches in the New York City area, mobilizing the leaders together. Now I do it in New York and we do it here in Dallas. 

We've been coming to Dallas. It's been a little tough in Dallas because a lot of people are blessed, so blessed that they don't know how much they need God sometimes. I'm trying to really get some of these pastors. Just because you got 3 or 4,000 people don't mean you can't spend a day with Jesus. It's been uphill but I know through consistency and faith we're going to win the victory. 

Then other than that I make films. I've been a filmmaker. I'm a writer with the Writers Guild of America. I didn't have to go through the strike, I just became a part of that. I'm with the Producers Guild as well. 

My first movie was called Emmanuel, and that was on the church shooting that happened in Charleston, South Carolina. My partner's on that. I was blessed with Steph Curry from the Warriors, of Viola Davis Oscar winner and Mariska Hargitay who's an Emmy winner. I had a dream team with me on that film, but the goal of that was to tell the story of forgiveness and then give the money to the families. We didn't make a profit off of that film. 

Then my next film was Chicago: America's Hidden War, which Denzel Washington is my producing partner on that. And so we just sent it to Amazon and Netflix. Listeners pray that Amazon would say, "Yes." That's who we really desire to work with on this one, so that would be great. I have a film coming out called Camp Joy this coming summer. We've been busy. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

You've been very busy. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Very busy and honored to work with the best of the best and to glorify God and Jesus. In the Chicago movie, what was profound was we mobilized the church to hit the streets through a whole summer. For the first time, homicides dropped by 20%. 

There was one group that passed on the film that was very frustrating and we know why. Because this gives the evidence that when the church goes out, it really makes a difference. And so it was a lot of fun and great to do. Very dangerous and we had some close calls. 

One time my family was all there and we were driving in a shootout happened right in front of our car. And it was by the grace of God, my wife saw a beauty supply store. She said, "Oh, pull over." If we didn't pull over, our car would've been right in the middle of the shootout. After that- 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Yeah. It is amazing grace. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah, it is grace. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

But your whole life is riddled with stories of God's amazing grace on you. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

That literally is- 

Milyce Pipkin: 

That's your testimony. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

...my whole life. It really is. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

I am going to get to the testimony because it's deep. I know that with our limited time, we can't get into every little detail of it. Prayerfully, someone gets an opportunity to hear it in its entirety. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Or they can get the book Street God. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Or get your book Street God. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah. They can pick up the book everywhere books are sold. Yeah. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

But for right now we'll do a list, a synopsis of it. But before I get there, once again, something that struck me in your giving a little information about your background during the EPA convention earlier this year. Is you talked about how you were able to mobilize the church or a church of sorts in Charleston with the Emanuel shooting. Can you just expand that because I don't want people to get lost in the shuffle of what happened there at the church. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah. Just so you know, I live in New York City. But our model of my family's mantra is what would Paul do if he had planes, cars and boats that we have today and all the opportunities? When we woke up to the shooting that happened in Charleston, my family saw it and we said, "As Christians, that's where we need to be." 

To understand the story, the leadership team of the church was executed. My friend's wife was preaching In that circle they call it your trial sermon, but basically she was preaching her first sermon to be ordained and that's AME, I know, different than this denomination and a lot of dominations I'm part of, but that was her situation. And so when I got to the church, it literally was like a sea of people, I mean by the thousands. It was like- 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Because that speaks to the community in Charleston. I used to be a news anchor there, so I know how the community is. Very tight-knit. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

They came out and I mean every news outlet that you could think of was there. I'm just a snap-charged person so I said, "Everybody, we're going to mobilize right here, and we're going to do a prayer vigil and we're going to get this started." I started preaching Jesus on a bench. 

I felt like I hear stories of people used to preach on a soap box but for us it was a bench. It was all on CNN and MSNBC, FOX, I mean every outlet you can name. what was profound was after I preached, this white man in his thirties came and hugged me and he let me go. 

He said, "I'm a part of the Klan but not anymore." He said something very profound too. He said, "I know the guys pushing this kind of message to kill like what this young boy believed, Dylann Roof." He said, "I'm going to go and be a voice that this has got to stop." Then he walked away and never saw him again, but that's happened to me about three times. 

I've led three Klan members to Jesus and they dropped their association. Never planned, it's just the gospel. I'm trained through Dr. Tim Keller, that's been my mentor and Dr. A.R. Bernard and Floyd Flake in New York. But you just lay out the gospel and he pierces the hearts. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Yeah. God is love and that's hate. We don't want to be advocating hate. We want to be advocating love as Christians. I'm glad that you took that message there and changed some hearts by the grace of God through the Holy Spirit. It's wonderful. 

Now, I don't want to waste any more time because you have an amazing testimony. And as our topic was today and will be how you went from dealing dope to preaching hope. A lot of pastors don't want to talk about the dark side of where they came from. They talk about walking into the marvelous light, but you don't mind giving your testimony. We just want your synopsis of your life's testimony and how you got to the pulpit. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

My story is not like a poverty story. I grew up in middle class. The largest black, middle-class population in America was in Queens, New York. And so I grew up, my mother was a principal of a school. My father was a captain of correctional Rikers Island, which is embarrassing because I had to visit there not to visit him, but with handcuffs. 

I went to a predominantly white school and I went to see this movie called E.T. After seeing E.T. I wanted to ride my bicycle into the sky. The next year when I was 11 the movie Scarface came out. When I left that theater, I wanted to be the biggest drug dealer in New York. They almost rated that film X. You can look that up. Not because of sexual content, because the impact they knew it would have on young people. And myself and many other drug dealers that I meet that were kingpins said that movie had the same effect on them. 

Going to this white, pretty preppy-type school. And a friend called me into the bathroom, pulled out a bag of drugs that he stole from his brother, said, "Do you want to help me sell it?" I started into this life at age 11. 

We sold that. We finished all of that. I liked the money and where we were going and how it was working and then I started selling marijuana. Then very quickly I realized almost like Tony Montana, to be the millionaire I had to deal in crack or cocaine, so I got involved in that. 

By age 15 I became what's called a boss. Meaning certain street blocks I controlled everything on that block or mostly everything. Once in a while there'd be a old timer or something, you just let them do their thing. But for most of the money being made on that block was mine. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

17-year-old. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

15. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

15-year-old. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

15. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

15-year-old running the block. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

The cops were watching me. They waited until I turned 16, they visited me and I had a big mouth, so I got surrounded by the cops. I said, "What you going to do? I don't have anything." They opened up the back seat of their car. They had bust one of these girls that was selling drugs for me. Took the drugs off her, put it on me and I went to Rikers. And so I wasn't clean. I was a little bit- 

Milyce Pipkin: 

You weren't innocent. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

I wasn't innocent. I was a little clean. They didn't play totally fair. At that time I had so many arrests, but my mother had such a big heart because this was the time they were doing raids everywhere and I kept getting arrested. I was like, "Ma, I was just caught in a raid. I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything." 

She believed the best because it wasn't a bad neighborhood. But when crack came, everybody still thought it was a nice neighborhood, but it was changing underneath the community's nose and they didn't notice it for a while. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Everybody wants to believe they're immune to crime. They don't want to think that's in their neighborhood. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah. Then my amazing lawyer said, "There's no way we're going to beat this case. I could get you into a military program where it'll cut your time in half. Will you take it?" I looked, I said, "Well, I already got two months in here already." I said, "Let's do that." 

But they were smart. They kept me in there for six months and then put me in the six-month program, so I ended up doing a year. I did not get around a year and jail was very violent. Around that age, more people fought than we would shoot, so I fought a lot. Fought a lot in jail. Fought a lot in the streets and I got out and I wanted to do the right thing. The only job that was willing to hire me was White Castle. 

This is the mind I had. I'm seeing this little restaurant or fat-fast-food place clock in about 100,000. I'm saying, "It's only five of us working. Can a brother at least get a 1,000 out of that?" If that's not capitalism. When my check was $75 I said, "You're not going to rob me. I quit." 

I went back into the drug world and I thought I was smart. I was like, I'm not going to deal it this time. I'll cook it like the TV show Breaking Bad. I'll package it all and I'll have other people sell for me and I just won't be on the block. 

It was basically the same plan I did before. But my mistake was every week I had to go and turn in a urine test to make sure I was clean from drugs. I didn't realize my hands were dealing with the drugs and cocaine was going in through my pores and coming out in my system. I was blowing every drug test and they were just building this case on me. I walked in one day- 

Milyce Pipkin: 

I'm smiling because I just see the Lord coming for you. He left the 99 for the one and he was coming. Come on. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Let me tell you, he saved. I have no regrets of any time I went to jail. It was sovereign because when I look back with my adult mind, I was in the middle of a serious beef. I would've got killed the first time. The second time I would've got killed. The third time I would've got killed. I look back and I'm like, "God, your grace was there the whole entire time." 

I walk in to visit my parole. I was always a little smart. My goal was make a whole lot of money, open a whole lot of businesses and live a legitimate life. That's most intelligent, drug-dealer's goal are, but others want to just sling forever. That's just ridiculous. I always knew I was going to go to school. I was going to get a master's. That was still a part of me because that's why my story's not really a poverty story. I always had a plan and a vision, even though it was very dark. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

And a methodology to get there. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah. It was very dark but it was a vision. I walk in and I pass her a note like, "Yeah, I'm in a GED program." I'm doing this, I'm doing that. Give them my whole spiel. Next thing you know they rush in and they handcuff me and they said, "You're going back to jail." I said, "Why?" They said, "For turning in three dirty urines of cocaine." I'm like, "What?" Then I realize, oh, I was handling it. I should have wore gloves. If I'd just would've wore gloves. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Should have taken those science classes or psychology or something of those physiology. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

They walk out to do the paperwork and I slipped the cuffs down and I stepped over the cuffs where the cuffs are not behind me anymore. They're in front of me. When the woman walked in, she said, "Are you ready to go to jail?" I said, "No, I'm not." 

I took off running. I'm in the fifth floor of a building. I'm running. I get to the stairwell. I mean hundreds of cops are running after me. I dive down the flight of stairs. I mean, I'm tumbling and rolling. This stuff you can only do when you're a teenager. I'm rolling down the stairs, getting up, running, running, running. 

I get out of the building and they're chasing me down this busy New York street. I run into the mall, I hid inside of a barbershop and I could hear the guys in the barbershop saying, "The cops are chasing this guy down in the mall." They must have thought somebody kept running. But I was literally to the side in a corner of a barbershop, while they're running all the way in the mall looking for me. 

One of the barbers worked it out where he got a metal cutter from a jewelry store, cut my cuffs, got me in a car and got me out of there. And so now I'm at my girlfriend's house, which is the worst place to go when you escape. I knew that, so I was packing up all my drugs, all my money. I'm like, "We've got to get out of here. We've got to get out of town. We've got to run." Because I knew they were closing in. 

This cab driver said, "I know somebody with a handcuff key that you can pay and they'll take the cuffs off." I said, "Fine. Bring them here." This guy walks in, pay him a $100. He takes the cuffs off. I don't know why I asked him. I said, "What do you do for a living?" He pulls out a badge, he says, "I'm a parole officer." 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Wow. You could have gotten taken in there. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Then from his eyes, I could see it was like a wake-up moment. He was like, "Wait, you're the guy everybody's looking for." I'm looking at him. Our eyes are saying it all. I'm like, "But you're illegal in my girlfriend's house." When he walked out that door, we ran out the back door. Five minutes later the cops came bum rushing my girlfriend's house, we were already gone. 

Then they did a perimeter where they surrounded the neighborhood and they were closing in on, they know the bad places to be and I was in one of those bad places. I told my girlfriend this. Now all listeners, listen. This is not my lifestyle, but this is a strategy I had to do. I said to my girlfriend, "I need three things." She said, "What?" I said, "I need a wig, I need a dress and I need some high heels." I was the tallest girl in New York for at least five hours. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Yeah, because you stand what, at six? 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

I'm 6'6". With those heels, listen, I got a lot of mercy on women. I don't know how y'all do it. Oh my gosh, but we got- 

Milyce Pipkin: 

They just thought you were a model. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

We got in the car and we rode by. They looked in at us and we drove by them. Then I got on the train and went to Winston-Salem, North Carolina and then I started to take over the drug market there. Yeah. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

You still hadn't had enough. You still went back to that dark world. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Well, once you're on the run you're- 

Milyce Pipkin: 

What else are you going to do? 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah, you're in it now. I had no other way to provide for myself because I'm illegal. I go down to Winston-Salem and in a matter of a year I dominated the drug market there. Got into a vicious drug war. About 30 of my friends were killed that hustled with me. 

By God's grace, my mother was going to a church, and she started putting my name in a prayer box and she started interceding for me and God really, really, really showed up. I don't know if you want me to just keep going or do you want to break a little bit? 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Well no, you're doing good. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Do you have any questions, anything? 

Milyce Pipkin: 

No, you're doing good. I know at this point of the story, I'm loving the fact that you have a praying mother because we know the power of prayer. Anything can be changed with that. And so from there, we'll finish up your testimony and then we'll have some questions about that. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

My mother was like an Easter churchgoer. But because of all the situation that was going on with me she said, I was the motivator for her to be a consistent- 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Kept her on her knees. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

...church woman. Yeah. I just want you as a listener, to just hear this part, which was really profound. But my mother had a strong sense that I was going to die and she was right. One guy shot a shotgun at me and I saw the slug hit the wall right next to my head. That's a miracle. 

She gathered my family together and she said, "I think he's going to die. I think he's going to be killed and we just have to prepare ourselves." Then she did, for lack of a better term, a Hail Mary prayer. Not praying to Mary but literally she just said, "God, I don't know what to do with him." She said, "You have to be his father. You have to be his mother. I'm giving my son to you." It's a beautiful, powerful prayer. Man, was that prayer not answered. 

When she did that prayer, these three women made a decision that they wanted to shut down the drugs in their community. My street name was Daylight. That's what I went by and I still direct on the Daylight Supreme but now as the light of the chosen one instead of just a cool street name. 

Three women, they walked up to my girlfriend. They said, "Do you think he'll let us pray for him?" She said, "Yeah, he's like going through a lot. I mean all his friends were killed. All this stuff." I was in a very, very dark place. 

How war room has got one woman, my story has three. They came to me and said, "Could we pray for you?" I said, "Why not? Sure." They walked me into this house, into this room. All I know is I walked in in the morning and I left out at night. They started praying for me. The power of God knocked me to the floor. 

The way Tim Keller's wife, who's a great Presbyterian woman, she said, "You are a prime candidate for deliverance." Because of all the darkness I was in. They were praying for me and they were praying for me and they were praying for me. Demonic forces were truly dominant in my life. It was like a full-on exorcism going on. I mean, I'm rolling around on the floor, I'm vomiting stuff out. 

My girlfriend had opened the door and she just screamed and slammed the door. I asked her years later, I said, "What did you see?" She said, "My neck was the size of a football." She said she never saw anything like it. These women just prayed and prayed and prayed and then it was like, boom, something happened and I felt something left out of me and I felt the peace of Christ all over me. 

These women knew immediately. They were like, "It's done. It's done." I know now what they were saying. They were saying, "We bind you in the name of Jesus. Come out." And oil. I know there was a lot of oil. Man, I walked out of there, I was greased up. Okay? They were slapping oil on me and praying for me. I remember they were on my head and on my back and I mean they went to war for my soul. 

God bless those women and deliverance today, if it don't happen at the end of service, all right, hey, we'll see you next week. No, they went in from the morning and stayed there in faith that Jesus was going to free me. They didn't give up and God showed up. 

I remember I got up. I had crack in my pocket, I threw it in the garbage. I walked outside and I just screamed towards heaven. I said, "Never again, Lord." I said, "Never again." I said, "I'll never sell crack again." I said, "I'm just going to sell weed because it's natural." That was my first prayer to God. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Wow. You didn't know any better. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

I didn't know any better. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

You will learn. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

I was going to a Baptist church called First Waughtown Baptist. While I was- 

Milyce Pipkin: 

I'm not going to sell crack, I'm just going to sell marijuana. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah, sell weed. Yeah. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Because this is natural and grows. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah. Crack was white. Weed looked like grass, lettuce. That's why a lot of people are deceived today by the marijuana. I start selling. I'm walking with a Bible and I'm selling pounds and pounds of marijuana. 

Other drug dealers, they always admired me. they was like, "How are you selling so much?" You know what I told them? I said, "It's Jesus man." I said, "He's blessing my business." I said, "Watch this. Every time I try to read a scripture, another customer will come." This is how confused I was. 

But the good part was, I was tithing that drug money to the church, so the church started screaming for a building fund. The pastor said, "Giving has tripled in this church." He was going nuts. I look back now and I'm like, "He was getting all my drug money, that's why." But the Bible says, "The wealth of the wicked is laid up for the righteous." We were doing that. 

Then this one woman challenged me and the youth pastor held a big meeting and broke down the scriptures. The word sorcery in Galatians 5:19-20. He went through those verses on sorcery is pharmakia where we get drugs from, and that's why I need to walk away from this. 

I gave it up. God spoke to me to come to New York, face my time for escape charge. It's an automatic seven years. I turned myself in. I went before the judge and she asked me why did I turn myself in? I said, "Because I'm a follower of Jesus." I said, "I'm going to follow him whether I'm in jail or out of jail, I'm following Jesus." 

She put me in a cell and then called me back out and she said, "I'm going to do something I've never done before." She said, "I'm going to tell you why." She said, "I'm going to pardon you. I'm going to release you." 

Milyce Pipkin: 

That's amazing grace right there. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

She said, "The reason I'm going to do that is because I'm afraid if I send you to jail, you'll become who you used to be and I love what I'm seeing right now." She let me go. I went got out, locked in with church, started following Jesus, but I still had this adventure side to me. 

I met my beautiful wife and she was looking online and she said, "You know what?" She said, "They need Bible smugglers in China." I said, oh my gosh, I get to use my gifts for Jesus? I'm an expert smuggler. I smuggle drugs, guns, you name it." Yeah. I was like, "I could do this for Jesus." 

I went to China. I'm smuggling Bibles to the persecuted church and then one day I got busted. When I got busted, I'm standing there and one of the soldiers pulled out the books and he said, "Whose books are these?" I said, "They're all mine." He said, "You read Mandarin? Do you read Cantonese?" I said, "No, but they're mine." 

He came over and he shoved me in the face with the book and all these officers ran towards me with sticks. I thought they were going to do Bruce Lee on me, man. I was like, "Jesus." I'm like, "He hit me. I didn't even respond." But they were all moving in close. Then one of them said, he said, "I have one question." He said, "How tall are you?" 

In New York sometimes we have this, it's a slick-mouth thing. We've always got to surrender it to Christ. I looked at him. I said, "I'm as tall as Michael Jordan." Then they started staring. They said, "Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan." They thought I was Michael Jordan, so I started shaking their hands. They were all smiling. I left the Bibles and just walked out. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

They want autographs. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah. I walked out of there and had no problem after that. I think I did one more smuggling trip from another border and then I said, "I'm done, man." I've got to go back to New York. God has been great and that's the bulk of the story in this quick time. Yeah. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Your story is simply amazing for so many reasons. I know anyone hearing it, like I said earlier, can see how the Lord was just running after you. And you could just see that resonated in how people were responding to you, the trouble you were getting into, how you were getting out of it. 

I just love your story of redemption too, how you've had a turnaround agenda. You've taken all of that and you use it now as a testimony of who you used to be to try to touch others. You would be amazed with how many pastors don't want to talk about drugs in their background. They want everybody to believe that they were always... 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah. I don't know what that's about. There's one part of the story, forgive me Lord, I didn't share. This was one of the biggest turning points. It was after I accepted Christ in the South and I stopped selling drugs, one of my friends set up a home invasion plan on me. 

There was a knock on my door and I stepped outside. I was smart enough to lock the door behind me because they would've probably came in, killed the people inside the house. I looked to the right. I saw a car was running with two guys with hoodies on, and my friend was on the bottom of the steps and his brother was just killed about a week or two before. 

I knew he was a little nutty and he was like, "Yo man, I need to talk to you. Come to the side of the house." This is not like TV where you can just take off running. I probably would've been shot in my back or whatever. 

I walked down. I'm walking to the side of the house, and when I got to the backyard, my enemy was back there. A dude that wanted to murder me was back there. All I could say, I was like, "God, you've got to get me through this." I was like, "God, you have to show up." And so he starts arguing with me, pulls out the gun, and when I saw a tear go down his eye, I knew he was about to kill me. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

He came to assassinate me. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah. He was like, "Yo man, forget this." When he pointed the gun towards my head, he pulled the trigger and you could hear the pin hit the bullet like, "Tink." He clicked it again and went, "Tink." And clicked it again and went, "Tink. Tink." 

By the power of God, no bullets came out of that gun. They knew I was a fighter, so they both took off running because their weapon didn't work. I stayed right in that backyard and I prayed the greatest prayer I ever prayed. I said, "Jesus, if you ever need someone, you can have me." I said, "Anything you want to-" 

Milyce Pipkin: 

I surrender all. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah. "Anything you want to accomplish, if you can't find somebody to do it, come to me. But please speak loudly, so that I know it's you and I'll go anywhere." That's what led to me going to China and it matched my mother's prayer too. When you think about it, she was like, "Lord, he's yours." Now here I am saying, "Lord, I'm yours." It was like the perfect combination of surrendering all. 

God took me all around the world. Smuggled Bibles in China. Preached in Kenya. Went to, oh my gosh, Sri Lanka, New Zealand. I mean all around the world now up to something like 30, 40 countries because different times God told me, "Go." 

I was at the Paris terrorist attack. We were leading hundreds of people in prayer there. Ministered at George Floyd to thousands of people. I brought my own sound equipment and while I was preaching, I had everybody on their knees. I'm talking like 8,000 people were on their knees and then they let loose the tear gas on us. 

I mean, this was a peaceful moment and you know what happened? All the big media turned their cameras away because they wanted to just catch the chaoticness because I don't get into politics. I'm like, "Yo, I'm here to minister Jesus." Because these were young people that were just like sheep without a shepherd. I said, "No." I said, "I'm here to minister Jesus. I'm here to help you. Y'all need healing. Setting the city on fire ain't going to do anything." I said, "Right now," I said, "let's get on our knees. Let's seek the face of Christ." 

When they got on their knees, you started hearing, "Boof. Boof. Boof. Boof." The tear gas just hit us all. That was one of those things where I'm like, "Man." That's why I'm glad I'm in film because the media is shady sometimes except for podcasts, but it gets very dark. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Which is interesting because you started off your story talking about how movies like Scarface and secular movies influenced you. Here you are now making religious movies to influence our culture to know and love God. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Right now the church of our generation is Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and the movie theaters. That's what people are learning how to interact and it's so sad. My daughter went to her prom. All the girls are lined up on one side. All the guys are lined up on the other side. 

Because of these movies and all the movies and I want y'all listeners just remember. This may ruin movies for you for a few years but it's going to be helpful. Watching every movie, the woman comes and asks to dance or a kiss, but in real life it doesn't happen that way. All the girls are sitting there like, "Why are the guys not coming?" the guys are sitting there saying, "From the movies, how come the girls are not coming?" It was the worst prom ever, and this is happening all over the country. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Well, we know how the world is, that it's always the opposite of the truth. It's always a lie. I mean, it's not a surprise to us, but maybe if you don't know the Lord maybe it's a surprise but we don't. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

It's so sad. In our movies, we are tackling these issues and doing it in dynamic ways. Yeah. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

I know that I keep going back to this about pastors. I just wonder, I'm hearing your story and I hear that you didn't allow fear to overcome your faith at that point. You continued to press for the Lord, even in your misgivings and not quite understanding until you got to a point where you did. 

I just want to talk a little bit before we lose out on time. You've gone on since and you did finish your degree and you did do those things that you said you were going, to do in your plan. Let's just go into that and then we'll teeter-totter back and forth. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

I think you hit it on the head. It was interesting. I was listening to something, a John MacArthur interview quite recently. One of the things that he said, and I realized this a long time ago is, "We cannot allow fear to have any area in our lives as Christians, none." 

A lot of Christians are not effective today because they want be in the book The Pilgrim's Progress. One of the areas he was supposed to avoid was civility. We want to be civil. We want to be liked. Now, I'm not saying be a jerk. I've seen that route too. I'm not saying do that, but we have to fully be Christian everywhere. 

Some leaders may not want people to know their backstory because they feel they may be judged or miss out on things, but I don't miss out on anything. I want to tell them, "Be who you are." I have a friend, he's a multimillionaire. He sold kilos of cocaine. He's like, "Y'all don't ever tell anyone about my story." I'm like, "People would be freed and delivered by your story. That now you're a gigantic tycoon, but people would love to know what you were in your younger years." 

But a lot of them, it really takes a reliance on Christ to say, "My success is not in anyone's hands but God." Nobody can take something from you. You can delay me, but you can't stop me and I've seen that. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

I always liken it to a freight train coming. It's a freight train coming when God's got it for you. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah. The world sometimes purposely delays things in my life or things in other believers' lives. They think they can delay, but they can't stop it because we have no quit and we have a father that does miracles. I've had people tell me, "I don't even know how I let your movie get in. I don't even know, what was I doing?" 

I said, "You know what? One of my big prayers is, 'Lord blind them from who I am, so that my stuff gets through the door. Blind them. Let them not see me.'" Start walking very humbly on humility and just, "Hey man, I just put this little movie together. I don't know if it's good or not." 

They see it, they're like, "Dude, this is amazing." I knew it was good, but I go in there and they're like, "I can't find one thing wrong with it." Because I do my movies unto the Lord. I'm not with the Christian, corny-movie circuit. I love my brothers, but we've got to do a much better job. I'm an award winner. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

congratulations. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

I think that's the challenge here as we go forth with this podcast, putting it forth. Not only is it a wonderful testimony of what we're talking about. How you in your testimony went from dealing dope to preaching hope. But it's also saying to us that God is working through anyone who is willing to be a vessel. He is using your testimony. 

As the Psalm says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." Don't be afraid of your testimony of who you were because it's not who you are. God has specifically designed a purpose and a plan for you in your life. I'm grateful that you're stepping into that, and being a voice for those who are not willing to speak up and speak out about their past and who they were. 

What are the challenges that you see before us today? You do a lot of speaking engagements. I've actually had the opportunity to hear you go and speak to some the organizations. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

I'm looking forward to speaking at this chapel here one day, Dallas Theological Seminary. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Well, we'll see. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Mr. President. Nah. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

If the Lord says so. Oh, if the Lord is willing. What are some of the challenges that you see even set forth now as you go forth and go to different places and do what you do? 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah. One of the biggest challenges is church unity. A lot of people are not willing to work together. I'll say it like this. In Los Angeles, how Los Angeles goes is how film goes in a lot of television. In New York, how New York goes is how a lot of secular music as well as the media, all the talk shows and news and all those else, they control it there. 

With Christianity, how Dallas goes really impacts the church. Dallas probably funds more ministry around the world than probably any other city. It is really critical that the church in Dallas stays vibrant and strong in passing this same faith and values to the next generation. Otherwise, it will hurt Jesus's bride big time. 

That's why unity is really, really key. We have to not compete against one another or let a lot of pride come in where, oh, it's this meeting going on. Well, who's going to be there? It's not that guy with 40,000 and I got 10,000. Unless he personally calls me, I'm not going and all this kind of stuff. It is deplorable to Christ. It's deplorable. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Right. I love how your testimony speaks even to our youth, who could be wayward in going down some of these areas that you went into. What would you happen to say to parents who have children, who are in some of these spaces and places? Your mother prayed for you. What can you lend in love and in a message? 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

I would say when it comes to parenting and you're parenting from 1 to 18 or 19, depending on we still have some 19 year olds that are kids, be very wise and be willing to relocate. Because sometimes our kids get caught up in a group that they don't have the strength to break out of. 

You can't be in love with your house. You can't be in love with your apartment. You can't be in love with your property. Sometimes you would have to move to save your kids. One of the things since I became a Christian, I have never hung in my old neighborhood again, not even a day. Not even a- 

Milyce Pipkin: 

You don't go back. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

No, I don't go back. Most people feel like, "I've got to go back. I've got to see how my man's doing and my friend's doing." And this and that. No. I meet a lot of people who I hear their lives were in the dark and now it's shining in the light. 

One of the common denominators is like, "Yeah, I was running with my cousins. They were controlling the neighborhood. Then my mother said we're moving to so-and-so and we moved. She got me out of there." But the ones that stay, most of their stories are not victory stories. Very few and small between. It's possible. 

Then I would encourage them to do like my mother. I mean, I give people to Jesus sometimes like scriptures. I think it's 1 Corinthians 5, somewhere around there, where you can give some people to Satan. I'm a little scared to do that. I don't know. It just doesn't sit with me here, go to Satan. I say, "God, I'm giving this person to you because you know how to reach them. You know how to connect with them." And be confident that God will really, really answer the prayer. 

Then lastly, I'm probably hitting this four times because sometimes it says you have to say something seven times for people. Remember, it is as believers we cannot be in fear. Can't be in fear of any group that doesn't believe like us, any group that comes against us. 

We have to be bold witnesses for Christ everywhere, and then let our love so shine. I mean, I'm on the set with celebrities, I mean big celebrities. They cursed. They're crazy. They're wild. I've been cursed out on sets. I mean, I wish I could say their names but I've been cursed out by big celebrities. 

You know what I do when they curse me out? I take two steps back and I say, "Okay, I'm sorry. All right. All right, let's get back to work. Now we need to do this. We need to do that. We need to do that." I had some, they're like, "Where's this guy from?" On my set they said, "I just feel protected." 

I had one supermodel who's in my movie, and she came to me and she said, "This is the first time a director's never hit on me." She said, "I came here knowing that you were going to hit on me." I said, "Oh, they say he's a pastor." Yeah, pastor, sure. He's going to be trying to move up on me. She said, "This is the first time I left the set where you were just incredible." When the righteous are in power, all the people rejoice, and so let's be righteous. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Amen. Amen. Well, Dimas, in closing here, I'm hoping that people saw what I saw when I first heard your testimony. I'm hoping that people hear the man of God you are. I hope that they see that and I hope that you continue the work that you're doing and that it's just bigger and better for the Lord. I know you've got a number of projects coming down the pipe. Can you just give us some quick insights into what we can expect to see maybe next? 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah. My big film coming up next is Berkowitz, The Son of Sam. That's going to be a mammoth of a movie. He's a good friend of mine. I've been visiting him for about six months. He's been a Christian for 30 years now, and that is by far the biggest film I've ever done. I think it's the greatest redemption story outside of the Bible that we have ever heard. And so get ready for that. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

Okay. Good stuff. Good stuff. Then the other thing, I know that I mentioned this but you did go on to get a doctorate? 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

No. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

You're working on it. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

I have a Master's of Divinity. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

A master's. You did go get your master's. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Yeah. I have a master Master's of Divinity. Yeah. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

My point is, is that you did complete the work that was set out before you with your education, so you took that serious. 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Absolutely. It took me 10 years but you've got to tough it out. You don't quit. It took me 10 years because I paid ninety-eight percent out of my pocket. When I had money I paid. I went to class. 

When I didn't have money, I didn't take loans. I got more money. I paid. I went to my classes. I fought. I scrapped. I paid. I went to my classes. I don't recommend that for everybody. That was my journey but I left with very little. I took one loan at the last semester though. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

That's encouraging for our youth as well, anyone who hears your story. Although you're an older, seasoned wisdomatic man of God now, that we're looking at now. Closing comment right quick from you? 

Dimas Salaberrios: 

Hey, honored to be here. Live out this legacy of Dallas Theological Seminary. Represent Christ well and follow your dreams, your passions, your desires. Let no one put a blanket over your plans. 

Most people's plans for us are smaller than the plans we have for ourselves. So we have to know what God has called us to do and do it fully with all of our passion, with all of our might. Fast, pray. Seek God when you have obstacles and watch him show up and open doors. 

Milyce Pipkin: 

I love it a lot because we see that with you. Thank you so much for being here. Once again, Dimas Salaberrios coming in to Dallas Theological Seminary here on The Table talking to us. Our topic today was how he went from dealing dope to preaching hope. I'm hoping, Lord, that he just continues to shine his light upon you and that you just continue to do great things for His glory. 

Thank you for being here and thank you for joining us as always. Until the next time, be blessed. We'll see you later.