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, Hurst 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 Hurst’s life would completely change.
“When I was 12 years old, I was in a bad hunting accident … I shot myself in the left leg,” he said. “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.
Addiction
While at the hospital, Hurst 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,” he said.
“At 12 years old I was introduced to drugs before I even knew what drugs really were,” he noted. “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, Hurst’s doctors refused to give him any more morphine, and 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,” he said. “By 15, I was introduced to meth, which quickly became my drug of choice. And by 17 I had dropped out of high school.”
Prison
Hurst began breaking the law to get meth and alcohol.
On his 18th birthday, he was arrested for forgery and the possession of illegal drugs.
“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,” he said.
Hurst 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,” he said. “Ten of those years I spent in prison and 10 of those years I spent using drugs.”
Change in direction
It wasn’t until his fifth prison sentence at the age of 35 that Hurst’s life would completely change.
“At the beginning of my fifth sentence, I remember hearing calls for a Bible study in the prison,” he said. “I only started going because the guy in the cell with me was loud and obnoxious. When I started going, they were studying Acts 2.”
Hurst explained that while going to the Bible study, the pastor who taught the lessons, was faithful to share the gospel at each meeting.
“By the time we got to Acts 16, the part about the Philippian jailor, I started asking him all these questions about faith and repentance,” he said. “Pastor Herb was patient with me and took me to Scripture to show me the gospel.”
It was during this conversation in 2015 that Hurst decided to follow Christ as Lord and Savior.
“I knew at that point that I was saved and that I couldn’t just go back to the streets and do the same things I was doing with my life,” Hurst noted. “Because of that, I reached out to a friend who worked at a rescue mission in Columbus, Nebraska. I was able to go there instead of heading back to prison.”
Building a solid foundation
Hurst spent a year at the mission where he gained a good Christian foundation and was taught how to be a man.
“They taught me how to go work, pay my bills and just do things that I had never done before because I was always living off of everyone else,” he said.
Once Hurst graduated from the mission in late 2016, he decided to pursue counseling to help those also suffering from drug and alcohol abuse.
However, Hurst explained how the Lord made it clear that he wasn’t supposed to pursue counseling but rather ministry, specifically theological education. The only question was: where?
During this time, Hurst met his future wife, Ruth.
“I was a member of First Baptist Church, Columbus, and our church had just agreed to support her as a missionary to South Africa,” he said. “I first met her when she came to ask for support from the church. I remember thinking, here’s a single Christian woman, but she’s totally out of my league.”
After a couple of months of talking back and forth, Hurst and Ruth decided to date, all while she was in South Africa as a missionary, and Hurst was in the Midwest. Once Ruth came back to the U.S., they were married in 2019.
They currently Ruth and Hurst have three children under three.
Equipping for ministry
After they got married, the Hursts decided to go to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary so he could be better equipped for ministry.
“We came here so we could learn more about the Bible and what faithful Christian ministry looks like,” he said.
“I’m currently an accelerate student, which means I’m studying to get both my undergraduate degree as well as my M.Div. in five years. Lord willing, I should graduate next May.”
After graduation, the couple plan to move to southern Alaska to pursue pastoral ministry.
“We believe that because of Ruth’s training in South Africa and my lifestyle before I became a Christian, the Lord has prepared us for ministry in hard places,” he said. “We decided we wanted to stay in the States, but we still want to go to a place that would challenge us mentally and physically.”
Hurst explained that it wasn’t until they saw an advertisement for a pastoral internship in Alaska that they started to seriously consider moving to America’s last frontier.
“Ruth and I prayed a lot about it. And once we confidently felt that this is where the Lord is leading us, I began the application. A couple of months ago we found out I was accepted.”
Currently, the Hursts are focused on their children, their church, school, and moving to Alaska. “We’re excited about the future but are grateful for the present.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Ryan Biller and originally published by The Pathway, newsjournal of the Missouri Baptist Convention.
