From The Gutter-most To The Utter-most

As a fatherless youth growing up in the Wareika Hills area of Kingston Jamaica, Vivian Talbot naturally gravitated toward the radical teachings of gang leaders against society. Consequently, by age thirteen, Vivian had dropped out of school and become a full time criminal. His aggressiveness and fearlessness became legendary and by age 22, Vivian had built a reputation for himself as one of the most wanted criminals in Jamaica. The law eventually caught up with him and he was sentenced to serve a double life sentence without the possibility of parole. While serving his sentence in the reputed Gun Court, he had a supernatural encounter with Jesus Christ and was born again. After learning how to read and write, he started a school and drama club in prison which impacted the lives of many inmates, and was later given permission to attend the College of Art, Science and Technology, returning to his prison cell each night. After seven years in prison, Vivian was granted a very rare, unconditional pardon from the Governor General. After his release, he continued his education at the Kansas State University and received degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Network Systems, after which he lived in the United States for nine years, working in various fields such as manufacturing and industrial technology.Currently, he resides in Jamaica and has dedicated himself to counselling troubled youth, working in 32 inner-city vocational, primary and high schools across the island. His work consists of establishing mentoring programs, one-on-one, and group counselling. He finds time in his busy schedule to be a family and parent counsellor and does motivational speaking for the business community. He is a well sought after speaker at churches, crusades, and street meetings and is a full-time minister with the Maranatha Christian Ministries International, under the leadershipof Pastor Robert "Bobby" McIntosh.Vivian does all this work without receiving a salary, and depends on the favor of God and the generosity of others to keep his ministry going. His desire is to have a greater presence in the schools across Jamaica, thus stemming the tide of violence and gang activity which threatens to destabilize this God blessed country.