 CORNWALL SURRENDERS ALL TO JESUS
On March 13th 1979, he left his young wife – eight months pregnant – in order to go into True Blue to make the Revolution. Four years later, he was a member of a heinous group that cold bloodedly murdered the Leader of the Revolution and scores of other Grenadians in a battle for control of this island.
An invasion by troops of the United States Armed Forces on October 25th, 1983, brought an end to the reign of the short-lived monster group that called itself the Revolutionary Military Council (RMC). Leon “Bogo’’ Cornwall was arrested with sixteen others, tried, convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. However, that sentence – much to the dismay of the Grenadian people – was later commuted to life in prison.
During his twenty-six year prison experience, many things changed for Leon Cornwall. The once professed Atheist made a most dramatic turnaround. He became a Christian believer, accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour, and began following the God that he once doubted.
Now out of prison, he remains a devout follower of God. He no longer doubts the power of the True and Living God but is a messenger of the same Christ that he formerly dismissed as having little relevance to man’s earthly existence. He crisscrosses the country telling others of the relationship that he fostered on the Richmond Hill Prison Road, where he met Christ who is now his Lord and Master.
Leon Cornwall spent his formative boyhood days growing up in the little village of La Borie in St. George’s. He had what all will regard as the normal life of all little boys of his era. He lived under the strict instructions of his parents and attended the Methodist church, where he learnt about the love and mercy of God. But with the coming of the Revolution, he allowed himself to be swayed by those who had no love for God.
Today, Cornwall is a transformed man. On Sunday 22nd November 2009, he made an appearance at the Open Bible Church in Springs, St. George’s. He testified to the goodness of God and gave thanks to the Pastor and those members of the church who visited him in prison to share the word of God. The former self-professed Atheist, in a testimony laden with remorse and riddled with repentance, begged the people of Grenada for forgiveness. His tone would have compelled even the most hateful among us to consider his plea.
“We are deeply sorry for the pain, the sorrow, the loss, the chaos, the confusion that we brought to this land through our impulsive, thoughtless actions,” the former RMC official preached at the Open Bible Church. “We can only ask your forgiveness. We cannot demand it because forgiveness can only come from a heart that is touched by the grace of God and, as such, could never ever be demanded.”
Cornwall has turned from his wicked ways; he has acknowledged that he had sinned against God and this nation. In ways resembling that of the Prodigal Son of the Holy Bible, he has awoken to the fact that he had strayed from God’s call and had made some bad decisions.
Cornwall admitted, “I journeyed into a far country. I keep saying that and I’ve not told you the far country to which I journeyed. Although I grew up in the Methodist church, I left my Father’s house and I journeyed into the far country of Atheism. Yes, Atheism! That was the land in which I found myself. And like the Prodigal Son, there I wasted my substance. Atheism was the disorienting problem in my life. It was the problem of the Revolution since that was its underlying philosophy. How did we reach there?”
As he examines his life in retrospect, the major in the People’s Revolutionary Army (PRA) believes that he landed himself in difficulty only as a result of his turning away from God. He says because he turned away from the Lord, he was void of spiritual wisdom. This left him in deep trouble, unable to make sound spiritual decisions when they truly mattered and were sorely needed.
 CORNWALL (CENTER) FLANKED BY PASTOR ROYSTON GILBERT AND BROTHER OLIVER PATRICK; TWO OF THE MEN THAT WORKED WITH HIM SPIRITUALLY WHILST IN PRISON
The 1979 – 1983 Revolution gave men and women power, with the gun as the source of that power. Many were accountable only unto themselves and few dared question the doings of the leaders of the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG). It was hailed as “the glorious revolution,” for indeed it brought glory to a selected few.
For many of the players, the Revolution was a god. It was their god. Cornwall, the boy who grew up in the Methodist church, was overwhelmed by the sheer scope of the power that he had and became a devil worshipper. He has come to this conclusion, he told an almost full auditorium at the Open Bible Church, now that he has seen the light.
Every member of the congregation was engrossed by the startling testimony of Cornwall. Lights appeared to have been turned on when they heard from Cornwall the previous unheard of words that, “For all intents and purpose, in a functional sense, the Revolution had replaced God. Indeed, in a theological sense, it had become my god. It was idolatry – and you know what the Bible says about idols. In one form or another, idols end up destroying their worshippers.”
In a true sense, the overwhelming scope and size of the Revolution were too much for its creators; and in the end, the thing that was used to sin was in itself a sin for Cornwall and the PRG big boys.
The death of Maurice Bishop, the Prime Minister and the people’s leader, brought an end to the Revolution; an abrupt demise to the glory days for Cornwall and his big friends. They were now outcasts. They wasted their opportunity and all those who rallied behind them were mad, vex like hell, and left them out to dry.
The mighty lords and masters of the “glorious revolution” were humbled. Their pride shaken and their dignity crushed, they now were merely lowly criminals, essentially the dream killers of what should have been a great achievement for the Grenadian people.
The former mighty and fearless Revolutionaries who, in their heydays had beckoned the world’s leading superpower to as much as try to invade our country, had nowhere to run. They had no guns and no power and were quaking in their boots as the hangman prepared the gallows for their execution, prior to the commuting of their sentences to life imprisonment.
With the hangman’s noose echoing with every tryout of the gallows, all sixteen condemned men and one woman needed a redeemer, someone who could save them from their sins. While others looked elsewhere, Leon Cornwall, Methodist follower in his youth, turned to the saviour of the world for help. God did not disappoint. He responded saved Cornwall. He transformed him. He delivered him from the hands of the hangman. He preserved his soul. Today, Cornwall has one story to tell and that is about the greatness of God.
On September 5th 2009, Cornwall and six others were released from Her Majesty Prison at Richmond Hill. They were the last batch of the infamous “Grenada Seventeen” to obtain their freedom after serving twenty six years in jail. They were punished for causing the death of the Grenada Revolution and, with it, the lives of former Prime Minister Bishop, some of his Cabinet colleagues and scores of patriotic Grenadians. They gave their lives for the nation and not from invading forces, but from an enemy that existed within the country.
Why did Leon Cornwall, who grew up in the church and had been a local preacher there, end up in prison? Why was he condemned at first to death and later condemned to spend the rest of his life in jail? Why? How did he reach that position? What about him that had led him to this? SEE FULL TESTIMONEY HERE
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