Delivered from Drug Addict, To Jesus.
I
want to give Jesus Christ all the honor and glory for the salvation of my soul
and the forgiveness of all my sins. In 1982 I met and married my high school
sweetheart after basic training and technical school. My mother was a Christian
and a member of what I thought at that time to be a radical Christian church
called Victory Temple, 70 percent made up of "transformed drug
addicts".
Pastor
Freddie Garcia married us and laid hands on us. Never been to church you'll
guess I was extremely uncomfortable. Once we were married and off to our first
military assignment we never had anything to do with church after that. Life was
in the fast lane and after a four year tour
I got out of the military and landed a job as a manager in the restaurant
of the Hyatt hotel in San Antonio Texas. We were home and things couldn’t be
going better for me.
Life
got even faster and after 10 and a half years of my alway's working going out,
and just out right selfish lifestyle of neglecting my wife and precious 3
children, on three different occasions we were
separated for a month or two, but finally she divorced me and took the children.
I really did loved them but in my selfishness I didn't ever express it. My
parents were divorced when I was 6 years old.
My mother endured a 16-year marriage to an alcoholic. Enough said. I always told
myself I would never be like my Dad but I realized I had turned out just like
him.
Crushed by the loss of my family I immersed myself in drugs and self pity and
life got ever faster. A year and a half later and several jobs later I was
HOPELESSLY hooked on a Cocaine, pot, alcohol
and cigarettes. Of course I had tried to overdose several times to no avail. I
had pretty much ruined every relationship in my life and felt I had no one to
turn to.
I
felt my ex-wife had been the only real friend I had ever had. Even though of
course I had blamed her for all that had gone wrong and I had very bitter
feelings toward her to the point of hatred, I called her and told her I felt I
would be either dead or in jail as I was taking more risks just trying to get a
fix. She agreed to meet with me and she told me to try outpatient hospitals of
which by then had already been through Charter Real, but no to avail.
She then told me "there's always the Victory Home". It was a Pastor
Freddie's home that he opened up for drug addicts that came for help. There he
fed them Jesus in the morning, noontime, nighttime,
and I knew about it though my mother who tried to witness to me throughout the
years. I agreed to go but 2 weeks later I hadn't gone and things were really
getting worse. My ex-wife came over one
morning and said I'm taking you whether you like it or not, I went reluctantly,
there they prayed for me as well as led me to the Lord, they told me that Jesus
could change my life and that he loved
me
enough to die for me. He too was a former drug addict and had lost it all, it
wasn't until he turned to Jesus that God changed him.
If he could do it for him then he could do it for me too. I broke on the 3rd day
and gave my life to Jesus. I told him, "I'm tired of the life I had been
living and wanted to change, I made a mess of my
life and he would come into my life and could do something with it I would give
my life to him. He did. I did. At that very moment my mind was set free from the
constant need for drugs, bitterness
Was gone, I felt clean and I no longer hated my wife or anyone .Instead I began
to pray for her, they took me to church and I no longer felt uncomfortable.
Since then It's been 4 and a half years of
freedom from sin in Jesus.
Months later my ex- wife began going to church, she too gave her life to Jesus,
3 months later we were remarried at the church, I have been serving my Lord in
the children's church 4 years now, reaching the 3-12 boys with the message of
the gospel before Satan can do to them the way he had his way with me. My wife
has been working with the 6-8 girls in the missioners program for 4 years also
reaching them for Christ. My oldest son who is 14 years old now has been with
me as a helper in the children's church and is a A & B student at school in
all accelerated courses scheduled to graduate a year early to pursue his career
as a MD. My two daughter's 10 and 6 years
old, are active in dramas, mimes, and missioner activities all for Jesus. My
mother and sister are faithfully attending Victory Temple. My father has since
to given his life to Jesus and is faithfully
attending Trinity Baptist Church with Pastor Buckner Fanning. My brother Jose in
Wash. st, is also a Christian as well as my sister Terri in Kansas. I have one
brother who is yet to come to a better life in
Christ.
Now you might see why I have to tell all who will listen what a work God has
done in my life, for this I want to always give all the honor and glory to the
Lord of my life and the saver of my soul, the
forgiver of all my sins, Jesus Christ. With his beautiful Holy Spirit leading
and guiding me he has done such a wonderful work in my marriage. A and its only
getting better and better, not a bed of roses,
just better and better.
