Published by I was born in Baltimore, Maryland to a very good family! My parents divorced when I was 4 and my mother raised me by herself for a few years, which I am sure was a hard job. Later, she found Max, who eventually became my stepfather. We spent a lot of time together playing sports as I was growing up and I also got to see my dad at the same time. I was raised Catholic and from grade 6, I attended a Catholic school. When I began high school, that is where my life began to turn in a very bad way.
When I was a freshman in high school, I was introduced to the “gateway” drug nicotine. That led into alcohol, pills, LSD, marijuana, cocaine, and finally heroin. It was heroin that became my nightmare that I wanted to end but I didn’t know how to defeat it. I was stealing over $180/day in products, of which I made $80 to sell to a grocer that turned around and sold those items for double what she paid me and with that money, I was supporting my habit. Eventually I was up to $140/day in Heroin just to feel normal and not have to deal with withdrawals, which consisted of back pain, sickness that felt like death, sleepless nights, and nervousness. I would go into many stores and steal daily until stores started catching me and pressing charges. I found myself facing 7 different judges for 7 different theft charges. My mom found a lawyer that agreed to represent me for little to nothing and he got me off all 7 charges with probation if I agreed to go into a rehab program. I did go into a rehab program and relapsed very shortly thereafter. I violated my probation and found myself in front of the same judges, this time receiving a total of 39 months in jail. This is the good part of the story!
The first Saturday that I was locked up, a guard came through announcing church services. I was so happy because I thought we would leave jail and go out in public to church and see women and maybe eat a meal and to my amazement, we went down the hall and into a room reserved for church, which didn’t fulfill my dreams so I thought. During the service, the preacher preached and told us about Heaven and Hell and that day, I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I served the rest of my time in jail a Christian and after I got out, I lived the life that most of my fellow inmate friends said was a jailhouse relationship. I am now a missionary serving God in Thailand and thank God every day for His grace. My life is a miracle because of Him!
