I grew up in a good home, going to church. I was a really good kid, smart, determined with excellent grades. I experienced sexual abuse at the age of 7 and that opened the door to the enemy. I believe that was the root of most of my bondage and identity issues. I went into high school and developed severe bulimia. With secular therapy and support, I overcame that for a short time before I met the nightmare of substance addiction.
I broke up with my well behaved boyfriend, and started to spend more time with the party crowd. I asked them to show me how to get high. I became a regular marijuana user, on top of my binge drinking at parties. All of this continued and soon I was introduced to prescription amphetamines. The addiction to those pills started slowly. They made me feel like superwoman. Over time, I went from using the pills to stay up and study, to using them just to get up and do everyday things. I started to steal from others in my college community that had the same pills. I started to lie. I would tell myself that I would not use them the next day, and then tomorrow would come and I would be looking for pills, yet again.
I struggled to give up my obsession with escape. I would stop using pills, start a secular rehab, but continue to abuse alcohol to the point where I was drinking every night. I found myself so lost in pills, drinking and late nights with men, and I had lost every opportunity I had been given because I was a slave to drinking, drugs, and hurting myself.
I entered Grace House Adult & Teen Challenge in October of 2015. This was very different than anything I had experienced before. I was done living the way I was and I did not know anything about Jesus. I just knew I could not keep living the way I was living. I was going to die if I was lucky, continue on my path of misery, or go to jail and maybe not get let out for a long time. Those were the directions my life was going.
Adult & Teen Challenge gave me a safe place to heal, take baby steps with the idea of God, and have time for my family to be restored. I got things back slowly, along with some confidence. I fought the idea of God for a long time, but the staff kept praying for me. Eventually I got plugged into a good local church and realized what I was taught about Jesus was really true. He really did love me, and it was a radical love. I got water baptized and baptized in the Holy Spirit. I believe I experienced what was a supernatural move of God and transformed right before my own eyes. I am thankful that Adult & Teen Challenge taught me the word of God, obedience to God, how to worship, and the true life changing power of the Holy Spirit. I have now been clean and sober for over 4 years. I was able to graduate college from a 4 year university. I didn’t get my life back, I got a brand new life.
John 8:36 “So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
