I was raised mostly by my grandparents as my Dad and mom struggled with alcoholism and drugs. My Grandparents told me about God but I didn’t listen. Instead of making the right choices to fulfill my athletic dreams, by the age of 12 I was smoking pot and drinking which got me an overnight stay in juvenile when I was 16.

At that time, I met my future wife and bad choices again found us having a child before we got married. We moved in together and I began working in the oilfield. I thought I had begun to make good choices finally but I left God out of them. Eventually I ended up using and selling meth. Worked all day, sold drugs at night, another child… all while trying to find happiness and success. Not surprisingly, I lost my job and my family then ended up camped out a dope house. My uncle loved me enough to drag me out of there.

He took me to my first Grace In The Trenches event where I heard testimonies of God cleaning up lives just like mine. That night I repented of my sins, placed my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior and surrended my life to God. God restored my marriage and family! It doesn’t always work out that way but praise God, it did for us. We began to serve in our local church and went on some short term mission trips. I was finally letting God direct my choices and He blessed my life and my family.

Even though I was saved I was still struggled with sin and pride like we all do. A love for the things of this world and a perceived offense at church once again had me returning to running my own life instead of God. After a while I realized apart from God life did not have purpose and significance. God in His mercy drew me back to Him and I began living out my Christian faith. Over the last few years God helped me see all the barriers in my life that was keeping me from Him and over time I’ve given up more and more of them. I realize now, it’s all or nothing, God wants all of you, not part.

God knew the plans He had for me, and the works which He had prepared just for me before the foundation of the world. Today I choose Christ, and God is the first priority in my choices. Grace In The Trenches is where I discovered Jesus and I hope my story of redemption will lead others to Him.

The years of my life that I spent in the bottomless dark abyss can be summarized as a life of “out of control sef-will”. In pursuits of my own desires and goals, I became a drug addict, a convicted felon, and a plague on all those around me. My moment of clarity can only be described as a real life miracle. Through my growth in faith, I became more and more aware of the fact that by focusing and dedicating myself to the success of others, I could experience a peace that in the past I could never have dreamed of attaining.

In the past my prayers were typical of all desparation prayers: “God if you will only get me out of this situation I will…”. Now my prayers sound like, “Thank you, thank you, thank you God”. If only I had realized at a younger age that by giving up on my self centeredness, I could experience this freedom, I would have changed my ways much earlier but everything happened for me when it did, and how it did, to bring me to a spot in my life where I could better help the next person stuck in the same darkness. If just one single person can benefit from my experience, then all of my struggles and trials can be justified.

I loved the time I got to spend with my Dad: especially the time we spent fishing. One weekend, for a reason I don’t remember, he went fishing without us. My brothers and I finally won over my Mom’s heart and convinced her to take us to the place Dad was fishing.

I remember the sound of the crash impact and flying through a small glass window. The next thing I knew, I was sitting in the back of a police cruiser and three of my brothers were dead. By some miracle, my life was spared.

Years later, my Dad passed away. I missed him so much that I prayed to a God I didn’t know, to take me to the place I couldn’t go, to see my Dad again. We Christians all know the comfort to be received from knowing Jesus has our loved ones wrapped up in the comfort of His arms in a place called heaven.

What I had completely failed to understand is that at that point in my life, I hadn’t repented of my sin and placed my faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. I was still stumbling around chasing the promises of the world: finding them empty, but still chasing. The last of the world’s promises I chased was methamphetamine. Biggest lie I ever bought. Once that devil drug got hold of me, it became my life’s total focus.

Eventually me and my family lost everything we had accumulated in this world: our house, our “prized” possessions, our jobs, financial security, our family photos, everything. My wife Abby and I along with our two kids and our dog were living out of a single cab pickup truck, deep in the throes of Oklahoma winter. Occasionally, a friend or acquaintance would show us mercy by letting us park overnight in their barn. Even with the shelter from the wind, we endured some brutally cold nights. The world was definitely not delivering anything we thought it promised. Then we met Jesus.

We met him through a childhood friend. He invited us to an outreach ministry event where we heard stories of redemption through Jesus Christ told by real people who had found a way out of the despair we found ourselves in. Their story was so compelling, and we needed help so desperately, that we took the plunge and went all in. The next Sunday we were at Church and all four of us were baptized. That was the point our lives changed forever. Placing your faith in Jesus doesn’t magically and instantly fix all your bad choices and remove the consequences, but it makes restoring your life possible once your world view is transformed into an eternal view.

I found a job. We rented a house. We joined the Church and best news, ever, Abby and I became a part of the outreach ministry, Grace in the Trenches, which had pointed the way toward turning our lives around. We traveled the state and parts of the US bringing the message of salvation and redemption to Alcohol/Drug recovery programs, Homeless shelters, orphanages and Churches.

I discovered quickly that immediately after Christ offers His forgiveness and acceptance of all of those things you thought you could never be forgiven for, you have an insatiable desire to serve Him by obediently bringing His message to others. Never saw that coming but ever since then, I’ve always been ready to give testimony to His glorious saving power to anyone who would listen.

Thank you, Jesus. You are our everything. I finally know the God who saves and had my place in heaven given to me through His amazing grace.