Daniel

My name is Daniel and for 18 years of my life I was addicted to drugs and alcohol. Throughout my entire battle with substance abuse I tried to get clean. I followed all the suggestions of the world in how to accomplish this; Rehabs, Psychiatric institutions, AA/NA programs, Sober living houses etc. None of these were able to gain me any significant time sober. The medical physicians diagnosed me with a slew of conditions including Bipolar, PTSD, Manic Depression and prescribed me with all types of medication that were supposed to cure my problems. In 2014 the police found me standing on the edge of a bridge with a chain wrapped around my waist in hopes of drowning myself. I had lost the will to live and wanted to escape this world, but God had another plan for my life. A few years after my addiction had brought me to homeless and begging on the street. I started shooting heroin, which I had always promised myself I would never do. I come from a broken family that was never very close and at this point I had nowhere to turn. It was on by the Grace of God that I heard of a Christian Discipleship Program called “Shall Never Thirst”. I wasn’t sure about God at the time but something inside me was pulling towards finding out. After about the 3 months in the program I decided to leave with another young man in the ministry. His name was Matthew, we thought we could find our own way out of the wreckage we had created. It wasn’t long before the two of us started using again and through different circumstances we drifted apart. A few months later I found out that Matthew had overdosed and died. I see now that God was speaking to me through this tragic event because at Matthews funeral, I reconnected with my pastor Chuck Miller. I had finally reached a point of surrender in my life and knew that if I didn’t get off that path it would certainly lead to my death. I could go on and on about stories of where my addiction has taken me and what a mess I made of my life and the people I hurt along the way. But what I really want to tell whoever is reading this is that Jesus Christ saved my life. He is real and came into this world to give Himself as a ransom for our sins. If you truly seek Him with an open-mind and open heart, if you search for Him, I am here today to tell you that you will find Him, and nothing is more important. God has taken my broken life and turned it completely around, His grace took me to Shall Never Thirst Ministry and the ministry pointed me towards the Cross. I now have over a year of continuous sobriety and more importantly I have a relationship with The Lord.