I grew up in a very dysfunctional home. I am 31 years old and have never met my real father. At home, alcohol and drug abuse was considered “normal.” On the other hand, anything to do with Christianity was foreign, except for the picture of “The Lord’s Supper” that hung on our wall. It was no surprise that I began experimenting with drugs and alcohol at age 13. I used all types of drugs; everything from marijuana to prescription pain killers….until someone along my path led me to a drug known as methamphetamine. Meth instantly became my master. I became a monster, an IV meth addict. I gave up on everyone and everything that I loved - my home, my marriage, my children, and my family. The drug consumed my mind, my world. To support my habit I began to manufacture meth.
November 2013, my world as I knew it came crashing down. I was arrested for manufacturing methamphetamine, along with numerous other charges. That night, in that cold jail cell, I knew I had allowed that drug to take away from me the one thing I had left…my freedom. I had a chance to sober up in jail while facing my legal charges in the courtroom, and without the drug racing through my veins I could FEEL for the first time in years. I felt lonely, ashamed, scared, HOPELESS and HELPLESS. I hit my knees in that cell and I cried out to God. After confessing my sins, and asking Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior, I got up off my knees and I did not feel as lonely or scared anymore.
I began to go to church services there in the jail and met a lady volunteer that first told me about the ministry of Teen Challenge. When we took the option to the courts I was refused immediately. Within a couple of weeks I was sentenced to 23 years in the state penitentiary and shipped to prison to begin serving my sentence. The state of Kentucky was done with me, to them I was nothing more than just another “meth cook” and “junkie” they were glad to remove from society. But God saw more in me than the courts did. The jail ministry volunteer and my attorney petitioned the judge that sentenced me to take another look at my case, and by the grace of God the judge agreed to release me from prison and allowed me to come to Teen Challenge of the Upper Cumberland in May 2014.
In the time I have been here at Teen Challenge of the Upper Cumberland, the Lord has restored relationships that were torn apart by years of hurt and pain. My children are getting their mother back, the godly mother they need and deserve. Through Pastor Tim McLauchlin and the staff here at Teen Challenge, I have experienced true love from people who love me for me, not for what I can give them. I have a relationship with Jesus Christ, and through Him, I have a real peace, the kind of peace that no amount of meth could ever give me. Philippians 1:6 says, “He who has begun a good work in me will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”, and I stand on that knowing that when I graduate from Teen Challenge I will be a light that shines in the darkness for those still in bondage, that they may be able to see the love of Jesus Christ through me.