Scott & Stephanies Joint testimony

Scott

My name is Scott I am a grateful believer in Jesus Christ and I struggled with a meth addiction for 13 years.I also struggle with pride, codependency and self worth.

I want to share with you my life verse:

Romans 8:28 says: And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

My prayer is that through my testimony you will see how God works all things for good.

I grew up just like any other kid, But I knew my life was different because both of my parents were addicts.

They had their own hurts habits and hang ups and I’m pretty sure I didn't come

with an instruction manual and I'm sure I didn't make things easy.

Growing up I realized that I didn't get the Love and the acceptance that I was looking for from my parents. I wanted my father to love me but I never received the love I was looking for.

So I would begin to look for that love in other people, places and things. they wrote a song about me…”looking for love in all the wrong places” but that was my life. The devil would use my desire to be loved against me. With each relationship that I was involved in would bring a new addiction and would leave me more broken than the last relationship.

At 16 I smoked my first cigarette. At 18 I smoked my first joint. At age 19 I did my first line of meth and by the time I was 23 years old I had learned how to make meth. My life was out of control and all I thought about was getting high and staying there.

One night while at a drug dealer's house I would meet my soon to be wife. She gave me a ride home that night and she hasn't left since.

Stephanie

My name is Stephanie, I’m a grateful believer in Jesus Christ. I’m in recovery for a drug addiction and I struggle with fear, anxiety, and self worth.

My parents divorced when I was about 3 years old. I lived with my mom until the third grade then I moved in with my dad in chatsworth GA. My dad had been remarried to a wonderful woman who has always been a great step mother to me. I felt very loved by both of my parents and I had a pretty normal childhood.

My dad took me to church and I remember going to the altar at the age of 9 and asking Jesus to save me but it wasn’t until later in life that I would truly surrender. In school I remember being made fun of a lot for my looks and personality. This was hurtful and I've felt very ugly on the inside and out for most of my life. I felt like my personality was ugly and embarrassing and I developed a deep seated fear of rejection. One thing that I have learned over the years is that God made me this way for a purpose. Psalms 139:13-14 says: For you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mothers womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works my soul knows it very well.

I started drinking at age 15 and using drugs at age 16. Drug use for me was a way to escape my feelings. I've always been the kind of person who feels things very deeply. Anxiety ruled my life and I didn’t even realize it. I just could not cope with this and I think that is part of what fueled my addiction.

The first time I ever took Xanax I realized that I didn't have to feel anything if I didn’t want to. I think I was addicted immediately. Not only could I not feel the pain anymore but I couldn’t even feel it when I hurt others. But as always with my addiction that wasn’t enough for me. By the time I was 18 not only was I taking extremely high amounts of prescription pills I was mixing anything I could in with it. I had no respect for myself or anyone around me. I didn’t care who I was hurting as long as I was high.

At the age of 20 I gave birth to my son. I wish more than anything that I would have changed my way of life at this time but that just isn't what happened. By This time I was using meth pretty heavily. One night while hanging out at a drug dealer's house I met my future husband. I thought MY addiction was bad. Good grief! My addiction mixed with his addiction and things started to spiral.

Soon I was pregnant, and by soon, I mean like, within 2 months of meeting him. And once again I was bringing another innocent life into my chaos. We were so swept up in our addiction that I had accepted it as a part of me. For us to be breathing was to be using. This is how we lived for the next few years.

Scott

You would think that having a child would have slowed us down. Here I am looking to be loved and God has given me a child that will love me no matter what.

But this didn't slow us down and we continued heading aimlessly down this road of destruction. Using and selling drugs was a way of life for us. It wouldn’t be long when both of our addictions combined would end up in a train wreck… and it did.

My wife's parents were christians and they had raised her in church. They had been praying for her for years long before I ever came along. My father-in-law is the only man that I know that has a closet in his home with an altar, Bible and prayer journal.

Long before I ever met my wife he had prayed for his daughters to have godly mates that would love God, fear him and serve him all the days of their lives. When I came along I didn't look like that godly man that he had prayed for. I’m sure there are many nights that he went to that altar and prayed and asked God ``do you have another? because this aint the guy.” I was that godly man, I just hadn’t been born again.

It didn't take long for our lives to fall apart and we got kicked out of where we were living. My wife reached out to her parents and asked if they would help us and they did. My father-n-law would invite us to a garage ministry that was started in a man's back yard By a Sunday school class that had kids that were addicts and wouldn’t come to church.

I had tried many things in my life and none of them had work so I decided I would go. That night I would go and I would hear the gospel preached for the first time and would give my life to Christ.

Revelation 3:20 20 Behold, I stand at the door and zknock. aIf anyone hears my voice and opens the door, bI will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

I’d like to tell you that my life would change for the better from that moment on but it didn’t. I would do good for about 6 months then I'd relapse. My addiction was so strong and I tried hard to stay clean but I didn't feed my relationship with God and my addiction would soon take hold.

I have found that anything you don’t feed dies. I didn’t feed my relationship with Christ and it died. I had cleaned up my act but didn’t replace my old ways with the word of God and when I relapsed I was doing things I said I’d never do.

Matthew 12:43-45

43 “When gthe unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through hwaterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and ithe last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this jevil generation.”

When that unclean spirit came back and brought his buddys with him all we thought about was getting high. I thought I had put making meth to death but it would soon consume my life.

So the second round of my addiction was worse than the first.

Stephanie

It just felt so much easier to be addicted than to try not to be. Of course that was because I was trying to do it on my own and without the Lord’s help. While my husband had surrendered his life to Jesus I on the other hand had not even asked him for help.

So here we go once again full blown addiction. And though I didn’t think it could ever be worse than the first go round, somehow it was. WAY worse. The only plan we had in life once again was to get high.This went on for a few more years and the pain from knowing the dysfunction I was causing my children was so strong that I couldn’t stay sober. It was a never ending cycle that I thought we could not escape. I can't get back all the time I missed and now it seems almost impossible to try and put all the broken pieces back together. Some sins have lifelong consequences and I can see why God hates sin so much. It destroys lives and causes broken relationships and so much pain for all the people involved.

Scott

Billy willis

One week before my life would completely fall apart. I was stopped at a gas station pumping gas and there was a preacher on the other side of the pump. It must have been a Sunday. He had his suit and tie on. He invited me to his church. I felt convicted just talking to him.so i did what every convicted addict would do, I took his card and told him that I would come. Then I left as fast as I could in the opposite direction. I now know that that was God telling me to change what I was doing because he could see what was coming in my life.

But i didn't listen

Stephanie

Satan had been having a field day with our lives as he tore our family apart. 1 Peter 5:8 says: Be sober minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

Meanwhile my parents had never given up hope and they were still praying for a miracle for us. Well that miracle was finally going to happen and we definitely didn’t see it coming…

Scott

Proverbs 14 12 tThere is a way that seems right to a man,

but uits end is the way to death.

On June 12, 2010 I was at home in the process of making some meth and the liquid caught fire and exploded on me instantly turning me into a human fireball. I ran out of the bathroom and my wifes face was in a state of shock. I'm yelling put me out. I kicked our front door open and fell down on the porch putting out the flames.

I managed to go back in the house and put out the fire and clean up what I was doing. I knew I was hurt real bad . I told my wife to take me to the hospital. We got in the car and the pain of the burns became unbearable. My vision became fuzzy. I told my wife to turn on the emergency flashers and to run the stop signs and red lights. We got to the hospital and I went inside and I cried help me help me and then I collapsed on the floor. I believe with all my heart the Lord heard my cry for help that day. But there were consequences for my actions but the Lord would walk through them with me.

Psalms 102:1-3

1 zHear my prayer, O Lord;

let my cry acome to you!

2 bDo not hide your face from me

in cthe day of my distress!

dIncline your ear to me;

eanswer me speedily fin the day when I call!

3 For my days gpass away like smoke,

and my hbones burn like a furnace.

Stephanie

I dropped him off at the emergency room and went back home to make sure the house wasn’t burning down. I had no Idea how close to death he was.

I ran out of gas right around the corner from our house. I got out and continued to walk the rest of the way. Coming up over the hill I could see cop cars and fire trucks everywhere. I wanted to turn around and run but seeing my dad standing down there I knew I had to face this. This was the single most hopeless moment of my life. My husband was almost burned to death at the hospital and here I was left to explain all the wreckage that was so obviously our life. How could we let things get so bad? My children had been next door at my parents house all day and now they were on the back porch looking down at our house terrified and wondering what was happening. This was the bottom beneath the bottom. How could we have let things get so bad?

My parents had been praying so hard and I bet they were thinking what in the world? This isn't the answer to our prayers? and feeling the same hopelessness. I would have never guessed it or even thought that the single most hopeless moment in my entire life would turn out to be the absolute most hopeful moment in my life. You see now when I am faced with situations that appear to be hopeless I remember what God can do in the middle of the most hopeless mess.

When I connect the dots from then until now I am amazed and filled with hope that no matter what happens, with God, anything is possible. Now, as I am also praying for my 18 year old son in some of the same ways my parents have prayed for me. Begging God for a miracle and when the situation feels hopeless I remember this moment and what God has done and I know, there is always hope!

Meanwhile back at the hospital, family members were told they didn’t think he would make it through the night. The immediately life flighted him by helicopter to Grady memorial in

Atlanta. He was burned 70 percent of his body and was in an induced coma and placed on life support and was in critical condition. It was an awful sight going in his room to be with him day after day. (.Picture) He was so lifeless. So quiet. I will never forget the sound of the ventilator and beeping machines.He had inhaled the flames so Even the inside of his mouth and lungs were burnt and no one knew for sure if he would live. His condition stayed the same over the next two weeks and the hospital had provided me with a room to stay in across the street. The whole time I was there I could feel God tugging at my heart. After all, I knew who God was since I was brought up in church so I knew exactly what was going on. God was calling on me to turn to him.

I had felt it before when my parents had talked me into going to church. During the altar call I would hold tight to my seat and I knew if I could just make it out the door I could escape the presents of God. Psalms 139:7 & 8 says: Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol you are there! And that is exactly what was happening! On the streets of downtown Atlanta Ga God was chasing me! And this time he was not giving up!

At that time on a park bench outside my room I surrendered my life to Jesus and I was changed. For the first time in my life I felt hope and that no matter what happened God would never leave me. Deuteronomy 31:8 says: It is the Lord who goes before you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. I’ve held onto that hope since that day.

Scott

When I woke up it was like mass chaos in my head. I didn’t know where I was at, or what was going on. I couldn’t move or talk. All I could do was lay there. I was so scared I didn't know what the future held. I wondered if I was going to be like this forever. Were my kids ok? Was my wife going to leave me? My thoughts were clouded with fear and every time I fell asleep I would have nightmares of being burned.But the worst was yet to come.

The nurses would come and get me and take me to hydrotherapy. They would put me on a metal bed and take me to wash my burned body. This is the hardest thing I’ve ever been through. The pain of them scrubbing my burned body was unbearable. They would do this every 3 days. All I could do was lay there unable to move or scream, as I gritted my teeth and the tears rolled down my face.

Matthew 13:41-42

41 pThe Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 sand throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

I literally went through hell on earth, to tell you you don’t want to spend eternity there. I spent 10 seconds on fire, eternity is forever.

Over the next few weeks I would continue to get better, and for the first time I could see hope and hope felt good. They began to take all the tubes out and I could eat on my own. I don’t know if you’ve never not eaten anything for a few months but your sense of smell is hytend. I could smell a french fry from here to the back of the church. They had a McDonalds down stairs in the hospital. I tried to get my wife to sneak me a french fry so I could taste it. But she wouldn't. She's in my 4th step over a french fry.

It wouldn’t be long and we would leave the hospital. On the day I left the hospital I was walking down a hallway with my walker and a man passed by and all he said was walking testimony . I now know what God’s will is for my life. It’s to tell you he can take your mess and turn it into his message if you surrender to him.

Stephanie

It's been almost 12 years since our lives were changed and I can't thank God enough for what he has done for me. Addiction is a terrible thing and Satan had taken us to a place where he tried to destroy us and I bet he was laughing the day my husband was burned. But my God is a merciful God and when Satan tried to destroy us and we were at the bottom of the pit of destruction God reached way down his hand and picked us up and washed us clean and gave us a new reason to live. He has changed my life and took all my broken pieces and made something beautiful out of them.

Our road to recovery hasn’t been easy but I promise you this…the Lord has used every trial and hardship to strengthen us in serving in his will. It's so amazing how he uses what we call a wasted life for his purpose. Standing on the hill that day looking into that hopeless situation I would have never thought that I would end up as a pastor's wife. But that’s exactly what happened. 12 years clean and My husband is now campus pastor at Liberty Baptist fort Oglethorpe.

Scott

God is faithful and if you will take your life and put it in the hands of the one who created it. That knows the plan he has for your life. He can do things with your life that you never dreamed of.

I went from pusher to preacher who would have thought. Not only that but I'm on staff at the very church where my wife's parents first started praying for me. This just goes to show you the power of prayer that can change lives. Through celebrating recovery and ministries like Recovery Alive where Jesus is our higher power. I was able to truly find my calling

I got involved in a 12 step and worked the steps and allowed God to make the changes necessary for him to use me. I went from leading small groups to being on our team. About 4 years ago the door opened for me to be the ministry leader at Celebrate Recovery.

Through leading the ministry I felt the call to preach on my life and started pursuing that calling through teaching lessons and going to school at night.I have 1 more class and I'll have a certificate in pastoral ministry from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Like my wife said, I'm now on staff as the pastor of one of Liberty's campuses.

I said all that to say this. I brought all the broken pieces of my life that I had gathered up over the years and I brought them to Jesus and said here's my life I can’t do anything with it. It’s yours to do what you want with it. He is the master at taking broken things and using them. He can take all the broken pieces of your life and put them back together and your life will be more valuable and beautiful than it ever was before it was broken.

Stephanie

Never be afraid to be yourself. God has made you this way for a reason and the only way you can accomplish what he has for you to do is to be the person he has made you to be. Psalm 139: 15-16 says: My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, Intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written all of them,the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them. The truth is you are the apple of God's eye. He has numbered the very hairs on your head. He has chosen you and he is chasing you and he loves you more than you will ever know.

Scott

You're not here tonight by accident. You have a divine appointment with the creator of the universe that wants to change your life. Six years after I began to share my story God revealed that he is in the details of everything even you being here tonight. I was sharing my testimony at a church next to where I grew up. As I’m sharing there's a lady about three rows back on the left and I get to the part of me being burned in a bathroom and she begins to weep uncontrollably. I thought the Lord was all over her.

After I finished she came up and told me that she was at my house the night I got burned. My wife had called a friend of ours the day I got burned to come and clean up our house and he brought a lady with him to help. God placed that lady in the middle of my mess so that six years later she could see the power of God in a changed life. Her brother invited her to that church that night to hear the story of a guy that had overcome a drug addiction.

Tonight God has placed you in my story so that you too could hear the power through a changed life and that no matter what you have been through he can change your life.

Thank you for letting us share!