Welcome to
Celebrating Life In Recovery
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My name is Cheri!
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What I love is the
moment somebody turns it over,
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the moment somebody
steps into recovery,
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Join us as we look
at some of that stuff.
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Welcome back!
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We are going to do the program
a little bit different this time
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because I want to introduce
you to a couple people.
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So we are going to start
immediately with testimonies.
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This one cracks me up.
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I usually ask someone, when I
first meet them, are you drugs,
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alcohol, recovery,
what is your drug of choice?
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I have never, Mike, not one
time, had someone look at me
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and say, oh acid.
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When you said that, I was just
thinking, so how is your brain?
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Not very good.
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So on that note I want to
say thanks for joining us.
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We will have a vote at the
end of the program to see how
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good it was.
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So when I think about
that, I say for one, people who
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don't know what acid it,
let them know what is Acid?
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What are you talking about?
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It is like a speed, you trip.
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Like hallucinating,
that kind of thing?
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Yeah! So it
makes me think you were
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like a 70's kid?
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Yeah, the late 70's early 80's.
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Tell us a little bit about how
your family was, where did you
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grow up, those things and then
how did you step into addiction?
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Well I grew up in a small town,
I wasn't grown up in church.
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It started out alcohol, weekends
get a bunch of buddies together
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and we would go
camp and alcohol and...
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When I moved to a small
town I moved from LA to Idaho.
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Which was a culture shock to
me, but I get to Idaho and I'm
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thinking, Oh look at these
little kids, how cute are they?
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They could be 8 or 9
years old and were drinking like
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a fish already.
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Yes, we started real
young, I was probably 10 or 11
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when we started.
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Took in alcohol, it was alright,
I didn't like the taste of
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a lot of it so we decided to
try drugs and started out with
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marijuana and that
was good for awhile.
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Then it is like your
immune system gets use to it
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and then it took so much to
get you back to the high that
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you was at so we
decided to do other things.
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So when somebody says it must
of been that your home life was
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horrible or whatever,
was it, home life was not?
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No my home life was great.
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Good parents? Good parents yes!
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They would do anything for me.
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You were just
bored in a small town?
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That and being
popular with the others.
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I wanted to be in the crowd.
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I had never ran
around with kids my age.
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I ran around with older kids.
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Had to do the things
they did or I thought I did.
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So pretty so you are drinking
smoking weed, trying other
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things to get the same high.
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A lot of people don't
know like what you just said,
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sometimes your system just
gets use to a certain level of
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high and pretty soon you have
to change to something else.
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It's the addiction part of it.
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The marijuana was
probably great for a year.
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But then I would have to smoke
no telling how much to get back
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to the level, so I thought I
would take speed or something.
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Then it was speed and Marijuana,
drinking and do all of it.
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You get back up to your level.
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For how long? Because pretty
soon that doesn't work anymore?
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No, probably a year or two.
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Then that is when I got on acid.
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It was the ultimate high.
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With hallucinogenics were you
doing like speed, smoking weed,
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drinking and that stuff,
you could be out for 12, 15 hrs?
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No, probably not
that long, the acid, yeah!
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You see I am
talking about my own highs.
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Because I am
like, you can do it.
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Nah! the marijuana and
speed nah, they were just hours.
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I guess we took enough of
it our bodies were used to it.
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But the acid, yeah, you
would be gone, 15 or 20 hours.
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Just for people who have
not been in that lifestyle,
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I know that drugs and alcohol
are not the only thing that
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happened to us in
lifestyles like that.
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So did you deal with anything
else that tweaked you as far
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as relationships and that stuff?
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You start lying to
your folks, that is a given.
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Yeah, that and I lost
my dad at an early age.
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How early?
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Well not early,
probably 17 or 18.
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What happened?
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Had a heart attack.
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It was probably the worst thing
that threw me over the edge.
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Where I started, that
it was all I wanted to do.
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The drugs and alcohol.
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Anything that you did
not have to look at that?
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Yeah, just to get away.
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How was your mom
handling the death of your dad?
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She was really strong, she
really was and she handled us.
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She took care of us,
I was one of six kids.
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I was the smallest, youngest
but she did an excellent job.
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Did your mom, when did she
come to the point where she said
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Mike I think something is wrong?
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Your drinking too much, or you
you're gone too much, or your
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I mean did she to
get to that point?
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She never did.
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Did you play it off then?
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I played off pretty
well and when I would do that
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I probably would not
come home for a day or two.
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I would be gone, but she I
think she knew but then again
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with everything else that
was going on, I don't know.
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She never did.
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She never said,
what's up? Are you okay?
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She let me go down my own
path and like I say we wasn't
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raised in church so I didn't
know, finally my junior year
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I met my wife now,
but we was dating and
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she was a church girl.
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Saying let me date that guy,
over there on acid, drinking
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smoking weed, I
think I like that guy.
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It took me
longer than just that.
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I chased her quite a while.
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You know it is really funny
is you see the nicest girls
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all of sudden say,
you know I like that guy.
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I'm like, what
made you think that?
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Yeah, but she quick
going to church for awhile.
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My addiction was
all I wanted to do.
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I mean that I held a job.
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So she quit going to
church when she was dating you?
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Did she start using with you?
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Yes, she did but she would still
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Let me just say one
thing because I think this is
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incredible Mike, for
people to understand.
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Did you feel like you
were actually freeing her up?
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No, know I do not
think I was freeing her up.
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What did you think,
because you do not think you are
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doing something bad or evil?
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Is like for an addict...
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Again I had no
church background, nothing.
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I did not know her situation and
when we started dating and she
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started using, I
thought it was pretty neat.
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Right, I guess the reason I want
to say that is because I come
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from a background of addiction.
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I think sometimes when somebody
sees their kids going around
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people that are using, they
think it is more sinister of how
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somebody get you to use.
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If you do not have a church
background, you don't even know.
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It is like there is
nothing in you that says this
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is a wrong thing.
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I'm just, like
lighten up and have a drink.
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It is not a sinister thing,
I am not trying to hurt anyone.
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It is we don't know.
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I guess the reason I want to
say that out loud is that I want
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to educate folks, unless you are
going to give them your liver
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when they trash and
theirs, don't give them a drink.
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Do you know what I mean?
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I mean, later on I found
out her parents had talked her
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and told her about me.
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I'm sure they did.
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You don't need him at all this.
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Because they were afraid.
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She, we ended up, we had a kid.
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Were you married yet?
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No! but after we found out she
was pregnant we did get married.
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My drug addiction kept
going that is when she said,
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it's time to get back
in the church, our life has
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got to change or it
is never going to work.
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Drugs had me and I was tore up.
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By that time you were addicted?
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Yeah, I couldn't quit.
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I tell her yeah I'll
quit and I could not quit.
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Every Sunday she
would drag me to church.
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I would sit back, this is easy.
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I go and I do not feel
any conviction or nothing.
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You could nod out. Yeah!
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I guess the turning point
was when we went to church one
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Sunday she turned around
and said she wanted to go
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to a Teen Challenge meeting
at a church in Harrisburg.
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They was going to have a dinner
then Teen Challenge was going
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to get up.
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I don't know if anybody
knows about Teen Challenge?
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You should talk about that,
because Teen Challenge doesn't
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necessarily work
with teens anymore.
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Yeah, you're right.
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They work with adults,
they work with guys that say
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I don't even
think I have a problem.
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Incredible organization.
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They was put on their
thing Sunday afternoon.
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She wanted to go, she was always
involved in Teen Challenge and
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sent money and did
stuff with the Team Challenge.
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At the time I had no
clue what Teen Challenge was.
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You got it was
just another church gig?
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Yep, so I told her that
was fine and I would go.
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We will go eat and I
will sit on the back pew and
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you can have your time.
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While we were sitting there
in church service, and they was
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up singing and giving their
testimonies and everything.
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I thought to myself, I
thought if there is a God and
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He saved all these
people from drugs and all that,
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because I was hardheaded
and said let one of those
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guys on the stage come
down here and talk to me.
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Because I did not have no
clue of anybody in the church.
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That way I knew God did it.
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I have to know there is a God.
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So I know more about the
thought out of my mind and the
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two guys on the
stage started talking.
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I thought that is
strange, they are in the middle
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of singing and these
two guys start talking.
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It wasn't five minutes
and the one guy put his
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microphone down and
walked off the platform and
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started walking down the aisle.
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I thought I don't know
where he is going but, I know
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he ain't coming
down to sit by me.
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He walked right back and
sat down right beside me.
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No way, how cool is that?
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He told me, I know you
are having a drug problem and
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you are having trouble
with your family and all that.
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At that moment,
God took it all away.
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Because you knew, and what's
really crazy to me is when
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God does that, it is like
the Holy Spirit is talking in
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one ear and this guy
is talking in one ear.
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You are just saying, alright!
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I surrender! I surrender.
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I give it to You.
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From that point on I didn't
drink or do drugs or anything.
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Did you know at that
moment that you are loved,
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that you were safe? Yes!
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Yes He did, He
wrapped He has arms and yeah!
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It was awesome!
00:13:41.97\00:13:43.28
That is awesome, because you
know there is so much rebellion
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trapped in addictions, most
people don't even think that.
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I am locked in.
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I look at my family and know
that I love them and am helpless
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to do anything about them.
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I know that I am
destroying everything.
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God just says trust Me.
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Yeah, it is just unreal.
00:14:00.03\00:14:02.81
I had tried to quit on my
own, and there is no way that
00:14:02.84\00:14:07.65
I would ever quit
without God doing it.
00:14:07.68\00:14:11.15
I know it, and now everybody.
00:14:11.18\00:14:14.93
I was in a small town and
everybody knew my reputation.
00:14:14.96\00:14:19.18
I'm sure if I saw you behind
me I would want to pull over.
00:14:19.21\00:14:22.75
Just to save my insurance.
00:14:22.78\00:14:25.36
they mean now people in my
community, it's took 20 years,
00:14:25.39\00:14:32.96
Let me just ask you
before we get to 20 years.
00:14:32.99\00:14:35.34
I want to know when your
wife knew that this happened?
00:14:35.37\00:14:40.32
that she could trust
that this just happened,
00:14:40.35\00:14:43.62
that you surrendered to God.
00:14:43.65\00:14:45.36
The thing is we are
going to be different.
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I think that she really
trusted the day I turn my heart
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over to Jesus.
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I couldn't wait to get to
our church that she took me to.
00:14:52.38\00:14:57.69
Like I said I always set on the
back pew and didn't do anything.
00:14:57.72\00:15:05.23
I was wanting to tell people.
00:15:05.26\00:15:06.57
That wasn't me, I didn't go
around talking about church.
00:15:09.83\00:15:12.70
Were you still sitting in back?
00:15:15.15\00:15:16.63
Nah, I moved about half way.
00:15:16.66\00:15:19.36
That's alright, I
don't want to get too close.
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It might get dangerous up front.
00:15:24.24\00:15:26.94
It's been really good.
00:15:26.97\00:15:32.74
I love the fact that the
joy that is even in your voice.
00:15:32.77\00:15:36.33
Did you go through withdrawals,
did you do any that stuff?
00:15:36.36\00:15:40.71
None! God just said let me lift
00:15:40.74\00:15:42.34
this from you.
00:15:42.37\00:15:43.37
Yeah, He took it all.
00:15:43.40\00:15:44.85
Man, depression anything?
00:15:44.88\00:15:46.78
Nothing! That is so cool!
00:15:46.81\00:15:48.81
That doesn't happen for every
body, but it happens at times.
00:15:48.84\00:15:51.70
Which is amazing.
00:15:51.73\00:15:53.06
Yeah, like I say I am one that
He had to do that or I wouldn't
00:15:53.09\00:15:57.44
never have believed it was Him.
00:15:57.47\00:15:59.02
You wouldn't have made it.
00:15:59.05\00:16:00.35
So what was your, now you are
going from really... because you
00:16:00.38\00:16:07.38
have been sitting in church
with your wife, so you know some
00:16:07.41\00:16:10.00
What was your journey to
actually see the face of God,
00:16:10.03\00:16:11.96
and see who you are?
00:16:11.99\00:16:13.18
What did that look like?
00:16:13.21\00:16:14.44
It was really neat to see
where I came from and where
00:16:14.47\00:16:20.92
I was headed.
00:16:20.95\00:16:22.20
Even now where I am going,
because I am still growing.
00:16:22.23\00:16:26.31
He never lets up.
00:16:26.34\00:16:27.34
No, I am still growing.
00:16:27.37\00:16:29.06
I've done a lot, but
there is a lot more to do.
00:16:29.09\00:16:33.52
So how many years since
that day at Teen Challenge?
00:16:33.55\00:16:37.33
20 years. No
drinking, no drugging.
00:16:37.36\00:16:42.40
How cool is that!
00:16:42.43\00:16:43.98
It's awesome.
00:16:44.01\00:16:45.75
So you ended up
going into church.
00:16:45.78\00:16:47.95
Did people come alongside you?
00:16:47.98\00:16:50.93
No, like I said it took a while,
everybody was I give him a month
00:16:50.96\00:16:57.94
and he will be
back, there is no way.
00:16:57.97\00:17:01.66
There is no way, I've
seen guys do this before.
00:17:01.69\00:17:06.79
They will start to
church and all that.
00:17:06.82\00:17:09.84
I couldn't explain to
them that I knew God done it.
00:17:09.87\00:17:15.75
You just cannot explain
that feeling to anybody.
00:17:15.78\00:17:21.33
Especially somebody
that don't go to church.
00:17:21.36\00:17:23.76
Even for somebody that
is listening to this program
00:17:23.79\00:17:27.64
that are drunk, stoned,
they have just done some acid
00:17:27.67\00:17:31.05
and they are looking at
you like there is no way.
00:17:31.08\00:17:33.26
It is hard to explain to
somebody until you take that
00:17:33.29\00:17:36.04
step of faith, until you
literally say, God alright.
00:17:36.07\00:17:40.43
Then you feel His presence
and that changes everything.
00:17:40.46\00:17:44.05
Yeah, you can definitely feel
His presence, that's for sure.
00:17:44.08\00:17:47.20
So people were leery, not sure.
00:17:47.23\00:17:51.87
Your wife was sure?
00:17:51.90\00:17:54.29
I believe she was pretty sure.
00:17:54.32\00:17:56.35
After that we got
along, she trusted me again.
00:17:56.38\00:18:02.95
She worked, and while she
was working I was partying.
00:18:02.98\00:18:08.05
Spending money that we didn't
have and all that stuff. Exactly
00:18:08.08\00:18:11.91
She worked at a store and got
home late so I would party until
00:18:11.94\00:18:18.42
I knew I could get
home before she did.
00:18:18.45\00:18:21.04
I say, after that
she knew where I was at.
00:18:24.01\00:18:26.84
We kept communication.
00:18:26.87\00:18:30.25
That's incredible for her too.
00:18:30.28\00:18:31.25
So your home
started to become a home.
00:18:31.26\00:18:33.81
Yes! Your
relationship, because you
00:18:33.84\00:18:35.57
always loved her?
00:18:35.60\00:18:36.76
Yeah! Right!
00:18:36.79\00:18:39.15
We are talking about this
whole season we are talking
00:18:41.85\00:18:43.88
about when do you know that
God is going to so do it for you
00:18:43.91\00:18:48.25
that He is going to teach
you how to stand up and walk.
00:18:48.28\00:18:51.46
To be different, because you
can't, everything you know is
00:18:51.49\00:18:56.03
messed up. Yep!
00:18:56.06\00:18:57.74
So how did you let God
start changing your behavior?
00:18:57.77\00:19:00.53
Your thinking,
even your desires?
00:19:00.56\00:19:02.66
You can tell because your
language stops, it goes away.
00:19:02.69\00:19:11.10
Your bad language? Yes!
00:19:11.13\00:19:12.30
Not totally! I am
like wait a minute.
00:19:12.33\00:19:16.84
The days that you
laugh are different? Yeah!
00:19:19.62\00:19:22.19
When I turned my life over
to God, I told Him as hard as I
00:19:22.22\00:19:28.25
done the drugs and stuff,
I was going to live for Him.
00:19:28.28\00:19:31.36
Have the same amount of fun
and show people that you can
00:19:31.39\00:19:36.27
have fun without
the drugs and alcohol.
00:19:36.30\00:19:39.94
You know what is really
funny is when you say that,
00:19:39.97\00:19:42.66
Somebody may get a
sense of that just on the set.
00:19:42.69\00:19:46.39
Since the time you walked
into this studio, you and your
00:19:46.42\00:19:49.62
friends have been laughing
your head off, even at one point
00:19:49.65\00:19:51.92
afraid you were going to be the
first people kicked off the set
00:19:51.95\00:19:55.66
because you could
not pull it together.
00:19:55.69\00:19:57.06
So when you are saying I have
that joy, I am not having to
00:19:57.09\00:20:01.87
search of it in a bottle
any more, or in a pill, that I
00:20:01.90\00:20:05.03
can feel good in my own skin.
00:20:05.06\00:20:08.03
That's right, I feel good
the next morning when I wake up.
00:20:08.06\00:20:11.83
That's true!
00:20:11.86\00:20:13.18
I'm not hung over? That's right.
00:20:13.21\00:20:15.22
Then trying to make excuses
to people I love and all that.
00:20:15.25\00:20:18.17
How about getting
into the word of God?
00:20:18.20\00:20:21.62
How was that for you because
for some people that is a little
00:20:21.65\00:20:24.36
difficult. It's
rough because I don't like
00:20:24.39\00:20:27.44
to read and I wasn't the
education person in school.
00:20:27.47\00:20:34.65
It's rough. When
I first came to God
00:20:34.68\00:20:38.48
I was
illiterate, I couldn't read.
00:20:38.51\00:20:40.24
So somebody would say, we
are going to study Revelation.
00:20:40.27\00:20:43.36
I always joke about this because
I would turn like this and
00:20:43.39\00:20:45.81
say Okay go ahead.
00:20:45.84\00:20:47.22
They would say Revelations.
00:20:47.25\00:20:48.94
I didn't know it was in the
back of the book, I can't read.
00:20:48.97\00:20:51.18
So I literally had not learned
to read yet and it was really
00:20:51.21\00:20:56.08
tough when somebody gets
into the word of God and they
00:20:56.11\00:20:58.92
start throwing terms
around and that kind of thing.
00:20:58.95\00:21:01.13
How did God share with
you what His promises are?
00:21:01.16\00:21:04.74
What the book says?
00:21:04.77\00:21:05.74
A lot of it is through people,
your friends, you can read them
00:21:05.75\00:21:10.94
just like a book.
00:21:10.97\00:21:12.72
I was taught that you
can't put them on a pedestal,
00:21:12.75\00:21:18.21
because they are human too.
00:21:18.24\00:21:21.08
The reading, I can read
something and 10 minutes
00:21:21.11\00:21:26.39
I forget it.
00:21:26.42\00:21:27.45
But when I have been told,
the CD's and the stuff on CD's
00:21:27.48\00:21:35.45
Cassettes.
00:21:35.48\00:21:36.66
So if you hear it you
can retain it that way? Yeah!
00:21:36.69\00:21:39.32
Me too! So just watching
people's lives, people around
00:21:39.35\00:21:44.32
you, the sermons, the
CD's that you have gotten.
00:21:44.35\00:21:46.99
So you heard the word
of God that way? Yeah!
00:21:47.02\00:21:49.59
A part of me thinks then did
you ever reach out to addicts?
00:21:49.62\00:21:56.99
To help someone else?
00:21:57.02\00:21:58.38
I have talked to a lot of
other addicts and still do.
00:21:58.42\00:22:02.39
A lot of them will give it a
chance, but I don't think they
00:22:05.11\00:22:10.57
truly do because like I tell
them if God ever truly comes
00:22:10.61\00:22:15.35
into your life you don't
have this problem of wanting to
00:22:15.38\00:22:20.08
go back and doing it again.
00:22:20.12\00:22:21.42
They just don't do that if
you are truly saved by God.
00:22:21.46\00:22:27.29
what is interesting to me is
that some people get that new
00:22:27.33\00:22:31.18
nature that doesn't even
like the taste of alcohol,
00:22:31.22\00:22:34.70
doesn't like to sin,
doesn't have that same lean,
00:22:34.74\00:22:38.71
but for some of us that
flesh is still so active.
00:22:38.75\00:22:42.66
there's a part in my own
recovery that I had to say
00:22:42.69\00:22:46.32
over and over and
over, I am dead to that.
00:22:46.36\00:22:49.64
I am not a heroine addict, I
am a woman of God, loved by God.
00:22:49.68\00:22:53.99
For me that
struggle lasted for awhile.
00:22:54.03\00:22:56.72
You know I was homeless for
10 years with a tendency to lie
00:22:56.76\00:23:02.14
and manipulate, because I was
good at it, so that part of me
00:23:02.17\00:23:07.75
came up immediately and over the
years God taught me to surrender
00:23:07.79\00:23:13.33
that me every time.
00:23:13.36\00:23:14.62
I think for some of us that
is the way we have to do it.
00:23:14.65\00:23:17.32
With you God said, no
way, I'm not going to do it
00:23:17.35\00:23:20.08
that way with you.
00:23:20.11\00:23:21.34
He had to do it that way
or I wouldn't have made it.
00:23:21.37\00:23:26.15
So we are going to also hear
your pastor and his testimony.
00:23:27.85\00:23:32.89
A little bit of his
testimony is about you.
00:23:32.93\00:23:35.38
Then his
testimony about himself.
00:23:35.41\00:23:37.62
So we are going to go and take
a break and come back but I want
00:23:37.65\00:23:40.81
to say for one thank you
for being on the program.
00:23:40.85\00:23:43.67
Thank you for
sharing the reality that God
00:23:43.70\00:23:49.21
can just totally take it.
00:23:49.24\00:23:51.40
He sure can.
00:23:51.44\00:23:52.68
I love looking at your eyes
when you are talking about God.
00:23:52.71\00:23:57.68
You are so grateful to Him and
what He has done in your life.
00:23:57.72\00:24:02.66
I owe Him
everything, it's all His.
00:24:02.69\00:24:06.39
I don't have
nothing. Isn't that cool!
00:24:06.43\00:24:09.48
In that very
statement you have everything.
00:24:09.52\00:24:12.54
I love that, we
will be right back.
00:24:12.57\00:24:14.95
Stay with us! I want
you to meet Mike's pastor
00:24:14.98\00:24:19.08
Because he has his own
testimony like all of us do.
00:24:19.12\00:24:21.90
It is a matter of when am I
going to take everything and
00:24:21.94\00:24:25.04
just say God you know what,
I'm going to give it to You.
00:24:25.08\00:24:28.15
We'll be right
back, stay with us!
00:24:28.18\00:24:29.54