Participants: Pr. Marquis Johns (Host), Bryan Myers
Series Code: TNJ
Program Code: TNJ000021
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00:08 Welcome to the New Journey, a program about real life people
00:12 with real life testimonies doing real life ministry for Jesus 00:16 Christ. I'm your host Pastor 00:17 Marquis Johns. Join us on the New Journey. 00:20 ¤ ¤ 00:53 Jesus promises us resurrection and some of us are waiting till 00:57 some future event to experience that resurrection. On today's 01:02 show we have someone who's been resurrected at least two times. 01:06 Bryan, how are you doing today? 01:08 Fine. Bryan why don't you tell us who 01:10 you are and where you're from. 01:12 My name is Bryan Myers. I'm from Wabash, Indiana. 01:14 Wabash, Indiana? Wabash, yeah. 01:18 OK. So Bryan, as you heard me say, and I want to get into it 01:21 very quickly, I want to get into it very quickly, because I feel 01:25 like you have a lot to share with our audience, our viewers. 01:28 Tell us about your early childhood and upbringing. 01:31 I had both parents together, middle-class, wealthy parents. 01:36 I mean, we had a great family. I had a good upbringing. We were 01:42 all together. About the age of 15 I started drinking and of 01:49 course that led to smoking pot and drugs. Then I... 01:53 Let's deal with the early childhood. You had parents. Did 01:57 your parents have a divorce? 01:58 No, they separated but they got right back together. 02:02 So, parents separated for a moment, came back together. 02:07 Dad hard worker, Mom taking care of the family. Any siblings? 02:12 Yes, a brother and a sister. 02:14 A brother and a sister. Older or younger? 02:15 One was younger. OK, so, pretty stable family, 02:20 pretty stable home and then out of the blue one day you just 02:24 you just started drinking Bryan? Yeah. 02:27 I mean, was drinking a part of what went on in the family? 02:30 Was it the occasional drink or was dad a drinker, was mom a 02:33 drinker? What made you decide drinking? 02:36 No my parents were really Christians. I mean, we went to 02:39 church three times a week. It's the in crowd in high school when 02:45 I was going into high school. 02:46 OK, so, you get into high school 15, 16 years of age, popularity 02:49 hits, you want to be popular, you want to be with the in crowd 02:53 and alcohol is the way to do that. Tell us about that. 02:56 I started drinking, like I said, 15, 16. After a few years that 03:00 progressed into smoking some pot and that progressed, of 03:04 course, into doing some coke and tripping on acid. You know you 03:14 recreation for a while. 03:15 So, from 15 years of age to about 19, 20, you're in this 03:21 experimental phase. Right. 03:22 Anything to get a rush. Right. 03:24 Anything to get the adrenaline going. You know, whatever it is; 03:27 pot, alcohol, LSD, mushrooms, whatever it is. When do you 03:32 settle on a drug of choice? 03:35 My drug of choice? Um, I finally settled on coke. I like started 03:40 snorting it, of course, like everybody else. That went on for 03:44 two, three or four years until you couldn't really snort it any 03:48 more. You can only snort so much then you start smoking it and 03:51 then after about three months of smoking I realized that I hated 03:55 that because you just knew you were going to run out and you 03:59 was crazy if you had a great big wad of it left. So then I 04:02 started shooting it. That went on for in and out... 04:08 I'm sorry let me just burst in here. Of all the things I've 04:12 heard, and this may seem a little naive on my part, you 04:16 can actually the same way you do with heroin, kind of melt it 04:20 down and shoot it, cocaine? 04:21 Coke, yeah, you just put water on it. 04:23 Wow, this is the first time that I've heard someone say that they 04:28 shot cocaine. Keep going. 04:30 This whole time from the age of 19 when I till my first prison 04:36 bit, that was like four years. And I've been in and out of 04:42 prison, you know, in and out, in and out from 19 up until, well 04:43 which I'll get to that, but. Yeah I started shooting and 04:48 playing around recreationally. My first son's mother died in a 04:53 house fire and it caught me pretty hard. So then I went 04:58 from playing around recreational to full blown getting high and I 05:03 was shooting everything and drinking everything and eating 05:06 every kind of pill. 05:07 So, back us up a little bit. So, from 15 to 19 it was an 05:11 experimental phase. At 19 was your first prison stay. How long 05:15 were you in jail? About four years. 05:16 What were you in jail for? 05:19 Battery and theft, like that. 05:22 Because again I'm hearing that you had a pretty decent 05:26 upbringing, up until 15. Was there some anger festering of 05:30 what contributed to you... I mean it was just like you know 05:33 the boys are hanging out, we get into a fight and you get stuck 05:36 with the wrap. What happened that landed you in prison. Take 05:40 us through that day that, Boom! you get accused of a crime and 05:44 you're guilty and you go to jail. What was that crime? 05:46 Take us through that day. 05:51 Always for me from 15 my best friend and I thought we would go 05:55 out and just fight. We loved to do that. We were just boys and 05:59 liked to be rough. We started fighting and then it became you 06:02 know... and then you start fighting a lot and then 06:05 everybody expects you to fight and then everybody's challenging 06:09 you so that becomes you know... So then you get in a fight and 06:13 then people... you get in trouble. And they press charges 06:16 that you beat someone up. 06:18 So you get in trouble. You beat somebody up bad enough that they 06:21 press charges. So you got into a fight with someone and beat 06:24 them up pretty bad and their recourse was to kind of... 06:29 And just where I'm from they just snitched on you. 06:33 Right. Just went and told. Probably 06:35 they wanted the fight. 06:36 They started it and wanted it. 06:38 They started the fight and wanted it. They didn't win and 06:39 so what they did was they went and ratted you out. And hey, now 06:43 we look back on it and say well we shouldn't be fighting. 06:45 Right. I'm not trying to speak 06:47 negatively of tell when things are done wrong, but nonetheless 06:52 in that lifestyle, we looked down on people who tell. 06:57 You know, there's a saying, there's a saying, I don't know 07:00 if you're familiar with this: Snitches get stitches. And so, 07:02 someone tells on you. Man, you beat him up pretty bad. 07:05 They tell you, you get four years first time offense? 07:07 So, tell us about that. I mean, you're going into court, you're 07:13 fighting this charge and boom the mallet slams, Guilty, Four 07:18 years. How are you feeling Bryan? 07:20 Sadly all my friends were locked up in jail, in prison, 07:24 so, you know, it's a game. When you're young you're silly. 07:28 You just take the ignorance from the street to prison with you. 07:33 The drugs are the same and better, the alcohol's there 07:38 so we're just having a big party in prison. 07:42 So, we're in prison for four years. We got the pruno. That's 07:47 a jailhouse liquor that they make from gasoline and fermented 07:52 fruit and such. You got the pruno, you got the cocaine, 07:57 you got the marijuana and you got you boys with you and you 08:02 guys are fighting, you're roughhousing in jail. 08:04 So, you didn't learn the lesson the first time, did you? No. 08:09 So you get out four years later. You haven't learned this lesson. 08:13 When do you meet the mother of your son? 08:16 When I first got out. 08:18 When you first got out. Tell us about that. 08:20 I met her and then we dated. We were just together, we just 08:23 never got married because I wasn't serious. I knew I wasn't 08:27 done going to jail or prison. 08:29 Right. Wait, wait, wait a minute. This is part and parcel 08:34 of what we call an institutional mindset. You got out and said 08:38 that's not the last time I'm going back. Right. 08:39 You know, I had some uncles who would spend time in jail. They'd 08:45 come out and they'd call coming out to the streets vacation. So, 08:51 they'd go on vacation on the streets and they'd just do 08:53 anything just to go right back in jail. So you walked out of 08:56 prison and said, hey, I want to go back there. 08:59 I knew I was going to go back because I was crazier than 09:03 before I went in after I got out. So you just know you're 09:06 going to end up back in trouble. 09:08 So, take us back to meeting your son's mother. 09:10 I met her and then at a factory we started working. I was 09:15 actually working a good job. Things got crazy. I'm doing all 09:19 the coke. I mean, I'm banging and shooting it in. Then I run 09:23 across something called meth, crystal meth, you know. 09:26 And after you do coke for so long even if you're shooting 09:30 you still can't get that, you know. So somebody introduced me 09:34 to meth. Boy I liked it so much I was like I got to learn how to 09:38 make this because I can't... I want to buy it. 09:40 Wow Bryan. So you tried meth. After the first few times you're 09:45 saying hey I got to open a meth factory. So, you have this new 09:50 girlfriend, you guys are dating. Is she a user as well. 09:55 A drinker and yeah and she started on the meth... 09:58 OK, so, now we go in at 19. Four years later, you're about 20, 10:02 19, 20, 21, 22, about 23 years old. You get out. You're running 10:07 a meth lab with this girlfriend of yours. 10:08 Well, after a few years after that I'd been out. 10:11 OK, so, walk us through that. 10:12 Then after a while, I think 1996 or so I meet this guy who shows 10:17 me how to make meth. I stayed on it, you know. Once I first did 10:21 it and it is true, like they say, you do it and you're hooked 10:27 immediately. He teaches me how to make it. Then I just spun out 10:31 of the world, and crazy spun out and then in 1998 she dies. 10:35 And that's what I want to get to. Does she die in a meth 10:39 house. No, no. OK, just a house fire. 10:42 Yeah, my brother's house caught on fire. My brother and I were 10:46 in a different town partying. His wife and my girlfriend were 10:49 at their house. They were drinking doing pills and we were 10:52 in another place tweaking and doing speed. She dies. Then life 10:58 gets kind of crazy after that and I just get out of control. 11:02 It's not when you want to kill yourself but you don't care what 11:06 you do. As you separate yourself from Christ, OK, the further you 11:11 separate the more the void gets so the darker the despair gets 11:15 and you don't realize when you're living in sin that's what 11:19 happens. So I was just separating myself further and 11:21 further. The further I got, the darker and the lonelier I was. 11:24 It didn't matter how high I was you know. 11:25 And what about the son, your son? What about him? 11:30 He's locked up right now. He gets taken to his grandmother's 11:34 and I see him for a while and she stops by and I see him of 11:38 course. Because I'm out of control, I'm in and out of 11:41 prison so she's like man you're not going to keep hurting him. 11:46 Right. So, he follows his dad's footsteps. Yeah. Selling drugs, 11:50 using drugs. Yeah and partying a little bit. 11:52 He's in jail currently? Yeah. How long? Four years. 11:58 We're going to come back to him. So, partying hard, okay here's 12:05 the picture. This kid grows up, good family, good upbringing, 12:11 Christian family, brother, sister, seems like you have 12:18 everything. You hit high school. Want to be cool. We start with 12:20 the alcohol, we start with the marijuana, we start with the 12:23 coke. Next thing you know we're fighting, we're angry, we're 12:26 mad. You and your friends, you're fighting every night, 12:29 you're having a good time, partying hard, boom, land in 12:32 jail for four years. Come out, and typically we come out of 12:35 jail with better connections, you know, come out with better 12:38 connections. You come out with a deeper understanding of what 12:41 you really want to do which is tear down the world probably. 12:44 You meet a girl, nice girl. You guys start using together. 12:47 Three or so years in you run into meth, you're running a meth 12:52 lab, you got this kid now and boom it all falls down. She dies 12:58 in a house fire. Tell me what was going on in your mind now 13:03 when this woman... I mean, quite possibly had you had the 13:07 opportunity and gotten yourself together, you may have married 13:11 her. What's going on in your mind when you get the news? 13:13 So, you're over here, you and your brother. You guys are 13:17 partying. You get the word, she's died in a fire. Walk us 13:20 through that emotion. 13:22 Oh man, of course, I mean, it tore me up, it tore me up. 13:27 I just went crazy. I mean shooting, drinking, partying, 13:32 insane. Introduced my brother and of course introduced my 13:36 brother. I mean he's already partying with me. Then I shoot 13:41 him up one time. So then he gets into it. This is 1998. Then in 13:46 2002 I get a call that he's down in Kentucky, man he's in the 13:51 intensive care, because he's OD'd. So I go down there for 13:55 nine days and set with him and just watch him die. 13:59 Wow! So, the brother you introduced to meth dies. 14:03 I'm sure this is another spiral, right? Take us through the first 14:09 time you OD'd Well after he died then I'm in 14:15 and out, in and out, in and out. Then I just really get out of 14:21 control then. I mean, like I said, the void's deeper. It's so 14:25 deep now that I'm doing grams, a gram and a half at a shot, in 14:32 one shot. Then one time I was messing around, I was dumping 14:36 some and then I was tweaked out. I didn't want my girlfriend to 14:41 catch me so I accidentally dumped in about 2-2/1 grams and 14:48 I did it and I knew right then. I hit the floor, man got cold 14:54 water going and stuff. Then they take me to the emergency room. 15:01 So, wait. I got to get this. So, boom you slam 2 grams, 2-1/2 15:08 grams, pow. And the moment it hits you, you know oh my 15:11 goodness, on the floor now. They're throwing the cold water 15:16 on you. Call the ambulance. They rush you to the hospital. We're 15:20 in the hospital. What are you thinking on the ride to the 15:21 hospital? What are you thinking on the ride to the hospital? 15:24 I'm just thinking I want to go to sleep. That's how... I mean 15:26 I was hurting so bad and everything was locking up and 15:29 they was like don't go to sleep, don't go to sleep. Then I get 15:32 in the ER in Wabash, they take my blood pressure and it's like 15:37 34/22 and they're like man you need to get to Ft. Wayne, you're 15:42 going to die. So they're bringing me up there and get me 15:48 going and then I'm coming to in and out, but I'm so high off the 15:51 meth for five days. You know, they're trying to bring me down 15:55 I mean, but I can't see and I just remember my mom and my 15:59 grandma and their preacher just locked up and praying and 16:02 praying and praying. My whole left side was completely dead 16:06 from the stroke and my heart is down to 25%, my kidneys 16:11 completely failed because I got complete renal failure. 16:16 I remember I'm praying honey and this is the power of prayer. 16:19 You're praying that? I'm not, they are. Even for a 16:22 even though I'm a lost sinner the prayers of the righteous are 16:26 heard. And they went through. They were praying over me and 16:30 mom was like save him, bring him Lord, bring him back. I remember 16:35 all that. Two-and-a-half months I'm up in intensive care unit 16:41 You were in ICU for 2-1/2 months Keep going, keep going. 16:48 I got complete kidney failure you know. That much meth killed 16:54 them at one time. So I'm on kidney dialysis. I get out. This 16:59 is crazy. This is drugs. I get out and I've got a shunt right 17:04 here that they hook up to do your blood for kidney. Well I'm 17:08 sitting at home two months later and I think man I'll take the 17:12 cap off and I'll shoot up into it because it won't take as much 17:17 so it will stay in my heart. If I do this not very much it 17:20 stay in my heart, bam, drops me. I'm back up there in intensive 17:24 care for a couple of months. That's crazy. 17:26 Wow! So, now you hear your mom, her pastor, your grandma praying 17:35 in and out, in and out, and you're thinking to yourself 17:42 what? I just want to go to sleep? You get out and you 17:48 decide that you want to shoot into the cord that is attached 17:54 to your heart. You shoot into that. What happens? 17:58 It drops me. I mean, it's straight into my heart and 18:01 there's no vein to go through or nothing; it just goes 18:04 straight in and I hit the floor. This is another time that the 18:08 Lord... I mean, because I didn't get the cap back on so I 18:11 bleed out on the floor. But the doctors there said that because 18:15 it was so cool in the house and I was on the linoleum, that's 18:19 the reason I didn't die. Because if I'd have lost like half of 18:24 another pint of blood I would have died. 18:27 So, this is the second OD. Yeah. When did you flat line? Did you 18:35 flat line the first time you OD'd? 18:36 The first time, yeah. 18:38 Flat lined. Dead, pronounced dead. Did they tell you how long 18:41 you were dead? Well I mean they just said that 18:44 you stopped your heart. They were so concerned with getting 18:47 me back. So was this the first time you 18:50 died? Yeah. 18:51 Now listen to what I'm saying to you Bryan. This is the first 18:54 time you died? Do you die another time after this? 18:57 Well the second time I OD'd, the second time it happened, I don't 19:03 know flat line. They had to revive me and stuff like that. 19:08 Wow, wow! Do mom and grandma and pastor show up again? 19:12 They're up there every day praying. The power of prayer 19:16 you know what that says. The power of prayer even over the 19:21 sinner, the unrighteous. I mean the prayers of the righteous are 19:23 heard by the Lord. 19:24 The prayers of the righteous man availeth much. Yeah, Yeah. 19:28 So we come out of this second OD. Have we learned our lesson? 19:32 No. Come on, walk us through that. 19:36 Still partying. Of course they turned me loose from the 19:38 hospital with a bunch of oxys and Dilaudid and stuff which are 19:42 really good banging drugs, doing drugs. So my girlfriend at 19:46 the time sees the stuff and she just starts bawling. I mean, 19:50 she's like, man, they're trying to kill you. Which they don't 19:55 know, the doctors don't. Then I'm in and out of jail a couple 19:59 more times. Then I catch myself. I stop shooting dope, I stop 20:04 drinking, I'm just eating pills now. I'm working seven days a 20:08 week for over a year. Then a friend of mine wants to make 20:13 some meth and wants some help. So I'm like I don't mess around 20:16 anymore but the guy that I get the pills from does. So he said 20:19 OK I'll help you out a little bit. Well it all falls apart of 20:23 course, which is the Lord's doing. Setting block ways in 20:27 the way before I get crazy again And it falls apart and I'm 20:31 sitting in jail and I'm facing 50 years. Well I get up to go 20:35 to get arraignment and they're reading off the charges and they 20:39 say OK you're up to 20 years. You know you're facing the B 20:43 felony up to 20 years. The judge stops and says, No, no, the only 20:47 plea bargain you can take Mr. Myers, is I'll let you plead the 20:50 20 years, nothing else. No one pleads from Jump Street. 20:53 Stop right there. I want to go back to the 15-year-old kid from 20:59 Indiana, life of drinking, life of pot, violence, four year 21:06 prison sentence, 21:07 gets out, starts banging meth meets a girl, the girl dies, 21:13 starts banging more meth, gets a cause, watches his brother die 21:20 the brother he introduces, watches him die, OD's a couple 21:24 times, flat line, boom, he's dead, is revived through the 21:31 power of prayer. Yes. So then you go back again pulled in to 21:37 help someone out you get caught. You're sitting in jail now and 21:43 the only plea the judge will accept from Bryan Myers is 20 21:49 years. Don't say anything else to me but I'll take 20 years, 21:54 your Honor. What goes through your mind at that moment Bryan? 21:59 That I'm hit. That I'm hit. The prosecutor's wanting to give me 22:04 the _ on top of that which is 30, up to 30, you know, 22:09 so that's a 50. So I'm like wow. 22:11 So what happens 'cause you're sitting here right now. 22:15 I go back over to the jail and I'm staying there and it takes a 22:19 few weeks. And this is the power of God, OK? It's so important 22:23 of planting seeds, you know what I mean, 'cause that seed was 22:26 planted in my heart when I was a kid from my parents, they sent 22:30 me to church. So when I hit rock bottom I know the only where 22:34 else to go is turn to Christ. I say man Lord. I start looking 22:38 up the Bible, which I didn't know any power, no personal 22:42 relationship with Christ. I just knew if I followed these 10 22:46 commandments, if I ever got out if I ever got out, if I just 22:50 followed these commandments I won't be back. So that's where 22:54 I started. And I started reading and praying, and reading and 22:58 praying. How long were you in jail? 23:01 That whole time 3-1/2 years. Three-and-a-half years and then 23:05 you're released. You should be in there for 20 years. You 23:10 should be in there for 50 years. You do 3-1/2 years, you're 23:12 reading the Bible, you're getting a personal relationship 23:16 with Jesus. The seeds that were planted by your family before 23:18 you were 15, before this tumultuous life took place, 23:21 before the devil got a hold of you and separated you from God 23:24 you spent 3-1/2 years getting back. Now do you realize the 23:27 significance of the three... Come on now. Jesus was here for 23:30 3-1/2 years. So 3-1/2 years you get into this personal 23:33 relationship with Christ and instead of 10 years, instead of 23:38 15 years, instead of 20 years, instead of the 50 years, you do 23:44 3-1/2 years and you're back on the street. When was that? 23:48 In 2008 but let me back up. The same judge and prosecutor... 23:53 People think that man controls things, but the Lord controls 23:57 what he wants, because the same judge and same prosecutor a 24:02 year-and-a-half later come down... Up until two days before 24:05 this the same thing, no pleas, no pleas, then all of a sudden 24:09 the Lord moves and they say come down there and they say I get 24:12 a 5-1/2-year plea bargain. But I got in some trouble in there 24:16 in the beginning so I had to do some extra time. But that's what 24:20 the Lord did. The Lord has final say so in everything. 24:22 Yes he does. So in 2008 you get out, 2008. 24:25 Right before I get out, OK, which I'm getting strong in the 24:30 Lord and a guy at Westrow is J. Lawson, administrator, he 24:35 said what are you going to do when you get out, Bryan. And I 24:39 say man with all my heart the Lord's calling me back into the 24:43 ministry. Come on. 24:44 He says well that's good. He's like but you know you have to 24:47 wait two years before you can go back into a jail or a prison. 24:52 And I say, the Lord's calling me into the ministry and I get out 24:56 2008. A week later I'm going back down to my jail to minister 25:00 Come on, come on. The power of God, the power of prayer. Your 25:04 life is a testimony to the power of prayer, the power of 25:07 God and the fact that God removes kings and sets up kings. 25:10 He is the one who has the final say in everything going on in 25:14 our lives as individuals as well as on a global scale and that 25:17 is what your testimony tells us. So here's what I need you 25:19 to do. Real quick, about a minute, I want you to look over 25:22 my left shoulder here and I want you to speak to someone, speak 25:25 to someone, right here, right over my left shoulder, I want 25:29 you to speak to someone who is lost in their life where they 25:32 feel there's no hope. 25:34 Our hope is in Christ Jesus. Even though I lost my family, 25:38 my brother and sister, to the devil, my mother and father 25:41 passed away, the Lord has restored a new family to me. 25:44 He gave me a beautiful wife, three beautiful boys, allowed 25:48 me to be part of a ministry at the jail that I done all the 25:52 crazy trouble that I've been in in our town. I've been in the 25:56 ministry for about 3-1/2 years now. Any hope that we have could 26:00 only be in Christ. It doesn't matter where you've come from, 26:04 or what you've been through, or the trouble you've been in, 26:07 or the needle that you're on, or the drugs that you're on, or 26:10 the pills that you're eating or the bottle you're on, man all 26:13 you got to do is just make a willing decision to turn your 26:16 life over to Christ and ask him to come into your heart and to 26:19 help you through it and if you do this with a complete sincere 26:22 heart he will. He shows no favorites. He loves no one no 26:26 more than anybody else. He's no respecter of persons. 26:29 He loves us just as much as he loved King David and that alone 26:33 makes you feel, wow man, if he can love me as much as that guy, 26:38 King David, his favorite. 26:39 Man, man, Bryan that was so powerful. For the people who 26:47 know irrespective of your _ of the bottle, of the pipe, of 26:53 rolling papers, whatever it is put your hope in Christ, and as 26:58 you put your hope in Christ... It reminds me almost of job 27:04 here. That Job had everything restored double. So not only 27:10 has God resurrected you but he's resurrected you new and better. 27:15 He's given you all the things that you lost. And I'm sure now 27:19 you've learned the lesson now. You may not have learned it in 27:22 prison but you've learned it now. You may not have learned 27:24 it after the first OD but you've learned it now. You may not have 27:28 learned it after the second OD, but you've learned it now after 27:31 that last prison sentence coming out and now being able to be 27:36 engaged, going right back a week later into the same prison. 27:41 I've heard a lot of stories, but you give our listeners, our 27:46 viewers the ability, they can truly dare to dream. 27:50 Amen, amen. Because if you can go on this 27:53 journey, they to can go on to and begin a new journey. 27:57 Brothers and sisters dare to dream if for no other reason 28:02 what you heard today from Bryan Myers: God loves you, 28:06 God bless you |
Revised 2017-04-03