I was born in 1974 in Sylacauga, Alabama into a single parent home. I learned early in life that sin will mess up your life and cause you to hurt those you love the most. When I was 15, I left home and lived with different friends and family members for several months at a time.  In the next four years I would live with 4 aunts, 2 uncles, 2 cousins, and countless friends. I tried moving back home several times but it never worked out for long. Needless to say, life was pretty unstable during my teen years.
     I always said that I’d never start drinking because I’d seen how it destroyed lives. However, I started hanging out with friends that drank, and soon I was drinking too. I got into trouble so I moved to another town. I moved back for my senior year so that I could graduate with my friends.
     After graduation, I moved away to college but moved home again after the first quarter. At this time I met my dad for the first time. He was also entangled in the bondage of sin. He took his own life just a couple of years later.  
     By the time I was 21, my life was falling apart. I quit college and drank all of the time. I started taking pills to sleep and more pills to stay awake. I used to get off of work and call my sister from the break room. I’d ask her to stay awake until I got there. I’d take pills and drive to her house. When I got there, I’d lie on the bed and she’d hold my hand until I cried myself to sleep. She’d wake me up in time for work with more pills to keep me awake on the job. After work, I’d go to the break room and call her again.
     Things continued to get worse. I finally broke down and called my uncle who was a Baptist preacher. I asked if I could come by to talk to him. I wanted to know how to get my life straightened out. He just kept telling me that I needed to be saved. I started going to church and cleaned up my life. One day a young man in the church told me that I was still lost and would still go to hell if I died. After every service he would hound me about being saved.
     On September 17, 1995, at 5:00 p.m., I repented of my sin and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. My family was happy at first. That is until I started telling them that they needed to be saved. They would come in from the bars to find me reading my Bible or praying. One day mom and I had an argument and i moved out again. I moved into a storage building that my uncle owned. At first I had no electricity or water and I slept on a sleeping bag on the floor. It was three months before my family spoke to me. However, my prayers were soon answered. My sister started going to church and her husband got saved. She got saved a few years later. Her husband is now the pastor of the church where we got saved. My mother also got saved and now she is the best person in the world. The Lord let me see many of my friends get saved including my best friend who is also a preacher now.
     My uncle told us that Tabernacle Children’s Home was coming to present their ministry at our church. At this meeting, I met the prettiest girl in the world. Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” I just fell in love with Jesus and God brought a girl all of the way from Greenville, South Carolina just for me!  We were married about eighteen months later.  We now have three beautiful boys and a wonderful home.  I once heard a man say "Jesus is right for whatever is wrong in your life."  How true that is.  I am a living testimony of the changing power of salvation through the lord Jesus Christ!