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| The evangelistic newspaper of the modern Jesus Army | 2001 |
ADDICT IS DRIVEN TO DESPAIR
'I had to get away from the drugs - or die'
Simon was on a long spiral down until he had a breakthrough into deep faith in Jesus.
When he was four, Simon's parents divorced and his life shattered. Three years afterward his Dad remarried and he didn't see his mother again for fifteen years.
"Inside, I was trying to deal with the sadness and insecurity but I wasn't coping. I wasn't interested in my work at school and didn't feel I fitted in. I started going round my mate's house for dope and drink."
When Simon was seventeen, he moved to London. "I can't remember why I decided to go. I'd only been down there two weeks when I started using hard drugs. When I got home, I'd developed a taste for drugs and was using daily. Before I knew it I couldn't do without them."
Simon's job - installing satellite dishes - took him all around England. He would blow his whole pay cheque on heroin. Simon was still living at home but never paid rent and things became strained. One day, he got in from work to find that his step-mum had removed the heroin he kept under his bed. "I went mental! She asked me why it was so important and I admitted that I was an addict." He agreed to try rehab, but after six weeks, left to get his own place right in the town centre.
"I went for weeks without sleeping and life got pretty weird. My head got really messed up. One evening, I went to do drugs at a mate's house and found he had a friend round from the Jesus Army. I was open to anything that would help me sort my life out. I started to mix with Christians, but, still, the drug pull was stronger."
Simon began to get suicidal. "I knew I had to get away from the drugs or die. Then, one morning, I woke up with the song, 'Didn't know I was looking for love till I found You' in my head. I decided to give the Jesus Army another try and moved to their Birmingham house. I'd expected a big change but I was still using drugs. Disappointed, I moved out into a bedsit and kept on the drug road. I'd completely 'lost the plot'. But now I was crying out for God in a big way."
Simon's breakthrough came at a festival in the Jesus Army's marquee. "I sorted things with God and he set me free from all my addictions in one powerful swoop, with no cold turkey. Now I'm working again, living clean and, this time, I'm determined to make a go of it."
This article has been extracted from Streetpaper, published by Jesus Fellowship
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