"I have no other choice but to sentence the defendant to 20 years at hard labor on charge number one, and 20 years at hard labor on charge number two. The attorney has thirty days in which to prepare an appeal"

As those words echoed through the courtroom a sickening feeling rose in my stomach. I felt like I was about to pass out. I tried to search for an answer. I had been fasting and praying and was hoping I would be given greater consideration. I looked into the court room at my parents, pastors and attorney. I was hoping to find an answer in the expressions on their faces. I could see the looks of shock and pain as they also digested the words.

My world became a blur and I was taken back to my cell. I was sick. I was lost. I felt like dieing. I cried and felt that I wouldn’t ever see the outside of prison again.

That was in 2009. It was the consequence of an alcoholic life style and a series of choices that I made outside of the grip of God’s grace. These consequences might seem too harsh to some and not harsh enough to others. I’m convinced the Lord has orchestrated, or allowed the events leading up to where I am today. I am not saying that His purpose for my life was for me to be incarcerated. I believe His plan has always been for me to have life and have life more abundantly, but because of my insatiable hunger for the world, I ironically invited spiritual disease and famine into my life and remained on a path of personal destruction.

The next time I came to, my Mom and Dad were on my side, holding my hands with tears in their eyes. They told me that they had been there since early that morning, and that they had initially had me listed as Jane Doe. I was told that a very large mild mannered and well dressed man had brought me in, and I wasn’t breathing. He had found me on the street, unresponsive., and left the hospital immediately after he had dropped me off.  I was told that they worked on me for two hours before I began breathing on my own. A few hours after that I woke up. I was told that I had alcohol poisoning and it was the worst case that the trauma unit had seen where someone survived. It was nothing short of Divine intervention.

As I left the hospital with my parents, I thought about what had happened. God had spared me, and looking back I wish I could have had the strength to give my life totally to Him and stay on a steady course. My life would have turned out differently. Instead I continued to drink, and wreck my life and the lives of my family and other people who cared about me. Over a period of time my charges increased against me until, on a earth shaking day, in 2009 my judge sentenced me to twenty years in the Louisiana State Penitentiary system.

One of the things that has become very important to me is to use my testimony as a means to help others understand that drinking, and using drugs is not a game. As I continue writing I intend to give a little bit of my testimony each month. I would like for people to understand that we not only hurt ourselves, but hurt others in the process of our drinking and drug usage.

I have come to truly realize that we have to completely submit ourselves to God, and follow the teachings of Jesus if we are to maintain a healthy and stable life.

Don’t allow irresponsible thinking and actions to get you in a situation like me. Give your life to the Lord and let Jesus be your guide.

Heavenly Father, I come to you confessing Jesus Christ with my mouth as Lord and Savior. I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is your Son whom you sent to the earth to be crucified (sacrificed) for my sins and I believe you raised Him from the dead, a perfect sacrifice. He now lives and reigns with you, seated on your right hand. He did this for me to have for-giveness and eternal life with you. I confess that I am a sinner, and sinned against you. Please forgive me. I receive your forgiveness and choose to follow and obey Christ Jesus as my Lord and Savior. In Jesus’ name. Amen.