I was born on the 20th of December 1989.
I grew up in a home where my parents used to fight a lot. When I was 14 it reached the point where they threatened to get a divorce. I was no longer happy at home and used to jump out of my bedroom window and take part in the nightlife of the gangster infested area near my home.
I started to steal to support my growing addiction to Tik (Crystal Meth) and Mandrax (Buttons). I ran away for home for good and was being used by gangsters to sell drugs. I started to turn more and more to criminal activity. It came to a point where the police were out looking for me and I realized I needed to escape this life.
My sister and her husband started looking for me and, by a miracle, found me at one of the drug dealer’s houses. They took me into their home and provided all the love and material things I needed. I tried hard to leave my old ways and habits behind but they slowly caught up with me.
When I reached Grade 12 I could no longer function as a human being and I suffered from severe paranoia and delusions. I again tried to leave the drugs but realised that it was impossible. I asked for help and was sent to a rehab centre in the Karoo.
After leaving the rehab centre I managed to get a job and a place to stay. After a few months I met up with a friend who I had met in rehab. He offered me some marijuana and before long I was back on hard drugs. I started to inject heroin.
After losing my job and accommodation I ended up back at my sister’s house. It felt to me that I had failed at life and that I would never make a success of anything. I had a deep unhappiness because of who I was. I went to the doctors for help and started using anti-depressants, sleeping pills and tranquilisers. They didn’t help.
I tried again to get into a rehab centre and was put on a three month waiting list. One day as I was walking to a drug support group I ended up going on a drug frenzy. It started with multiple sleeping pills and then I used alcohol and marijuana. Then I broke into my aunt’s house and used the ‘loot’ to smoke Tik until three in the morning. When the binge was over, I felt just as empty as I did when I started. Sitting there at the drug house with other drug addicts around me, and with graffiti all over the walls, I called out to God in desperation. I realized that I was the problem and that He needed to save me from myself, not just from the drugs. I went home and when I woke up in the morning my mind with all its paranoia was returned to sanity. I have never used a cigarette, any drugs, alcohol or antidepressants, sleeping pills or tranquilisers since that day! The Lord took it all away!
A week later I met up with the Concerned Community in Malmesbury. I learned how to forgive those who had hurt me and to ask for forgiveness from those whom I had harmed over the years. The Lord showed me all the sins I had committed since I was a little boy. I wrote everything down and confessed it to someone whom I trusted.
It’s been 5 years since the Lord set me free.
There is no other name in heaven or on the earth through which anyone can be saved!
* Places, names and identifying details of individuals have been changed to protect their privacy.
