Chris's Testimony
Hi, my name is Chris, and I am a strong believer in Christ who saved me from my addictions of lust and meth. I was very young when I started smoking meth, and around that same time, I met my first love. We started talking and really hit it off, and eventually had a son together, who is now about to turn 17.
She and I had gone through some really hard times together that stayed with me and haunted me for quite a while, and just really affected my day-to-day life. After a few years of struggling in our relationship, I caught her cheating on me and it really broke me. It brought up a lot of the stuff from our past that I had been burying and it all just boiled to the surface. I told her that our relationship was over.
More time went by, and she eventually gave birth to the other man’s child. This cut me really deeply. One night she showed up at my house with my son and her daughter needing a place to go, and my heart hurt for them and I took them in with me. To this day, I am the only father that her daughter has known and I love her like my own. I made a promise to myself that I would always be there for them no matter what happens to my relationship with my ex... But eventually, I couldn’t even keep that promise to myself.
My grandparents, who had raised me my whole life, started deteriorating and I turned all my focus on them and started to neglect time with my children. After taking care of them for three years my grandma passed away and it nearly destroyed me. I started taking drugs again to kill the pain I was feeling and ended up losing everyone else I loved in the process, my ex, my kids, but mostly, I lost myself. I forgot how to be the person I was before drugs took over.
I eventually met and fell in love with another girl and decided to try again to have a family, but drugs consumed both of our lives. We had a little girl together, and I got a steady job making good money at a refinery, but my boss told me that the next time I tested dirty for drugs that would be the end of my job. I talked to my girl, and we decided it was time to get clean together. My life was looking up, until I got a call from CYFD telling me they took my daughter away from my ex, and adopted her out.
The man that had adopted her out had been molesting her, so I left my job and went to go find him, and make him pay for what he’d done. When I found him, I had every intention of hurting him very badly for what he’d done to my daughter. Except, as I was getting ready to hit him, a voice came into my head telling me not to do it. It told me that I'd just end up in prison and what good am I to my kids in prison. I had had a change of heart. Instead of hurting this man, I bought his food, and told him “God bless you”.
After that day I felt like I had truly found myself, and a couple of years later I took my father's advice and got the help I knew I needed. By coming to Steelbridge I was able to distance myself from the way I was living, and it truly helped change my life. I didn’t believe it at first and left once after contracting covid, but after humbling myself on the streets and walking back in the doors of Steelbridge, I haven’t looked back. I am a believer, and I just want to say to anyone in my shoes or anyone struggling, God is faithful. He will never leave you, and can help you in ways you won’t believe. Amen.
