Thank God the chain broke!
Wayne Duesberry
(20/1/2004)
I was born in a quiet little town in central Virginia called Hopewell. My parents adopted me at the age of six months and raised me in a godly home. They did all the right things including taking me to church and teaching me about the Lord. They showed me loving discipline when I needed it. Yet in spite of how they raised me, at the young age of eleven I began experimenting with marijuana and alcohol. By the age of fourteen I was a full blown alcoholic. I was heading down a path that was taking me away from God and all that my parents had tried to instill in me.
At the age of eighteen, bored with the sedative drugs, I began using LSD, cocaine, and speed; sometimes altogether. Life got crazy, I got crazy. Once a couple of plain clothes police officers approached me in my car. One of them stood in front and reached around his back like he was going to take out gun. I told myself that I would not be caught with the drugs that were in my car and sent to prison. I knocked him down as I sped away. Less than an hour later I was caught and charged with attempted capital murder on a police officer. I couldn't believe it when I was given five years unsupervised probation and released into the custody of my parents.
However, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, I would continue drinking and drugging and going through many secular drug rehabilitation programs, none of which seemed to be able to help me. I even got married, thinking that might help change things and bring some sanity to my life, but things only continued to get worse. At the age of twenty-five I was introduced to crack cocaine, the drug that would finally be my undoing and eventually bring total ruin to my life. I would end up losing everything, jobs, cars, home, and finally even my wife.
Twenty years of drug abuse was slowly, painfully, stealing, killing and destroying me. It was pure agony. The devil was messing with my head and had me convinced that there was no hope left for me. God couldn't love someone like me. Death was better than this miserable life. Why not just kill myself, which I did attempt by hanging myself with a chain. Can you believe it? The chain broke! I couldn¡¯t even succeed at killing myself.
Thank God the chain broke! On April 28th, 1998 He intervened through my sister who took me to the Dare Challenge ministry on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. On May 13, broken and beaten down, I finally gave what was left of my life to Jesus Christ! In return, he gave me forgiveness and love. On June 2, I transferred to Teen Challenge in Greensboro. Here I discovered my problem was not drugs, it was my own sinful nature and rebellion that led me into a life that resulted in my becoming a very angry, resentful, self-centered, thankless, and unforgiving person.
Now, that I have received God's love and forgiveness, I have learned to love and forgive myself. I don't need pills to kill the pain anymore. I have the gos-pill that gives me eternal life, joy, and peace! Today, I am able to share this "pill" as a staff member at Teen Challenge with the men who come here seeking the same answer I found when I came here back in 1998. The answer is found in a loving, personal relationship with a man whose name is Jesus Christ!
May the Lord richly bless you, and thank you for giving to His work here at Teen Challenge. I can truly say, I am a life that was changed by God's mercy and grace!