By Terry Carson

I started using drugs and alcohol at age sixteen. I lied to my parents and began to steal from them in order to pay for the marijuana, LSD, mushrooms and liquor. My drug use increased and I quit school in grade ten. I started working and at one point was earning $3000 a month but because of the addictions I couldn't even pay a rent of $200 per month. I started using cocaine and then it all just got worse.

Finally, my mother got mad at me for all my lying and stealing and not paying my rent and sent me to my first treatment center. That didn't help though because I wasn't ready to surrender my love for cocaine. I ended up in about eight different treatment centers. Nothing worked - not even AA or NA. Things got so bad I ended up downtown on Hastings street, skid row shooting drugs, cocaine, heroin, doing methadone, pills and speed. I stole, lied, even dumpster-diving and sleeping under bridges. I did whatever it took to survive. The devil had me just where he wanted me.

I ended up in about eight different treatment centers. Nothing worked

I contracted Hepatitis C from using dirty needles. I overdosed twice and then I moved back home. Things got okay for a while but I ended up going back to using crack cocaine. Things got worse than ever before - when I stole money from my mother to pay off a drug debt she gave me one last chance to get rid of my addictions.

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My sister told her about a Christian recovery place called Wagner Hills. I decided I would go the next morning. That night while watching TV, God showed me a movie; Jesus was hanging on a cross and His blood ran down in the rain and healed two ladies who had leprosy. In that moment God told me that He was going to do the same to me by healing me with His blood.

So, I came to Wagner Hills. Praise God! God has kept His promise to me. Not only has He set me free from the alcohol and drugs but He has healed me inside and out! I went to the doctor to have tests done on my liver as well as blood tests to see where the Hep C was at (my liver was in bad shape when I showed up at Wagner). When the doctor explained the results to me, he told me that I was cured! God's word is true, praise God!

I owe Jesus Christ my life. I'm a new creation in Christ, the old is gone and the new is here. I just want people to find freedom like Jesus did for me by becoming Disciples of Christ which God has called us all to be. It's like when Jesus told His disciples to throw their nets in the water and just as they were fishers of fish, that He would make them fishers of men! He told me the same thing - that I must throw my flesh away and that He would make me a disciple. And that's just what He's doing. Amen.

Terry now serves at Wagner Hills in Langley, BC helping out with the program and residents. Wagner Hills is a Christian organization with a ministry primarily to men with addictive lifestyles. Wagner Hills is open to men seeking 'Christian drug Treatment', and 'Addiction Recovery', and would be considered a structured discipleship program. People looking for freedom from abuse, and addiction of all kinds, including sexual addiction have found freedom at Wagner Hills. http://www.wagnerhills.com

December 11/2008