SS 5 “Heroin Addict”

In the last chapter, I shared about my sister who wanted what I had, and she wonderfully found Who she needed in order to be changed, healed, and with her heart filled with His love for others. This week while seeking God for wisdom to know what Salvation Story to write about, He reminded me about Margaret's son, Jacob, who actually met the Lord personally even before his mother did.

In case you've not realized it yet, the Lord most often uses a crisis to get our attention and bring us to a place of needing Him, as many of us know all too well. The crisis that hit us and where this salvation story ends was shockingly unlike anything I’d ever imagined our family would have experienced.

Yet, it's important that I back up in order to set the stage by explaining that when Jacob was young, his dad, my sister’s husband, cheated on her. Unfortunately, instead of turning to the Lord, because she didn’t know at the time, she sadly confronted him, which most of us do, and we women are encouraged to do so by just about everyone. And then, when he refused to choose my sister over the OW (the other woman), which happens almost every time, in anger, rooted in deep hurt (to understand more, read Chapter 91, "Angry or Brokenhearted?“ from the Living Lesson book), Margaret packed up her four children to move to the other side of the country when her newborn baby was just three weeks old.

Again, rather than having the Lord to comfort, guide, and help her, Margaret turned to family and the social welfare system. Sadly, when her two boys reached their teenage years, they didn't have a Heavenly Father, who is the Father to the fatherless (you can discover more on HomeGrownMinistries.com) because my sister didn’t know she could become His bride; her boys became too much for my sister to handle like the majority of teen boys without fathers in the home. That's when Margaret sent her two teenage sons, Tommy and Jacob, back to live with their father, who was too busy to raise his sons because he was preoccupied and focusing on his new family after he married the OW (and had a daughter, mentioned in the last chapter, who got married). So, sadly, like many teens, both my nephews turned to drugs to deal with the pain of rejection and being left to raise themselves.

Just a side note: this all happened many years before my marriage crumbled. Yet God used it for good because watching how my sister dealt with her husband’s unfaithfulness and how it so adversely affected her children was something I thought of often, which motivated me to find a different path for the sake of my children when it happened to me and my husband choosing the OW over his wife and four children.

Though I am sure my nephew's drug addiction, like all addictions, began with something small, by the time my mother (their grandmother) heard about Jacob, he had been a heroin addict for many years. Without a doubt, God orchestrated everything that happened in order to save Jacob physically from dying— but more importantly, to prepare Jacob to meet his Maker much earlier than anyone ever expected. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

At the time, my mother and I were visiting family in California from Florida (that I knew would be her last trip back home where we were raised), and we were able to get together with my sister’s oldest son, Tommy, who said he could find Jacob for my mother. This was the first time my mother or I had heard he had been living on the streets. Thankfully, Tommy was able to find him and clean him up so he could meet his grandmother at a local park.

My mother could never speak of that meeting without crying because Jacob was so horribly thin, a mere skeleton of himself, gray and shaking. My mother said, weeping, that she just held him in her arms while she sent Tommy to get him something to eat. Countless times, I've pictured my mother rocking her grandson, Jacob, in her arms until Tommy returned with the food. After experiencing his grandmother’s love without judgment, Tommy was able to find Jacob a job as a dishwasher, which allowed him to get off the streets.

It was just about a month after this meeting in California when we got the urgent, frantic call from my sister, who was hysterically weeping, saying that she knew her son Jacob was going to die. He’d just taken another overdose, but thankfully had come through, but she said she just knew it would happen again, and the next time he’d die!

Wonderfully, the Lord’s timing is always perfect. We got the call just minutes before we were leaving for a Worldwide Revival prayer meeting at our church. Not only is His timing perfect, but so is His leading. That night, we sat somewhere entirely different since someone had taken our "usual" seats in front. As soon as we sat down near the back, the preacher told us to stand up, turn to the persons behind us, and pray for their needs.

When we turned around there was a group of young people who introduced themselves as being part of Teen Challenge! We knew immediately about that group of "on-fire teens" because the Evangelist who God used to begin this worldwide revival was one of Teen Challenge's most remarkable testimonies! This evangelist had been a drug addict, turned drug dealer, and was given the option of either going to prison for breaking into a pharmacy (which was a felony) or attending Teen Challenge. Teen Challenge saved and changed his life: meeting the Lord who not only saved him from life in prison but also saved his soul and then called him to become an evangelist. Then, after meeting his wife, who was also a former drug addict and dealer— they together went on to evangelize around the world.

When the young people heard about Jacob, they broke free from us and got into a very powerful, intense, loud huddle—crying out for “Jacob.” The entire church could hear the name "Jacob. " They were shouting so loud, shouting his name over and over again, calling Jacob to know Him.

Later, when we got home, I called my sister to tell her what had happened and assured her that God was in control and she didn’t need to worry about Jacob. Something miraculous was about to happen.

Two weeks later, we got a call from my sister. The very next day, after these young people had prayed, Jacob called to tell his mom about his new job, which was working with the city coroner. His assignment was to pick up the dead bodies of the homeless and drug addicts. It was just a few days later when Jacob called his mom again, trembling and shaken—telling her that he just knew this was his wake-up call and that with each assignment, he could see himself being picked up the next time he overdosed.

Though Jacob said he didn’t know how he would get off drugs because he’d tried so many times before, he just knew he was ready to do whatever it took and that this time he would remain clean and sober.

Only a month later, we got the call we'd been hoping for—my nephew had stumbled on Teen Challenge!! While there, he met a young woman, Meadow, whom he married a year later. This all happened many years ago, and since then, Jacob and Meadow have had two beautiful daughters and are happily married and serving the Lord together!

Dear reader, you, too, most likely have a family member or several members in the worst situations, like the one we discovered Jacob was in. It might be drugs or something entirely different. Yet, no matter the crisis, I’d encourage you to read this testimony or other testimonies each time you worry or doubt about God's ability to do the impossible.

"With people, yes, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26).

Then, share a salvation story with all those other family members who are just as frightened as you often feel. So together, you can agree and believe that nothing, not one thing, is impossible with God!

“Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father Who is in heaven” (Matthew 18:19).

"‘Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done . . . but even if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and cast into the sea,” it shall happen’” (Matthew 21:21).

"For nothing will be impossible with God" (Luke 1:37).