I went to church with my papaw when I was around 5 years of age or so but, too young to
really remember much. I knew what a church goer was like from memory’s of my papaw
and mamaw, good hearted people… RIP.
I started in drugs at a young age, I was in sixth grade and dappled in Marijuana. We went to
a dance one night and on the way, my buddy and I smoked part of a joint and got to the
dance, we went into the Gym and it hits and I started getting paranoid and wanted to leave.
The principal wouldn’t let us leave, I thought they were going to smell it, so I was all tore up,
needless to say that it detoured me from it for a while. I don’t really remember much of my
childhood but bits and pieces. Could be a blessing… I played football from about 5 years
old to about 9th grade. I ran around the neighborhood on bikes, wrecked a few and got few
stole. I loved being in the woods hanging out making clubhouses, played a lot of backyard
football, started getting heavy into drugs when I was 17 years of age. I started out hanging
out with guys that were 23 to 25 years of age, thought I was cool hanging around the wrong
type but didn’t know it then, (just goes to show how you can fall into the wrong crowd from
a young age) The Bible tell us ( be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect
will of God) do not let the world destroy your moral conduct but come to know God’s will for
your lives). Well, we walked in one day and my buddy oVered for me to get high with him, so
I did and that lead to using more and more and opened the door to Alcohol and women,
then using more and more until it was an everyday thing. Long story short, I got with my kids
mom and we started using pills then we started using people and being manipulative and
just horrible people. We had our share of troubles and my heart got hurt and I would turn to
getting drunk to mask the pain I had, which just made it worst. We went our separate ways
on and oV, until it I started going in and out of jail, stilling getting high and not really caring
about anything else. I still tried to be a part of my kids life and was doing what I thought was
pretty good because I still tried to see them. But, it wasn’t were my focus was at, it was in
getting high, which played the most part in not being a good dad to my kids. Their mom up
and moved them out of state and I lost all hope, so I just went full blown getting high and
wasn’t caring about much else. I ended up meeting my wife sometime or another and like I
said wasn’t caring much. I married her and I was providing for us both, she ended up
getting on drugs and started going out on me… Hurt my heart, so I tried to let her go and just
gave up on everything… She is now passed away, (RIP) but I’ve been in out of jail and
probably spent about three years behind bars… Never could break the habit and same
cycle of life on my own… (It took God to set me free from all the things I couldn’t) I had all
good intentions on getting out and getting my life together but it was like I hit a twilight zone
every time they let me out of jail… Right back to the same situation every time… The old
stomping grounds… didn’t have any direction, I was living at my parents house and just a
mess of a person, going through it, out of my mind it seemed… So they wanted me to leave
and I had nowhere to go but the streets, so that’s where I’d go. I’d hit the streets wide
open… Just kept going down hill with no way out… Thankfully I don’t really remember much
of the bad times I went through but it was like I was running from going through it. My life
ended up confined to a bike and backpack, living out of garage cans and bound to the same
streets… My brother John Wilhoit calls me a terrorist to the streets of Tn… Unfortunately he
was right, whether it was by choice or not that’s the way my life was going… I remember
times that I did have (episodes) with cussing, screaming and slamming my bike, just mad at
the world, like I was possessed or something… Never really had anybody to talk to about it,
just a bad mess and thankful that God made a way for me to be here today!!! I was running
around the streets with nowhere to sleep and a lot of the time, nowhere to get warm….
Many nights , I would burn whatever I could to stay warm and in the summer I would just
run the roads, needless to say that I was mostly alone a lot of the time, even if people were
around, still seemed it… all the bad times and nowhere to turn, that just put me in a bad
spot slowly but surely, but that all changed when I ran into this girl at a family dollar… it was
a bright Sunny day and I had money on me, drugs and was high and that’s about all I
needed to get by I thought, I didn’t realize how miserable and broken I was, (until I came to
know the Lord and experienced the peace and the Joy that he gives)… So she asked me if I
want to come to Kentucky with her and to get high, but something was telling me not to, so I
didn’t go with her that day… Long story short I ran into her again at the same dollar store but
this time the tables were turned, it was dark and it was raining, I was broke and didn’t
having anything on me and wasn’t high… I didn’t have a leg to stand on (God already knew
that) and I was setting out by the family dollar just in a bad spot mentally and emotionally…
And the way the night was going, it was going to be one of those bad nights I would have…
So I look up and see the same girl asking me if I wanted to get high… So needless to say, I
was like yea… so we do and I ended up going with her to Kentucky and ended up in jail,
(Knox county) looking at a 3 at 5 (which was a blessing in disguise) and my thought was I
was going to do which ever got me out of jail the quickest… Either sign the 3 at 5 or get
rehab… My plan was to sign the 3 at 5 and get out in a month, then I was going to go back to
Tennessee and probably wouldn’t have thought nothing else about the 3 hanging over my
head… But thankfully God had his hand on my situation and I go to plead guilty and
couldn’t get the word out and the judge suggested that we reschedule this since I was too
sure on how I was going to plea… I go back next time and asked my lawyer if she could get it
dropped down to a misdemeanor and he dropped it from big court, back down to little
court and I was going to the services that they had from Redemption Road and signed for
rehab like three diVerent times and one the pastors from another place knew Brothers in
Redemption Road and said he would see what he could do…In the meantime I called them
almost every day for a month and they finally came and interviewed me… Not too long after
that they were coming to get me… (I never really knew God but I thought I believed in him
but didn’t really know what that meant until I came to know God) but even when I was a
sinner, God still loved me enough to make a way (where I couldn’t) for me to be here today…
I’m thankful for Gods grace and mercy…I thought I was doing good until the Lord showed
me how broken and messed up I really was! But through his son and the word of that can all
be changed… I done six months at Redemption Road the only rehab and about the the
fourth or fifth month, I was going to pray just like any other night ( not having any intention
on asking God to forgive me but about half through prayer, I started asking God to forgive
me and looking back on it that’s when things started to change for me… I remember going
down the road on the way to church and everything just seemed more clear and how bright
green the trees and grass seemed to be… Never really experienced anything like that, so I
can just tell you from experience… But I know it was at the right time because the day of
graduation I was in the car with my family and I was heading back to Tennessee and
something was telling me not to, so I didn’t… But I realized that something changed within
me, I was free and clear nothing hanging over my head and realized anything could of
happened in Tn and didn’t want to end up back in the same mess I was in. I didn’t want to
risk my walk with God… so I had them take me back to the rehab… Now God has gave me
peace and Joy that I have never had before… I had lost all Hope then, and he has been
putting the pieces back together… Now I know there is a better life in God and the only way
to have it is through Jesus Christ… That’s exactly what God has done! He gave me a new life
here in Kentucky… Now I’ve been clean and sober for going on two and half years serving
the lord around going on 1 year and 9 months and couldn’t have done it without him… I’ve
been working for Redemption Road Since Jan. 8 2023 and going to North Main Church has
been a very wonderful experience! Getting to see all the lives transformed and family’s
brought together is a blessing to see. God continues to show himself faithful and worthy
each and every day and the option for a better life is in Christ. Aside from Christ I’d still be
living lost and the same mess that I was then. But I’m just so thankful that God loves us
enough to give us a way out, even though we we’re sinners and undeserving of everything
that he does for us and will continue to do, if we are allowing to let Him. If God doesn’t do
another thing for me, he has definitely done more than I ever deserved… Wasn’t easy along
the way but just learning to let God take control of our lives is all worth it… God Loves You!