When I was younger up until I was 10 yrs. old, I went to church every week and was for the most part a good kid. But by the time I turned 12 yrs. old, I had stopped going to church and to be completely honest, I stopped even thinking about God. I started getting into trouble with the law soon after I turned 12 years old. It started out at shoplifting, to stealing personal property out of cars, to assault charges, to auto theft. I was in and out of Juvenile 15 times, and went thru Indiana Boys School 4 times. In between 18-19½ yrs. old I was in and out of jail 12 times, mostly for alcohol related charges. On Jan. 21st, 1993 I got locked up for Murder/Robbery and ended up being locked up for 17½ yrs. On a 30 yr. bit. I got released on Sept. 3, 2009. And even then I hadn’t given much thought about God. In 2010 I was giving up on my freedom and broke into an apartment and the guy came home. At which time I climbed out on the roof next door. I thought the guy was calling the police, so I jumped off the building to get away and I managed to break my back, shatter my tail bone, and shatter both of my heels. Then in 2012 I wrecked on a mountain bike going downhill at about 40 mph and wrapped my leg around a street sign. If I had hit my body instead of my leg, it definitely would have killed me. On Nov. 7th, 2014 my 14yr. old niece shot and killed herself. Instead of turning to God for strength, I turned to drinking and using drugs heavier. In Feb. 2015 I got drunk and caught an Assault on a Police Officer Charge, which put me on Probation. On May 7th, 2015 my Dad died from Cancer. This caused me to go even deeper into my drinking and drug habit. On Jan. 14th, 2016, I woke up and rolled over to find my wife dead in bed next to me. She had O.D. on some Heroine that I gave her. This event caused me to go over the edge and I went from snorting a line of Heroine once a week, to shooting 2 grams of Heroine a day. I was literally trying to put myself into an early grave. I was trying to die. But for some reason I didn’t die and on March 7th, 2016 my house got raided and I got locked up again. After coming back to prison, I found myself still using drugs to try to block out all the miseries and though it would fade the misery out for awhile, my problems were just as strong if not stronger when they came back. I was trying to deal with my problems on my own and nothing seemed to work. Then when I was close to being ready to give up on life yet again, without even asking for it I got moved into the “Life Learning “dorm at Westville Correctional Center Facility. It wasn’t until I moved into this Christian environment and started opening up to my fellow “Brothers in Christ” that I realized that without God in my life and without my Christian Brothers to talk to when I get down, I will not make it through life much longer. I should have died many times in my life, but for reasons that I cannot explain, God has saved my life and I praise him for opening my eyes to his word. Now I leave my life up to God. Because I know that he will give me the strength to endure.