Testimony Time: Jamie Washburn
I know Jamie from Redeemed Ministries. He is very caring and kind.
Jamie had a good early childhood. He lived in a Christian home and his dad was a pastor. His family was very involved in church but when he was three his dad died. This messed up his mom. She lost touch with reality and so he moved in with his grandparents for most of his childhood. He worked on a farm and was still involved with the church. When he was twelve he began experimenting with drugs. He knew it was wrong but he was curious. He liked it and that is where his addiction started. He began doing crack cocaine and cocaine as well as LSD. When he was seventeen he got hooked on crystal meth. When he started crystal meth he put the other drugs away. He loved it! He could play guitar better when he was high. He put more effort into it. He was hooked from the time he was seventeen until he was twenty-one. When he was twenty-one he got married but he was soon divorced due to his addiction. One day his friend said to him,
"Why smoke it when you can shoot it?"
Jamie was an IV drugs user until he was forty. He was in and out of rehabs and during this time two marriagesdied. He would quit for three months but he couldn't keep it up. During the last four years of his addiction he was hooked on heroin. That led him down the worst path yet. He began to steal. At family get togethers the women would lock their purses in a room so that he couldn't get to them. Everyone but his mom had given up on him, but she too was getting tired of him. He was kicked out of her house and became homeless. He had hit rock bottom. Then, he went to Royal Pines.
While he was there he wanted to know if God was as real as his family said he was. Then God spoke to his spirit and said,
"You have to chase me like drugs."
Jamie would have done anything for drugs. Drugs had become his god. God wanted his all. Jamie began only focusing on God. He read his Bible and after a while things started to come to life. Prophecies especially jumped off the page. God spoke to him in ways that he needed. Godly men were placed in his life to help him. Finally, his breakthrough came. A ministry had come up to Royal Pines to serve and provide a worship service. While he was worshipping he hit his knees and something took his breath. His surroundings became muffled and a bright light shone down on him. He was stuck on his knees. Then, he began speaking in a language he had never heard before. He was crying and when he finally got off of his knees he said,
"I've crossed a line with God. I can never go back."
Words cannot explain what happened that night. He began praying for things including a woman who had never done drugs. Within a year everything he had prayed for had been answered. The enemy had convinced Jamie that he could never be normal but today Jamie says,
"God's presence is the purest form of high I have found."
