My bad trip began in 1980 when I was using more PCP than I was dealing. It was one Saturday evening, and I started feeling bad: under pressure and feeling depressed. So I started smoking up my product once again. There was a church in the neighborhood, First Rock Baptist Church, and I found myself sitting on the church steps that evening. I sat there until I started feeling a little better. Then I went back to my mother’s apartment, where I was living. The next day was a Sunday. I got up that morning and went to that church. I continued going for two or three years, until eventually I decided to get saved, to repent of my sins.
My decision to repent came after I was arrested in 1983 for possession of PCP. I was lucky to receive probation instead of the 15 to 30 years in jail I could have faced. I decided I didn’t want to die from an overdose on drugs, and I didn’t want to go to prison. So I repented for my sins.
The Bible talks about repentance in Matthew 3:2. It says, “Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The Bible talks about repentance once again in Mark 1:15, and it says, “The time is fulfilled, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.”
So I repented my sins and got saved. I went to this church from 1980 to 1997. In 1995 I was able to rent my own apartment, which I kept until 2005. In 1995 I also enrolled in Washington Saturday Bible College, where I studied religious education until 2001.
I left that church in 1998 to become a minister in New Fountain Baptist Church in Northwest D.C. I was licensed and ordained in 1999. I also worked as a construction helper for 32 years while I was doing my religious education. In 2009, I received an honorary degree in religious education from Mutual Baptist Missionary Association of Washington, D.C.
The Bible talks about repentance once again: In Acts 2:38, it says, “Peter said unto them, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sin, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
I was tired of hurting people and hurting myself. I didn’t want to be put in prison. So I sought the Lord and I repented, and that has made a major difference in my life since then.
