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Personal Stories
If you have a personal story that you feel will touch others, you found the right place. Share with others how God has touched your life or someone you know. Send your testimony by email to j@jesusstyle.org to have it posted.
I wanted to share how God has touched my life lately. Worldly and financial circumstances are doing their best to break my spirit. I am telling you that the Holy Spirit has filled me with immense energy and vision with this ministry. I love each of you so much and I thank you for the love and support I have received. Iknow each of you are angels God has set in my path. I know this is more than a good thing, it is a God thing. For me to wake up each morning to serve God and do my best by walking thru this short life to touch others as Jesus did is a privilege and blessing God has shown me. I pray for His guidance in all things and that even this ministry and all it entails would not get in the way of my personal relationship with myawesome Father. As I pray for each of youI ask that you keep me in your prayers.
Jeremy Franks
I was 3 and my brother was 5. we were with our mom. she had always locked us in our room. and we couldnt ge out. we were forced to wear the same diapers for day's. we where hardly fed. she let whoever whenver come into the house and do what the wanted with us. But of course she was on Drugs. and like everybody else when your on drugs you do stupid stuff. but she realized what she had to do. so she put me and my brother in foster care. and my Grandma became mine an branons Mom from then on. and in first grade i had a priciple named Vincent Brothers. he aparently called me and my brother into his office and molested us both. My grandma said we didnt have bad behaviour until after that. i have found to forgive him.When i was maybe 5 me, my Brother and my grandma all left Bakersfield and went and lived in Gainsville, Texas. my grandma had a hard time controling us because of our behaiour. mostly because of our past with our mom. But my grandma did her best she kept us bathed, dressed, and fed. me and my brother were always getting into trouble breaking into churches, busting windows out of somebodys house when they werent home, burning up peoples backyards. My brother tryed to comit suicide once. i wansnt scared then cuz i was a little kid and stupid. but the whole time my grandma is standing there yelling at him don't do it...im sitting there asking if i can have his stereo. and i remeber one time when i came home and my grandma had told me wheni got home that my brother was put in foster care. but she was totally mesing with me. And so years went by. same ol same ol. still being a bad kid. me and my brother both had the same probation officer at age 8 and 9. and one day my brother intreduced me to his friend stephanie. she seemed like a sweet girl and like she would be the person i would just hang out with. i could tell her anything. and she was always trying to stay at my house. which my grandma let her. my grandma used to smoke cigerates and weed with her parents. then a few years later we find out that her dad has been having sex with her. ( explains why she stayed at my house.) and then about a month after she was put in foster care she was diagnosed with Aids and infact it was proven it was given to her by her dad. so i lost a friend that i was able to talk to. but back to before that. i met this girl name sammi in 3rd grade. hmm i can still remeber her. we became bestfriends up through high school. her parents were filthy stinken rich so she pretty much got what she wanted. but when my grandma got sick and couldnt take care of us no more. i was transfered back to bakersfield and put in a foster home there. and to my surprise sammi falowed us. and we were able to continue our realtionship. But my sophmore year the worst thing happened. Sammi had went to Glamis California to go to the dunes. she was in a rhino quade and was waiting for a train to pass on the tracks but she decided to go ahead and go. what she didnt know was there was another train coming at a faster speed then the other one but on a diffrent set of tracks. she died right on the spot from multiple traumatic injuries. it was the worst day of my life. it was november 17th 2007. i just couldnt believe it when i found out. i cryed for hours. Sammi was the best thing that has ever happened to me. she tought me so much about not caring what others thought. she was there for me whenever i needed someone to talk to. she always had my back so i had her's. i go through this whole emotional stage with thoughts of suicide, i used to cut myself and try and pop pills to make myself feel better. when i would walk down the street i would always have the urge to just jump n front of a car. cause i was hurting. at that time i was staying with a lady who was in the process of adopting me. but that didnt work out cause she got pregnatn and didnt wanna take responsibility for two of us. so she kicked me out. so there i was back in the real world. i was put with a foster family on the SW part of bakersfield. they seemed like good people at first. and i would always do what they ask. then i realized what they were asking is to much. they used to try and get me up at 5 A.M in the morning to net the pool. when it was raining. so i talked to my social worker about finding me a new placement. it took forever but in that forever i learned something. and here it is. i was still kinda going through that whole emotional stage. So i was still pretty messed up. but one night when i was on runaway i was walking down stine and i seen a bunch of gothic looking kids sitting and talking outside of the church. and i was seriously craving a cigerate. so what i do is is walk up to them and ask them " hey do you have a ciggeret?" they all said no. and al went inside. i just sat down. one of them came back and asked me if i would like to come inisde. it was kinda cold so i said yes. i went inside and i falowed this person and sat in a chair. then i was sitting there thinking to myself. "how did i get here?'" What am i doing. then outa no where this Big Guy with red hair starts talking. at first im not listening. but my heart seemed to be. and this big red heade guy said something that just made me break into tears. He said " No matter what kind of life your living God is Loving you day by day." That night i dedicated myself to God and to getting my life back together. Few months later things started getting better. After 16 years i found my Dad he hasnt seen me since i was 4 months old. we worked towords getting me placed with him. but it didnt work out. he had told the social workers nevermind. idnt give a reason just said nevermind. then almost 12 months later i find my mom i havnt seen in 14 years. turns out she has been 2 years clean off. meth. and i made sure the first thing i told her was mom what happened back then is behind us and i want you to know that i love you because your my mom and that you don't owe me anything. We talk till this day.
And so i realize without God your nothing. God has made some powerful changes in my life. and ithank everybody in my life each day for helping me. i am now a 3.0 GPA student at vista west continuation. actuallly on track to graduate. i am currently working at subway. And i expecially am gratefull for Jon and gabriell wheeler for takine me into there home when i had no place else to go. i have learned so much living with them. i thank God everybody for making my life waht it is today. and i pray that me and my family succed in our lives.
Jacob McGrew
I am not going to dive into to much detail about my past. I am 31 years old and was raised in Brockton, Massachusetts. I went through some really rough stuff when I was a kid that caused my way of thinking to be warped. My parents divorced when I was four and it was a chaotic situation. Full of fear, anger, pain, resentment, and without a relationship with GOD I began a long journey of lies, stealing, manipulating, sex, drugs, drugs, and more drugs. My every moment was to self medicate, to run further from my problems, to bury the pain. The more that I ran, the bigger the problems. The more that I dug, the deeper the hole. I would get sober for short periods of time because of a judge or a probation officer or when my children were first born, cause I really wanted to give something different to them than I got growing up, but I fell real hard every time. I lived lie to lie, manipulation to manipulation to get what I wanted, what I thought in my twisted way of thinking would make me feel good, to feel secure or complete. I began to realize that I was living my life fooling nobody but myself. I destroyed relationships with so many people. I was repeating a vicious cycle. Things that I went through when I was a kid I was putting my kids through. After ignoring GOD’s call in my life, destroying a marriage, losing the relationship with my children, numerous nights in jails, and living in a never ending nightmare of a meth addiction. I finally headed to the tug on my heart and entered the doors of Los Angeles Teen Challenge on September 8th, 2008 where I completely surrendered my life to GOD and his will for my life. I no longer hate who I am but love who GOD is making me today. I am so grateful for what GOD is doing in my life today. I have a hope and a future, something that I have not had in years. I feel called to youth ministry. I strongly believe that everything that I went through was for a reason and I have been blessed with a way of being able to connect with kids on a level that I can truly understand, because what I went through at a young age and the addictions that I lived and battled with from a really young age. I am able to really understand with a compassion that I believe with the proper cultivation could really be effective in helping others in the same situations that I was once in. All I know is I feel lead to help people and always have had a strong desire to help people my whole life. I am learning that is a gift from GOD and that he has huge plans for me and I look forward to seeing where he is going to take me in life. I haven’t planned really any further than T.C.M.I. but I am also feeling lead to missionary work. I pray that GOD will keep doing a mighty work in me and continue to help keep me on his path. I know that I am not rushing back out into a world that I was totally lost in for most of my life. The lord started something in me and I am not moving until he tells me move. Thank you for the opportunity for me to share this with you.
GOD Bless you
Jason Brown
My name is Adam Marchant. I am 25 years old. I grew up in a nice home and my parents did their best to raise me. I was taught about Jesus as a kid and gave my life to the Lord a few times, but never truly walked with the Lord. I lived a life of sin and did not care because I thought I was in control. At the young age of 14, attending Jr. High as an 8th grader, I was first introduced to drugs and alcohol. At this point in my life, I was not interested in drugs so much, but alcohol on the other hand grabed me right away. I liked it and I found myself wanting to drink more and more. I didn't see anything wrong with it.
Over the course of the next ten years I experienced one bad girlfriend relationship after another; lost jobs and lost friends; received two DUIs by the time I was 22. My drinking had gotten so bad that when I received my first DUI at the age of 19, I blew a BAC of .19 and when I received my second DUI at the age of 22, I blew a .29. The legal limit is .08.
My addiction reached the deepest, darkest period when I began mixing drugs with alochol. At this point in my life I had lost my job, was unemployed. I was single and had nothing really holding me in Bakersfield, when I was asked by a good friend at the time, to move to Spokane, WA. So I did.
I had saved enough money to lease a small loft apartment for myself. It wasn't long before I became very lonely. I had never been that far from my family and loved ones, and I missed them very much. I had no tv, little money and nothing but time. This is when I turned to my Bible and found joy in reading it. I loved the wisdom I found in the scriptures. About the same time I met a very special young lady at the gym I was attending. She was a Christian and we began spending more and more time together. We talked alot about the Bible as I was reading more and more every day.
I began to enjoy life's simpler things as she took the time to show me around this new city I found myself in. Alcohol became less and less important to me. As the months passed quickly by, the time drew nearer for me to decide to either renew my lease or give up my apartment. Though I did not want to leave this city and area I had grown fond of, I felt God had plans for me in Bakersfield. As difficult as it was, I packed up what few belongings I had, leaving behind a girl who had grown very special to me and returned home. My girlfriend was very understanding and we have continued to develop our long-distance relationship to this day.
I was a bit fearful of coming back, but it didn't take long for God to begin to show me his plans for my life. I attended The Bridge within the first 24 hours of being home with my family who had begun attending this church. I knew instantly that I had found my church home and I began to hunger more and more for God's word. Within the first month of being home, I found myself attending church every opportunity I could. I could no longer run from God and I re-dedicated my life to our Lord. I have never looked back! God has given me a new life. I look at the world through new eyes and with a new heart.
I am currently attending Cal State Bakersfield to become certified to be a Drug and Alcohol Counselor. I am also a part of an organization called Jesus Style and I am working on launching an outreach ministry for youth that promotes good health and fitness. I am here to say God is good and anything is possible with Jesus in your life.