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My
Testimony - By David Story
"As a child I moved around a lot. My dad was a coast guard rescue swimmer, but later moved to a career of raiding cocaine smuggling boats and busting coke lords. So with his career choices that he made my family followed him around.
My problem with drugs happened at about 11 years old. I was living in a small town in North Carolina called South Mills. It was a poor country town that I loved with all of my heart. I was living on five acres of land with corn and strawberry fields behind my house. In front of my house was a mercy canal full of catfish. It was a young boy's playground. One day my dad got the orders to pack up his family and move to Seattle, Washington. At least this time we were not moving in the middle of the school year. We would move about every two to four years on average.
So. we had shown up in Seattle and the school started shortly after. This place was much different that the south. All the kids in school had a lot of money and partied even a such a young age. All I wanted was to have friends. I was tired of being a lonely boy. So I got in with this skater crowd and they smoked a lot of weed. So I started smoking too. I went to parties and met girls and all sorts of people. I then realized that I could not afford this any longer by the age of thirteen. My lawn mowing money could not support my habit. So I saved forty dollars and made it into eighty and so on. The drug game was working for me to the fullest extent. By the age of 16, I was making more than my parents combined. Now it was time to move again. We were moving to a small town called Washougal, Washington.
Here I am, a small town boy that moved to a big city and now here we were moving back to a small town. I started high school. I was in the tenth grade, my sophomore year. I no longer wanted to spend my time making friends, but rather building a customer base. So I get entangled with some people who throw raves. Now I have opened up a new market with cocaine and ecstasy. Not only am I selling it, but I am using about 1500 dollars a week for my own habit. By this time money is coming in fast and there is no way that I could stop. So as I fall deeper into this lifestyle, I begin to smuggle cocaine and ecstasy from Las Vegas and Reno, because now I want to be at the top of the game. I want to be the number one guy. So I started to see that I was getting richer and everyone around me was getting poorer and the drugs were beginning to take a toll on their bodies and on their lives. Not much long after that I started to notice that drugs were taking their toll on my body as well. At nineteen years of age, I was one hundred nineteen pounds. My body, mind, and soul were in such turmoil because I was so deep that I thought I would lose my life either from the drugs or being murdered. When you had gotten as far as I did, doing what I was doing, a lot of people wanted to kill you.
I was raised Southern Baptist. So one day I decided to got to church because I needed a miracle. At this service I cried and begged God to take me out of what I was in because I could not get out of it myself. Two weeks later, on January 1, the S.W.A.T. team, local law enforcement D.E.A and investigators raided my luxury home on the Columbia river. They came in with concussion bombs, stun grenades, army fatigues, and black masks. I couldn't even tell they were law enforcement. When they got me I was very scared, but at the same time I heaved a sigh of relief because I knew my prayers had been answered.
Now, I was sitting in jail facing a sentence of ninety-six months. I got an attorney and I prayed. I got three and a half years. Next thing I knew, I was on my way to the penitentiary to serve my time. Prison seemed to be a lot different than on the TV and movies. It seemed better and worse all at once. I was able to see people at their rawest form. While I'm there I decide to go to church twice a week. Going to a Southern Baptist church all my life I never understood why people kept going. I never saw any power in service. But in prison I began to see power and miracles happen and I began to see truly what Jesus was about and how He was suppose to be taught. I even saw a man be healed of hepatitis C, which is a disease that cannot be cured. I heard about a large number of men in a prison called McNeil Island in the same state and these men were cured of HIV. That was the most amazing miracle I had ever heard. I began to understand that Jesus was in the business of restoration.
After my sentences was complete and I had gotten out, it seemed like the world that I left knew exactly when I was getting out and was in my face ready to do business. I went to a couple of non-denominational churches trying to get the same effect as I got in prison. I felt God wasn't in any of those places. I could not deny what I had felt. My best friend had gotten out of prison and his mother asked us to go to her church with her. I said yes. It was a Pentecostal church. The church reminded me of the circus! I had no clue why people were running aisles and speaking in a foreign language. However, something kept me wanting to stay among these wackos! I have taken many drugs and I have never once acted like these people. So I knew they couldn't be intoxicated with anything.
My best friend had to go back to prison and gave me the number of his younger sister, I never knew he had, who lived in San Diego, California. Her and I started talking frequently. I knew the first time I talked to her there was something different about her and if I ever wanted someone like her in my life, mine had to change more. I moved to Denver in September 2005. I went to visit her about one month after that and she took me to another Pentecostal church pastored by James Larson. This church was much bigger, but everyone was just as wild! She came to visit me shortly after that and brought me to Landmark Tabernacle, another Pentecostal church. This was the same as the others. We had a long distance relationship for awhile and fell in love. Then she moved here to be with me. We started going to Landmark Tabernacle for awhile, and church just became too intense for me. I didn't want to completely let my old life go. I still wanted to party. This church talked about giving your entire self to Jesus. I wasn't ready for that. So we kept going, but it was on and off. Something still drew me there. I used to leave in the middle of service when someone would try to talk to me about the Holy Ghost. It would make my spirit so angry to hear people talking in tongues. I was angry at everyone. After awhile I didn't even feel God. I didn't feel like He was anywhere around. I would go to church and get nothing out of it and comprehend nothing, because I would sit there just being angry. Seeming like I didn't have God in my life was a struggle, yet my soul still yearned for Him. I prayed one prayer for a year, "Lord, even if you don't want a relationship with me, I still want a relationship with YOU."
On November 11, 2007 at Landmark Tabernacle, a breakthrough happened. It was the first day I gave an offering, the first day I brought my family to the altar, and the first day I let my old life go. That is the day I received the Holy Ghost. Two weeks later I was baptized in Jesus' Name. When I came out of the water I looked around confused for just a brief moment. It sounded like the auditorium was full of clapping people, but there was just a handful left. The clapping was so loud. Later, I learned that the angels rejoice over one sinner that repents. Heaven was rejoicing. My life has not been the same since."
"As a child I moved around a lot. My dad was a coast guard rescue swimmer, but later moved to a career of raiding cocaine smuggling boats and busting coke lords. So with his career choices that he made my family followed him around.
My problem with drugs happened at about 11 years old. I was living in a small town in North Carolina called South Mills. It was a poor country town that I loved with all of my heart. I was living on five acres of land with corn and strawberry fields behind my house. In front of my house was a mercy canal full of catfish. It was a young boy's playground. One day my dad got the orders to pack up his family and move to Seattle, Washington. At least this time we were not moving in the middle of the school year. We would move about every two to four years on average.
So. we had shown up in Seattle and the school started shortly after. This place was much different that the south. All the kids in school had a lot of money and partied even a such a young age. All I wanted was to have friends. I was tired of being a lonely boy. So I got in with this skater crowd and they smoked a lot of weed. So I started smoking too. I went to parties and met girls and all sorts of people. I then realized that I could not afford this any longer by the age of thirteen. My lawn mowing money could not support my habit. So I saved forty dollars and made it into eighty and so on. The drug game was working for me to the fullest extent. By the age of 16, I was making more than my parents combined. Now it was time to move again. We were moving to a small town called Washougal, Washington.
Here I am, a small town boy that moved to a big city and now here we were moving back to a small town. I started high school. I was in the tenth grade, my sophomore year. I no longer wanted to spend my time making friends, but rather building a customer base. So I get entangled with some people who throw raves. Now I have opened up a new market with cocaine and ecstasy. Not only am I selling it, but I am using about 1500 dollars a week for my own habit. By this time money is coming in fast and there is no way that I could stop. So as I fall deeper into this lifestyle, I begin to smuggle cocaine and ecstasy from Las Vegas and Reno, because now I want to be at the top of the game. I want to be the number one guy. So I started to see that I was getting richer and everyone around me was getting poorer and the drugs were beginning to take a toll on their bodies and on their lives. Not much long after that I started to notice that drugs were taking their toll on my body as well. At nineteen years of age, I was one hundred nineteen pounds. My body, mind, and soul were in such turmoil because I was so deep that I thought I would lose my life either from the drugs or being murdered. When you had gotten as far as I did, doing what I was doing, a lot of people wanted to kill you.
I was raised Southern Baptist. So one day I decided to got to church because I needed a miracle. At this service I cried and begged God to take me out of what I was in because I could not get out of it myself. Two weeks later, on January 1, the S.W.A.T. team, local law enforcement D.E.A and investigators raided my luxury home on the Columbia river. They came in with concussion bombs, stun grenades, army fatigues, and black masks. I couldn't even tell they were law enforcement. When they got me I was very scared, but at the same time I heaved a sigh of relief because I knew my prayers had been answered.
Now, I was sitting in jail facing a sentence of ninety-six months. I got an attorney and I prayed. I got three and a half years. Next thing I knew, I was on my way to the penitentiary to serve my time. Prison seemed to be a lot different than on the TV and movies. It seemed better and worse all at once. I was able to see people at their rawest form. While I'm there I decide to go to church twice a week. Going to a Southern Baptist church all my life I never understood why people kept going. I never saw any power in service. But in prison I began to see power and miracles happen and I began to see truly what Jesus was about and how He was suppose to be taught. I even saw a man be healed of hepatitis C, which is a disease that cannot be cured. I heard about a large number of men in a prison called McNeil Island in the same state and these men were cured of HIV. That was the most amazing miracle I had ever heard. I began to understand that Jesus was in the business of restoration.
After my sentences was complete and I had gotten out, it seemed like the world that I left knew exactly when I was getting out and was in my face ready to do business. I went to a couple of non-denominational churches trying to get the same effect as I got in prison. I felt God wasn't in any of those places. I could not deny what I had felt. My best friend had gotten out of prison and his mother asked us to go to her church with her. I said yes. It was a Pentecostal church. The church reminded me of the circus! I had no clue why people were running aisles and speaking in a foreign language. However, something kept me wanting to stay among these wackos! I have taken many drugs and I have never once acted like these people. So I knew they couldn't be intoxicated with anything.
My best friend had to go back to prison and gave me the number of his younger sister, I never knew he had, who lived in San Diego, California. Her and I started talking frequently. I knew the first time I talked to her there was something different about her and if I ever wanted someone like her in my life, mine had to change more. I moved to Denver in September 2005. I went to visit her about one month after that and she took me to another Pentecostal church pastored by James Larson. This church was much bigger, but everyone was just as wild! She came to visit me shortly after that and brought me to Landmark Tabernacle, another Pentecostal church. This was the same as the others. We had a long distance relationship for awhile and fell in love. Then she moved here to be with me. We started going to Landmark Tabernacle for awhile, and church just became too intense for me. I didn't want to completely let my old life go. I still wanted to party. This church talked about giving your entire self to Jesus. I wasn't ready for that. So we kept going, but it was on and off. Something still drew me there. I used to leave in the middle of service when someone would try to talk to me about the Holy Ghost. It would make my spirit so angry to hear people talking in tongues. I was angry at everyone. After awhile I didn't even feel God. I didn't feel like He was anywhere around. I would go to church and get nothing out of it and comprehend nothing, because I would sit there just being angry. Seeming like I didn't have God in my life was a struggle, yet my soul still yearned for Him. I prayed one prayer for a year, "Lord, even if you don't want a relationship with me, I still want a relationship with YOU."
On November 11, 2007 at Landmark Tabernacle, a breakthrough happened. It was the first day I gave an offering, the first day I brought my family to the altar, and the first day I let my old life go. That is the day I received the Holy Ghost. Two weeks later I was baptized in Jesus' Name. When I came out of the water I looked around confused for just a brief moment. It sounded like the auditorium was full of clapping people, but there was just a handful left. The clapping was so loud. Later, I learned that the angels rejoice over one sinner that repents. Heaven was rejoicing. My life has not been the same since."
David N. Story
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