Testimony of Michael Thompson

If not for Jesus, I don’t know where I’d be today!

When I was 13, I got to hanging with the wrong crowd. I started drinking just to be “cool.” I had a 17-year-old who would buy liquor for me. At 16, I dropped out of high school. It wasn’t too long before I tried drugs. When I was 20, my cousin gave me some “crack” and that started what I call “the road to Hell."

I was doing whatever I wanted, when I wanted. That lifestyle landed me in jail. It was when I was in prison in 1992 that I heard about Jesus Christ and got saved. After that I went clean for 15 months. Then, I did some serious backsliding and was in and out of jail for the next few years.

I had lost my family and my house. I was living on the streets, sleeping in the woods or in cars. I stole wine and worked just enough so I could buy drugs. I lost everything and I had nowhere to go.

My parents couldn’t take it anymore and in May of 2000, they brought me to the Durham Rescue Mission. When I got there I was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. To tell you the truth, at first I hated it at the mission. I wanted to be anyplace else doing my drugs. Thank God, the very next day was Sunday and I went to the mission church service in the morning. I was really feeling bad. Then, in the afternoon service, the Lord broke my heart over my sins against Him and I rededicated my life to Jesus Christ.

Praise God, my life has not been the same since! Eleven months of the Victory Program gave me Bible training, counsel and discipline. For the first time in my life I really wanted to please the Lord.

I graduated from the Victory Program in June 2001. I went to work right away and before long, I started my own business doing hauling and cleanup. I am married and have a 3-year-old son. I teach a Sunday school class at my church and regularly go to a halfway house to witness and encourage the men there.

I’m really thankful to Mr. Pleasants, the Victory Program, and to the donors of the mission. I don’t know where I’d be today if it weren’t for them.