When my father died, I drowned my sorrows in alcohol.
My mother could watch no longer so I was sent to compulsory rehab—I was only eighteen. There, I met a man who invited people for cake, coffee, and conversations about God. I didn’t know what he meant, but boredom, combined with my sweet tooth, prevailed. The room was full of people with similar problems but they were different—kind and happy. I liked their music and their prayers.
At one meeting, somebody called for submitting your life to Jesus. I took the challenge… confessing my sins and asking for a new life. I didn’t sleep that night. I was positively filled. I wanted the moment to last forever.
But when I left rehab, I started drinking again on the train home. After I returned home, quarrels would never cease. I wanted to drink without the control of others. When my mother died, my three sisters disowned me. I was alone.
At twenty-one, I was a homeless orphan on my way to drinking myself to death. For some criminal offences, I was put away for a year and a half. I knew that alcohol was killing me, not only physically, but also spiritually.
The Lord Jesus reminded me of my prayer at the rehab centre. I called to Him again to change my life.
Today, I’m serving four years in prison, but God has put Christians along my way. Through learning about the Bible with [a Christian named] Darek, I saw how important it is to discover what God speaks to me in his Word. Now, I joyfully share with my fellow inmates, the prison staff and others how God changes lives. I am no longer an orphan, but a child of God in his great family.