Leadership

From Brokenness to Redemption: A Testimony of Grace

As a little girl, I was clothed in innocence—pure-hearted, wide-eyed, and trusting of all.
My earliest memories echo in the dust of my daddy’s junkyard,
Where we lived first in a tent, then in a shack, with no running car to call our own.
At four years old, I’d cling to my daddy’s rough, sweaty hand
As we walked the cracked roads of a life we didn’t choose.
He was a man fractured by pain, drowning his sorrow in liquor and meth-
Trying to silence the demons, but losing pieces of me in the process.

At five, I was gathered into the arms of my aunt and uncle—
And for the first time, I knew what it meant to stay.
Running water, warm meals, my own seat at the table,
A bathroom I didn’t have to share with the cold—
But most of all, love. Unconditional, unwavering love.
They made me feel wanted… like I belonged.
I was still broken, but I had a safe place to begin to heal.

Around the age of eight, my mother re-entered my world—
And oh, how my heart leapt.
My real mother. My blood. My longing. My momma.
Weekends with her were precious to me,
Even though her world was shadowed by addiction,
Even though her pain was loud and leaking from every pore.
I loved her all the more for her brokenness.
I wanted to rescue her… see her smile… keep her safe.

But the enemy had different plans.
He came to steal, kill, and destroy—
And through her brokenness, he found a way in.
At nine years old, my innocence was shattered—
Molested by my mother and her boyfriend,
Left in a fog of confusion and fear.
The little girl who trusted everyone
Now trusted no one.

As I grew, pain wrapped around me like chains.
In high school, I reached for anything to numb the ache—
Addiction became my healer, my prison, my false god.
By eighteen, I wasn’t just broken… I was done.
I longed for death.
Revelation 9:6—They will seek death and will not find it…
But the prayers of my grandmother—faithful, relentless—
Had built a shelter I didn’t even know I stood beneath.

It was in a jail cell that Heaven met me.
There, in the silence of my rock bottom,
I cried out—every fiber of my soul shattered and exposed.
And God, in His mercy, met me there.
He didn’t just meet me—He rescued me.
He breathed life into dry bones,
Took my heart of stone and gave me one that beat with hope again.
Psalm 34:18—The Lord is near to the brokenhearted…
I surrendered. No more halfway faith. No more games.

I entered a faith-based recovery program—13 months of pruning, pressing, and purifying.
God’s Word became my foundation.
I graduated, and then stayed to serve for four years,
Pouring out what was so graciously poured into me.

In 2015, I met my husband.
In 2016, we married and together we birthed Recovery Soldiers Ministries in Elizabethton, TN.
What began as one place of healing
Now reaches across four campuses in Tennessee and Virginia.
Only God could write this story.

I am still a woman with flaws. Still learning.
But I’ve grown into the woman God always saw in the ashes.
Every mistake has become a stone in the altar I now stand upon.
And with reverence and awe, I pour into the women God entrusts me with—
Not because I am worthy, but because He is.

I live to proclaim the name of Jesus,
To shine the light I found in that jail cell—
The light that chased out the shadows of my past.
He loved me in my ruin.
Even then, He shed His blood for me.
I will never stop singing of that grace.

I have fallen in love with Jesus Christ—
My Savior, my King, my Rock, my Redeemer.
He pulled me from the hand of the enemy
And led me to repentance with mercy that never runs dry.

Thank You, Jesus.
Oh, how I love You. May my life be a mirror of Your glory.

“If my fire is not large, it is yet real,
and there may be those who can light their candle at its flame.”
—A.W. Tozer

Hello, my name is Lincoln Shelton. I am 44 years old. I am married to my wonderful wife Denna, of 20 years. We live in Jonesborough, Tennessee where we are members of Nolichucky Baptist Church. Where at Nolichucky Baptist I teach discipleship and a Thrive class for Sunday school.  I have been involved in ministry for over 20 years. I accepted Christ at the age of 20 and was called to preach a year later.  Shortly after my call to ministry I began to serve as a youth minister.  After serving at that church for two years I felt led to continue my education. I attended Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute in Hendersonville, North Carolina, where I earned an Associate Degree in Religion/Church Ministries in 2003.

After graduation, I worked at the Hendersonville Rescue Mission. I was employed there for seven years. During this time, I saw a great need for Christian-based counseling for those who are bound by addiction and for the mentally ill. While at the Rescue Mission I also pastored a bilingual (Spanish/English) church. During this pastorate I counseled numerous couples who were having marriage difficulties which furthered my desire to become more competent in counseling. During this time, we also baptized over 25 new converts.

My wife and I moved back to Tennessee in 2010, as we felt led to return to this region. Shortly after we moved, I began pastoring Community Church of Bristol. I served there for over four years. It was at that time I felt as though I needed once again to further my education. After working with juvenile justice youth, serving as a hospice chaplain, and counseling in the secular field, I felt called to create a ministry in the field of Christian coaching and counseling known as Thrive, Life Advancement Ministries INC (thrivelam.com). I received my license as a professional counselor (LPC, MHSP) 7-29-20.

I am ordained as a SB minister. I have my Associate Degree in Religion/Church Ministries (Fruitland Baptist Bible Collage), Bachelor of Science in Psychology/Christian Counseling and MA in Professional Counseling through (Liberty University).

In His service

Rev. Lincoln Shelton

Five years ago I was told by the doctors I had six months, possibly less, to live. I had cirrhosis and I needed a liver transplant. I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything or anyone but drugs and alcohol, that’s what my life had become. I had spent the last 15 years letting drugs and alcohol rule my life. I had lost control, and I had lost hope. I couldn’t stand myself and what I had become.
I was in and out of the hospital for years due to my addiction, weeks at a time, just for them to get me some what on track, and then I’d be right back at it. I was going to UVA once a month trying to get on a liver transplant list. I had no intention on doing it because deep down I knew I’d die before I even got it. During this time my sons father was sick too, all his organs were shutting down and he passed away at the age of 33. My son was 12, just lost his dad and there I was next in line. 
I remember laying in bed, hadn’t showered in at least a week, hadn’t eaten anything more than a few crackers thinking to myself just grab the gun, end it. I couldn’t move my arms to get the gun that was under the bed. It was as if I was paralyzed and couldn’t move. This was the absolute lowest point in my life.

Growing up I never really wanted for anything. I attended church fairly regularly and I knew about God. Looking back I isolated myself as a child. My parents became consumed by their jobs and when I turned 14 we quit attending church. My addiction started when I was 15 years old. I made a choice to start smoking marijuana to fit in with my peers. By the age of 16 I was using meth and started drinking occasionally. I was open to try most anything and experimented with anything I could get ahold of. Things at home started to get worse between my parents and they ended up divorcing the day after I graduated high school. I had an expensive habit by this time and became involved with manufacturing meth and selling various drugs to support my habit. I spent a lot of time in and out of jail. I became involved in a relationship that was fueled by addiction. In Feb. 2006 my daughter was born. I knew I needed to change my lifestyle but I turned to methadone to get off of the drugs I was on. That went good for about a year then I started back into the same old pattern of my drug lifestyle. My daughter was 3 when I realized she was picking up on mine and my wife’s bad habits. I knew something had to change. Unfortunately my wife did not feel the same way and we ended up getting a divorce. She had been seeing other men and tried to keep me from seeing my daughter. She continued to use and by Gods grace I got clean for a while. I ended up getting custody of my daughter and things went well for a couple of years. In 2011, I ended up having to have surgery on my shoulder and was prescribed pain medication. I didn’t stop when my meds ran out and continued to use. Went through an up and down battle back in addiction until it grabbed a good hold back on me. In early 2013, I ended up committing two felony offenses due to my dependence on drugs. I ended up losing custody of my daughter and spending some time in jail. When I got out of jail I went straight to drinking. Managed to hold a job for a couple of years all the while my addiction took my life back over. I ended up violating my probation due to several misdemeanor charges and was facing a 6 year prison sentence in 2016. My family didn’t want anything to do with me at this point and while I lay in a jail cell I cried out to God and He heard me. I knew I needed help and all the methods I had tried ended in failure. In February of 2017, the judge allowed me to be released to Recovery Soldiers Ministries instead of going to prison. That is where I found true freedom from addiction through a relationship with Jesus Christ. March of 2018 I completed the program. I worked a good job, continued to tell others about what Jesus had done in my life, and even taught God’s Word at times. I built my relationship with my daughter and family back and everything was going great. I slowly drifted away from ministry but still attended church regularly. Then came the COVID pandemic in 2020. I started to isolate myself to work and home. Even after the pandemic I continued to stay mostly home. I fell out of fellowship and the enemy seen a crack in my armor. I drove by the liquor store for two months before I gave in to that little voice saying just one drink will be okay. So after 5 years free from addiction I started to drink. Slowly I progressed to smoking marijuana and taking pills again. I knew I needed to stop but couldn’t. So God got my attention through the man I had been working for. I decided I needed to regroup and get my priorities figured out and came back to Recovery Soldiers Ministries for help on January 1st 2022. In this regeneration process I found the healing and answers I needed to have a continued success in freedom from addiction. All of what I have had to go through in my past has prepared me for what is now happening in my life and where God is leading me for a future in His purpose for my life. I am currently an intern with the ministry looking forward to becoming part of the staff teaching those that have been through similar trials the skills I have acquired over the years in various trades as well as becoming a certified OSHA trainer to help those coming out of the grips of addiction transition back into society ready to join the work force safely and effectively.

  -The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delights in his way. 

     Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholds him 

     with His hand.    

    Psalm 37:23-24

My name is Johnathan Layne and my darkness started very early. When I was 9 or 10 years, my dad gave me something, but it wasn’t a ball glove or a bicycle. It was a pain pill. Now he wasn’t a bad dad or even a bad man. I loved my dad. He was my world. I wanted to be just like him. That was the problem. So with that came growing up in the drug house or, some people might call it a trap house. Now we call it the world, but I just called it home. So growing up in that came drugs, and with drugs comes money, women, and popularity. I was addicted to being popular just as much as I was the drugs. I liked being able to control people and, in that life, when you have the money and drugs, you can control whoever you want. So time goes on and, just a bunch more darkness and drugs are in my life and, Satan is just giving me everything I want so that he can use it to destroy me later. I meet a girl and fall in love, and she gets pregnant. Just to give you an idea of where I was at in the world. I was not ready for a kid and, I knew it. The baby was a son and, he didn’t make it. He dies and, everyone is telling me how sorry they are. But I wasn’t upset I was relieved. I didn’t have to worry about buying diapers. I could buy dope. That’s how awful I was and how tight a grip Satan had on me. So more time passes and, I start to get tired of living this way. You know, I took pills and did dope to have fun and get high. That was all fun and good for a season, but eventually, I got to where I had to take pills and do dope just to get back to normal. For my body to function or just to be able to get out of bed, I had to do drugs first. No one wants to live like that. They just don’t know any other way to live yet. So Kara gets pregnant again with my daughter and, I decide I’m going to change. So I come up with all the wordly solutions. I move out of the drug house, get an apartment, and get myself a job. I am fixing everything on the outside and, I’m not doing a thing for the inside. That never works, I promise. I also get on something called suboxone. Suboxone is a drug they give you to get off drugs, which makes no sense. I will say this about suboxone even if you are the one percent of people that can take it the right way. It’s still not true freedom. I don’t have to have ANYTHING anymore. I don’t even drink coffee anymore. So with all this, I am just an awful person. I put my poor mama through hell, I neglect my kid and her mother, and I do not care about anything but me. That’s what addiction has to offer you. I finally end up in jail with drug and assault charges, and my preacher walks into the jail cell and asks me if I was tired. I said yes, I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. He told me he knew about this place called RSM that was changing people’s lives. I said, let’s do it. I came up here, and within two days of being here, I got saved and baptized and fixed everything on the inside this time. Ever since then, God has been blessing me to death. Not only is my four-year-old daughter waiting on her daddy, but God has also blessed me with another beautiful baby girl. My mama has never been more proud of her son. My kids’ mother has got saved and gave her life to the Lord since I have been at RSM because she saw how good God is working in my life. God has shown me my calling in life, which is to teach God’s word and help drug addicts who are just like I was. Luke chapter 2 says, ”I must be about my father’s business”. That’s what I am going to do. Whatever God wants me to because He saved my life. I should be in hell with my back broke right now. But I’m not because of His grace and mercy. I give Him all the honor, glory, and praise for it all. I thank Jesus every day, and I thank RSM for introducing me to Him!

My name is Chad Bryant, I am 31 years old and was raised here in Elizabethton. At an early age I had things happen to me that caused a lot of pain in my life. I didn’t know how to deal with it so I started searching for ways to numb the pain I was feeling. At the age of 12 I got into some of my parents medication. I liked the way it made me feel but didn’t know it was a temporary solution.I was raised in church all my life. I had very good parents that taught me the way I should live but I choose the ways of the world over the ways of God every time. If I was feeling an emotion I didn’t like I would take nerve pills and pain medication to numb it, and it only got worse as I got older.I met my wife when I was 16 years old our relationship was good in the beginning, but as I got more dependent on drugs my life would get much worse until I let the drugs consume each and every thought I had. By the time we were married I had a job, but I spent every dime I made on drugs.I turned to Suboxone because I thought it would help but it only made my addiction much worse. The thing about addiction is you never get enough to satisfy the emptiness and hopelessness you feel on the inside.You just keep taking the drugs and soon just taking them was not enough any more. I turned to iv drug use.When i had my son I really thought and believed I could turn my life around but addiction had such a hold on me it only got worse.With the shame of being a terrible father and husband my drug use had made me so self centered that I would even take from my family just to get my next high. Throughout this entire time, my family and wife who had put up with the way I was living for 14 years only wanted me to get better. They tried everything to help me.My wife constantly prayed for God to change me.I truly believe God put her in my life to pray for me and help lead me to Jesus.It had got so bad that my parents lost hope and my wife was ready to give up on me, she had filed for divorce. I decided it was time to try something different recovery soldiers ministry had came to my church a few years before and done a testimony service.I sat there with long sleeves on hiding the marks on my arms wanting so bad to have what they had. I called my pastor and he got in touch with RSM. On September 13th 2021 I went with the intention of trying it for a couple of weeks and coming home so I could say I tried. When I got there and saw what God was doing in the life of the people there it changed my mind.The lord got ahold of me. I started digging into his word, I saw how much he truly loved me. I gave my life to Jesus and have been living for him ever since. He gave me hope and brothers to help me along the way. He showed me I could have a true purpose in him and what I thought was only gonna be 2 weeks God turned in to a year and a half. I have completed the program and almost through with the 6 month internship and I transition to a staff member in a couple of weeks.God has restored my marriage that was over before I came and showed me what it truly means to be a godly husband and father. I have been living at home with my wife and son since I graduated 6 months ago and my marriage and relationship with my son is better than ever before. I am so thankful for God using this ministry as a tool to change my life and the lives of countless others I have seen since I have been here.It is truly amazing what god will do once you submit to him.I would like to thank my wife for sticking by my side all those years that I was in addiction and all the prayers she prayed for me. More than anything,I would I thank Jesus Christ, for saving me and taking the mess I made of my life and turning it around, to use for his kingdom.I’m thankful to recovery soldiers ministry for leading me to Jesus and allowing me to continue to work there so I can help lead others to him.

I am from Big Stone gap Virginia, which is where I lived most of my life. I had parents who were alcoholics, used drugs and fought a lot when I was growing up. So chaos was definitely a normal way of life for me. I was taught that when you experienced stress or you were tired or needed energy, there was always a pill that would help. I had two children in my 20s and was prescribed Percocets to help with the pain from having two cesarean surgeries. It was during those years when I realized I had a physical dependency and didn’t like the way I felt without them. So for the next 10 or 15 years, I was what I considered a functioning addict even though the ways I  would obtain the medication I needed was never legal until I was prescribed Suboxone by a doctor. That’s when it became popular to admit you were an addict and seek help for it. I was on Suboxone for 12 years and thought I was sober but the physical pain I felt when I tried to stop taking Suboxone was worse than anything I’ve ever experienced. In 2015, I met a drug called methamphetamine. Within five years time it took my home from me, my job, my vehicle, my children. My friends and family all turned their backs on me, because all I was doing was stealing, lying, or manipulating them to maintain my drug habit. I lost my self-worth, my dignity, my purpose , and any hope I had for a future.. I was constantly in and out of jail. Never had a place to stay longer than a week, and was spiraling deeper into a horrible pit of self destruction and darkness. And after running from the police for 2 years due to serious criminal charges I had obtained along the way bc of the people I surrounded myself with and the terrible things I was doing, I finally got arrested. I was put in jail in a city where I didn’t know a single person, I was scared and didn’t know the next time I would see my children or feel the sun on my face. Because I was facing a lot of prison time. Thats when I called on the name of the Lord, and threw my hands up and asked for His help to save me from myself. I was reading a book in a jail cell, and because of that book, I prayed the sinner’s prayer and asked Jesus to come into my heart, and be Lord of my life forever. It seemed everything felt lighter after that, and when I was extradited back to my hometown I was given an opportunity to come to Recovery Soldiers Ministries, through a Peer Help organization that worked with the jail. I came to this program December 30, 2021 and my life has never been the same and it never will be again. I have found purpose again. I now have hope, a future, and most importantly, I found Jesus Christ and he has saved my life. He restored back to me my self-worth and dignity. He broke shackles off my feet and delivered me from all my troubles.  I will spend the rest of my life, singing his praises, and giving God all the glory! Thank you Jesus!! And thank you to RSM!

My name is Bruno Petrović. I moved from Bosnia in 1997 when I was 11 years old. I
didn’t know English and it was therefore difficult for me to have what most would
consider a normal childhood. My parents did their best to get a job and to make sure
we had a home, but during that time I was left by myself quite a bit. In the times that I
was alone, it developed a curiosity within me. Since I lacked proper guidance and
attention, I turned to the ways of the world. My darkness started early at around age
13. I started smoking marijuana and it escalated from just marijuana to harder drugs
as time progressed. All the sin that I was living in led me down a road of darkness
and misery. When I was 17, I was a witness as my best friend was murdered in front
of me. This accident led me even further astray. I eventually got kicked out of high
school and life was getting the best of me. To cope, I just got higher and increased
the severity of my addiction. I went to work immediately after I dropped out, but I was
on drugs the whole time. I thought I could function if I worked, but I was losing
everything slowly but surely. Everything I did have; the enemy was creeping in to
take it slowly but surely. My lifestyle of sin and addiction led to me losing custody of
my daughter. It escalated my depression and my addiction even more. I made a
million different excuses to keep using because I simply just didn’t want to deal with
the pain and damage that my life consisted of. I went through many institutions and
rehabs throughout the years. Eventually, I had no one and nothing to turn to except
God. I prayed and He answered me. I committed my life to Christ and since I have
done so I feel joy, happiness and peace again. I have less material things right now
in my life than I have ever had, but I am more fulfilled than I ever have been. I am
truly free. I have liberty. My daughter Audrey is back in my life. I see her regularly
and we are building a healthy relationship. It might take some time, but she doesn’t
have to explain why her daddy isn’t around anymore. She now knows her dad loves
her and didn’t give up. Jesus saved me and gave me another chance at life, and I
want to take full advantage. I want to be all that God has called me to be and to lay
hold of everything that He has in store for me.

My name is Matthew Evans.  I’m 50 years old and I’m from a small farming town in South Dakota.  Growing up and all through high school I never really did drink or do drugs.  I got married in 1996 and God blessed me and my wife with my first of two daughters.  I was going to college for pre-med while trying to be a husband and a father.  My first marriage didn’t work out and neither did college.  Seven years later God again blessed me with a second daughter.  I was working as a self-employed welder when I met the love of my life.  She and I talked back and forth online from Tennessee and South Dakota.  One day she asked me to come out and visit her.  I packed up my work truck and came out here to Tennessee.  I loved it here so much that I decided to stay.  

We got married in the spring of 2006 and I gained employment as a welder for a company that manufactured nuclear waste storage & containment systems.  I started going back to college as a mechanical engineer while helping to support my two amazing step-kids.  Life was absolutely amazing.  I was a good husband and father, had an amazing wife, amazing kids, amazing job and a really amazing live until one day I got hurt at work which resulted in major surgery.  I was out of work for several months.  After surgery I was given the choice by the surgeon to go to physical therapy three times a week or go to a pain clinic once a month.  I had such a strong work ethic that I wasn’t going to miss work three times a week.  I chose to go to a pain clinic once a month.  Little did I know that decision would change my life forever.

I was prescribed several different opiates which grabbed me so tight I was addicted before I even knew it. At first, I was taking then as prescribed but as time went on, I was feeling sick. I thought it was just from being run down from work or the flu, so I went to the store and bought some NyQuil. At this point I had no idea that my sickness was actually from going through withdraw. I realized the NyQuil helped my pills work better and before I knew it, I was drinking four bottles of NyQuil a week. At this point I was in full blown addiction. I was running shorton my pain pills for my pain clinic appointments so now I’m having to buy them off the street. As more time went on, I was getting angrier and withdrawing from my family. All I could think about was getting high on my meds and staying high.  Five years after I took that first pain pill I was in prison for ten years.  My addiction to pain medication took everything from me.  I alienated my entire family, my friends and my loved ones.  

I sat in prison in a type of depression I didn’t even know was possible. I went from being a good husband and father with money and an amazing life to a full-blown junkie in only five short years.  I started doing drugs in prison to mask my pain and depression. Drugs in prison were easier and cheaper to get, and I spent ten years in a drug induced nightmare.  As my outdate was approaching I knew I had nowhere to go; no one wanted me. I started thinking of ways I could stay in prison. I thought if I could hurt this kid I knew, I could spend the rest of my life in there. Now up to this point I never had a relationship with God, but I cried out to him “Please help me!”  God has always been faithful, and he has always been there for me even when I wasn’t there for him.  He answered my cry for help…

I got a call down to the office a few weeks before my out date.  I had a phone call, and it was from RSM offering me a bed and a place to change my life.  Through God, that phone call saved two lives that day.  

I was released from prison June 7, 2024, and the very next day I entered the doors of RSM and started my one-year long faith-based rehabilitation and discipleship program.  

Here at RSM I have counseling and IOP, I attend inner healing classes, RDAP classes, leadership classes and parenting classes all focused on God and rehabilitation, I go to work every day on their amazing construction crew and, most importantly, I have gained a relationship with God and learned how powerful the love of God truly is.  I’ve learned to love people, love myself and have learned forgiveness.  I am now graduation this program with a changed life and a sense of purpose all while being addiction free and with the love of God in my heart.

Today my focus is on God and helping addicts change their lives and breaking the chains addiction has on them.  I am devoting my life to God and ministry and leading others to The Lord.

Addiction is giving up everything for one thing, but recovery, that is giving up one for everything. I owe my everything to GOD and RSM.

Matthew Evans

My name is John Carl Frazier, I am 38 years old and from Church Hill, Tennessee and my testimony from darkness into light is one that is not like a lot of others.  I was raised in a very loving and amazing family that went to church every Sunday and always made sure that my needs were more than met.  My parents got divorced when I was young, but never let that effect the way they loved and cared for my brother and me.  I was extremely blessed to say the least.  As I grew up, I never had a problem making friends in school, making good grades or following the rules.  Later on in high school, I started drinking and partying some, but nothing out of control and after graduating, went away to college to better my future.  Looking back, this is probably the time that I started drifting away from the Lord and His will for my life and started wanting to do things my way.  I had experimented with opiates some in high school and took a liking to them, but little did I know that using them every now and then for a good time would turn into a dependence that would lead me into 20 years of imprisonment to drugs.  This was around the time that opiates got really big and people were going and getting them everywhere and they seemed to be everywhere I turned.  I was a functioning addict and still never failed a class and was always a full-time student at the University of Tennessee, but the drugs were starting to pull me down more and more and take control of my life.  I was living in Knoxville and far enough away from my family that they couldn’t really see the effects that the drugs were having on me and I just kept falling deeper without realizing how much of a hold drugs had on my life.  I ended up graduating from college with a degree in Psychology and moving back home where things continued to spiral out of control.  I was in and out of jail multiple times, jumped from job to job and was doing pretty much whatever it took to maintain my drug lifestyle, eventually resorting to IV drug use.  As my addiction got more and more severe, I moved from the opiates to methamphetamines and, in the end, turned into a person who I did not even recognize anymore.  I was a burden on my family and was so wrapped up in my addiction that I wasn’t even able to be a part of my daughter’s life.  I lost my license, wrecked multiple cars and overdosed multiple times but still somehow kept going back to the things of this world looking for happiness and meaning.  A way I like to put it is: I went a long way, but I didn’t get very far.  I was screaming out for help on the inside but used the drugs as a way to try to forget about things or numb the pain.  That leads me up to last year, 2023.  I had gotten into some trouble over in Virginia and was doing a work program 3 or 4 days a week for Scott County.  Of course, my family was having to take me over there every morning and I was still using drugs, so when I got drug tested, I failed.  After about the fifth time failing, the officer told me about a place called Recovery Soldiers Ministries and I half-heartedly agreed just to get out of his office.  My mom tried multiple times to bring me to RSM and finally I agreed and that’s when I opened my heart and mind to Jesus and the love that he has for me and was truly transformed.  I had wanted to stop depending on drugs for a long time, butcould never do it myself for a very long time.  Recovery Soldiers was just the structure and discipline that I needed.  Shortly after coming to RSM, I rededicated my life to the Lord and let him be in control of my life and guide my heart and mind.  Seeing the smile on the faces of my family now is better than any drug could have ever been and it has been such an amazing journey that I wouldn’t change for anything.  I have a newfound love for the Lord and have found so many brothers and lifelong friends here at RSM.  The Lord has done more for me than I could have ever imagined or ever dreamed of myself and I look forward to serving Him moving forward and to see the plans He has for my life.  

My name is Sydnee Danielle Mullins I am 24 years old I was born and have lived most of my life in Wise County Virginia. I was born into a family that was very loving, but at the same time dysfunctional. By the age of 15 I was living with a boyfriend that I met in school we started to smoke weed daily and that’s where all the money I earned working went to. I became very dependent on the drug; without it I was unhappy. Along the way our relationship became very toxic mentally. After three years of repeating this cycle of school, work, drugs and fighting I became sick of it and left only to get right back into a relationship that was fueled by methamphetamines. After trying to get sober many times, having a child and not being able to leave the drugs and abuse, I lost my child to social services. I thought I could “do life” on my own. I listened to nobody and learned my lessons the hard way. I ended up being in and out of jail facing criminal charges and fighting for my life. The day I realized I needed to do something different was the day I found myself inside my mother’s home watching her, my stepdad Brian and my uncle Bobby slowly dying and I was right there with them. I felt hopeless thinking that I could not escape the life I had created. Now that I look back, I can see Jesus working in the areas of my life that I thought where the most damaging. He used every weapon the enemy had placed against me for the good and He shows me this. He has opened doors in my life I never imagined would be opened and he shut doors that I didn’t think ever would shut. I know now that I cannot do it with my own strength, knowledge and understanding so this is why I will always lean on Him knowing and trusting that he will lead me. He has saved me from the sin and death I was living in and has given me abundant life.