This is a message of HOPE. Hope for those who are or who have a loved one living a life in some sort of addiction.

 I know the hopelessness that goes on from both sides. I have seen my family suffer throughout my addiction to crack cocaine.

I lived that hopelessness stuck in bondage for eleven years. NOTHING mattered to me but staying high. My family, who had tried everything to help me, was indeed ready to give up. I was often told that it was a relief to them that I had been arrested; referring to the police as “angels with badges” my mother was now able to sleep at night knowing that I was safely locked away.

Growing up no one ever thought I would end up addicted to crack and in and out of jail and prison. Which is another point I want to talk about .This disease is not prejudiced. It can happen to anyone. This ministry reached out to me my last trip to jail. I was at rock bottom once again and knew something had to change or nothing ever would. Broken Chains Ministry offered me friendship and support when everyone else was tired of doing just that. Keeping in contact with me throughout my jail stint, via mail, I received Bible studies that helped me build a relationship with God. That, the one thing neither I nor my parents had ever tried, was exactly what I needed. I went eleven years thinking that I could never change, and now I know that “through Christ all things are possible”. Being an addict, it is important to change everything which makes what this ministry does extremely vital to recovery. This ministry assisted me in finding a safe place that met all my needs. A place where I could go to start my life over. That is exactly what I have done. I have been clean and sober now for two years and built a relationship with my family and God.

Jeremiah 29:11says “For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. I love that. Two years ago I had neither hope nor a future. Now by the Grace of God I am free of the bondage. Today I believe that I am supposed to use all that I have gone through to help others get that HOPE. It is stated in a song that we must walk through the valley to stand upon the mountain of God. We can all overcome. This ministry is here to help those who seek it.

 

 

 

 Tara Parker