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Faith Stories with Pastor Joe Coffey is a podcast about the real stories of real people and the real ways God moves in and through our lives. Each episode shares honest conversations of breakthrough and struggle–stories of faith, failure, drift, redemption, and the slow pull back to Jesus. From seasons of success to moments of darkness, these testimonies are reminders that no one is too far gone, no story is beyond redemption, and Jesus is still in the business of restoring what feels lost.
00;00;00;26 - 00;00;21;41
Unknown
Hey everybody, welcome to Faith Stories of podcast from Christ Community Chapel, and really it's about how Christ can change anything and everything. And I'm Joe Coffey, your host, and this is my guest, Steve Suffolk. Great to have you, Steve. Thanks for joining us. Thanks, Joe. Thanks for having me. All right. Let me start like this. I'm excited about this one.
00;00;21;46 - 00;00;51;08
Unknown
Tell me, first of all, the things that you're involved in at church are just in ministry because I know you are involved in several things. So I've been a part of transformation journey regeneration for the past six years. Okay. Which has been an absolute amazing discipleship. Watching guys change their lives through Jesus is just an amazing thing to watch.
00;00;51;13 - 00;01;13;21
Unknown
It's probably one of my favorite things to do. I also do a Bible study every ten weeks with Dave Burgon called Titus ten, and that too has been just my son in law's in that too. Yes. Yeah. And we just finished up, actually. And it's to watch guys get that zeal for Jesus and to share it is just awesome.
00;01;13;21 - 00;01;41;31
Unknown
So yeah. Okay. All right. Now let me. 30 years ago. Could you imagine yourself involved with the church doing stuff for Jesus? No, no. Okay, now we're going to get into. Why not? So 30 years ago at, let's say 19, 20 years old, what's your life like? Life is a mess. Graduated high school was at that point.
00;01;41;36 - 00;02;08;14
Unknown
Probably a full blown alcoholic now. Okay. When did that start? I was probably 15, 16 years old when I started drinking. My first drink was in, like, seventh, eighth grade. We read a basketball tournament camp in Cincinnati, and after camp was done during the day, they led us into the dorms. And as seventh, eighth grade kids, we were kind of left to our own devices.
00;02;08;24 - 00;02;33;53
Unknown
I think about back about that now, and it's kind of odd to me. But we walked downtown Cincinnati. Three of us talked to a guy or a lady into buying us alcohol, and us three drank those beers. And you know, Joe, the I was immediately pretty much a blackout drinker. You know, so your eight eighth grade, when you tasted a beer, did you like it?
00;02;33;56 - 00;02;55;52
Unknown
Not really. No. You were doing it for a purpose, though. I wanted the effect. Right? Yeah. And I, that night, we got in a lot of trouble. We had a fire extinguisher fight in the dorm room. One of the guys that I was with stole the coach's car and went and got us McDonald's. It was. It was the whole thing.
00;02;55;57 - 00;03;13;24
Unknown
So you guys went. Went all out? Yeah, yeah. And, you know, the next day, a basketball camp, I'm supposed to be learning how to play basketball and learn new things and do all and all I can remember is thinking, man, I can't wait to do that again. So. Yeah. So from that moment on, you were like, okay, this is good.
00;03;13;26 - 00;03;36;11
Unknown
Yeah. Did you come? How was your family life? I was mom and dad, middle class, an older sister. Younger sister. My dad worked. My mom stayed home for the most part. She had an occasional job, but she pretty much stayed home. Our home life was good. Okay, so it wasn't that. No. You just nothing to blame it on.
00;03;36;13 - 00;04;04;15
Unknown
There was alcohol in our home, but nothing. Nothing crazy. So. Okay, so fast forward from eighth grade. Do things get progressively worse? Yeah. So I was pretty involved with basketball in middle school and high school and sports in general. And I always had felt like I was missing something. I always felt like I describe it as like a hole in my soul.
00;04;04;20 - 00;04;23;45
Unknown
I just felt like I didn't fit in. I felt like even though I had lots of friends and all of that stuff, I just every time we would be around them, I just felt like I didn't belong. I can't really explain why that was. It just I felt like I was always trying to fill it with something. Now, when you drank, did you feel more connected?
00;04;23;48 - 00;04;50;58
Unknown
Yeah, it took that away. Okay. It took those feelings of anxiety and fear and all of those things that I felt on a daily basis, and it made them disappear. So by my sophomore year, I had quit sports. I was starting to chase the guys that had pockets full of money, were selling drugs and ran the streets. And that's what I wanted to do after school.
00;04;50;58 - 00;05;16;13
Unknown
If we went to school. I'd be drinking and doing drugs. Now where was this? Friends houses? No, I mean, what town? Oh. Cuyahoga falls. Okay. I was on the north side of the falls. Went to Woodridge High School, graduated from Woodridge. And I graduated high school, and I wasn't going to college. My dad was in a car business, and I had decided that I was going to go that route.
00;05;16;17 - 00;05;39;19
Unknown
So I started selling cars and moved out of my parents house into an apartment with a friend. I was, you know, 18 years old and got in the car business was doing pretty well. But those guys taught me something. They they they worked hard and they parted hard. And we went to bars every night as an 18 year old kid.
00;05;39;24 - 00;06;06;35
Unknown
Now, what was the drinking age? Was it 18 then? It was 21, 21. I never really got carded. By the time I graduated high school, I was starting to lose my hair. So I looked older than I was, but went to bars, carried on, got introduced to at this apartment that I lived in one night. Came home, got introduced to cocaine, which led me down a road that was pretty difficult, right?
00;06;06;38 - 00;06;31;12
Unknown
Now, when you were introduced, the cocaine, did you have any kind of. Maybe this is more serious than. So you went right from beer to cocaine, hard alcohol, beer? Yeah, pretty much straight to cocaine. I had, you know, smoked marijuana and and delved into some LSD and acid and mushrooms and stuff in high school. But other than that, nothing hard until that.
00;06;31;17 - 00;06;50;23
Unknown
Yeah. And there was nothing inside of you that went, maybe this is a little too much or this is dangerous or, you know, I had heard that a lot of people got addicted to it the first time they did it, but I was actually kind of excited to do it because I wanted.
00;06;50;28 - 00;07;15;37
Unknown
To do more. And at that point, you didn't think you were addicted to alcohol either? I did not. Okay. No, I stayed at that job for a little while, but I had the money that I was making. There wasn't, you know, within a few short months, was not paying for my habit. So I had to do other things to pay for that habit.
00;07;15;37 - 00;07;40;41
Unknown
I had to. We like to say I had to become the local pharmacist, and I was selling drugs to support myself. I never really I wasn't real good at it. I never made money on it, but it supported me doing the things that I wanted to do. And I, you know, look back on those days and I was, you know, there were it was dangerous.
00;07;40;41 - 00;08;00;20
Unknown
It was. But you watch those movies and those are the guys at that point in my life that I wanted to be that I idolized. You know, I wanted to have the nice cars and the fancy clothes and all of those things. And now how do you go from a, like, a middle class upbringing? How do you sell drugs?
00;08;00;32 - 00;08;34;37
Unknown
Like what? Like somebody goes, okay, you're going to sell drugs. Here's a certain amount at a lower price. What makes you a dealer? Once you have those connections, a lot of people that you party with and whatnot want that. And that's kind of how you do it. I started going with friends of mine to raves and Pittsburgh and other places that I would sell and buy drugs all night long and then drive home.
00;08;34;41 - 00;08;59;59
Unknown
There are lots of times I don't remember driving home from those places, you know, and I, had moved into my apartment and then I had got with a friend of mine that we parted a lot. And one night I went to my drug dealer and I asked him for it was middle of the night, and we were out of drugs, and I went there to buy some more.
00;08;59;59 - 00;09;28;25
Unknown
And he didn't have any cocaine that I usually buy, but he had crack cocaine and I bought that, didn't really know what I was doing, but it was I can remember doing it and it was harder, faster. And I was like, all about it immediately. And that stuff, as bad as cocaine is, that substance is just times a thousand, right?
00;09;28;30 - 00;09;34;06
Unknown
And how old are you at this point? I'm probably in my.
00;09;34;11 - 00;10;07;09
Unknown
Late teens, early 20s. So you went fast? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So you're talking about 24, 36 months. You have gone pretty fast. Pretty hard. Yeah. All right. At this point, I'm beginning and ending my day with alcohol. I'm going to work, and I shake so bad that I can't get change in a pot machine. Okay. And when I leave work, I'm drinking and immediately going to buy drugs.
00;10;07;18 - 00;10;45;38
Unknown
I'm doing that every day. And now your drug of choice is crack. Yeah. Okay. And, I end up going to. I end up getting, let me think about this because my timelines get a little messed up, but I had, That's understandable, by the way. She said no. And the older I get, I'm like, so I get I'm working at a Dodge store here in the falls, and I leave work one day, and I'm driving a bright yellow Dodge Dakota in 1999 when they came out.
00;10;45;38 - 00;11;08;33
Unknown
So at this point, I'm 99. I graduated in 95, some 22. I leave work, I go to the gas station, I grab a beer and I pour the gas station. I spend my tires and as I pass budget muffler heading towards Steele's Corners Road, I see a police officer pulled behind me and I'm like, oh, he's going to pull me over for squealing my tires.
00;11;08;33 - 00;11;32;41
Unknown
So I turn left on Steele's Corners Road, and I look at my review mirror, and there's probably 5 or 6 police officers behind me, and they all flipped their lights on at the same time. And I'm like, I don't know what I did, but I'm in trouble. And I pull into a church parking lot of all places. And over the microphone, the police lieutenant yells, get out of the car with your hands up!
00;11;32;46 - 00;11;57;06
Unknown
Get on the ground! So I was on the ground. They came over, handcuffed me, and he looked right at me and he said, son, do you have any idea why you're being arrested? I have no idea. And he said, we have a secret indictment for trafficking cocaine. And I had never really been in trouble. I had been in some really bad positions with places and people that I shouldn't be with.
00;11;57;09 - 00;12;18;16
Unknown
Right. But I had never been in trouble like this. And, I had to call my parents and let them know that I was in jail. I had I was headed to their house because at this point, I couldn't even afford to live on my own. So I end up back in their basement and they knew that I probably had a drinking problem, but they didn't really know about the other stuff.
00;12;18;21 - 00;12;40;39
Unknown
And at this point, people start paying attention to my drinking. So you get arrested, you take down, and this is the first time you've been arrested. Yeah, right. You're taking their I'm assuming they put you in a room. You and you know, you're guilty I do. Yeah. So how scared are you? What's pretty scared? I didn't know the justice system.
00;12;40;39 - 00;13;13;43
Unknown
I didn't know really how this works. I had a good job. I had bills that I was responsible for. But at this point in my life, I had to have something in my system at all times, and I didn't. I didn't really know. It was kind of a blur. They interviewed me, they asked lots of questions, told me that they had been watching me for approximately 24 months.
00;13;13;48 - 00;13;36;59
Unknown
They had undercover purchases against me on tape with me driving my car. They ended up trying to seize my truck. They ended up not being able to because it was leased. But they said, would you be willing to help us? And at that point, I was scared enough that I was like, yeah, I think I would. And they said, okay, we'll be in.
00;13;37;01 - 00;14;08;49
Unknown
We'll be in touch. So I spent the next 24 hours ish in Cuyahoga Falls jail. I got arraigned the next morning, and they let me out on a signature bond and court date proceeding. So, but I, you know, something that changed of my life is they they end up, I end up starting to go to treatment for drugs and alcohol.
00;14;08;49 - 00;14;38;52
Unknown
But before court happens, the Cuyahoga Falls police detectives call me, and they want me to set up purchases against the guy that I was buying drugs from. Yes. Just wanted a bigger a bigger fish. Yeah, right. And you're going to help them. They want to go up the line, which is a little bit dangerous. Yeah. And they you know, the first time I said okay, so I set up the first meeting, they meet me before the whole thing that you see in movies is pretty much what they did.
00;14;38;54 - 00;15;02;13
Unknown
They put the they put the microphone on under my shirt. They hung a sling around my shoulder that had a box in it back here. They said, just turn that on when you're getting ready to meet and turn it off after you're done. And, you know, they gave me some specific commands about, you know, if you see a gun, just say something to the effect.
00;15;02;14 - 00;15;27;26
Unknown
And if I remember correctly, they they said we should have a party. And if I said that word, they said, be prepared because we're coming. But we want we want to know if there's firearms and whatnot. So, so so you're going to this meet? Yeah I know I'm actually working. And they they meet me in the parking lot next door to the dealership.
00;15;27;26 - 00;15;50;01
Unknown
No, I mean, are you high on drugs? I'm not. No. Because you're working. Yeah, I was working. And they they they gave me some commands and they're like, listen, you don't you don't take anything out of whatever you get. You count the money out on microphone. You know, if you say, let's have a party, we're coming. Right. You know, it's a lot to remember.
00;15;50;01 - 00;16;13;20
Unknown
It's a lot you. How scared were you? I was pretty scared. Yeah, I bet, mainly because I didn't know how all this would happen. So the first time that I had to do this, I met them at the dealership. I had to tell my boss that I was doing that. My boss. I had to sit them down and let them know what I was doing.
00;16;13;23 - 00;16;40;24
Unknown
The detectives told me that I should do that, so I did, and they were. They had never been a part of something like that. So my, you know, and my blast radius had even affected some of them. Right. So, person comes and hands me, I count out the money, I give them to him, I have to go off work, meet them next door, give them the stuff, and they said, we'll be in touch.
00;16;40;28 - 00;16;59;20
Unknown
They had me do this one more time, and. And it went without a hitch. Yep. Okay. It was just like same old, same old. Yeah. And he didn't suspect anything. Did you have to get him to say something? No. Anything in particular? No. No, he was just doing the thing. Yeah, yeah. And once they show up, they're considered guilty, so.
00;16;59;20 - 00;17;19;28
Unknown
Okay, kind of the same thing that happened to me happened to this person. So do it the second time. End up going to court. The police officer said that I was very cooperative. I get out of there with probation, and they sentenced me to the Community Drug Board. I go through a community drug board outpatient program.
00;17;19;40 - 00;17;39;31
Unknown
It's supposed to take eight weeks. It takes me eight months, mainly because I couldn't pass a drug or alcohol test. It seems like every time they would spring one on me, I would end up failing and I would have to start the program over. So fast forward, I get off of that program. I had been, you know, I thought I was smarter than everybody, Joe.
00;17;39;34 - 00;18;02;41
Unknown
I thought I was signing my own paper. I was supposed to go to meetings, start working steps, but I wasn't ready for all that. And I just signed my own paper and turned it in and ended up getting out of all that trouble getting off probation. But it had triggered something. I knew that I wanted to stop.
00;18;02;46 - 00;18;31;10
Unknown
People had started paying attention to me, and my drinking started to know it was an issue. My my bosses and stuff would call my parents when they thought they suspected stuff, and it just became a problem. Right. So I fast forward about a year and I checked myself into detox at Saint Thomas Hospital right after New Year's, and I wanted help and I checked myself in.
00;18;31;13 - 00;18;56;50
Unknown
They sent me to Edwin Schall. That was open back then. I spent 30 days in there. I met a guy that would be my sponsor for the next couple of years in there. That, he didn't judge me. I didn't really know about. God. I didn't really know. I read through the steps that they teach you in Alcoholics Anonymous, and I didn't really know how that stuff would have, would change my life.
00;18;56;55 - 00;19;17;41
Unknown
But he told me just to start getting on my knees and praying, and he goes, I don't I don't really care who or what it's to just start doing it. So I did that for a small amount of time while I was in there, but it had introduced me, kind of started the seed, and within a week or two of getting out of rehab, I was drunk again.
00;19;17;43 - 00;19;39;56
Unknown
Okay, fast forward about six, eight months. I did the same thing again. I went back into detox. I went back to Edwin Shaw, spent two weeks, and Edwin Shaw thought, this isn't for me. Left with a girl. That didn't end well. After about 24 to 48 hours. I don't think I ever saw her again, but we were both drinking.
00;19;40;01 - 00;20;04;14
Unknown
So what's going on with your job and everything? So I was pretty good at selling cars, so they put up with a lot. Okay, but I get to a point after the second rehab stint that they start noticing that I'm starting to get to the point that I can't show up for work in the morning. Now, when you're selling cars at that time, were you, like, on commission?
00;20;04;14 - 00;20;30;12
Unknown
So you kind of eat what you kill. So they didn't have any skin in the game really, because if you didn't sell cars, then they could let you go. But if you were selling cars, they would pay you because they were making money. Correct. I got it. So you've gone through rehab twice now? Yeah, right. How are you thinking that you are just an addict, like you're going to.
00;20;30;17 - 00;20;57;39
Unknown
And you're 24. 25? Yeah. And your life is coming. Unravel. Yeah. All right. And I'm at this point, I'm pretty sure that I can't stop. I know that I have a severe issue, but I just don't know how to stop. I'm going to meetings every day. Alcoholics Anonymous or. Nah, but I'm getting high and drunk in a parking lot before I go in there, and I can't understand why it doesn't work for me.
00;20;57;44 - 00;21;21;42
Unknown
I could never put it down long enough to actually listen. So I if you were drinking, why were you going to the meetings? I wanted to stop, okay, I couldn't, okay? I wanted what those people had. Yeah. I saw some level of peace and happiness that I wanted, that I was chasing with the drugs and alcohol, but I couldn't.
00;21;21;42 - 00;21;44;19
Unknown
I didn't know how to get there. Wow. Wow. That's. I mean, you are. There's a desperation there and a longing for you to keep going to meetings. Yeah. Like, I, I just didn't like I never I didn't grow up in church. I didn't know, but, you know, I had those desperation prayers constantly because I didn't I didn't want to live that life, but I didn't want to live this one either.
00;21;44;24 - 00;22;08;02
Unknown
So I go to end up checking myself into I end up getting a bad driver, get really depressed. I mean, like suicidal. Yeah. I mean, there were times when that would pass through my head, but I was too scared. I was too, but yeah, I didn't want this to go on it more. Yeah. It just seems like it was just a lot.
00;22;08;05 - 00;22;29;15
Unknown
And it was, it was. I could see, you know, how I was hurting everybody in my life. Then at this point, I couldn't stay at home anymore. I was having my mom would stay up in the middle of the night and watch me go to the mailbox where I would have drugs delivered, and she would have to stay up all night.
00;22;29;15 - 00;22;53;36
Unknown
And one night I came home and she had taken black magic marker and write all over the floors. And the cabinets don't do drugs. Drugs are bad. That was just, you know, my part of my blast radius that was just destroying other people. So shortly thereafter, they couldn't deal with me anymore. They don't want to watch me die.
00;22;53;48 - 00;23;24;40
Unknown
So they made me leave. And I stayed at my sister's house while I was waiting to go to IBB. My sister would lock the doors and windows at night and take my shoes because I was that drug addict. So I get into IBB and I spend 90 days in there, and I at that time was run by a priest, and you had service a couple times a day, and you would go to a meeting at night, and you had classes during the day, and they got you up at 6 a.m. and, you know, you had all this stuff to do.
00;23;24;45 - 00;23;50;31
Unknown
And while I was there, I ate good. I started I met my sponsor. That is still in my life today that I've had for two decades or longer, that my kids call Grandpa Paulie. He's that guy to them. But while I'm in there, you know, I start, those guys had told me to start praying and start, and I said, but I don't know what I'm praying to.
00;23;50;36 - 00;24;11;22
Unknown
And they said, just start doing it because it worked for us. And we're telling you that it works. And I had I hurt bad enough that I was just willing to do anything they told me to do. I started going to meetings in there, and I started to feel like I got this, like, I can do this, you know?
00;24;11;25 - 00;24;33;28
Unknown
And after 90 days, the physical withdrawal of all of that stuff is, for the most part gone. You know, you deal with all the other emotional stuff and all that stuff. But I got out of there and I started picking guys up for meetings. After I left, bringing them cigarettes started to kind of carry that message to them.
00;24;33;33 - 00;25;11;46
Unknown
I kept praying and, one night, about right before my four month anniversary, I got drunk again. And at that point I was pretty scared. I thought, I, you know, when I had left Ibe, I told everybody with every ounce of whatever that I wasn't going to do this anymore, but I was missing that relationship with him. And so at four months, I gave him my four month coin back, my sponsor, I was at his house and he didn't bury me.
00;25;11;46 - 00;25;31;12
Unknown
He didn't, you know, yell at me. He said, we just got to get back on our knees and you need to get to a meeting. And he took me to another meeting. And then, I started to do those things every day, started to pick guys up. I had graduated with a bunch of guys that really stuck together.
00;25;31;14 - 00;25;56;34
Unknown
I think they helped. I still talked to a lot of them today, and, I met, I started I got a home group, which means you're there every, every week and you're accountable and started doing those things that they tell you to do. And then met my wife at 11 months sober. It was funny. I told my sponsor that I was going to I'm like, I'm going to marry her.
00;25;56;34 - 00;26;18;54
Unknown
And I barely knew her. And he said, you don't have anything she wants and she's engaged. You just need to leave her alone. And she was in my home group, but I just we had that. I had that instant connection to her. So she ends up breaking up with her boyfriend, and we end up getting together, and, you know, I.
00;26;18;58 - 00;26;48;28
Unknown
And you're good at selling cars, so you had to just sell yourself. That's right. To actually sold her a car that she gave to her ex-fiance to get him gone. So there you go. Yeah, yeah. So, but so, like, you know, we waited. The thing in AA is that you need to wait a year. And so we waited a year and started to date and, you know, it it got we got it got good.
00;26;48;28 - 00;26;59;30
Unknown
And, my life started to change. And about.
00;26;59;34 - 00;27;14;14
Unknown
Three. So we end up this timelines a little fishy back then, but my, dead ends up getting,
00;27;14;18 - 00;27;37;46
Unknown
Diagnosed with lung cancer. My dad was a very active guy, ran marathons, wrote his bicycle to Cedar Point and back, you know, every other week, and, didn't smoke cigarettes. Got diagnosed with lung cancer. They gave him about eight months to live. He fought pretty hard, but we decided to get married, and we were moving our wedding date up so that my dad could be there.
00;27;37;51 - 00;28;06;50
Unknown
So we get married and, you know, my dad made it to the wedding. We go on our honeymoon that we leave that Sunday or Monday. And on Tuesday in the Dominican Republic, we get back to the room after breakfast and the lights blinking on the phone, and we already knew. So they had. That was our travel agent saying, you guys need to get on the next plane and get home.
00;28;06;55 - 00;28;36;49
Unknown
So we they run us in the Dominican Republic 100 miles an hour to the airport. We get out of the car and the the resort concierge was like, can you guys run? And we're like, yeah, we can run, okay, don't stop. We're running straight to the plane. We're like, okay. So we we're literally running through the Dominican Republic airport asked to the tarmac, and they stopped the plane and lower the steps and let us on the plane like it would never happen in the United States.
00;28;36;53 - 00;29;02;25
Unknown
So we get home. Dad dies on Friday. It was pretty brutal. I had always he as much as he enabled me. He was always that guy that I bounced stuff off of. So I felt that alone feeling started coming back again. I was about three years sober at this point. I just got married, just had a baby, and was sponsoring some guys going to meetings.
00;29;02;25 - 00;29;27;16
Unknown
But this year had been pretty rough on me. My dad died. My aunt goes into the hospital and a detox unit at City Hospital falls out of bed in the middle of the night, bumps her head and never wakes up again. Wow. And then my grandmother on my mom's side passes away, and, I don't know when it happened, Joe, but I got real mad at God, and I didn't have a great relationship with him anyway because I didn't really know.
00;29;27;23 - 00;29;49;41
Unknown
Right. But I got mad, and I stopped praying. And for me, if I'm not doing all the things all the time, I'm not going to stay here. So one night, I delivered a car to a customer's house in West Akron. And on the way home, I saw a dope boy on a motorcycle or on a bicycle.
00;29;49;41 - 00;30;26;44
Unknown
Sorry. And I stopped and I bought drugs. First time in almost four years. Went home. My daughter and my wife went to bed. I went down in the basement and was up all night. Went to work the next day and I was absolutely terrified. Now, did Danielle? No, not at this point. Okay. And I was terrified. You know, I had fought so hard to get that off of my back, and I just brought it back, and I said, I worked for about an hour, and I went home and I said, I can't do this.
00;30;26;44 - 00;30;50;09
Unknown
I need to tell her what I just did. And I told her, and we had always had a plan because this this addiction cycle is pretty violent and pretty, decimating to everybody in your life that we had a plan that whoever the warring party was, we'd lock up the cards, the checking accounts, all the stuff, and then do what we have to do.
00;30;50;13 - 00;31;12;38
Unknown
So it was like pulling a ripcord. Yeah, yeah. So we had a new baby. She was getting ready for work when I told her she. God love her. I've put her through a lot in our marriage and stuff, but she, She didn't blink. She knew what she needed to do. She knew what I needed to do. My wife's also in recovery.
00;31;12;42 - 00;31;30;05
Unknown
She's. She just had her 30, 30 or 31 year anniversary, so. But she knew what she needed to do. She knew what I needed to do. I called my sponsor. She said, I'm going to leave the baby home with you today. You're going to stay home. Is everything okay? I'm going to go to work, I said yes, I called my sponsor.
00;31;30;05 - 00;31;54;47
Unknown
He took me to a meeting that night, and that was January 12th of 2007, and I haven't had a drink sense. So congratulations. You got to tell me when Jesus becomes real. Yeah. So fast forward to girls are growing up there in private school, mainly because we we wanted better for them and we thought that was a way to get it.
00;31;54;47 - 00;32;15;59
Unknown
So they're going to private school. They're coming home talking about Jesus. And I could no longer, you know, for my entire life I had this block against Jesus. Even the word made me just cringe, right? But they started breaking down my walls a little bit. They were going to school. They were learning about Jesus. They had, you know, that was their life.
00;32;15;59 - 00;32;43;43
Unknown
And they kept pushing us to go to church. And so we started going to church at their school and spent a few years there. And they're starting to my older daughter is getting out of that school, and she ends up going to CbCa and my younger ones, you know, a couple years behind her. But we were kind of looking for a home, and we had been two people that we CrossFit with came to see CC and they were like, maybe you should check out church.
00;32;43;43 - 00;33;06;17
Unknown
So they invited us here. And my kids absolutely loved the music and then started asking us to come back, you know, and we were in a season with me and Danielle where we had been raising kids and we didn't really connect real well. So we came to the church and met with Todd, Ayanda and his wife, and he was like, maybe you guys should do reengage.
00;33;06;17 - 00;33;35;16
Unknown
And we did that. And that started to open the door for me and for Jesus. Yeah. So this one that you've been talking to, this nameless guide you've been talking to for years, you finally have a name for. Yeah, right. And I start to have a relationship with him. I started to connect with him in a way that I can't.
00;33;35;20 - 00;34;05;49
Unknown
I don't know how or why it happened to this day, but I start, just really wanting more of that. We go to reengage, and we're coming to church every Sunday, and then I'm told to come to this. They have a they had and I forget the name of it, but they guys met Saturday morning or Wednesday morning early and went through some, it's kind of like a Bible study.
00;34;05;58 - 00;34;36;42
Unknown
Like men's fraternity. Yes. Men's frat. Right. So I started going there and, you know, I met Dave Bergen, and the man changed my life. So he ends up inviting me to region, and that's kind of where my faith really took off. I got baptized after the first session of regen. My girls were super pumped up about that.
00;34;36;47 - 00;34;54;48
Unknown
Started to pray with my wife and my kids at home. Just started to, you know, you had mentioned something at the first. I've been to all the Men summit. You mentioned something at the first one, that he should be the first one to turn the light on in the morning. I still try to do that to this day.
00;34;54;48 - 00;35;16;08
Unknown
I leave my phone at the and I tell my guys on region this. I lay my phone underneath my bed so that when I wake up, I don't forget to get on my knees. I do that every day. I'm the first one to turn the light on in the house every day. Started to journal. Don't do that as much as I should, but I try.
00;35;16;13 - 00;35;46;42
Unknown
But I'm in his word every morning. And the transformation to watch guys come through broken and to help them weed out all of that stuff that keeps us away from him. Right, is just been life changing for me. There's a theologian named Agustin who said, our hearts are restless until we find our rest in the. Oh, God.
00;35;46;42 - 00;36;09;01
Unknown
So, I mean, it seems like your whole life you are hungering for something and trying to fill that hole in your soul, and you found it in Jesus. I think it's cool, though, that Bergin meant has meant so much to you. You are the Bergen de Bergen for some other guys that one day will sit there and say, I would hope.
00;36;09;04 - 00;36;38;29
Unknown
Yeah, Steve changed my life. So yeah, it's it's awesome. And I, you know, there's lots of days, you know, he promises us peace. There's lots of days that I have that peace these days and I, I just yearn for more of it. You know, I still mess up. I'm still broken. You know, I still, I want to be that guy that doesn't.
00;36;38;33 - 00;36;55;35
Unknown
And I'm fighting real hard to get there, you know what I mean? Yeah, well, you are. I mean, you are at that guy because I remember after hearing your story, then I had a guy come to my office and just say, I'm in trouble, I need help. And that was. And I found you in the atrium and just said, hey, can you talk to this guy?
00;36;55;35 - 00;37;15;27
Unknown
And you went right over to him to connect with him. So, yeah, seem so glad that you shared your story. Love how you know, this is the tagline is that Christ can change anything and everything. Yeah. Including you. Yeah. Including me. So thanks again. Yeah. Thanks, Joe. Appreciate it.
00;37;15;27 - 00;37;40;04
Unknown
Thanks for listening to Faith Stories. We do this podcast because we believe that Jesus can do anything and everything. So. You're listening to this episode and you feel like you want Jesus to do more in your life than you can reach out to us. You can find the address in the description of the podcast, but we would love for you to reach out because we want to meet you where you are and then take you further along with Jesus.
00;37;40;07 - 00;37;41;19
Unknown
Thanks again for listening.