"My name is Alan. I grew up in Monocacy, PA and lived as a happy, well-loved, normal boy till the age of 12. My mom was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, would say things that didn’t make sense,
became so angry and violent, was verbally abusive, and even threatened to kill my little sister. The day I
intervened to stop her from doing that in 1979 I left home and spent years in full-blown alcohol
addiction. I found drugs and ended up single, homeless, eating chicken wings that KFC threw out, and
drunk 24/7. I got sober in 1989, but once again turned to drugs. Losing my wife to cancer in 2010 and
feeling responsible for a severe burn accident my daughter had led me to a heavy cocaine addiction for
1.5 years. On August 10, 2021, I was sitting in my apartment and saw this verse when I opened my Bible:
“Deliver those who are drawn to death” (Proverbs 24:11). I got a gram of meth and was going to smoke
it as fast as I could in order to die, but the second part of the verse said, “And hold back those stumbling
to slaughter”. The next day I entered Restart where God showed me Ephesians 6, I dedicated my life to
Christ, got baptized, am thirsty to learn about God, and will follow through with God’s plans for my life."