When I was arrested on drug charges I spent my first few days at Riverside Regional Jail in solitary.  There was no one there to call on but the Lord.  To my amazement after about 10 days God answered me!  I have a lot of health problems among them is very poor vision.  I had already lost one contact lense and nearly lost the other.  They say its impossible but I mangaged to get it back on my eye by cleaning it in my mouth with saliva.  The Lord came to me in my dreams and comforted me.  The next day I finally got through to my fiancee (who never used drugs or alcohol) on the phone and after many days of being very angry with me began to forgive me though I was undeserving.

The day after that I was transferred to a medical cell block where things were much better for me except that the phone in there wouldn't work for me.  It has a fingerprint scanner and it just wouldn't read my fingerprint.  I told the guard but I had the feeling it might be awhile before I got to talk to my fiancee again.  I prayed fervently that I could somehow get in touch with her.  In the meantime a fellow who had breathing problems was sent to the medical cell block from solitary lock up.  He offered to call my fiancee for me using his fingerprint and account.  When Lorna heard a strange voice on the other end she hung up abruptly but that didn't stop David.  He called his wife and asked her to call Lorna (they lived three hundred miles away in different states) but David's wife readily agreed to do this for me!  In a few minutes I was talking to my beloved Lorna. I now believe that jail authorities puposely hindered my communication attempts but God helped me overcome it!

I'm getting ahead of myself though.  I live in a different state from the one I was locked up in and bonding prospects were grim.  I would have to find someone who had a job in that state (the one I was locked up in) to sign a financial responsibility statement and the prospects of that were slim indeed. 

The Holy Spirit was telling me in still small voice in my head that He would help me but that I had to stop feeling sorry for myself and start helping others.  That is how I came up with the idea for PAPA.  In the medical block in the cell next to mine was a young man who was on a hunger strike.  Don't know how he managed that, I was hungry, ravenous all the time and I ate everything that was handed me regardless of how disgusting.  Even brains on a roll!  This poor boy had been in the penitentiary (according to what he told me through the wall) where he was raped when he was only 17.  He had contracted hepatitus due to the rape.  He had later been released and returned to his neighborhood where someone was committing the same type of crime that he had been locked up for.  The police arrested him on flimsy evidence and strong suspicion.  He told me he was innocent though and that was the reason for his hunger strike.

The Holy Spirit told me in that same still small voice to try to help him.  He told me if I did I would be released in two hours on bond.  Well I was dubious but I starting speaking to this poor lad through the wall just as though he were my own son, I had to yell though - the wall was three feet thick.  I found out his name was Lee.  I spoke to him about the Lord and how the Lord had spoke to me about him and that he needed to stop giving the staff such a hard time with insults and his hunger strike.  I told him the Lord loved him.  Not a general love but that the Lord was concerned about him in particular that if he would just stop raving and eat the Lord would come to his aid.  I also told him what the Lord had told me about getting out in two hours.  (though at the time I didn't believe it myself, I was starting to think I was going insane.)

I don't know if he did and I don't know how to find out all I can say is within two hours I was released from jail!  From now on I intend to help anyone I can locked up or locked into drug or alcohol addiction.  Demonic possesion exists all around us in the bars and backalley shooting galleries and crackhouses.  God has a name and its Love and Light and Goodness and Mercy.  Evil has a name too its addiction, hate, intolerance, darkness and deceit.

I haven't used drugs since the day of my arrest. I went to court six months later and even though I was being tried on my fourth, fifth and sixth drug felones I was awarded probation! While on bond and awaiting trial I attended nearly 300 NA meetings, I turned my life around, started living for the Lord and am training to be an addiction counselor. I am just one more soldier in the real war on drugs!

Today I struggle so intently to stay in touch with my faith. Sometimes it seems that everyone hates me and I have trouble understanding God's true will for me. My pastor says that when one tries to do something to glorify God and do good that Satan will do his best to circumvent our efforts and destroy our faith. Well he is woking overtime on me! I need the prayers and support of all who believe that this is a worthwhile effort.

I will continue no matter what as long as breath remains in my body! God grant me the serenity...

Praise God   Praise Him above all else and above all others.