Lee's story

As a young 13 year old I began to hang around street corners with the wrong people. Boredom led me to being in trouble with the police a lot and, not having the greatest relationship with my step dad, I started taking drugs. The drugs and alcohol became a comfort to me at first, and then I needed them to function daily. You soon realise the easy way and most affordable way is to have them is to deal them. I’ve been to prison for dealing drugs.

 I met a girl and I’ve got a little boy through that relationship which gave me an understanding of what love was, but we split up a year after Conrad was born, which hurt me and that’s when I started to take heroin.

Heroin strips everything slowly; I lost everything through my addiction; any belongings I had I sold; any trust I had with people I lost. I soon became a liar and any money I got I spent on heroin. It didn’t take long for me to be controlled by my addiction. Family members didn’t want to know me. Friends either died of overdoses or the sensible ones just stopped wanting to know me as they were getting on with their lives but eventually I got brought to a really lonely place thinking I was going to die, and then I started to cry out to an invisible God that I didn’t know but in the deepest darkest place that’s where I met with my God.

I started going to church; I was baptised in Easter 2015, but I always went back to heroin. I couldn’t understand why, because I had felt the power of Jesus in my life. This constant backsliding brought me to The Haven in April 2016, where I learnt to structure my life and also learnt how to have a personal relationship with Jesus.  Since completion of The Haven programme I went down to the Teen Challenge leadership academy in Leicester in February 2017. I also completed that course which helped to strengthen my faith more and gave me a deeper understanding of the gospel and God’s love. Now I that I have finished the leadership academy I am back at The Haven training to be a staff member; that’s where I believe God wants me to be and I feel blessed for what I have achieved so far.