In this powerful testimony, TJ shares his personal journey of struggling with drug addiction and feeling like an outsider at church. After hitting rock bottom, he has a transformative experience in August 2020 which led him to seek recovery and reconnect with his faith. He began getting involved with Radiant Church and joined the production team and enrolled in Radiant School of Ministry. TJ sees his testimony as something that he can utilize to not only identify with other people, but also be able to reach and show them that they are worthy and God loves them just like He loves him.

Transcript:

I started going to Radiant back when Pastor Jon Zondervan was the youth pastor. I was probably 13 years old, and even though I was going to church and youth group every week, I was smoking weed sometimes before and after. The youth services just never felt like I fit in. I felt like I was one of the bad kids, but I also kind of liked it.

By the end of college, I was put in prison for seven marijuana related felonies. I got out and went right back to the same drinking and drugging every day. All kinds of things were going wrong. Everything I could think of was going wrong in my life, so I just decided to use meth every single day and get high and get drunk and try to stay out of my mind as much as I possibly could.

By the end of that summer though, August 13, 2020, God smacked me across the face and kind of woke me up. He said that I don't need to live my life like this.

I prayed with my pastor, and from that day on, I've been on a road to recovery. One and a half years into my recovery, I started coming back to Radiant, got involved on Team Radiant and the production team, and got involved with Radiant School of Ministry.

That was one of the things that changed my life the most. The Holy Spirit has shown me that everything I've been through, my testimony, my past, isn't something to be resentful of. It's not something to be for me to be afraid of. It's something that I can utilize so that I can not only identify with other people, but also be able to reach them and show them that they are worthy and God loves them just like he loves me.

I would honestly recommend Radiant School of Ministry to anyone. Can't say that I love it enough.