DANNY D.
Danny Dames was a truck driver, whose life was on the road from Miami to the West Coast. He joined the wrong crowd in the truck stop life, and began a $1,000 a day crack cocaine habit. He was arrested and jailed in Albany, GA on drug-related charges. This is his testimony…
My story is one I’m sure you’ve heard before… After being released from jail, man, I needed a place to stay, being homeless and all. Albany Rescue Mission turned out to be that place – and much, much more. I truly didn’t give my Christian responsibility to Christ and my salvation a thought when I was ripping and running at these in those streets. All I truly cared about was my exorbitant drug habit -- a crack cocaine habit that was slowly, but surely draining my life away. I came from a destructive life of drug addiction. Let me tell you, I would do anything to get my hands on a stem, crack cocaine, and a butane lighter. I have been in jail for drugs or drug-related problems. Even a life filled with episodes of jail time, homelessness, and destitution. How low can you go on drug addiction?
It was when I turned up homeless and penniless, when I needed Christ the most. I prayed sincerely for His intervention in my life and to help me end this drug addiction, while I still slept behind those cell doors. I remember it was a cold and dry day when I was released from jail penniless, and obviously, homeless. I wanted a hit of drugs, but God hit me with His Spirit and led me to the Albany Rescue Mission. And, thanks to God, that’s when my life began to change. Now, I’m not saying it was an instant cure from my addiction, of course not. But it gave me a chance to develop a whole different insight as to Godly sorrow. You see, the battle is not mine alone, it’s the Lord’s. It’s God’s saving grace that’s good enough, without me trying to do works to save myself. I just came to the conclusion that I needed to throw my hand up and surrender to God. And, He changed my life through His amazing grace. And, I can tell you from that day forth, my life changed. Faith healing is what I attribute my cure from addiction to crack cocaine.
It’s been close to two years since I’ve been here at the Mission. I started out as a van driver for the Thrift Store, and now through faithful service, have been promoted to Program Director. It’s been an amazing change in my life, this Christian-based ministry, and receiving direct and straight-forward doctrine from the King James Old and New Testament Bible from Bro. Larry Hample.
Bro.
Hample has pointed out clearly in chapel services that it’s not what we do,
but what Christ has done on the cross that saves us. Nothing that man can do
will get us into heaven, but accepting the death, burial, and resurrection
of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior can truly lead to our repentance and a
change in our minds, which leads to a change in our heart, and ultimately, a
change in our will. I no longer have a will to consume crack cocaine or
indulge in the street life. Exactly, the Albany Rescue Mission brought such
a prolific change in my life, for now I’m free from addiction to crack
cocaine. Being I have a will to serve the Lord and not my will, but the
Lord’s will to do right in my life. I’m looking forward to continuing to
bring souls to the Lord. As many bad seeds as I’ve sown in the past through
drug addiction, now I, one who eagerly awaits my salvation, can reap a
bountiful harvest of productivity in the grace of the Lord.
Danny Dames
Program Director, ARM
(From January 2006 newsletter)