My name is Diane and I am 39 years old.  I have used drugs for 25 years.  It all started with pot.  I smoked my first joint when I was only 12 years old.  From that time on, I have consumed every kind of legal and illegal drug known.  I sold pot for ten years, which opened the door to all the other drugs.  I have also had some legal jobs.  At one time I was the Assistant Director at a local business, but I was still using drugs.  Even on that job I was exposed to more and more drugs.

In 1999 I started to smoke crack and everything went downhill.  I got into trouble and was put on probation.  I tried to stay clean on my own, but I failed more than once.  Then I found myself getting high and stopping long enough to be clean for the drug screen at the probation office.  And it worked for about six months.  It was on my daughters 20^th birthday that I went to jail for 45 days.  When I got out of jail I stayed clean for only 45 days, and the cycle started again.  I would stay clean just long enough to pass the urine test that was given by my probation officer.  In October 2003, someone turned me in to my probation officer and back to jail I went.  I thought I was going to have to do a year.  Thank God!  My life has truly changed.  Walking with the Lord is also a wonderful place to renew your life.  I was sick and tired of my own self and was ready to give up my sin-infested life.  I acquired the faith, through the Bible studies,  to believe in God.  All things are possible, if you can believe, even being delivered from the deadly addiction cycle.

Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not unto your own understanding, but in all of your ways acknowledge the Lord and He will direct your paths.”  This scripture is one of the twenty-one scriptures one is required to learn at Wings.  This scripture will be my road map.  God is the only reason I am alive and able to write this testimony.  I know that God has a purpose for my life.  When I finish this program, I want to work with the girls at Strickland Youth Center and the women at Metro Jail.  I would enjoy telling them my testimony and witnessing about the love of God and how the Word of God transformed my thinking.  I even dream of a shelter for women and children, which is something the city of Mobile is desperately in need of.  If this is God’s vision for me then I know that He will make the provisions. Lord bless you Mel.