TESTIMONY OF LEE CHASE 

            Being the youngest of eleven, nine boys and two girls, I was brought up in a Christian family setting.  Along with hard work on a farm, poor as we were, I was raised around alcoholism.  My father and my brothers were big drinkers.  So much so that I vowed not to be like “them”.  Well, my first time getting drunk, as a freshman in college, I became a huge disappointment to myself.  I then was introduced to all types of drugs and started smoking marijuana.  I ended up in jail, with a 15-year sentence, in Baltimore, Maryland.  At 26 years old, I was sent to prison for the first time in my life.  While I was in jail I came to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior.  I earnestly prayed to God Almighty and He heard my cry – Praise the Lord – I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders and a peace in my heart and mind that I’ve never in my life experienced.

            Well, as time moved on I began to compromise with the things of this world. I backslid and became disobedient, to the Lord.  I was soon cursed with the desire to experiment with crack cocaine.  I also became unmanageable with the moving and storage business the Lord had blessed me with to provide for my family.  My wife became terminally ill with leukemia, but the Lord was still merciful towards me so much that He healed my wife and put a little baby girl in her womb after 19 years of marriage.  All during my wife’s pregnancy, up to Lesley’s first birthday, I was using drugs.  The Lord allowed my wife to be with Lesley for one year before she passed away.  I was then in full-blown addiction to crack cocaine.  I lost and sold all that we had, and wasn’t able to be a father as I should have been to my daughter.  I know now that it was the Lord who inspired me to allow my wife’s mother to be a guardian for my daughter.

            I soon became homeless and was full of shame and guilt.  I then left Baltimore, Maryland trying to run from my drug addiction and ended up in Fort Worth, Texas.  One Sunday morning, I attended an outside tent church service in Fort Worth, which was known as “the slab”.  I will never forget it, as I was approached by a brother named Scott Jones.  He asked me what was going on with me.  I began to tell him about my addiction and how I prayed all night long, as I stayed in the park, for God to please help me.  Brother Scott then asked me if I would be willing to go to Mobile, Alabama to a Christian based ministry where I could get back in fellowship with the Lord. He also asked me would I be willing to leave that same day.  Brother Scott introduced me to his wife, sister Joyce, and there was an available bed, Praise the Lord.  Brother Scott and Sister Joyce then carried me to a store and bought me $500.0 worth of clothes and necessary things, and they also bought me a Bible, which I still have.  They fed me and within two and half hours, I was on a bus headed to Mobile, Alabama.  Praise the Lord!!!

            I have had some problems here but again the mercies of God blessed me.  Again I’m being encouraged daily by the teachings and preaching that come through Pastor S and all the other incoming visiting men and women of God who come to spread God’s good news. My goal is to get & stay well so I can get a job & raise my daughter. I miss her so. May God bless you one and all!!!