Hi, I’m Jeff Gautier, I’m from Lee County, I’m 32, and this is my story.
I grew up in a split home, and, with my stepdad, it could get physically and verbally abusive. He led me in some misguidance with alcohol and marijuana.
By the time I hit my teens, I was pretty much full of addiction, depression, anxiety, and nervousness. I hated life, I hated myself. By the time I was 19, I had my first overdose of cocaine and pills. I set in my room for three days after overdosing, crying to the walls, asking myself, “Why did I come back.”
I fell into meth and heroin by the time I was thirty. I ended up waking up one day and realizing I was on a bathroom floor where I was left to die from a meth and heroin overdose. I had no running water. My electricity was barely on throughout the week. I was literally drinking out of a water bucket. Taking my showers out of that same bucket. I had not had food in days. And that was my life.
A week later, I arrived at Adult & Teen Challenge of Sandhills, NC. A month after entering the program, I gave my life to Christ. They gave me the tools here to live my life in a godly manner that never was possible before. I grew up with no faith. So, this was all new to me.
The verse that has been on my heart lately is Pslam 118:17, “I will not die, but I will live to tell what the Lord has done.” The Lord has done great things through me, through my trials, through my errors, through my addiction, and through my depression. He has shown me who I am and that I can share this story to help the next man. That missing part that was in my heart is no longer missing. And I feel complete now in His name and in His word.
