A former homeless drug addict shared, in early April, his story of how he came to Christ and how his life turned around.
Justin Battiste grew up in a Christian home, but as a teenager mixed with the wrong crowd and began taking cannabis.
He left school at 15, but was unable to hold down a job because of his drug use.
Drugs to mental hospital
Justin said: ‘Drug addiction took me into prisons and mental hospitals and I nearly took my life on many occasions. The drugs stripped me of all morals and values.’
He seemed to be getting his life back on track when he met his wife in 1999 and they had a daughter together.
But, he said, they separated after she committed adultery and he ‘fell deeper into the darkness of drugs, using heroin and crack on a daily basis’. He became homeless, but then his father helped him get into rehab and it was there that his life began to change.
Change started
Justin recalled seeing the beauty of a sunrise and said a change started to take place in his life. He said he knows it was because people in church had been praying for him.
Once out of rehab, he continued his recovery with the help of senior Counties evangelist, Victor Jack. His mother took him to church. He subsequently committed his life to Christ and he was recently baptised at West Road Church, Bury St Edmunds. His Christian family never gave up on him and prayed continually for his salvation. Today they are praising God after 44-year-old Justin has been transformed through his new-found faith. Justin thanked God for shedding light on his ‘once darkened life’, saying: ‘You have set me free from the chains of my addiction and I love life now, more than ever before.’
