David

"I was one of the worst drug addicts. I just wanted to get high. I just wanted to feel the buzz. I started around 16 or 17. I ended up selling meth, lots of it. I joined the Army at 21. I went to Iraq and got caught up in some stuff over there. My drug addiction never really left me. I learned to shoot up liquid diazepam (Valium). I did some bad things over there. I was trying to self-medicate instead of taking the proper channels.  I came back really messed up. I fell down a big dark hole in self-medication. I would do every kind of drug possible. There was a big drug bust around 2008 that caught me. That was the first time I spent time in jail.

I met my wife in treatment. We got married in our addiction. We needed more money for drugs. We both lost everything. We were like a Bonnie and Clyde duo. We stole things, manipulated, robbed, and made fake money. We just had to have more drugs. We both went to prison. When I was in prison my wife wrote me a letter that said she wanted a divorce. That added to the stress. I opened up the Bible a couple of times in prison, but I didn't find Jesus in prison. 

My plan was to go to a halfway house in St. Louis, run away, and go get high. That was my plan for getting out of prison. I had this IPO (institutional parole officer) that helped me get into a program. It was called Fort Good Shepherd (Mission Gate Ministry), in Cuba, Missouri. It's a nine-month program.  It was the best thing that's ever happened to me in my life.  That's when Jesus really hit me.

I reached out to my wife. I said, ‘If you want the divorce, you can have it. I'll do whatever. I just want you to be happy.’ For the first time I really opened my Bible. I asked the Bible a question. ‘Should I take my wife back?’ I opened it up to Hosea 3:1. It says, 'husband, go get your wife back that is loved by another. What do you do? You do what Jesus told you to do. Ever since that day, I've just followed what Jesus has told me to do and it's worked out!  I finished my program and then became a pastor. I’ve been free from addiction for 13 years.

Matthew 25:31-46 says at the end times, the King will sit on His throne and separate the sheep from the goats. He'll say to the ones on His right hand, have you given water to the thirsty? Have you fed the ones that are hungry? Have you visited the ones in prison? Have you healed the sick? So on and so forth. He said, if you've done it to the least of Me, you've done it to Me. And He said to the people on His left, if you've not done it to the least of these, your punishment is eternal fire.  That really hit me. I was that seven-year pastor at a little country church. I was terrible at that job. I wouldn't go visit people. I wouldn't feed anybody. I drove by and would look at people on the corner and say, 'why can't they just get a job?' I never helped anyone. 

My wife and I started Neighborhood Hope Dealer Ministries in 2022. We're called to be the church, not just go to church. Be the one that loves people. Really dive into the word and see what Jesus is really talking about. We must be doers of the word, not just hearers (James 1:22-25).  My name is David Dukes, I’m human, and I surrender."