Jason had a lot going for him. He grew up in a loving family, was a successful high school athlete and received college scholarship offers. He even attended church and believed in God.

What Jason didn’t have was a faith strong enough to weather the storms of temptation. Like a sapling battered to and fro by ferocious winds, Jason fell prey to drugs and alcohol, then got clean before stumbling back into them again. And all the
while Jason didn’t know who he was or where his life was going. Fortunately, God knew and brought Jason to Good News Ministries where he’s found meaning and a renewed relationship with Jesus Christ.

But let’s step back and see how this all came to be.

“I had a good childhood. I grew up in church, was saved at a young age and baptized when I was 7. I always talked and prayed to God,” the 45-year-old Clarksville, Tennessee, native says. “My dad was a basketball coach and I played sports until I was 18. I received scholarship offers to play tennis at the collegiate level.”

Jason enrolled at Austin Peay State University in his hometown but didn’t continue his athletic career. Without sports to occupy his free time, Jason turned to drugs. By the end of his freshman year he was using cocaine. He transferred to the University of Kentucky and studied psychology. Although he was learning about human behavior, Jason couldn’t control his own. His cocaine addiction led him to another dangerous drug: crystal methamphetamine.

“I reached my senior year of college and quit,” Jason says. “I ran away from myself. I don’t know if I was scared that that guy inside me could be successful, because I’d struggled with who I was as a person growing up. And when you take a couple of wrong turns and get around the wrong people it can lead you down a road of destruction.”

Jason’s next wrong turn took him to California, where he’d previously lived. While there Jason’s substance abuse worsened, leading him to an arrest on drug possession charges. Worse still, drugs took a horrible toll on Jason physically. “I wound up in the hospital a couple of times, was probably dead, and brought back to life,” he says.

Jason decided to move back east. He settled on Indianapolis, a move Jason believes was orchestrated by God. With his life in tatters Jason came to Good News. After four months he decided to leave and get his own apartment, but soon realized he needed the stability and support that Good News provided, so he returned. Now 10 years since he came to Indy, Jason is living in the Men’s Shelter and putting the pieces of his shattered life back together.

“It’s been such a blessing being at Good News,” Jason says. “For the longest time I really didn’t know how I was going to get off drugs and maintain any sobriety. But God has shown me a different way. He’s put me around great people who care here.”

Today, Jason works as a stylist at a popular men’s hair salon. He hopes to save enough money to one day open his own shop. Until then, he knows God has him exactly where he needs to be.