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This is my personal testimony. My name is Rev. Forrest Henslee. I live in Tremont City, Ohio which is a small village located just north of Springfield. I was born and raised in Springfield. I went to high school at Springfield South, Go Wildcats, class of 69. I have 4 younger sisters. I am married to my high school sweetheart, Vicky. We have been married 36 years, we were engaged 6 months, pre engaged 1 year, and went steady from the 10th grade throughout high school, 40 years in all. Vicky and I have two daughters, Kelly and Kara. Kelly is married to Scott Lynch and together they have blessed us with two grandchildren, Haley, 4 and Nicholas 10 months. Kara is married to Wade Folker and together they are expecting their first child, a boy, in early August. I now know why they call them grandchildren, because they're soooooooooooooo grand! Sometimes I almost feel guilty and wonder if I was as good a parent as I am a grandparent. Both of our children are fine mothers and great women. I'm very proud of them. I can talk about how blessed I am today only through God's grace. God delivered me from a life that revolved around drugs. I used drugs and sold drugs. I was more committed to my drug habit than I was to my own family. I was arrested in 1979 on 4 felony drug dealing charges, pleading guilty to 1 felony and being sentenced to 2-5 years in the Ohio State Prison, 2 years probation, and a $2000 fine. The judged dropped the incarceration part but told me if I came back into his court on these charges again I would serve the maximum amount of time in prison. Shortly after my run with the long arm of the law Vicky and I began going to church. This church had been recommended to us because the music they sang was contemporary and they had a great band. I figured I had nothing to lose so I went. Within a few months of going to church I asked Jesus to come into my heart and be my personal lord and savior. I was happy, Vicky and I, together, were happy. This holy bliss lasted about two years before I relapsed to my drug habit. It happened so innocently. My car broke down and I asked an old friend for a ride home from work (he was an old getting high friend). We weren't even out of the parking lot of the shop yet when he pulled out a joint. He knew I was saved and asked me if I minded if he went ahead and smoked the joint in my presence anyway. As soon as he took the first hit off of the joint he did what every other pot head does, he passed it to me and I took it without even thinking and took a hit off of it. I instantly gave up 2 years sobriety and began my drug habit all over again. My life was really messed up now! I was a Christian who was living a double minded life. I was being washed to and fro like the waves of the sea. By this time I didn't just attend church, I played my guitar in the praise ans worship band, I was a Sunday School teacher and had been asked to be an Elder in the church. I was living the Christian life and struggling with a drug habit at the same time, what stinking thinking! My drug habit was discovered by Vicky more than once and each time she confronted me about it I would deny it. I always denied it! Until the day I got stopped driving down the road speding by a State Highway Patrol. I wasn't just speeding, I was also smoking a joint and had a bag of pot in the car with me that I had just bought. Of course I was arrested. I posted bond myself and was released only to go home that night and explain to Vicky what I had done. All that denying had just blown up in my face. She was so mad at me. I really should have lost my marriage at that time. I had to tell my pastor what happened. I had to go through the embarrassment of telling the praise and worship team what I did. I had to drop being a Sunday School teacher and take a leave of absence of being a church elder. I was a real mess. Vicky couldn't understand why after all the trouble I had been in before I had let myself begin doing drugs again. The only answer I had for her was that it was something I enjoyed doing and now that I was finally caught I wasn't going to hide it anymore. I had really given up on myself, I quit going to church but God, even then, had a plan for my life. My church wouldn't give up on me. Brothers in the lord would call me up on the telephone and give me words of encouragement. They came to my house and stood outside the house like Christmas carolers and play guitars and serenade my house with songs of love. They knew I was home but I had the curtains drawn. They didn't knock on the door. They just loved me. I thought to myself, why don't they go sing and love someone else who can really be helped. I was so depressed. I was so caught up in the "Cycle " of sin. I could quit doing the same old things over and over. I knew they were wrong. I knew I was destroying my family but I did them anyway thinking of no one but myself and my own pleasure. Still, the church never gave up on me. They loved me so many different ways until I broke down and came back to church. I was so embarrased to face these people who I know I let down. The church introduced me to a prison minister, Bob Mumford, who had a video outreach prison ministry called Breaking Out. They purchased that video series especially for me in hopes it would help me get my life together. Bob Mumford taught about breaking the "cycle" of sin. This video series really opened my eyes as to what I had been doing to myself, my family, and my church. I took the principle about the "cycle" of sin and ran with it. I knew if I was going to be able to get my life together it was going to have to be with God's help. I prayed, I prayed and I prayed. God began showing me through His Word different biblical principals and concepts. I could feel myself beginning to get spiritually stronger. I began building up more sobriety time. I began writing down on paper all of the things God was showing me and teaching me. I began a class at church that was called Breking Out. I began teaching other people the principals I learned from the Breaking out video series. People were actually being helped through it and every time I taught this class I became spiritually stronger and stronger. God was showing me more and more things in His Word that I knew I needed to add to my class. Eventually my class became less and less Breaking Out and more and more Overcomers. God was showing me how to be an Overcomer in life and I was showing others how to do the same. Today, I am an Overcomer. I know the how to say no to the old people and the old places that got me into trouble. Now, I go into jails and prisons myself teaching inmates and prisoners how they can be free inside, inner personal freedom through a personal relationship with Jesus. I go into churches and small groups teaching people how to identify the issues in their lives that come between them and God. God has given me a ministry of my own. He showed me how to clean up my life and told me to go out and help others. I am being obedient. Thanks for letting me share. Rev. Forrest A. Henslee Overcomer Discipleship Ministry P.O. Box 33 Tremont City, Ohio 45372 501(c) 3 Faith-Based Nonprofit Outreach Ministry (937) 631-1548