Dunamis Power Jail Ministries

Thank you God! We can and do recover!
No more dope houses.
No more dumpster diving.
No more verbal, mental and emotional abuse towards one another.
No regrets.
No worries.
Blessed to have made it out and proud to show others there is a way out.

Addiction goes much deeper than the drugs I’ve used.

When I was using, the disease of addiction would tell me that everything was okay.

Now clean in recovery, it tries to convince me that everything is NOT okay.

It will tell me that I’m nothing and I won’t ever be anything. It will tell me not to set goals cause I won’t achieve them anyways. It will inform me that I’m going to fail so don’t even try. It will tell me that I’ll eventually self destruct so there’s no point in building a life. It will explain to me why I am worthless and why I don’t deserve a meaningful existence. It will tell me I’m useless and that I have no purpose. It will tell me I’m a horrible parent and that I’m doing a terrible job. It will tell me a copious amount of negative and obscure things. It will even tell me if I was to die today that nobody would even care.

It will tell me all of these things but whether I choose to listen to it all, is up to me. Drug addiction and alcoholism will always try to scream this stuff into my ear, but the more work that I put in, the more their voices get quieter and quieter.

Putting down the drugs and alcohol was just the beginning, the first chapter… after that I had to enter recovery if I wanted peace, serenity and freedom.

I’ll start to believe all the lies if I’m not active in my program. If I’m not staying connected to my support group, building on my relationship with God, sharing honestly in meetings and practicing spiritual principles… then I’ll convince myself that all the denigrating comments I’m being told are true.

I can say with great sincerity that I’m almost always doing better than I give myself credit for. Life isn’t meant to be easy, there’s beauty in the struggle. There’s a feeling of comfort after I persevere through every dark moment. Every season that passes is another opportunity for growth. I have to constantly remind myself that even though I may not feel the greatest at the moment, everything is going to be just fine 🙏🏽

June 2014 I had to have my left leg below the knee amputated . I had been shooting m**h for about 10 years at that time. I’ll never know whether I was given bad dope( possibly being used as a Guinea pig by a dealer to see if he could get by with selling it) I didn’t stay sober after losing my leg but april 10, 2017 I made a decision to change . I was so broken and just tired . I now have 5 years clean and I have worked in a drug rehab outpatient treatment center since getting clean. I’ve gotten married to an amazing man Chris Gillis and reunited with my children Sydnie and Emma. All the glory goes to God. He pulled me out of the fire!

Prison was my saving grace!

Let's give a big shout out to Melissa Jewett for her 2 years clean and sober!!

“Saying that you found God is a bit like saying that you found air, and then taking credit for breathing. I did not find God, He simply took up residence in me and allowed me to know Him... The tenth Commandment tells us not to covet. I found this especially hard during 2019. My co-defendant, who had been convicted as the principle in my case, had been given clemency, and I had not. I was the accessory but I was still doing a life sentence for a crime we committed as juveniles. I remember raging at God, demanding to know why He had left me to die. I never lost sight of the fact that I deserved to be in prison, but in comparison it seemed very unfair... Despite all that I had seen God do in my life I was full of doubt. If only I had known how great His plan for me was, I would have been thanking Him. In 2019, God used me to change the lives of hundreds of men in the DOC, creating with other Christian brothers, 3 programs that have literally saved people's lives and are giving hopeless men a chance at freedom again. I resolved-and broke my resolve-and resolved again to be content with what God had for me, even if that meant I was going to die in prison. It was a daily battle but I repeated to myself over and over the litany of Romans 5 that says that we should rejoice in our suffering because through suffering we gain endurance and through endurance perseverance and through perseverance we gain hope. Actual hope, not wishes. And then in December, I was granted clemency, and I paroled in March of this year, even before my co-defendant. God had never once forgotten me. He has known me since before the foundation of the world and will always know me and love me. Even in the darkest times when we suffer and doubt God, He never doubts. We are not free from sin or the darkness of the world but we have what no one else does: Hope.” - Erik

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