Denis Lipiyev Testimony
I grew up in a Christian family, went to Sunday school, regularly attended church and youth services with my brothers, went to youth camps, became an usher, and was involved everywhere I could. When I was 16, my brothers got into a car accident, my oldest brother died and the other one got paralyzed from the waist down. After this accident I slowly left church, I stopped attending youth services, I stopped reading bible and praying. I turned my interests to the “worldly things”. I became successful in education, sports, I had a job, went to college, and I thought “I got this”. I judged people who fell low in this life. I thought “why can’t they just quit and live a normal life”. I thought to myself “I will never become like them”, but I was no better than any of those people. I started hanging out with wrong crowds, got drawn into smoking and drinking, and later became addicted to drugs. I became mentally blind, I started doing shameful things that normal person would never do. Drugs got a complete control over my life. I lost all my jobs, quit college, lost my friends, spent all my money, ruined my relationship with relatives, kept going in and out of jail, my life was just a mess and it kept getting worse. I tried to quit and change everything many times but I failed every time. Eventually I stopped trying to quit. I’m thankful to God for all those people who did not stop praying for me. God heard their prayers and on September 30th I was at a wedding where a brother came up to me and started telling me about Jesus and his power to free anyone who would turn to him. We started praying and I felt like this is my last and only chance I got. I started weeping and sincerely asked God to help me get out of the misery that I got myself into. I did not finish my prayer how God already sent an answer. A brother came up to me and asked if I would like to go to a Recovery Center, to leave everything behind and start a new life with Jesus Christ. I agreed and they drove me from Sacramento CA to Gates of Freedom Recovery Center in Enumclaw WA. At the center God started working with me, cleansing me, changing my character, changing my habits, changing the way I was thinking, changing my desires, Jesus took the “old me” and gave me a new heart. He gives me joy, wisdom and strength to overcome. He restored my life, restored my relationship with family, and gave me new friends, new goals, and a lot of opportunities to serve Him. With God’s help I was able to graduate the Recovery Center on October 1st and I stayed at the center to serve God by serving people. May all glory be to God!