JR BEFORE RECOVERY                                   JR AFTER RECOVERY

The Truth As I Know It
Testimony by JR Poulson

I though I had it all going on. I was 14 and had just been saved. I was going to be a singing evangelist. I was entering my third year as a Christian when I moved away from my church family. Big mistake.

I found myself in the secular world basically alone. It wasn’t long before I was trying marijuana for the first time and drinking. It seemed as though I had decided to do life on my own. Before I knew it I was married with a daughter. That marriage lasted about a year and a half. I moved to Oklahoma where I met the women who would become my wife, Vickie. At the time, I had no idea that she was my God sent wife. I was still drinking pretty heavy but worked all the time. I left my new wife with the real work raising our family. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my family. I just didn’t have time for them all. My new wife also had a daughter, and we had a daughter together. By now it was 1982 and I had just tried my first line of meth. Man I loved it! I could stay up all night and drink too. It was great or so I thought.

In 1988 we had our son, as the years went by things got worse but my wife stood by me. By 1990 I was a full blown alcoholic and a meth addict. I was working 16-18 hours a day and my family suffered. One day my wife had finally had enough. She had lost her father to cancer and her step dad just found out he had lung cancer. She was strong so long. I put her through a living hell. She left.

I quit my job of nine years and went over the road driving a semi. I stayed strung out on dope and drank most of the time. My life was a mess. I was running ( selling) about 5-10,000 dollars a week. During this time, I somehow convinced my wife to come back to me. It had to be God! I quit my job driving over the road and found one where I would be home every night. Not too long after we got back together, Vickie’s step dad passed away. It was really hard on my wife and her mother. Mom talked us into coming to live with her at her home on the lake. I thought that was great! But things took a turn about 2 years later. Mom got sick and we soon found out that she had cancer. Vickie was so upset and so was I. I loved her mom very much and she loved me too in spite of my ways. Neither Vickie nor her mom really knew about the double life I was living.

One day Vickie was really depressed and at her wits end about her mom. She could not figure out how God could let this happen to her and her mom. She found herself in front of a church called Wildflowers Chapel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas where we had moved to. She wanted answers. Well as God would have it, she was born again that day. As time went on, she prayed for her mom and me to come to know Jesus. She knew I had been saved at one time but had backslid. Her mom gave her life to the Lord. It was awesome! Vickie was so happy. She started going to services at night to this Biker church which held services at Wildflowers. One day she came home and asked me if I wanted to go hear some Christian Bands that were playing in a near by town. I said sure. I would do anything to keep her happy. I had a good time even though I was strung out. Then a group called the “ Crabb Family” started playing and singing. It was like I was straight all the sudden. We left. I never told my wife what I felt that day. I knew it was the Holy Spirit.

A couple a months passed and mom wasn’t getting better but Vickie’s faith remained strong. One day she asked me to come with her and those bikers she went to church with to a Christian motorcycle Rally. At first I started to say no, but I changed my mind and said yes. In my mind, I was thinking, “ I’m out of dope and waiting for a new batch so I will go to pass time”. We got there and man it was really weird. I had not seen this many bikers since my sister’s wedding. We walked into this huge building and you would not believe it! There must have been 2 thousand bikers singing with their hands in the air praising God! I’m not talking about little dudes either. Big guys! Tattooed up Bikers! Well as God would have it, guess who was singing for the service that night? The Crabb Family! I knew right then and there that this was a set up. ( A Holy Ghost set up!). They started playing and singing. Gerald Crabb, the father, started singing a song he had written called Please Come Down to Me. When they started singing that song the Holy Spirit came upon me like I had not felt in 25 years. I knew what it was! I ran out the building as fast as I could. I came back in again but would end up walking out again. Little did I know, there were several people praying for me right then with all their hearts.

Well I made it through it ( the devil and I) or so I thought. Well, my wife, that little honey, had the tape with that song on it. On the way home she put the tape in and when that song came on, Please Come Down to Me, I felt my spirit start churning and told her

“ Get that tape out of there and don’t play it again!” The day after we got home, my son wanted me to take him to his friends house so I said okay. I was driving my wife’s jeep and after I got my son, Shane, dropped off I started home. As I hit the dirt road that leads to our house, the tape of my wifes somehow??? Got sucked into in the tape player and started playing THAT SONG! I thought, okay I can handle this! I did not make it through the first verse before I had to pull the jeep over and found myself outside on the ground bawling my eyes out asking the Lord for a second chance. He has given me that! PRAISE YOU LORD!

Vickie’s mom went home to be with the Lord but she did get to see me give my life to the Lord before she left. She is waiting for us in glory. My wife and I have motorcycles now and God has led us into the Arkansas prisons to minister. I sing the song, Please Come Down to Me, a song that changed my life forever, at each prison I go into. My mom in Oklahoma and my sister in Illinois asked me to send them a tape of me singing. Well that was the start of something a lot bigger. God has blessed me to make a CD of songs. I love to sing to Him and it is my hearts desire that it touches your spirit and you feel God‘s unconditional love.

We would love to hear from you.

May God Bless you! With love in Christ,

JR Poulson