This is my friend Brandon. Brandon went to school with two of my three children many years ago. I was a substitute teacher and Brandon was one of those kids that just captured a piece of your heart! With a bright future ahead, life took a turn that no one saw coming.....not even Brandon. I am so thankful that he willingly wanted to share his testimony! When God changes your life in a radical kind of way......you almost can't keep it inside! Please, if you know of anyone that this testimony could help....please share it! Even if you don't, you may have a friend who needs to see this so.....please share it! Thank you Brandon for your transparency. God NEVER wastes a testimony! He WILL use it for His glory! May God bless you all!
01/10/2014: Brandon Pugh
First let me say that I am only sharing this to possibly help someone else to avoid the same mistakes I made so many times. My name is Brandon; I’m 29 and a single father of two gorgeous kids Landon and Calli. The honest truth of my life is that I should not be alive today. I chose to use illegal drugs daily and since I was a teenager I used marijuana. As I became an adult I was introduced to pain pills (opiates). I ruined my life with these drugs. I chose to lie, steal, and take advantage of everyone around me every day. I met my kids mother in high school, we got married and had two kids together. When she was 8 months pregnant with our 2nd child Calli, she left me. She had had enough of my selfish ways. I don't blame her at all. So here I was alone, living back at home broke, living off my family. I was unable to help financially help with my kids at that time, because the money I would make I spent on my addiction. It had gotten to the point that I was not using to get high anymore; I was using to keep from being physically sick. I was terrible mentally and physically. I even over dosed on pills to try and kill myself because I couldn't take the horrific daily routines I woke up to every morning. I tried rehab after rehab. Nothing worked because I would not give up and let it work. Because of some illegal choices I had made to support my habit, I was arrested for theft by receiving and locked up. I was shocked at how I had let myself get so low. This was not the man my parents raised. I was raised to be honest, respectful, to have faith, love and care for others. To always work hard. Family was everything for me growing up. I’d thought, “Where did I go wrong??”!? Drugs ruined my life. Drugs took my wife of 10yrs, my kids, my outstanding father-n-law and mother -n-law as well. Somehow I made a wrong turn in life, and never turned around, until it I was too far gone to make anyone understand me, or even care to help me at that point. With all of this happening to me because of my actions, can you believe I still chose to indulge into that same lifestyle that had torn my "everything" from my life! I was a full blown addict. I was addicted to pill’s, addicted to the lifestyle, so addicted that I had already told myself and accepted that I would die one day from my ways, and I had become ok with it. Terrible is what that was. After serving 12 months in prison, and detoxing all toxins from my body, I was starting to "feel" again. I was starting to feel normal. I was in prison after around 6 months and I could tell a mental and physical difference. I was smiling again; I was reading the bible to help me to get through my stay inside walls with rapist, murders, and hardcore criminals. These were men that had nothing to lose, with life sentences to do in prison. I was blessed with meeting a man named Freddy Malcom while there. He was charged with theft of motor vehicles and had lived his entire life doing illegal things, all for an addiction. He is 56 yrs. old and he sat me down day after day and would tell me his life story. He would beg me to learn from this visit to prison and never return. I stand tall today as man of God, a man who has chosen to be the best father, son, brother, that I can possibly be for the rest of my days. I ask God daily to guide my thoughts and feet, to allow me to be positive even in all the negative. Today, I have obtained my G.E.D. diploma as of Sept. 2013. I started college Nov. 11th, 2013 and I am going for my associate’s degree in Behavioral Science/ Sociology. I have my custody rights to both of my kids, and they love me like you wouldn't believe. That warms my heart to no end!! I have started a new job; I am a certified welder for a local company called "Elite Steel". I am finally living the life I was always intended to live. Although I do not have my wife and kids under one roof, I am still blessed. I am blessed because God could have left me where I was, at the bottom of that dark hole I was in. But....he didn't. He saved me and guided me till I could stand. I am thankful for that and will forever be a changed man, one who lives for and loves my God. You do not want to go where I have been in life...because you just might not make it out alive, and that's the truth. A man who learns from his mistakes, and rises to be stronger, to prosper and live according to God, will always be remembered for his courage and ability to overcome something so heavy. There is no testimony without a "test". If you are going through any kind of trial, and you fill like you cannot make it much longer, just hold on; hold on tightly, because if there is a will there is a way. I sincerely hope that whoever reads this, it helps in many ways. I am thankful for the very air I take into this body. God saw fit to reshape my thinking and shine light on my walk ways. I am to this day still fighting the urges and cravings the devil comes at me with, but I have Jesus on my side today, and I am no longer scared or tempted. My God bless you and thank you for your time to read this.
~ Sincerely~ Brandon P.
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