Testimony – Christopher Vernon Telger – April 12, 2006
When I was growing up I went to Sunday school & church and was strongly involved in the youth group and had many friends at school and at the church. I was going on youth retreats, participated in lock-in’s at the YMCA and went on a mission trip to Chicago. I played baseball, basketball and soccer from the age of 6 until I was a junior in high school. I was a really good soccer goalie and wanted to play college basketball. My dream was to play for Bob Huggins at UC. I got hurt playing basketball and the coach that I loved, Coach Chasteen, died of a heart attack and my world began to change. Most of my friends were still involved in sports and I began to turn somewhere else for something to do and a new set of “friends”. When I was 15, I started drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana just to fit in with some of the new “friends” and to drown out the guilt and pain of the abuse I had experienced by a family friend who lived with us for over 2 years. By this point, I was mad at the world, hated myself, didn’t want to know or follow God and just wanted to die. I now know that it was an excuse but that need to fit in and be accepted, later turned to using harder drugs…..believe me, I used them all…..acid, cocaine, PCP, and my drug of choice was heroine. I got involved with a group that was selling it through illegal rings that took me to places like New York, Toledo & Miami mixing with people I would never wish anyone to come into contact with. That was the lowest I had ever sunk.
After months of this life style (if you can call it life) during which time I had over-dosed twice but thankfully, my roommates found me in time, something happened that began to change my life. On the third time I felt myself actually in a place I called Hell. I think God wanted to show me what it was like without Him, reminding me that He was in charge…that he made me and wanted to have a personal relationship with me. I saw total hate, total lovelessness, and total lack of the Holy Spirit. After what felt like an eternity there, I cried out for Jesus and was instantly in my body again and felt loved. I would also like to share that I have seen three friends die from overdoses.
That attempted overdose turned my life around. I ended up on the steps of the Rehab unit at Fort Hamilton Hospital with hundreds of dollars in my pockets….I do not know to this day how I got there…Obviously through God’s Grace. I was there for 10 days and clean for the 1st time in months. You’d think this would be enough to convince me but I was stubborn and went back to the streets the very next week and a few months later was taken back to the Detox unit by another user’s mom. While in the hospital this time, I finally called my mom to tell her where I was and what I was doing…they had no clue. You see, just like many other drug users, I was a master of disguising the symptoms. I then decided to start taking Methadone. It’s a cheap chemical substitute for heroin and would help take the cravings away and give me a normal life. I stayed on it for 6 years because my counselors at the clinic where I got the Methadone made me scared to even try to detox off it. When I finally decided I had had enough, they lied to me again and said it would only take 2 weeks to a month to get clean. It took me 3 ½ months of severe withdrawals and sleepless nights and it caused damage to my nervous system that may never be repaired.
I’ve been clean from street drugs for over 8 years and from Methadone for almost 2 years. I would do anything to get those 12 years back. I have health problems caused by my drug usage. My liver and heart are about the age of a 45 year old man; I have memory problems and have been diagnosed as being Bipolar. Drugs and alcohol don’t just destroy your body; they destroy your mind. Friends will tell you that it can’t hurt you….that’s the farthest from the truth!
I would do anything to get those years back. What I’m trying to get across is that once you start down that road, it’s a downward spiral to either death or rehabilitation and you don’t want either one of them. You don’t have to be lonely or abused to experiment in drugs, all it takes is a little curiosity and a little bit of peer pressure. You begin with a small drink of beer and the next thing you know you begin to drink to get drunk because you “feel good”…that doesn’t satisfy your curiosity and you smoke a little marijuana…just to see what it’s like….that leads to trying the hard stuff (no matter what they try to tell you that it don’t) Just like me, you start small and doors open to other drugs to get what you need and want at the time because of who you’re with. The choices I made when I was 15 have changed my life forever.
I now know that God was with me every step of the way. “He will never leave or forsake you”… He brought me from the depths of Hell itself, put me on those steps at Fort Hamilton Detox Center, let me witness my friends dying from overdoses and provided me with help just at the right time, comforted me through the months of horrible pain, sickness and depression. My life will never be what it could have been if I had made different choices.
If you don’t get anything else out of this, take this with you…..God made you in His image and it was not meant to use drugs. It was meant to deny yourself and take up the cross daily and follow Him. I now know that God was with me at my lowest points and has brought me through the roughest times that anyone could ever imagine…even out of the depths of the Hell I put myself into and that it is only through His Grace that I now have the strength to face each day. I give Him the Glory for my life as it is today and pray that no one else ever allows Satan to take them down the path that I took. The daily walk with our Lord and Savior is a much better way to live.
When I was growing up I went to Sunday school & church and was strongly involved in the youth group and had many friends at school and at the church. I was going on youth retreats, participated in lock-in’s at the YMCA and went on a mission trip to Chicago. I played baseball, basketball and soccer from the age of 6 until I was a junior in high school. I was a really good soccer goalie and wanted to play college basketball. My dream was to play for Bob Huggins at UC. I got hurt playing basketball and the coach that I loved, Coach Chasteen, died of a heart attack and my world began to change. Most of my friends were still involved in sports and I began to turn somewhere else for something to do and a new set of “friends”. When I was 15, I started drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana just to fit in with some of the new “friends” and to drown out the guilt and pain of the abuse I had experienced by a family friend who lived with us for over 2 years. By this point, I was mad at the world, hated myself, didn’t want to know or follow God and just wanted to die. I now know that it was an excuse but that need to fit in and be accepted, later turned to using harder drugs…..believe me, I used them all…..acid, cocaine, PCP, and my drug of choice was heroine. I got involved with a group that was selling it through illegal rings that took me to places like New York, Toledo & Miami mixing with people I would never wish anyone to come into contact with. That was the lowest I had ever sunk.
After months of this life style (if you can call it life) during which time I had over-dosed twice but thankfully, my roommates found me in time, something happened that began to change my life. On the third time I felt myself actually in a place I called Hell. I think God wanted to show me what it was like without Him, reminding me that He was in charge…that he made me and wanted to have a personal relationship with me. I saw total hate, total lovelessness, and total lack of the Holy Spirit. After what felt like an eternity there, I cried out for Jesus and was instantly in my body again and felt loved. I would also like to share that I have seen three friends die from overdoses.
That attempted overdose turned my life around. I ended up on the steps of the Rehab unit at Fort Hamilton Hospital with hundreds of dollars in my pockets….I do not know to this day how I got there…Obviously through God’s Grace. I was there for 10 days and clean for the 1st time in months. You’d think this would be enough to convince me but I was stubborn and went back to the streets the very next week and a few months later was taken back to the Detox unit by another user’s mom. While in the hospital this time, I finally called my mom to tell her where I was and what I was doing…they had no clue. You see, just like many other drug users, I was a master of disguising the symptoms. I then decided to start taking Methadone. It’s a cheap chemical substitute for heroin and would help take the cravings away and give me a normal life. I stayed on it for 6 years because my counselors at the clinic where I got the Methadone made me scared to even try to detox off it. When I finally decided I had had enough, they lied to me again and said it would only take 2 weeks to a month to get clean. It took me 3 ½ months of severe withdrawals and sleepless nights and it caused damage to my nervous system that may never be repaired.
I’ve been clean from street drugs for over 8 years and from Methadone for almost 2 years. I would do anything to get those 12 years back. I have health problems caused by my drug usage. My liver and heart are about the age of a 45 year old man; I have memory problems and have been diagnosed as being Bipolar. Drugs and alcohol don’t just destroy your body; they destroy your mind. Friends will tell you that it can’t hurt you….that’s the farthest from the truth!
I would do anything to get those years back. What I’m trying to get across is that once you start down that road, it’s a downward spiral to either death or rehabilitation and you don’t want either one of them. You don’t have to be lonely or abused to experiment in drugs, all it takes is a little curiosity and a little bit of peer pressure. You begin with a small drink of beer and the next thing you know you begin to drink to get drunk because you “feel good”…that doesn’t satisfy your curiosity and you smoke a little marijuana…just to see what it’s like….that leads to trying the hard stuff (no matter what they try to tell you that it don’t) Just like me, you start small and doors open to other drugs to get what you need and want at the time because of who you’re with. The choices I made when I was 15 have changed my life forever.
I now know that God was with me every step of the way. “He will never leave or forsake you”… He brought me from the depths of Hell itself, put me on those steps at Fort Hamilton Detox Center, let me witness my friends dying from overdoses and provided me with help just at the right time, comforted me through the months of horrible pain, sickness and depression. My life will never be what it could have been if I had made different choices.
If you don’t get anything else out of this, take this with you…..God made you in His image and it was not meant to use drugs. It was meant to deny yourself and take up the cross daily and follow Him. I now know that God was with me at my lowest points and has brought me through the roughest times that anyone could ever imagine…even out of the depths of the Hell I put myself into and that it is only through His Grace that I now have the strength to face each day. I give Him the Glory for my life as it is today and pray that no one else ever allows Satan to take them down the path that I took. The daily walk with our Lord and Savior is a much better way to live.
Our prayer is that God will use Chris' life and testimony and death to help others avoid his mistakes and trust His Saviour. If we could be of any assistance to you in this way, please let us know by your comment below. If you leave your email address, we will get back in contact with you with prayer, and any information that would be helpful to you. God bless you.
