Roger's Story

Life before Bed-A-Way, my parents divorced at a young age. My dad left state, left us. I really wanted a dad coming up, but he didn't want me. My dad left, moved to another state, got remarried. Didn't have nothing to do with me or my sister. My mama struggled to raise us, me and my sister. She worked numerous jobs, mostly at the hospital. Started smoking weed when I was about 12, 13. I went to drinking when I got to high school. I started at a young age. I was stealing cigarettes from my mom. Smoking weed with my friends. I went to drinking on the weekends, to trying cocaine, pills. I was prescribed Adderall, so I took a lot of Adderall. Then when I got out of school, I experimented with meth. Meth really grabbed a hold of me. I did it for five, six years, and then I tried IV. And that really took a whole nother turn. My family really didn't know that I was using it like that. Things got dark. Jail, out of jail, in jail, out of jail. I really didn't have no father figure, so I took the drugs and people had drugs. I was using drugs, and I was accepted. When I realized I needed help was about a year, a year and a half before I came to a better way. Me and my girl was having troubles, real rocky. I was doing her wrong, was staying high all the time. My money went to meth, that's what it went to.

I knew I had a problem when I would look at my daughter. Instead of spending time with her, I would just leave, because I had to get high. I had to find my fix, I had to find some money. I had to get high. I tried to get help before, around that time. I didn't know how. It took me getting arrested and being in a jail cell, totally broken, nobody would do anything for me. They didn't even want to answer the phone, because I'd done some terrible things to them. It was in that jail cell, and I realized I needed help, because I didn't have nothing else. I was broken and hopeless. Don Cooney was my cellmate. I knew him before I got locked up. I used to do a lot of dope with him. He's in jail for murder, facing murder charges. And he told me about CJ Cootie. They just left a couple months before I came in, and he told me, why don't you give it a try? You're young, you got nothing going on now. Your folks don't even want you. He gave me a book. I sat and I read the book. Louis Sapp came, Louis Sapp was there. Yeah, and they just pushed me to come to A Better Way, and then they gave me Bobby Dodd's number. I text Bobby Dodd, told him I wanted help. He said, well, I'm gonna call you.

Call me tomorrow, we'll do an interview. I did the interview, and then the next day, I was on my way here. Pulled up to A Better Way. I seen the statue of Jesus watching Peter's fate. Basketball court, the pool. And we pulled up a little further, and you got guys that were cutting grass in purple shirts. They took me down to the student center. It was about lunchtime. They all stood around me, put hands on me. I never, ever experienced a place like that. A lot of love, and it was nice. I got the first night in the house, and they're telling me all the rules. You gotta have your button buttoned. Can't have so many socks, so many underwear, shirts. You gotta get up at 4.15 in the morning. That was a lot. The structure of A Better Way is, they're real strict. I didn't, I never had to worry about having my buttons buttoned. My clothes folded. My bed made. I never had to worry about none of that. Throw my clothes in the drawer, in the corner. Never made my bed. I can't think of one time I made my bed. You can't talk till eight o'clock.

That's surprising to me. That was tough. Walking in a line wherever you went. Structure was really good. It did help me to see God working in me. Patience. Brotherhood at A Better Way is great. I made a lot of close friends here. People I wouldn't ever think I would be friends with. I talk to them on a daily basis. They see me, we give each other hugs, and we got, there's love there. There's nothing tying us together. We gotta go do dope together. We gotta go rob. We gotta go steal. We ain't gotta do none of that here. We're just, we're connected by Christ. We're brothers. Florida trip was great. Getting to spend time with Brother John on a personal level. You see that he's really about it. He really walks what he talks. He's really genuine with it. That being baptized, that meant a lot to me. I left all that anger, that guilt, that shame, I left all that in the water down there in Florida. That was really a life-changing experience. A Better Way has just restored my relationship

with my family, my kids. It's really changed me. It's given me discipline. It's given me hope. It's really changed me. Made me a better man. There was one time I had a problem with smoking. Nicotine was a big issue when I first got here. Dylan Mulavely caught me smoking on the Grace House porch. He seen us through the window, me and Sean, smoking on the porch. We lied to him, tried to get out of it. They wouldn't know getting out of it. They drug tested a better way. They're going to find out.