| Junkie Meets Jesus |
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Is it really possible to find God in a moment, and have your life turned round? James Hastings finds one man who did  rise from the deadColin Garnett knew he had finally met God – crouched down in a wheelie bin. The hardened drug user and career criminal had only gone to the service in the prison chapel because he was bored. As he sat in his chair, handcuffed to a lifer, Colin hoped there would at least be a cup of tea and some chocolate biscuits at the end of the morning. It was then he noticed the large blue wheelie bin standing in the centre of the chapel. It was the kind normally placed outside shops on collection day. Suddenly a prisoner appeared in a dressing gown, climbed inside the bin, which was filled with water, and threw his robe on the floor. After 18 years as a heroin addict and six and a half years in 26 different prisons, Colin thought he had seen it all. “The preacher guy who had led the service announced to everyone in the room that Earl, who had climbed in the wheelie bin, was now openly turning his back on his previous life of crime and sin and turning to God for forgiveness, in Jesus name,” explained Colin. “I heard Earl confess his sins and I thought to myself, ‘Well, I certainly know what sin is.’” As Colin watched this scene unfold before him in the prison chapel, something else took hold of him – the desire to jump in the bin himself. He had been raised in a Christian family and knew about God. But the preacher guy was talking about a relationship with Jesus rather than religion in a church. Colin had listened as earlier the preacher read from the Bible about the Apostle Paul who had written: “What I hate I do, and what I love, I don’t do. Who can set me free from this body of death?” Added Colin: “He stopped reading and closed the Bible. I’m sitting on the edge of my seat screaming to myself ‘Don’t stop there, preacher. What’s the answer? Who can set me free?’” Colin knew he needed to be set free. He had grown up on a tough South Manchester estate and from an early age was binge drinking and taking drugs. For 18 years, his life had been occupied daily with the need to get a fix. He was a petty thief who robbed and burgled and stole to get money for drugs. Once he escaped from court just before he was due to be sentenced and made front-page headlines in the evening paper. All his relationships had failed. He had a violent temper. He bounced from one disaster to another, from one court room to another, from one prison to another. Now, as he sat in the prison chapel, sitting just yards from a big blue wheelie bin, Colin felt God speak deep in his heart. “The preacher turned to his criminal congregation and asked if anyone else wanted to receive Jesus as their Lord and Saviour,” adds Colin. “I stripped off my jeans and shirt and was shouting, ‘I do, I need to know this Jesus for myself.’ Next moment, I was up to my armpits in water, confessing my sins, that Jesus had died for me.” When Colin came out of the wheelie bin, he knew something had changed. He knew Jesus was now living in him. After nearly two decades of daily drug addiction, he was set free.  Back in his cell, he tore down pornographic pictures, asking God to forgive him and praying for each of the women in the pictures that they too would know Jesus. When the guard spoke to him, Colin called him “Mr” – the first time he had ever shown respect to the hated prison officers. Then Colin lay on his bed and for the first time in six and a half years in prison, he slept through the whole night. Today, Colin lives in South Africa where he runs the Bethesda Christian Rehab which is focused on Christian teaching and the best psychiatric and counselling therapies. The centre treats addictions such as drugs, alcohol, debt and anger. Adds Colin: “Everyone who has completed our programme is still alive.” Since he came to know Jesus that day in 1993, he has seen many people come to know Jesus and be set free. Even if they don’t climb in a wheelie bin. Colin’s book Junkie Meets Jesus in a Trash Can is published by Authentic, price £8.99 |
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