Eugene’s Story

Eugene Pic croppedAbandonment, death, loss, anger, frustration, abuse and I go WAY back together.  At the age of 6, after my father tried to kill me, I was given up by my mother because she wanted nothing to do with me.  While growing up, I was placed in twelve different foster homes and six group homes where I faced different types of abuse, abandonment, and anger.  At 15, I was told that my little brother had died at just 4 years old.  This threatened to crush and destroy me but I somehow found the strength to push through.

By the time I was 16, I ended up in a minimum security lock-up for breaking the law.  While there, my foster grandmother (who’s attempts to bring me to the LORD I resisted daily) was told by her family to leave me there and abandon me.  By the grace of GOD, she chose not to give up on me.

When I was 19, I graduated high school against all odds. When I chose to get in touch with my biological family the first thing my mother said to me was, “You know your father’s dead, right?”  Not even a “hello” or “I’ve missed you” or “How’ve you been?”  I was crushed and soon found out that my father had died of a drug overdose 4 years earlier, around the same time I heard of my little brother’s death.

Satan has used the pain from my life experiences to try to destroy me with drug and alcohol abuse, frustration, anger, loneliness, and soul-crushing depression.  But GOD saw fit to save my life twice when He could have just let me die.  At one of my lowest points I ended up homeless with nowhere else to turn.

One night, while lying on someone’s back porch I came to a crossroad in my life with GOD which I see now was orchestrated by the HOLY GHOST.  That night, GOD gave me a revelation of His great love for me and let me know He had always been with me.  It was His strength, not mine, that got me through the very tough times.

I still had many trials and tribulations to go through in my life and had not found a place to call my spiritual home.  That’s when the LORD led me to Temple of Faith, where my spirit found a home and I found people who truly loved me.  Since then, CHRIST has done an amazing work—I’ve given up my old habits, I’m growing daily, and I can feel the call of GOD on my life to minister for Him.  I’m now a leader in the youth group and am able to share my story with kids that may be going through the same things I’ve experienced.

I thank GOD every day for my family in CHRIST along with the Lamonte’s who have been a true family to a broken old Marine like me.