Two former drug addicts talked about how God liberated them from their addictions and how they are now helping others to receive the same freedom.
"For the longest time, I was in this never-ending cycle of drug addiction and alcoholism," Rich Walters told CBN News' Prayerlink. "I just couldn't seem to step out of it. I was living a life of complete and total failure and desperation. It was so, so, so, bad. It was to the point where you overdose multiple times and there are times that you are literally welcoming death."
Rich Walters currently runs Peer Solutions, a behavioral health center in Parkersburg, West Virginia, with his wife Shay. On Facebook, the couple has a total following of almost one million people.
Shay had survived many overdoses and suicide attempts by the time she was 25 years old.
"I felt like I didn't have any reason to even be here on this earth," she told CBN News. I just had no hope."
Shay was arrested in 2015 on nine felony narcotics counts and faced a sentence of 22 years in prison. She turned to God for aid during that difficult time in her life. "I could not imagine my life the way that it was anymore. And that is when I had a genuine and humble moment that I cried out to God and I asked Him to intercede in my life," she explained.
"When God is the only person in your cell with you, that led to a very special bond with Him." She continued.
Together, the couple witnessed God's mighty hand radically transform their life. "For whatever reason, God continues to sustain you and keep you alive long enough to get you to a place where this miracle can take place in your life," Rich shared.
Despite having been a "public enemy" of the state, the Walters have now become "pillar of the community." "I was essentially public enemy number one here in this community, and since that time I have now become a pillar of this community," Rich said. "Now, the court system actually sends people to us. They trust us to help their people when they're in trouble and they need help."
After Vermont, West Virginia has the second-highest number of yearly overdose deaths in the US. Overdose fatalities increased by about 30% nationally in 2021, while they increased by 62 percent in West Virginia. Despite this, the couple believes that God, is a God who gives second chances.
They recently witnessed a former Satanist dedicate his life to the Lord after spending years "trapped in a terrible cycle" of drugs and drink and nearly committed suicide.
"The healing that we've seen take place, the chains of addiction being broken over people's lives, that's not us. That's because we have God going into every situation with us," Shay added.
"God has a habit of recruiting from the pit and taking two low bottom violent drug-addicted criminals and turning them into disciples," Rich wrote on Facebook. "God has a habit of equipping the worst society has to offer and using them to win souls. God has literally done the miraculous in our lives. We are walking, talking miracles."
