Hope - My Story!

Hello. My name is Stephen David Leedham and I was born on 24th November 1973.

And not so long ago I was a hopeless and helpless alcoholic. That was until the Lord Jesus came into my life and began to transform me from the person I was into a new creation.

I did not have a good childhood and you could say that the things that happened to me in my childhood conditioned me into turning out the way I did.

My mum was an alcoholic and my dad a heavy drinker who spent a lot of time away from home working. When he was home my parents would have violent rows. I was bullied at school and I just remember my childhood as being full of fear and anger. Fear at what was happening to me and anger that I could do nothing to make it stop. When I was nine my dad died after battling heart disease for a long time. My mum's drinking increased and I and my younger sister were put into foster care.

My time in care had a good effect on me and I learnt a lot of good values. I began to pray to God for the recovery of my mum and after a year I was returned to her care.

A short while later my mum met a man who moved into our home with us along with his two children. This man convinced my mum that she'd be ok to start drinking again and before long she was back as bad as before. My sister began to go off the rails, my mum's relationship broke up and I was being bullied in school again.

Now, aged 14 I began to use alcohol and I vividly remember the effect my first drink had on me. I remember thinking, "This is what I have been looking for all these years!" "This makes me into the person I want to be." "It takes away all my cares and fears." Over the next 7 years I gradually became an alcoholic. I started to drink whenever I could as I found it helped me cope with looking after my mum. However, when I left home my drinking got progressively worse and found myself in and out of work and unable to hold down a job. I also found myself in trouble with the law and in my first detox unit, then rehab at the age of 21.

Little changed for me over the next 10 years. I went into rehab thinking that if I could get over my problems I could carry on drinking. I failed to realize that my problem WAS the drink! So although I managed to get myself on my feet I would always find myself returning to the alcohol and was increasingly isolating myself away in my addiction. I hated people and my philosophy was - if they don't bother me then I won’t bother them - but in reality I was painfully lonely and longing for relationship.

Eventually, my life circumstances caught up with me and dishonesty and deceit found me on the wrong side of the law again. My alcoholism also caught up with me and I was in a slow but sure downward spiral.

In my loneliness and desperation I called out of God in a way I hadn't done since my childhood. The Lord heard my cry and sent Peter and Maureen (a Christian couple) into my life and Peter led me to a commitment to Christ on 31st March 2005. I was shown mercy for my sins against authority and against God and in a chain of events that followed began to see the good Lord at work in my life. Not least when a couple from my church, who had worked at Teen Challenge years previously, heard about me and told Peter and I about the life changing ministry. I was interviewed and given a place on 13th June 2005 (The very same day that I had been given notice to quit on my house!).

I have now completed the 10 month rehabilitation and discipleship program. It wasn't easy, but I am now a new person who is set free from addiction and the many issues that bound me for so long.

Now I am training with Teen Challenge to become a support worker and it is my aim to be of help and service to other addicts and alcoholics and give them true freedom in Christ. My longer term goals are to run my own business, become a counsellor and to love and care for a wife and family.

Above all, I want to live for and please my Lord and Saviour for all that He has done in my life. Not a day goes by that I don't thank Him for the priceless gift of my salvation.

I cherish the scripture that made me decide to give my life to Christ. Revelation 3:20. "Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with Me."