My name is Edmund and I am 22 years old. I am born and grown up in a little place at Stuttgart. After my birth my mother started to drink a lot of alcohol and she got dependent on it. I have never got from her what a little child usually gets from its mother : Love, security, comfort. My two older sisters and my father also had no time for me because he was away professionally than as a long-distance truck driver for a long time. In his spare time he then also wanted to be left alone and to drink something. I grew up quite without parental welfare. In the nursery school I already began to skip and didn't run it in school much better.

When I was even ten years old, my father decided in favour of a life with Jesus, and his behaviour changed totally. Cigarettes and alcohol had no more value for him, the television set also disappeared out of our house. What counted for him now, this was the Bible. He told me many stories of Jesus and the church-going on Sunday became a duty for the whole family. I had no interest in such a life. When I was twelve years old, my father let himself separate from my mother because he stood her alcohol addiction no longer. All three children stayed with the father. I think today the being absent of my mother hasn't burdened me because she couldn't care for me because of her addiction even before.

I had many contacts to Russian friends and these relations got closer and closer. I understood the Russian language to some extent since my parents had emigrated of there. My friends took drugs. I thought sometime: if you don't become just like it, the friendship won't hold for a long time! I smoked my first joint with 13 years. And everything then began with that. Smoking made me extremely unimportant and unrelated. I even went so far that I robbed my own family to finance the drug. The addiction always captivated me more. Just, I made my school-leaving qualification. I didn’t live on family thefts alone but had more sources of income: I started to deceive people, perform burglaries and nick cars. All this didn't remain without consequences: The police arrested me and the judge put me for 3 months into detention while awaiting trial. I was just 16 years old at that time. When I was released I had no work and took drugs again. I loafed about in the streets during the day and I was on thief tour at night. When I then stood in front of the judge again, he sent me to the prison for two years.

My life was in a destructive circulation: Drug, prison, friends, drug, prison. I didn't find any way out and didn't have any person in whom I could trust either. I wanted to set my life an end because I saw no more hope. I swallowed all tablets which were in the house and locked me in the bath. My sister noticed this and called my uncle who broke the door open and took me to the hospital. After the doctors had pumped the stomach out, I spent some days on the intensive care unit. My life direction seemed pre-marked and the fall got steeper and steeper. The next warrant of arrest against me was passed and my father had no more nerves. He put me in front of the door and said: "You aren't my son any more, I want to see you never again". I had arrived at a point at which I asked myself: "Who loves you actually"? I didn't understand that my father who always told me much about charity could say something like that to his own son.
By my mother I came to know Crossroads Prison and Rehabilitation Ministry.  I saw my only chance in it to avoid being imprisoned again. The Crossroaders offered me to move into one of their extended families. This family, Andreas, Silke and their son Samuel, was very nice to me right from the beginning. Despite my criminal career they showed much confidence in me. In the morning we read in the Bible together and spoke about it. At first I didn't feel like it but I noticed soon: What is written there, this has to do something with my life. Jesus has come into the world and died for my fault because he loves me and would like to give me hope. I had looked for love, security and hope for a long time. Many young people at Crossroads told me that Jesus had changed their life totally. I wanted to learn this also personally. I prayed and asked Jesus for pardon of my guilt and that he shall help me to lead a sensible life. According to this prayer I felt quiet and peace came into my heart. I cried with joy because I had experienced that somebody loves me and has an idea for my life. With the time I noticed more and more changes in my life. I was interested in reading the bible. And I felt that I needed no more drugs because my life belongs to Jesus now. Many discussions and conversations with other Christians help me on this way of change.

After approximately one year I got the possibility to start with an apprenticeship as a retail salesman at the garden centre of Crossroads. Now I already live several years there and this has become my new home.  And I am very grateful to Jesus that he has saved me from crime and drug and has given me a future.