My name is Andreas. I grew up in Lüdenscheid in a typical middle class family, but by the age of fifteen, I realized that my family’s life style just didn’t appeal to me. I wanted more than work, food and sleep.
Then I met some young people who smoked hash and spent lots of time in bars and discos. Their life style fascinated me and I joined them. After a few years however I began to realize that the very things that had fascinated me were destroying me, too. I had added alcohol and speed to my regular hash consume. I noticed that I had lost contact to others and was no longer capable of keeping a job. At the end of my vocational training as a tool maker I lost my job.
My family couldn’t live with me any more either. At the age of nineteen, the constant conflicts with my parents drove me to leave home. Two years later, after several failed relationships with girls, I became a father to a daughter who had to grow up without me. But that made me think. I knew I was no longer capable of changing either myself or my life. Two weeks in a hospital gave me ample time to reflect, and a Christian colleague of my father’s visited me. He took the time to discuss my life and my problems with me, assured me that Jesus could change my life and forgive my guilt. We prayed together and I realized that if anyone could transform my messed up life, then only Jesus. I had heard of Crossroads Rehabilitation Ministry, where Christians had offered me friendship and a home in one of their extended family communities. There I relearned the art of building relationships and began to want to do something for others.
I have belonged to Crossroads’ Rehabilitation Ministry for ten years now. I work in the “Crossroads treenursery” where I assist former addicts and convicts in their vocational training. I am married and our family wants to give a home to other young delinquents as well as to our own children.