Road To Redemption
Road To Redemption
Eddie Mansfield's Journey from Addiction to Ministry
"God takes what they've been through and turns it to good." These powerful words from Eddie Mansfield capture the essence of his extraordinary transformation story shared on Road to Redemption.
Eddie's journey begins in Owensboro, Kentucky, where despite a loving Christian upbringing, he veered into substance abuse at age 15. What followed was a 23-year descent through addiction, wasted opportunities, and escalating legal troubles. By age 38, Eddie found himself in an Atlanta jail cell facing a potential 10-year sentence for methamphetamine possession. It was here, at his lowest point, that something unexpected happened—he reconnected with faith through a fellow inmate who knew the Bible intimately.
While Eddie studied Scripture behind bars, his mother began having recurring dreams that her son would someday lead a faith-based recovery program—visions that seemed impossible given his circumstances. Then came what Eddie can only describe as divine intervention: three days before Christmas 2006, through an unexpected act of mercy from a retiring district attorney, Eddie was released directly to a rehab facility in Destin, Florida. Christmas Eve became his sobriety date, marking the beginning of a radical life transformation.
Today, Eddie serves as director of Path of Grace, a thriving women's recovery ministry with 54 residents and 12 graduates in transition. His personal experience with addiction fuels his compassion and effectiveness in helping others find freedom. With his wife Kayla (herself a recovery success story) by his side, Eddie's life stands as powerful testimony that no one is beyond redemption and that our deepest pain can become our most powerful platform for helping others.
For more info on Path of Grace in Miramar Beach FL goto https://www.pathofgrace.net or reach them at:
Mailing Address \ PO Box 9261, Miramar Beach, FL 32550
email: PathofGrace@gmail.com \ Tel. 850.974.4573
For more information contact us at
rtrdestiny@gmail.com
Welcome to Road to Redemption, a show sharing powerful life testimonies, giving hope to those on their own road to redemption.
Speaker 2:I have Eddie Mansfield, the director of Path of Grace, here with us. He's an amazing man of God and his testimony is powerful. So I'm going to start and can you just share about. Let's start. Can you share about the Path of Grace first of all?
Speaker 3:Well, sure, Path of Grace first of all. Well, sure Path of Grace originated in 2008. We started out with, like four women in Freeport and we have grown. Now we have several locations. Our residential program has 54 women residing in it right now and we have 12 graduates living in transition with three children at this moment.
Speaker 2:It's exciting times and there's two more children coming soon to the transitional village, so it's amazing to think about the number of women that the Path of Grace and Eddie is the director over it is helping. It's just amazing to think about all the graduates through the years and what they're doing now in the community and beyond. So thank you for what you do and thank you for being here with us today. And can you? You know you have an amazing testimony and you are an example of God taking someone's pain and making it their purpose or their platform. Can you share about your story?
Speaker 3:Sure, well, I am from Owensboro, kentucky originally, and I was raised by two wonderful parents. They were both, you know. We had a Christian household. I, unfortunately I unfortunately kind of veered away from anything that looked like Christianity in my early age of about 15. I had, I guess, a little bit of a rebellion in me for some reason and I started hanging around the wrong kinds of people at an early age. I raced bikes and I played ice ice hockey and I swam on the swim team and there was some people that I gravitated to at a very early age that drank and smoked pot, and so I started doing that at like 15 or 16. And unfortunately, from there until about age 38, my whole from there until about age 38, I just had a progressing drug problem and I went to seven rehabs. I moved all over the country to different. After high school I went to four different colleges and wasted time at these colleges because I was partying and doing things I shouldn't be. So I wasted a lot of my parents' money and also had a very messed up life, kind of in and out of trouble all the way to age 38.
Speaker 3:I'll kind of tell you what happened to me at 38. I was in Atlanta. I'll kind of tell you what happened to me at 38. I was in Atlanta, I'd gotten in some, I'd gotten arrested and they had found some drugs in my car and I was very tired of being on drugs and running. It was methamphetamine that I was on at the time mostly, and they had put me in the back of the police car and out of my mouth I pretty much yelled thank you, jesus, and I remember I was like where did that come from? I was sitting back there, I was under distress, but those words came out and when they did, I really just was kind of dumbfounded that I said it. But I ended up in jail and I had already been on probation for another problem, more trouble that I'd been in. So when I went to jail I knew I was in serious trouble because I had enough drugs that were going to send me away for like 10 years. So it was really scary.
Speaker 3:And when I got to jail I knew one person in the jail and he actually had a bunk where I would be sleeping, because when I got there that was the only bunk left and this guy was someone from the outsides that used to be my friend in the drug world, but he knew the Bible inside and out. And so he and I, he said, look, let me, let me, let's do some Bible studies while we're in here. And it just kind of, I guess I was at my at the my end, you know, and I was at my end, you know, and I was at my rock bottom and I said, well, sure, let's do it. And um, he told me to get into Mark. And when I did um, we were, we were studying Mark and I kind of gravitated to Mark 11, um 1124.
Speaker 3:And um, anyways, I stood on that scripture, it was um. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And what I was asking the Lord to do for me again was to help me not go to prison and get another chance at recovery. And I'd already been to recovery in six rehabs, so it would be my seventh. But anyways, I was in jail for seven months and I stayed focused on prayer in there and I started really standing on that particular scripture and I believe that somehow God was going to take me out of jail and give me another chance.
Speaker 2:That is so powerful and would you share the piece that here you had a praying mom and what she came and what she told you why you were in jail. It's so powerful.
Speaker 3:My mom kept. When I would come home, my mom would tell me she started at about four months in there. She said, look, I've been having these dreams and you are running a faith-based program to help people with recovery. And I would say, mom, that's a weird dream. I would tell her that's, that's a weird, a weird dream. You. I would like tell her that's, that's probably not going to happen, but do be praying for me to get out of here, because I was really worried that I was going away for 10 years and um and we but she had this reoccurring dream, like probably four times, I would say, while I was in jail. And she kept telling me like keep praying, because I believe that God's going to do something in you, he's going to change you, he's going to get you out of this trouble. Well, anyways, it was like two or three days before Christmas, I'd already made peace that I was going to be there. This is in 2006. I made peace that I was going to be there through Christmas and through 2006. I made peace that I was going to be there through Christmas and through the new year. I didn't feel like that I was going to get a chance.
Speaker 3:But three days before Christmas, my attorney came without notice to the jail and they said you have a visitor. And I went down there to the little area where you meet with your attorney, the little area where you meet with your attorney and he said the DA is going to be quitting this year. And he gave me a favor and he said who would you like for me to get out of jail and give a chance at a new life for? And anyways, he said, well, I've got this guy that I really think he's a good guy. I think he he needs help. Will you let me take him out of jail and put him into rehab and give him a chance at and?
Speaker 3:So, anyways, and the next day I was out of jail and I was on my way. I was on my way to Destin, florida, to go to rehab at Haven House and I was there, was there on the day before Christmas Eve. So I call Christmas Eve my sobriety day, because that's the day that I really like, got here and picked up a white chip in AA and decided to change my life forever. So anyways, it's been a journey.
Speaker 2:And, anyways, it's been a journey. You know once again, you know your pain has become your platform. You know, as you were talking, I was thinking about the verses in Joel 2 that I'll restore the years the locust has eaten. And I look at you and the restoration, eddie, is just amazing. And now you have this beautiful wife and your children and grandchildren right Along with this wonderful ministry.
Speaker 3:I do. I found my calling. I realized my mother was right. I didn't realize it until about 2009, that she is or no. 2011 is when I realized that she's right, that this is my call is when I realized that she's right, that this is my call, because I came on board at Path of Grace in November of 2010. By 2011, I was starting to see the vision that my mom had, and then it's just progressed over the years. I've realized that the Lord, he's given me this opportunity to help people like me, and now I wouldn't change it for anything. No matter if I hit the lottery today, the jackpot powerball, I would stay working at Path of Grace and doing what I do there. I love helping people and helping others in recovery. So it's just I realized that God wants me here.
Speaker 2:So you know, as you were talking, I was thinking of behind the scenes. He had a praying mom. You had a praying mom and as you were talking, I was thinking of the book of the Power of the Praying Parent by Stormy O'Martin. I think some of our listeners maybe need to hear this today that there is power. The fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous person brings forth much. It's an example. Your mom prayed for you for a long time and look at where you're at today. It's awesome. So let's all keep praying right, even praying dads.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's a beautiful thing to see prayer and how God works in people's lives and he takes somebody that's so, so stricken or, so you know, so messed up like I was and even like my wife was and the others that we see through Path of Grace and then he takes what they've been through and he turns it to good. And I'm a firm believer that God has done all this for us and for me and my family, and he has restored the years that the locust has eaten, and even way more than I could have ever expected. It's beautiful.
Speaker 2:You know, in Romans 8, 28,. It says all things work together for good for those that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. It doesn't say all things are good. And you look back on your life and no, no, no, it wasn't good. But he has weaved it into such a beautiful testimony and, like you said, and your wife Kayla too, it's just amazing what God has done. What would you say to the person listening that today they're in active addiction?
Speaker 3:I would say to them there is such a better life. And I would say, you know, give God a chance to change you and help you. And help you because being high and drunk you're in another world and you don't really realize until you've been free for a little bit. You're hurting and then you do more drugs or you drink more to get out of that pain. But there is freedom on the other side. And I just say, you know, like, reach out to somebody, go to detox, but get into a Christ centered program when you go to rehab, because God is the key, yeah.
Speaker 2:And he is our healer right.
Speaker 3:Amen. I absolutely believe that.
Speaker 2:You know we always like to close out a show. Absolutely believe that. You know we always like to close out a show, eddie, and just say, and kind of like what we're talking about, the importance of having accountability for all of us, right, and having a Christ-centered church that you can be fed. There's something about that corporate anointing when you go to church, but also there's something about a small group being accountable to other people once again, and we do want people to hear the importance of that. Once you know, as you look at getting out of addiction, that can be a source of help. Right Is to have those things in your life.
Speaker 3:I totally agree. You need the church, the small groups, you need other people to help. You know your support group, it's your support and really there's such a happiness and joy that comes with all those things too. And so we, you know we totally believe at Path of Grace that God is the key and the more you follow God and the deeper you dive in, the more you're going to get.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to Road to Redemption, sharing powerful life testimonies, giving hope to those on their own road to redemption. If you have any comments or questions, we would love to connect with you. You can reach out to us at destiny radio dot live. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next week on road to redemption.