I was real dark, nothing mattered. Hated everything. Everyone really myself is the worst. I didn't care about myself. I was trying to kill myself by drinking and doing drugs and got close a couple of times. I've been in a lot of near death situations, been shot, been stabbed. A lot of things I've been in wrong spots at the wrong time. And. I'm still here. The program changed the way I thought about myself. These folks are caring about me. They're giving me water to drink, food to eat, a place to rest my head, and I ain't in the rain. I ain't in the cold. I ain't in the heat. They took me to and from. They saved my life, dude.
Phil Shuler:Hello and welcome to renew, restore, rejoice, the safe house ministries podcast, where we share stories of the power of God to change lives through safe house ministries. Safe house ministries is based out of Columbus, Georgia, and we are a ministry that exists to love and serve people who have been impacted by homelessness, addiction, and incarceration. I am your host, Phil Shuler, the director of development for safe house ministries here in Columbus, Georgia. Safehouse serves over 1000 people each month, as they transitioned back into our community safe house provides 213 beds for homeless individuals and families and provides many other important services such as case management for obtaining employment. Case management for finding a permanent home. Over 300 hot meals every day. Free clothing and so much more. One of the most incredible services that safe house ministries provides is our free nine to 12 month intensive outpatient substance abuse program. Which is state licensed and has no waitlist setting it apart from nearly all other state licensed recovery programs, which are often very expensive. And nearly always have a wait list of two weeks or longer. Almost 100% of those. Individual staying in our shelters who follow our three phase program and up fully employed. And 68% of individuals who stay at least one night with us, end up finding work and moving into their own home. Thank you for being with us today and listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoy this week's episode.
Phil:Good morning. This morning. I am sitting here with Ross Phillips and Ross has an amazing testimony. Safe House just had a recent annual. Golf tournament fundraiser and Ross shared his testimony there or at least a little bit of it I'm very excited to hear the deeper and fuller version of his testimony Sounds like the Lord has done some really neat things in his life. And so with that we'll jump in Ross. Good to have you man So Ross Just to start, if you had to think about one word that might best describe you, what do you think that word would be?
Ross:Right now it's, it'd have to be grateful. It's a good word, man. Yes, yeah. What are you grateful for? Oh I'm grateful to be alive. Grateful to be alive. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. I've got a lot of things now. That I never thought I'd have. Praise the Lord.
Phil:Awesome. Let's start, from the beginning. Just growing up. Where did you grow up?
Ross:I was born here in Columbus at the Medical Center. Alright. Yeah, born and raised right here.
Phil:Is the family here for a long while then? Previous generations? Yeah,
Ross:I guess so. I know Mom and Dad was here. This is why I went to Reese Road Elementary School and I went to Fort Middle School, then I moved out, out to Marion County about 20 miles east of here. Went to Tri County. The part of high school I went anyway. Yeah. About 10th grade and then I went to work. Okay.
Phil:What was growing up like? Was it, did you have a good home life or were things pretty rough growing up?
Ross:It wasn't the worst but, it was. It was loud and, there was some abuse going on, but I don't know, I got used to it raising hell, everybody angry all the time. It wasn't that bad, but it really wasn't that great.
Phil:Like your parents, mom and dad, they would get angry a lot and like physical abuse or?
Ross:Oh yeah. Really? Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty, pretty loud. Wow.
Phil:Teenage years, did you were you a pretty good teenager or did you get in a lot of trouble as a teenager?
Ross:I stayed to myself really, but then when I was 14, I smoked weed for the first time. Yeah? Yeah. And the funny thing about it is I smoked it and it made me sick. Wow. I threw up. Wow. Okay. Then, I tried it again to try to, see if I could get a better outcome by it. And I did it again and I got even sicker and I threw up again. Oh. But I'm an addict. And I know I am. So I did it again. And then boom, I felt good. I didn't throw up. I was like, Oh I'm getting something out of it now. I feel good. I ain't throwing up. So it's where it started for me. I just continued all the time. What made you
Phil:want to keep trying after that first really bad outcome? What made you want to keep
Ross:trying? I don't, I can't answer that. I don't know. I know that, I wanted to try it because I guess because my friends were doing it and I just wanted to fit in I guess. Yeah, it took me three times but then third time I thought I had it. I got it. Wow. Yeah, that's probably part of the addiction in my brain. It's I've just been taught that it's a disease, and it kinda took me a little while to realize that to accept that. But yeah, I mean I can see because if I try it twice and I'm throwing up twice, why would I do it a third time? I guess that's part of the addiction in my brain. It's it's crazy. Okay.
Phil:What happened from there?
Ross:14, when I was in school, I mean I made decent grades and all, but I was hanging out with the wrong folks and, Hey, I went to work when I was 15 in the summertime. And I was making good money, I was working out of town, and I come, the summer was over with, I went back to school, 11th grade. And it didn't last long because I had stayed with dad before and then I was living with mom and mom really couldn't afford everything so I was ready to go back to work and that's what I did. I quit school, went back to work. I was trying to be out of town, two, three, four weeks at a time. Making a decent living, school didn't matter because, I was paying my own bills, and that's when, everything A lot more drugs came involved with that, doing cocaine, ecstasy, pain pills, smoking weed, started drinking.
Phil:This was traveling with work
Ross:and just hanging out. to town. Wow. All over the southeast. Yeah, up north, Illinois, Indiana. Been out to Iowa. I've been to a lot of states. I was doing fire protection, putting them in Walmarts. Wow. Yeah, it was cool. I had, we was a six man crew and all of us, I thought we was the coolest guys in the land. It was like a, like we were a band, going from town to town, but we wasn't playing music. We was working, doing drugs.
Phil:Did that start leading you down a, darker path? Like, how long was that period? You were doing the drugs and...
Ross:For, I worked out of town for about four years. from when I was about from 15 to about 19 and it was really just a weekend thing. I smoke weed every day, but like on the weekends is what I, get into the other stuff. Some of the way harder stuff. I never thought that weed was a gateway, until recently. Because the way I look at everything, I was like, It's just weed. And it's just weed, god put that on earth for us to smoke. You know what I thought. And, it helps some people, and that's cool, but I don't do it now. Because I know where to take me. Yeah. It'll take me right back into a drink and with that drink, it'll take me into a drug but it always starts with a drink and then I'll do the drugs and then I'm ending up drinking to be to level it out or whatever. I don't know what to say. Yeah. It's just a it's a downward spiral. It's a start. It might take 2324 years to stop. That's where that's what that's how long it took me to realize what was really going on So you're upper
Phil:teens early 20s traveling
Ross:just I stopped traveling and when I was 19 right when I turned 20 I come worked at a company here in town SEI for Jim Susan bought greatest boss man ever dude, and He's I was working there. I was in town, but I was still Smoking weed every day. Yeah. Started drinking a lot more when I was in town and then I picked up a real heavy cocaine habit. Where I built a house when I was 20 out in Box Springs. Nice home. I had 7 acres, 4 bedroom, 2 bath. It was my kingdom and I'm 20 years old. I got a great Christmas bonus from Jim and It was like a, it was this deathly triangle. I'd come home and on the way out to the country, I'd stop and get me a bottle of liquor. I'd stop and get the cocaine and I'd go to the house. And that became every single day. And I remember sitting in the room at my house and I was in, I had this room on, I built on the back and I was smoking there and stuff and do that other stuff. I remember sitting in there and just asking God what am I doing? Please help me. By then, in my head, I could not stop. It's the only way I wanted to do things. I'd have to, I was drinking, I'd have me a little bit of liquor in the morning before I went to work. And, that's when it really started to get bad, and I was probably, this was about 24, 25, it got real bad, I had my first youngin. And. I thought I could stop for her and I quit smoking cigarettes, but I could not stop the other stuff. It was like impossible. Did you have a girlfriend? Were you married? Yeah. I was I wasn't married. That's my baby mama. It was me. It was my girlfriend. Hey, we've been together for five years. And then we had the young and most precious thing in the world to me. She's a superstar right now. She does. She's so dang smart, man. It is, I feel a little guilt from what I was doing, but she's seen me in some rough times. So she's she's street smart. But the books she goes to Columbus High School. She's she makes hundreds man. She is she just she's doing so good I'm so proud of her praise the Lord
Phil:So you said you realized that you were in a bad place and you reached out to the Lord and just praying like why? Are you doing this? So had you grown up in church or hearing about God
Ross:or no, I've never been to church Okay, I had no I've been to church three times and it was for the wrong reason it was for Chasing tail. Okay, that's it I mean, I was, I'd come to church. I'd be looking around and they're all doing their thing and I didn't know what was going on really scared me and I never, I always, I guess I believed in something. I really didn't know. I knew there was something that had to be something. That's just the way I thought. Yeah. But I never really knew. I would do those emergency prayers when I really needed something. Yeah. I'd be in trouble or be in a tight spot, I'd be like, please God help me. Yeah. And somehow I'm still here. Wow. So I guess it, I can't guess, I know it worked because I'm still alive. He was watching
Phil:out for you. Absolutely. So that everyday pattern what did that lead
Ross:to? Oh I did cocaine every day for ten years. Wow. With people so close to me. These people that I love dearly, so I thought it was okay what I was doing was okay. I was paying my bills, doing cocaine, drinking liquor, smoking weed every day. This went on for ten years, like without a break. Maybe ten days in ten years I didn't do it. But it never left my system. Then I, occasionally I would do meth, but then, the cocaine just wasn't enough. So I got into meth. Alright. When I started doing that, I wasn't wanting to work. I could get into meth, and I could make it to where I could still live without working. Because of what I was doing with it. Okay, that stuff right there, kid, I had a bunch of it. It was very plentiful. So I quit work. My little girl was living with me before, before I got into that. Yeah, when I got into that, she was about nine and she started having that woman part of her life where she needed to be with her mama. So that's what happened. She moved in with her mama. When Emma moved in with her mama. I didn't have nothin to take care of. I didn't even care about myself. That wasn't even an option. I made sure she was taken care of. The girl I was with at the time was a great stepmother to my daughter. She really did a lot of good things for her. I love her to death. I'll never stop lovin her. She's a sweet lady. The thing about it is, I wasn't there. I knew in my head that the best thing for my daughter would be with her mama. So she moved in with her mama. And then I got my, see my dad built a house when I built a house right beside me. Alright, so we're living out there and we're doing what we're doing and it ain't the best thing we're doing. Dad's house burned down. Caught a fire. Yeah, just out of the blue, I had a lot of stuff in that house. It was not a good thing. And then. I was getting harassed by the police and all because, they weren't stupid. They knew what I was doing, and so, it just, I had to get rid of the house. I sold the house. I moved into Columbus. Actually, I moved in with a friend of mine. My girlfriend at the time. And then, that's when Emma moved in with her mama. Because I was just wide open doing all kind of raw stuff, bouncing around from house to house, manipulating people. As long as I had that one thing, I could get anything from them. And that's what I did for three years. It was like a downroll spiel. I'm... When I say I'm lucky to be alive, I'm really lucky to be alive.
Phil:So you were using and selling
Ross:at that time? Oh yeah, I was doing the most. Yeah, I was doing it all. Yeah, really, it was terrible. There was no way out. I was, I would keep myself, my brain fried. I'd stay drunk. And I would jump around from woman to woman manipulating them. Seeing what I could get out of them. Drive their car, live in their house, eat their food. As long as I had the drugs, I could do that. And that part was plentiful. Then then I caught some charges. Yeah. Yeah. For selling for possession. Got lucky on that part. It was a possession. I had a little bit of meth and some Xanax. I went to court and plead the first offender, so I had got two years probation. This is when I all started probation, I've been on probation for, this was probably about ten years ago. Maybe eleven, twelve, something like that, I can't get it exactly, but I went to court, and I got a I was using the first offender and I got a two years probation and a fine, paid the fine, had a little probation. I wasn't even, I wasn't stopping. It didn't even matter. I quit. I didn't go to the probation. I didn't report. They had the warrant out for me and they had a warrant out for me, so I wouldn't, it didn't, nothing really mattered. You didn't care.
Phil:You just kept doing
Ross:what you was doing. Oh yeah, I didn't, there wasn't nothing. There wasn't nothing to live for, I didn't think. And, there, I was in a dark place, dude. There wasn't no, there just, nothing mattered. I didn't even care about myself. My daughter done moved in with her mom. I'm not even talking to my daughter. That's the love of my life, is my little girl. And I'm not even talking to her., yeah, it got worse from there. I was down in South Georgia and I caught the intent charge, the sales case. And this was right before COVID hit. I caught that and I went to the court on it right before COVID hit. And they was like what's your plea? I plead not guilty. And they're like they was telling me, I was looking at 15 years, do eight. I've had to do eight years of my life in prison because of this. And that didn't stop me either. Wow. I went to jail on them charges and I got out on the O. R. bond. I got out on the O. R. bond and came back to Columbus. Doing the same thing. COVID hit. The court date got stretched like years. 3 or 4 years. Okay, in between this I caught another charge here in Columbus. Same thing. Myth. Just a possession. And... When I caught that, I dang, I had, I got a 3 2 1, Anthony Johnson got me a 3 2 1 and I had to go to rehab and that's when I went to the Grace House.
Phil:Wow. Okay. Which was at that time the men's shelter for safe house
Ross:ministries. That's where the women's shelter is now. It used to be the men's. Yeah. I got out of jail in two weeks until I went by and I told my probation officer, I was like, they told me I need to go to the rehab. He's we don't have any information on you. I was like look, I'm not going to be able to do anything, but drugs. If I don't go to a rehab, if I ain't got nothing, nobody over me, something to guide me where I need to go. I'm not going to go there. And she was like, okay I went down there and I talked to Jamie Lee. I went to the safe, I went to the safe house. I was like, look, I need to go to this rehab. I told him, I said, the court mandated me to come to rehab. I don't know why y'all ain't got his information, but she figured it all out. And then she's go to the grace house right now. I was like, I can't go to the grace house right now. I got to finish this job. I was working, for myself. I always work, but I had to get this money before I went in there. Cause once I get in there, it ain't no work. Yeah. The first phase of the
Phil:tomorrow's hope treatment. You can't
Ross:work, ain't no working. And. I went there. She said if you can't go today, make sure you go by Sunday. I was like, all right. She's don't do no drug. I said, I ain't, I'm not trying my best. I'm white knuckling it, but I'm not, I don't want to. So I get there and that's where it all started. And it, and when I started going to these classes they taught me that It taught me a lot of stuff about myself. By doing these worksheets and stuff, that I didn't think mattered. And do, and these, what, step one, two, and three in the first phase. What really got my attention was Christy Gregory. And she was my counselor. And I just, she she got her things in her past, and I was like, if she can do this, why can't I? And Ms. Leticia, and Ms. Carol, and Mr. Jay, and Neil. Neil really, you get, I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but Neil, the way he spoke, the way he used his words, it just, it worked on my brain. It opened me up. There's a whole lot of God there. Yeah. And I was just really starting to practice this. The God thing is where I'm at right now. It keeps me in my head. I got, I understand, I got this understanding of God now. Okay. I'm not real religious. I don't, I ain't real religious. I go to church, but I'm spiritual now. This God of my understanding is for real. Or I wouldn't even be sitting in this chair right now. He is for real. I have no doubt. Amen. I tell you this story. There's a lot of, there's a lot of bad things that have happened growing up, coming at working. I've been in a lot of near death situations, been shot, been stabbed. A lot of things I've been in wrong spots at the wrong time. And. I'm still here. The program changed the way I thought about myself. These folks are caring about me. They're giving me water to drink, food to eat, a place to rest my head, and I ain't in the rain. I ain't in the cold. I ain't in the heat. They took me to and from. They saved my life, dude and the thing about that is I can't, it's the only way I can return the favor is to continue helping people. And that's where it's at right now for me. Yeah. Dude, I got a gigantic bag of clothes and shoes at the house I got to take out there to the Freedom House now. We moved out there, let's see, there's all kinds of walks of life coming through here. The sad thing is, there's not a lot of folks that are going to make it. Okay. But if one out of 10 or 20 or how many ever, whatever the statistics are, if one make it, it's worth it. Yeah. I'm one of them right now. I know now what I have to do to continue doing what I'm doing. So I continue to do it. Heartache and hard times and people are dying and it's right in my face. And there is nothing I can do about that. Yeah, I've lost several people in two years. Wow.
Phil:Friends,
Ross:family? My buddy Onnie, he was out there at the Freedom House. I miss Arnie. Yeah, Arnie was a good dude, man. He he kept me at the Grace House. Cause I was fixing to jump the fence and he was like, dude, you ain't gotta jump the fence, the gates are locked. But stay. He said just stay for a week, dude. Wow. Yeah, he told me, don't jump the fence, the gate's open. Wow. And I was like, I had my backpack. That's all I had was a backpack. I had a backpack with some clothes in it, that's all I had. Yeah, I remember you telling
Phil:that saying that I guess you spent some nights homeless and...
Ross:Yeah I would bet, yeah, pretty much homeless. For... The past, the last three years of my demise was homeless. I'd be, I could go stay at somebody's house, but I didn't have no home. Yeah. I had a backpack with clothes and that other stuff that I thought ruled my body. It did. It took over. So the Lord used
Phil:Onnie and you stayed.
Ross:Oh yeah. Yeah. He's just stay, man. Just give it a week. So I give it a week and then I'd come out there and we'd be sitting there smoking cigarettes on the porch and he'd be like. I'll be like, dude, I don't want to be here. And he's just stay another week. And I did, and we started doing, we started grilling out. He always told me he loved me. He didn't even know me. He was like, buddy, I love you. You need to stay here. So I did. He become a good friend of mine.
Phil:He was an amazing
Ross:person. Yeah. He yeah, he was good. He was a good dude, man. hE got in that wreck and broke his arm to pieces and it didn't slow him down none. It slowed him down because he's arms in five different pieces. Yeah, but his heart and his mind was still to get better to help others and he was still helping himself, but he was helping others. He didn't mean he helped a lot of people. I know because I'm one of them and yeah, he become a good friend of mine. He was ahead of me in the program. He was on he was like three or 4 miles ahead of me. Yeah. And but he still, he latched on to me and right when we, he was at the Freedom House. He was working out there and I moved out of the Freedom House and he come to me one day. We was at a meeting. He was like, I want what you got. I was like, what do you mean? What I got? I want what you got. He's no, I want you to take me through the steps. Through AA. I was like, absolutely. He became my first sponsee. I get him through, we're going through the steps and there, and I'm just doing it like my sponsor showed me and he made some good, he made some great amends with his family. And then, we was at a meeting at Connections on Thursday. He told me, I love you buddy, and I was like, I love you man, we'll see you later. Next morning, I get a call from Ginger, and he's done had a heart attack and died. Yeah, it wasn't, it was weird when it happened, like the way I felt, it wasn't because I done changed just the way of living. I would before I go do some drugs, or I go take some shots, smoke some weed. Alright, that's not an option no more. So the first thing I thought, this is weird how this works. First thing I thought was like, he's okay. He's free.
Phil:Yeah, he knew Jesus. He loved
Ross:Jesus. No doubt. Yeah. He's gone now. And he don't have to worry about the things that we all have to worry about in this world. The world is tough. It's not near as tough as what it was. I've been taught how to deal with things instead of struggle. I know these certain things that I do now, like praying is a big part of my life. I never prayed until two years ago. And at first I didn't know what I was praying for, how to pray or nothing. I'd ask God when I got up. God direct my thinking because my thinking is O F T, off. My thinking is off. And Now I got this picture in my head of this, God of my understanding and it's great. And so I want to be like him. Do I cut? Did I fall short? Yes, I'll fall short, but I catch myself now. I don't get mad at things, I used to be really angry when I say angry, I was mad at everybody, including myself, everything. You look at me wrong and I'd be ready to fight. Now, I had somebody pull out in front of me the other day, and they got mad at me. And they get down to the stop sign, and they get out of the car. And I'm like I'm not going to let them catch me sitting in the car. So I get out of the car, and I'm like, are you okay? And he's like screaming at me. I was like, dude, there's nothing I can do about you pulling out in front of me, man. He's just having a bad day, used to when I'd jump out, and it would be on. But now... It's okay. Yeah, that's my favorite word nowadays is it's okay The bad stuff happens. Yeah, it's
Phil:okay. That's good That's I think all of us could use a bigger dose of that kind of a spirit to just it's okay Hey, we don't have to worry. It's no stress. No, just we'll get through it
Ross:Yeah, I can't say there ain't no stress, but I deal with it. You handle it better. Yeah. I just, I face it, I got these fears, I was iffy about coming down here and talking, but I'm like, how would you be iffy about that? Phil's a good, dude. From far as I know. And the thing about it is, this might help somebody. Yeah. Cause I was real dark, nothing mattered. Hated everything. Everyone really myself is the worst. I didn't care about myself. I was trying to kill myself by drinking and doing drugs and got close a couple of times. Wow. But now, I got two whole years. Like 365 times two. Yeah. Eight days in a row. From almost 24 years of never having a clean system. Now I got 24 months. Wow. With nothing in me. Wow. Praise the Lord. Yeah. God bless me. So this is the way I look at it. I'm here for a reason because I done tested my limits. I'm alive. Might die tomorrow. I'll be okay. This is how it is. I ain't I'm looking forward to tomorrow but I used when the back before I didn't look forward to tomorrow. They won't know tomorrow. Yeah. If tomorrow comes, great. do What I'm gonna do. The past It still gets at me, but I use it for it to keep me doing what I'm doing. I think about, things come up. I just I say it's luck, but I think it's the grace of God. Yeah. And I believe that now, so I got a lot to give now. I
Phil:love it. I love it. How's your relationship
Ross:with your daughter now? Oh yeah. That's my best friend. Yeah. Besides God, God's my homeboy. Oh, that is awesome. Yeah. My little girl she's real busy in school right now. Yeah. She'll be 15 on the 27th of this month. Wow. And yeah, it's like she's grown. She's beautiful. Yeah. It's she goes to Columbus. She makes straight A's. That's good. Yeah. We'll go hang out. And, we're just. We're on a different level. I know she's happy to have me back. I can tell, she'll call me randomly and she'll just be like, dad, I'm like, Emma, and she'll be like uh, I need some snacks. I'll be like, you need some snacks. What you mean you need some snacks? She's dad, I need some snacks. It's like code word for come pick me up right now because I gotta tell you some stuff. It's cool. It's that's awesome. Yeah, she's doing real proud of her, man. She's. She's really doing good. Man, that
Phil:is good. That's good. And you're working? And got your own place? Saving up some money? Just stable foundation?
Ross:Yeah. Yeah. I got a, my sponsors and also my landlord. Tim Crandall's a good dude, man. He's, God put us right in the path. We was at the safe house. it Was a mandatory 12 o'clock meetings and he was there on a Tuesday and he shared some stuff and I'm like, yeah, I need a sponsor. I went up and talked to him and he's also my landlord. Dude looks out for me. He took me to the AA steps and I'm a member of AA now. And I help a lot of people, dude. It's cool. That is cool. Yeah. Yeah. There's this group of people that are alcoholics that are amazing people. Really good people. You got people who invite me to their homes. We cook out, hang out. In other words, like the book says, we are not a glum lot. We still have fun. Yeah.
Phil:Isn't it amazing that you can that? Yeah. Just have a great time without any alcohol or drugs.
Ross:Nothing ever stopped me until now. And the way everything lined up, it got me into the rehab with Safe House Ministries, and then that led me to AA and NA. I can't, NA was part of me too. I just celebrated two years with both of them.
Phil:Wow. So you're part of Alcoholics Anonymous and
Ross:Narcotics Anonymous. Oh yeah. It's a double edged sword for me. I get it both ways. Yeah. I've learned a lot about myself. There's a lot more God. And AA for me. But in a, my first meet was in a, all so I got two years. So yeah, I celebrate there so I can show these newcomers because I'm real raw and explicit and to the point on how serious the disease of addiction and alcoholism is, I get, I take it real serious because I was almost dead and I see people coming in like I was nothing. Hopeless, not even, can't even think, blink, walk straight, don't even, it was so bad, dude, that all this wasn't in the equation, but now it is, so yeah, I gotta give back, I gotta help others, dude, I got to, it keeps me out of myself, too. Yeah, that's an
Phil:important thing, and I think, I love it. Yeah, I think as I've talked to individuals, giving back and helping others is a huge part of their victory and success and just driving them to keep on going.
Ross:Yeah, it's it's Two years ago, you couldn't tell me I'd be where I'm at right now. Wow. It just wasn't a, it just wasn't there. Yeah. Now it's like amazing. Praise the Lord. Absolutely.
Phil:Ross, was there any question I didn't ask or anything maybe that we didn't talk about that you think would be good to share?
Ross:No, you pretty much broke it down just like it was supposed to be. I just. Know this, if you're going through the worst time of your life, and you're doing the worst things to your body to try to get out of that, to numb your feelings, it don't matter how bad it is, that there is some help out there, and I'm, it, I know there's help because I've been helped, so if you think you're bad off, there, there's, there is a way out. And just, it was so bad for me that it's I can't even describe it. And now the miracles happened. I waited for, I let the miracle happen. And now I get to live. I just started living. Really just started living. And everything's okay.
Phil:I love it. That's awesome. Is there any last bit of advice or word of wisdom that you'd like to leave for
Ross:yeah, if you need help get some help because there's a lot of help. There's a lot of recovery here at Columbus. I mean Don't matter how bad it is because it can be worse. Yeah, you know if you won't help us here to get especially here in Columbus. I like Columbus's recovery. It's real strong. Yeah, that's good. Reach out to Safe House Ministries because they saved my life. Awesome. Praise the Lord. Absolutely. Ross, you mind if I close us in a word of prayer? Absolutely.
Phil:Father in heaven, I just praise you. You're an amazing God. We do not fully understand why you love us so much. And why you care about us. Thank you for what you've done in Ross life. Thank you for watching out for him during the times that he's been through when he maybe should have ended up dead. But he didn't. Because you were there. And you had a plan for his life. Thank you for just giving him victory, bringing him out of the darkness into the light. Thank you for restoring his relationship with his daughter. Bless Ross, bless his future, bless his path. And I just pray that you would use him to be a help and a light to many others. That they might come out of the darkness into the light and find you. And the purpose that you have for their lives. We love you. We praise you. We thank you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
Phil Shuler:We look forward to being with you again next week as we share another testimony about the power and the goodness of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. if you are someone listening to this podcast that loves to hear these stories of the great things that God is doing in changing people's lives for the better, and if you would like to be a part of that work, please reach out to us You can reach us at 2101 Hamilton Road, Columbus, Georgia, 31,904. You can call us at seven oh six three two two. 3 7, 7 3, or you can email us at info@safehouse-ministries.com.
Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone)-2:Thank you so much for being with us this week for the renew restore and rejoice podcast of safe house ministries, we pray that God will bless you this week. And we look forward to having you back with us again next week for a new episode.