Emerging from Darkness: Hunter Hooge's Journey from Prison to Purpose

Welcome to God After Dark, where real people share extraordinary stories of how God reveals Himself in the darkest moments of their lives. In our inaugural episode, we feature the powerful journey of Hunter Hooge, who found redemption after battling addiction and incarceration. Host Rex Baker, Executive Director of Gateway Rescue Mission in Jackson, Mississippi, guides us through this compelling narrative.

Hunter's life took a challenging turn in his teens, leading to a turbulent path of addiction and repeated incarceration. His final prison stint was a result of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. Despite initial resistance, Hunter found himself at Gateway Rescue Mission, a faith-based shelter and recovery program.

Inside the prison walls, Hunter discovered that drugs were as accessible as they were on the streets. His experiences with synthetic marijuana, known as "spice," shed light on the devastating impact it had on individuals. Hunter's journey took a turn when he encountered a transformative moment, leading him to fully surrender his life to Jesus Christ.

Join us as Hunter shares how his life has changed in the 87 days he's been at Gateway Rescue Mission. Through faith, he's experienced a profound shift in perspective, finding joy, patience, and a renewed sense of purpose. His story is a testament to the power of genuine transformation and the incredible impact of surrendering to God's grace.

Join host Rex Baker and Hunter Hooge on God After Dark as they explore the profound miracles that emerge from the depths of life's challenges. Follow us for more inspiring stories of faith, redemption, and the enduring light that shines in the darkest moments.

For more information about Gateway Rescue Mission, visit us on the web at https://gatewaymission.org/

Transcript

Rex 0:10

I'm Rex Baker. Welcome to God After Dark, a podcast where we tell stories about how God shows up in the dark places in our lives and performs a miracle. This is our inaugural episode of God After Dark, and today we feature a story about drugs, addiction, prison and redemption. These are real stories, real names, real faces, real people. Now, the inspiration for these stories comes from the people I meet through our ministry at Gateway Rescue Mission, where I serve as Executive Director in Jackson Mississippi. Gateway is a faith-based homeless shelter with an addiction recovery program. Today we are joined by Hunter Hooge, who joined what we call our new life program a few months ago. Hunter, let's begin by you telling us a little bit about what was going on in your life that caused you to come to Gateway Rescue Mission.

Hunter 1:07

Well, Mr Rex, most of my life has been, well all my 20s have been spent in prison due to addiction and disobedience to God. I spent all my 20s in prison and when I was to leave prison I needed to have an address to go to. They allowed me to go to Gateway and even though it wasn't my first choice, it wasn't my will, but my will was to go elsewhere. But God's will said you're going to Gateway Rescue Mission in Jackson. At first I was resistant and didn't, because I was afraid of Jackson, afraid of being of the violence in Jackson and all that you hear about on the news. But it wasn't until I got there and I started to live by those rules and the regulations there that I saw a change in my life and it's still just the best place I've ever. It's just the best thing that could have happened to me. Once I left prison, facebook Mississippi was my my will, but guys will was Jackson, miss Hippie at a gateway.

Rex 2:21

So why were you in prison?

Hunter 2:23

Well, this trip, this last trip to prison, was for possession of a firearm by convicted felon.

Rex 2:31

And so you sound like you spent most of the last decade in prison.

Hunter 2:36

On and off, yes, sir. Jails and prisons, both, yes, sir.

Rex 2:40

How did what went wrong in your life to lead you down that road?

Hunter 2:45

Well, it all started when I was about 15, I believe, when I first experimented drugs and alcohol and I thought, since all these other kids was doing it and I thought that they were cool, that I wanted to fit in and be cool alongside them. You know, and it's just, it started with smoking cigarettes, dipping tobacco, smoking marijuana and drinking some alcohol on the weekends, and that's where really all my problems began.

Rex 3:15

So when you got to prison, the drugs didn't stop, did they?

Hunter 3:18

No, sir, because there's more prison. There's more drugs in prison as there is on the streets. Really, yes, sir, if you go inside prison, it's a multi-million dollar operation that goes on inside there that the guards make some money off of it, the inmates make us some money off of it and lives continue to be devastated, even inside of a rehabilitation place. What drugs could you get in prison? Anything you want, anything your heart desired, they can get.

Rex 3:51

I've always wanted to ask somebody this question because a few years ago we had a an outbreak of spice addiction in Jackson and a really bad batch got out there. But you shared with me earlier that you smoked spice. You smoked spice some while you were in prison. What does spice do to you?

Hunter 4:09

Spice is what they call synthetic marijuana. It's a halluc, it's a. It can be a hallucinogenic. I've seen people smoke spice, hit it once or twice and began crawling on the floor screaming. I've seen them throw up on themselves, swimming that throw up. I've seen them get stuck and couldn't move for several minutes straight. And it's just one of the worst drugs to be inside of a prison. It's devastating to see what it does to people.

Rex 4:42

So why did you smoke it if it does all that stuff?

Hunter 4:44

I've always been a downer type, drug addict marijuana, alcohol, and I tried it probably about my senior year of high school, I would say, and it's a lot stronger in prison than it is out on the streets, and I was just always a downer guy and um that defined.

Rex 5:04

When you say downer guy, what do you mean?

Hunter 5:06

Well, my first when I my type of drugs was drugs that would bring you down, not speed you up, got you, you know, and it was kind of like smoking a marijuana and that's what that's always been my thing for several years. And then I tried it out on the streets, you know, before prison, you know. So I kind of had an idea of how it was and I was just what they called a real drug addict, a junkie if you would say that would try any drug known to man.

Rex 5:37

When did the crystal meth come into play?

Hunter 5:40

Crystal meth came into play. About two months before I left prison, my second trip, I had a guy ask me for several, several weeks if I wanted to try something. I was like no man, that's not my thing. And then one day I just got a handgrip like why do they like these? Why do these guys enjoy their stuff so much? And then so I knocked on my prison cell wall to speak to him, say, hey, I would like to try something. And he sent me something over and I tried it and I've been hooked ever since. I just once again it kind of follows a line to seeing these other guys doing it and wanting to know for myself why they did it. So I got to find out and I got hooked on it just like that.

Rex 6:26

So, spiritually, what condition were you in there toward the last days that you were in prison? You're looking to get out, you're looking to go start your life over again. What was your spiritual state at that point?

Hunter 6:45

Well, about two to three months prior to me being released from prison, I had once again tried the whole Christian outlook again, the Christian approach to life, and I quit doing drugs.

Hunter 6:55

For about two months I was in church. I was in the church choirs hanging Christian songs, so worship songs, and I kind of got. I've always been on the fence of being a Christian all my life, you know. But when you're inside prison there's so much evil, so much just satanic stuff that goes on in there that is so easily to be in golf bat, so easily to be pressured into doing these things, because it's hard to be the outcast inside of a prison. Before I was took home about a month before I was released, I got back on drugs, quit going to church again. It was a shame to myself because I had these guys just helped me quit and was in church religiously reading my Bible each and every day and I just it wasn't until that surrendering I did when I came here that all of it changed and spiritually, before I left prison I was probably the most un-spiritual person inside of parchment.

Rex 8:00

What changed to turn you from all of that?

Hunter 8:04

What changed is one night they had a I'm not sure if it was a celebrate recovery meeting or just some type of group that came or some guy that came and just some of his words hit home and he just asked anybody if they would like to come down and be saved and give their life to Christ. I guess the Holy Spirit was just telling me hey look, this is your chance to go up there and be for real. When I get up there and I prayed this, this sinner's prayer, and I noticed things was going to be, I mean that things were real because I started crying my eyes out, I cried, I cried and I cried. It's like I spoke with you earlier, that I feel like it was the old self, my old self, like leaving out of my body and the tears of joy from the Holy Spirit crying out, tears of joy that I finally surrendered my life to Jesus Christ for real this time.

Rex 9:05

So you come to Gateway Rescue Mission. You join our new life program which, for the sake of our listeners, that's our six month basic addiction recovery program from a biblical standpoint. Hunter, you've been down this road before and what would you say to someone and there are people that think you know jailhouse conversions that's just somebody wanting to get out of jail quick. What would you say to someone who might question whether what you have experienced and are experiencing is authentic and real?

Transformation and Hope in Life Change

Hunter 9:47

How I know it's authentic and real is whenever I get a, first and foremost, I thank God. I would never have done that had I not given myself to Christ how it's also authentic and real. Stuff I read in my scriptures every morning either relate to what happened, what I'm going through or somehow in the coming days will come into play of what I read. The way I talk has changed. I no longer cuss. I try not to be mean to people. I try to help people. I try not to be sounding like I'm being harsh to them or trying to talk at them and not to them. I'm more patient.

Hunter 10:37

I have a lot of joy in my heart. A lot of joy is in my heart that only comes from the fruit of the Spirit. I have a peace of mind, self-control. I'm just so down to earth with trying to help others, spread the word, trying to minister to others that's been in my situation and tell them what I've been through, what I've experienced and what I had to do for my life to change, and to tell them that there's only one option and that's Jesus Christ. There's no other way for your life to be changed or you can't give God something to work with which he already knows it, but you have to confess it each and every day. And it's just some things that I've noticed about myself that's changed in these 87 days that I've been working on. 28 years to change, and God has changed them in such a short time.

Rex 11:35

You cannot fake joy. I hear a lot of times people in our society today say you need to be nice. Nice is okay, it has its place, but you can fake being nice, but you cannot fake true inner joy. We're talking with Hunter Hogy of our new life program at Gateway Rescue Mission in Jackson Mississippi and a few stats. I just pulled these off the internet before coming into the studio here a few minutes ago. These are figures from prison fellowship.

Rex 12:08

Nearly 2.1 million Americans are currently behind bars. One in every 28 American children has a parent in prison. Think about that for a moment. One out of 28 children have a parent in prison. 70 million or one in three adults in America have a criminal record. That's a lot of people. It cost $33,000 a year to incarcerate one adult. We're spending $80 billion a year on corrections in general and there's an $87 billion loss and potential economic output lost due to collateral cost of incarceration. So we see a lot of people coming from the correctional system into our ministry at Gateway Rescue Mission. We see a lot of different kind of people. But one of the things I've observed, hunter, is that sometimes prison gets you ready to change. Is that a way to put it when you're like I'm tired of this, I'm really ready to make a change.

Hunter 13:24

The only way you're going to be ready to change is if you're sincere and genuine about it. Prison you can get so caught up in the things that go on in prison and the evilness, and just the bad things that go on inside of prison. But until you're 100% tired of the way you have been, the way your life has turned out and the way you used to live, there ain't no change going to happen. Until you're 100% certain that it can happen and you want it to happen, Until then you're going to be lost inside of what goes on inside there.

Rex 14:01

That's very true, well put. I want to share a little passage of Scripture here out of Psalm 130. This is a song of a sense. It is a Psalm that expresses hope in the Lord for life change, for forgiveness. And here's what it says Out of the depths I have cried to thee, o Lord. Lord, hear my voice, let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, lord, should mark iniquities, o Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. And that word for fear in the Hebrew is not so much cowardice type fear. It's an awe that we should have of God. When we really compare our sinfulness to his holiness it produces a sense of yare, which was the old Hebrew word for fear. It's an awesome fear of realizing who God is and that he could thump us away like a mosquito if he wanted to. But instead he calls out to people in the prisons. He calls out to people at the homeless shelters. He calls out to people in the dope houses at night and says come on in, I've got a new plan for your life. It's up to us to take him up on that.

Rex 15:30

Now, this passage I just read was written about roughly 3,000 years ago Give or take a couple of hundred years. So since the beginning of time, human beings us we have gone through troubles and trials. Your trouble and your trial may not be prison. It may be something else. It could be medical, it could be a loved one, it could be a job difficulty. But I have seen this daily in our ministry at Gateway with the homeless, the addicted, people struggling with mental illness.

Rex 16:01

But I know what I'm talking about here. If you live long enough, you're going to go through some trials, you're going to go through valleys I've seen this in my own life where you're dealing with troubles and nobody is immune to that. But what I want to share is that the miracle that has happened in Hunter's life is really there for anybody. You don't have to go to prison to Get right with the Lord. You don't have to go to prison to have God show up in the darkness of Situation you may be in, but it's the same part of us that calls out to him wherever we are, knowing that he will listen. All right, hunter, yes, sir, what do you want to do the rest of your life?

Ministering and Sports Management Career Pursuit

Hunter 16:48

first and foremost, I just want to Live out my purpose and serve God with all that I do. You know I would. I would like to minister to others who have been in prison or get the younger generation, just give them some, some tools of the trade. It like, if you will, about what I did that started this process of Other failure, you know, in addiction, homelessness, prisons. You know, and just try to to lead them down the the right path and to try to get, to get them to avoid the peer pressure, the influences, and to let them know that you don't have, that you are in control of your life, all right to play your choices and your decisions out all the way through that.

Hunter 17:35

If I do this, what, what can happen, what could happen and what might happen, you know. And and to Give your life to Christ at a young age, you know, just to let them know that it took me all these failures, trials, temptations, years away from my family. You know, and Just try to lead them down the right path. But what I would like to do with my life as of Occupation, wise is I would love to go back to college, give my degree in sports management oh what, like a minor criminology or criminal justice, you know, oh, and I would like to be one day be a recruiter for any type of college team and football, baseball or basketball have a great deal of Expertise if you will in that field and just be involved in the sports Community.

Hunter 18:26

You know, maybe be a high school coach or something you know, but anything related to sports I would love to do, but most and but most importantly, serve God with all that I do and the teacher man is that Jesus Christ is your only option and the only thing that will save your life, and that you need to be saved and just to be a live, a galley, golly way, life that will get you to heaven one day well said under Hogi, member of the Gateway Rescue Mission, new life program right now going through a period of Life change where he is seeing God speak into the darkness of his life and bring about a miracle.

Rex 19:14

That is still ongoing. I would challenge you with that, that it doesn't get easier as you go along. You still have trials and Tribulations and all that kind of fun stuff as life goes on, but through Jesus you can. You can know where you're going, you can know what your purpose is in life. Well, I'm your host, rex Baker, and, on behalf of our team at Gateway Rescue Mission, we thank you for joining us for this inaugural episode of God After Dark when God shows up in the dark places of our lives and Does a miracle and I look forward to joining you next time on God After Dark.