Hi, my name is Ashley.  Once upon a time I was heavily addicted to marijuana, cigarettes and alcohol - these things ruled my life.  Then when I foolishly progressed into other drugs I knew it would be the end of me if I didn’t do something.
Trying everything in my power I could never give up, only trading one habit for another.  I would give up cigarettes for a while only to smoke more marijuana.

Once I went to Melbourne to get away from the people I knew and to get off marijuana, and I became an alcoholic for the time I was there.  Then as soon as I got back I got straight back into pot.
This sort of thing went on for years, five or six in fact.  However, when I look back I can see that God was working in me a long time before I realized it.  

He started to change my life about four years ago.  I was at work and a guy came up to me and said, "How’s it going?”  "Alright," I said.  "Are you good?" he asked. "I’m OK," I said, or something along those lines.
Then he said to me, "You can be even better - you can have the love of Jesus in your heart."  "Everyone to their own," I said as I chuckled in my head at his forwardness.

That same day I asked to go home early because we had finished what we were doing.  I caught the train to Caboolture and rode my bike from there. I usually go straight up Hasking Street, but this time I detoured through the car park where I saw a group of people working on a car.  By the time I got there they had fixed the car and I got talking to them, realising that I had known them about a year earlier.

When I knew them they were into the same stuff as me.  But something was different.  "Praise God," one of them said, "miracles are happening everywhere we’re following God."

Quite stirred, I continued the conversation as one of them gave me a card which said on the front, "How to get to hell."  When you opened it up there was nothing in there.  Believe it or not it spoke to me a lot.  

Then one of them asked if they could pray for me and I said yes.  As I went to ride off, they laid their hands on me and prayed for me on the street.  A subtle tear ran down my cheek, the first for years.
Carina, who now is a great friend of mine, asked if I wanted her to pick me up on the following Sunday and take me to church.  "I’ve got nothing to lose," I thought, and said "yes".

I’ve gone to that same church ever since.  I have been set free from drugs, alcohol,  cigarettes and eternal separation from God for about four years now, and live every day for Jesus.
Ashley Mclean   22/12/2002