Jacob Hileman

Testimony:

I lived in Richmond and during my youth my mom was addicted and my father was not always around.   I moved to Roanoke at an early age.  I was taken in by my aunt and uncle until I was in the fifth grade.   I was a very active and energetic youth with a strict family environment. I was always rebelling against my aunt and uncle because of how strict they were.

I was never into believing in any higher powers such as God or Jesus Christ.  I was sent back to my mom’s for 2 years.  She was in an unhealthy relationship so I was sent to my grand parents’ in West Virginia.  I always had a rebellious nature but I eventually graduated High School while with my grandparents.

I enlisted in the marines, got sworn in, and had a set release date of acceptance in June of 2012.  During my wait for the release date of October 2012, I visited with a friend of mine.  This friend introduced me to church but I still was not convinced of a higher power.  During my stay in West Virginia I contracted an illness that kept me out of the marines.  The U.S. Marines gave me a medical discharge even before I had to report.

I decided to go to school at Glenville State in West Virginia.  Due to me spending more time partying with alcohol and weed (only spending 3 days of the semester in class) I left school at the end of the semester and went to stay with my father.  I stayed with my father, who is a detective that lives in Mechanicsville, but I considered myself as an alcoholic. I still held a lot of resentment toward my father and got into heavier drugs.

In 2014 an intervention was scheduled with my family.  I went to a treatment facility in Galax, VA. From there I moved to Wilmington, North Carolina in a half-way house.  I was kicked out in three weeks due to the continuation of using heavy drugs.  I was then homeless and stayed temporarily with another person that got kicked out of the same program. I eventually became more addicted to the heavier drugs.

I was entered into another rehab center in North Carolina.  This lasted two weeks and my mom came to get me.  She placed me into the Healing Place here in Richmond in October of 2015.  I had 11 months of sobriety with still no belief in any higher power other than me.  I was in complete denial.

I relapsed in June of 2016.  Two days before Christmas of 2016 a friend of my mom’s new fiancé, recommended Good Samaritan Ministries.  My mom has been clean for the last 12 years.

We are now in the middle of February and I have completed reading the New Testament and ¾ of the Old Testament.  In addition, my day of salvation came on January 3, 2017. I now do things for God and not me. I feel that my mission in life is to help other people through missionary work.  I hope to be accepted to be a missionary in Sri Lanka or where ever God leads me within the next two years.

For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.    Romans 3:23.