Testimony of Sherod Hall
I lived in Woodford, VA in Caroline County. My mother was constantly on drugs or alcohol, and my father was in and out of the GSM program. I was brought up by my grandmother.
My grandmother brought me up in a Christian environment. She went to church every Sunday. I attended Sunday school and church until I was a teenager. The youth leader at Macedonia Baptist Church would take us on all kinds of cool trips. We went to Disney World and basketball games. I sang in the “little angels” children’s choir.
As a teenager in High School, I played football. I also was getting to like the idea of money, so I got a job at Burger King. At the age of 16 I started smoking weed, following the crowd and hanging out with the older groups. The older groups were smoking and selling. I became a part of this group to make more and more money. But what I found out was that I was using the money to smoke and use more.
In 2007 (at the age of 18) the older group was thinning out due to jail time or just quitting. I was now in charge and handling all of the transactions. I was heavily smoking and started snorting more heavy drugs to try it out. In 2009 I got careless because of all of my using, and got charged with using and selling heavy drugs. I was given a class to take for 16 weeks, every Wednesday. I passed the class but went directly back to what I was used to doing.
In 2012 I had my first child but I was still using, and selling the heavy stuff. One year later I was arrested for possession with intent to distribute (this carries a 5 year prison term that was suspended unless I messed up again). I was sentenced to 2 and 1/2 months for violating the pre-trial. They put me into another program but I told them that this program was not intense enough to help me, so I violated this program. I was locked up again for another month.
Later in 2013, I went into the program here at GSM. I graduated one year later in 2014. I started doing some landscaping and keeping myself busy. In 2015 I backslid and started back to using drugs.
I knew I needed help again so I convinced my father to bring me back to the GSM program. He was reluctant but in October of 2016 he brought me back. While in the program my grandma passed away.
The mission has taught me that I need to make the right choices. I want to be a better man for my children. I feel that I need to become someone they can look up to. I need to surround myself with people other than drug dealers. I hope to get my own house and a good job in the next few years.
It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. Psalm 118:8