Barry Meguiar 00:03
We’re here with Louie Wright and Bradley Chester. These guys have a shared passion with me. I’ve been working with Teen Challenge for 50 years. I’ve been working, working with drug addicts for 50 years. Most people don’t know that part of me, but I, I love Teen Challenge, and so I really admire you two guys, because you’re man, you’re sharing your faith, but you’re, you’re sharing it with the kind of the toughest of the tough, right? I mean, these are broken individuals and, and you have one right beside you, right? Is this right? Rather, did he tell me that story? Right? You’re sharing your faith then, but you’re second generation, right? Yeah. How did that happen?
Speaker 1 00:41
So I had, I had met Louie. He, he helps out addicts, and he goes and outreaches to them. And before I met him, I didn’t really have much faith in me.
Barry Meguiar 00:52
And, what were your, what was your concept of God, before you met Louie?
Speaker 1 00:58
honestly, like he was just some guy floating in the clouds, like I didn’t really, didn’t really
Barry Meguiar 01:03
know much, didn’t think a lot about it, yeah. And did you think there was a God? I thought
Speaker 1 01:07
there was, but I wasn’t too sure on, you know, just how it worked. Because, you know, being an addict, that’s kind of the last thing on your mind, of course. And when I, when I met Louie, I remember him praying over me and just feeling like this overwhelming sense of, like, relief and that everything was going to be okay. Wow. And those first prayer for the first time, yeah. And I remember looking at Louie and just thinking, like, well, he was in the same predicament I was. And, I mean, like, it works, you know, he’s real, because look what God did for him.
Barry Meguiar 01:38
You walked in those shoes. So you can understand Teen Challenge. Lot that way, too, drug addicts helping drug addicts be free. Once they get free, they want help others get free. You’ve been doing that with you. It’s contagious. So how did you meet Bradley? Did we give it
Speaker 2 01:52
so I met I met Bradley actually through his sister. Me and his sister had been talking. She was telling me that her brother was a heroin addict. I’m an ex-heroin addict, so naturally, our paths have crossed, and just kind of encouraging him, loving him. You know, it’s for me, it’s, it’s the natural thing to do, because someone did that for me. Somebody loved me till I learned to love myself. And it’s
Barry Meguiar 02:14
love, it’s love, right? Let’s go back to this. Is this common, commonality of love. We need love. We need the love of God. We’re desperate. The world’s desperate for God’s love.
Speaker 2 02:23
I didn’t have to point out everything that was wrong. Bradley, he knew right. He just needed to be loved. Bradley needed to know that he was lovable. He knew what he was doing wrong.
Barry Meguiar 02:34
Yeah, yeah. Well, you need to know every drug addict girls are doing wrong. They should clean up, but it’s hard for them to do that.
Speaker 2 02:40
It’s kind of interesting, because, I mean, my own brokenness, things that, things that used to turn my stomach, God has healed those things, but those have become almost the point of entry now for people, right?
Barry Meguiar 02:50
See, God’s using what you went through, and now you’re using those stories to bring the valley to this road,
Speaker 2 02:59
very thing the devil used to try to kill me. God’s using God people
Barry Meguiar 03:03
Ain’t that wonderful Yeah? Well, that’s just, that’s just how
Speaker 2 03:07
good he is, right? All things, yeah, God will work all things to the good of the people who love him, right? And that means even my mistakes.
Barry Meguiar 03:13
Yeah, so now it’s passed down. There’s a mantle on you now, yeah. So you’re passing it up. You’re a second generation guy here, right here,
Speaker 1 03:22
just like how Louie did with me. Now for me, being homeless and being an addict on the streets, I know so many of them out there, and so now, every time I see them, I get to just let them know that how much Jesus actually loves them, and that there is actually, you know, it’s possible, and I can be the light to them. Actually, recently, I was on, I was on my lunch, and I had ran into one of the guys that I was out there on the streets with, and he seen me, and I bought him some food, and I just started praying with him, and he just started crying, and I, and I told him, you know, like, it’s possible, it’s totally possible. And he’s always writing me online and asking me to pray for now, you
Barry Meguiar 03:59
were budged before, yeah, you’re like his homey before, yeah, and now you’re praying for him to be a shock, yeah.
Speaker 1 04:05
And, you know, three, four years ago, I never would have expected that, but it’s just, could
Barry Meguiar 04:10
you imagine yourself years ago, praying? Absolutely not, you’d be the one praying for him? I mean, is that not, is that not crazy, how God changes us, and it just puts us in an entirely new
Speaker 1 04:22
place. Yeah, years ago, you know, I was hopeless and lost, and now today, like I know that, you know, I went through all that for my testimony in order to let people know that, you know, to be the light.
Barry Meguiar 04:33
Yeah, there are probably some people watching this right now that are fighting addictions. Okay, let’s speak to those people right quick. They just can’t get beyond it. They just, they’ve tried, tried, they’ve wept, they tried to serve God. They just, they’re in that cycle. You know what that cycle is like? You try, you can’t get out of the cycle start. You know? What would you what would you say to that individual right now? There’s got to be some of those adults and maybe functioning. In life, and people don’t know, but they’re they have this addiction, and how do they get set free for that addiction? From a spiritual standpoint, which is the only way it’s
Speaker 2 05:07
a spiritual battle, sure. Well, I think praying for willingness, right? Because this is the deal, is God. God wants to set us free, absolutely, but we have to partner with his decision. He’s not just going to take control of us and force us into this. We have to move our feet. And so God absolutely wants to bring healing into people’s lives. He wants to bring restoration, but we have to partner with him. And so I think a little bit of it is moving your feet. So if you need help, yeah, there’s tons of places to get, like, Teen Challenge, right? What a great organization. Great organization. It’s free. You can walk in there. It’s totally free. And just getting help, right? You have to move your feet, don’t you? Yeah, yeah, praying for God for the willingness to do it.
Barry Meguiar 05:49
Sometimes you just, and then I am thinking of particularly individuals right now. They know the truth, but somehow they just haven’t come to just, just saying, I’m lost. I just, yeah, you know, you get to that place, whatever, that was different in every person’s life.
Speaker 2 06:06
I think everyone, everyone finally gets to a place where they get that gift of desperation, where it’s like, Hey. I mean, I had no choice when I got sober. My prayer was, God, fix me or kill me, you know? And so for me, it’s like, you get to a place where you either get better or just that, right? Yeah.
Barry Meguiar 06:22
So, so Bradley, for the person’s listeners, that has addictions, fighting addictions right now, what would, what would you say to that, that person?
Speaker 1 06:30
So I know from experience that you can’t do it on your own, and he can. So you just have to, you have to let him, and you have to have trust in Him and faith in Him. And he can do it all. Yeah, he can move mountains. He can do it all. I mean, he could help with addiction. Me and Lou are both, you know, prime example.
Barry Meguiar 06:50
So you say, give him Jesus in the morning, you know. And he wants to set us free. You should know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Thank you guys, great to hang out with. You keep doing what you’re doing.
07:02
Okay? Thank you appreciate it.
