I asked for help and a community surrounded me.

Billy’s life proves you can turn your life around – but you can’t do it alone.

All Billy wanted was the sense of “family” he didn’t have growing up. It led to a string of broken relationships, DHS removing his kids, and deeper addictions. “I felt cursed from life. Nothing ever worked out. I didn’t want to live anymore.”

Billy worked hard to get on track for his kids and he went to treatment. But it was the community that surrounded him and “the mercy and grace” Jesus showed him that really helped him overcome, restore his relationships with his kids, live 16 years clean and sober, and become a drug and alcohol counselor. “God showed me that He’s a Miracle Maker.”

Whatever you’re facing today, find a community who can support you and help you overcome here: overflowhope.org/local-church

#overflowhope #eugeneoregon #springfieldoregon #celebraterecovery #cleanandsober #miracleworker #askforhelp #community #neveralone

Transcript
My name is Billy McClintock. I live here in Eugene, Oregon. I have over 16 years clean and sober at this time, and God is just blessing me on a regular basis. I was born in San Gabriel, California, near Los Angeles. Lived there for most of my life. Went through a lot of trauma as a kid, things I wouldn’t wish on my enemies. My dad was an alcoholic. He was always gone. My mom had different boyfriends all the time. Some were cool, some were not very cool. And I isolated a lot. I didn’t like myself. I didn’t like anybody. I ran away when I was 12 years old the first time. I did end up going back to school my last year of school. Got good grades. Got my diploma the year I was supposed to. I thought I had a good relationship with God, with Jesus.

I still had something missing. I still wanted that family sense. Met a girl. We ended up getting married, and ended up being just like my mom and my stepdad. And we had two kids, and we fought back and forth, and finally ended up getting a divorce. I felt cursed from life. It just seemed like anything that I wanted to do, it just never seemed to work out. And met another girl. Got married to her. Doing good. I was making good money, supporting the families.

At work, I tore my finger off with a wedding ring, and something snapped in me. I started drinking. I started doing drugs. It was what I was looking for all my life. It filled every void, and it took a hold of me. Like nothing else. Ended up getting divorced. My second wife didn’t care if I lived or not, but I had two more boys. And it already was hurting so bad from my first two kids. I didn’t know where they were. I wasn’t able to see them. When the boys were like six or seven, they got taken away from their mom, and I wasn’t any better than she was. So I had to go to talk to DHS people about my boys, and they said I had to do treatment.

So I went through treatment. I only got to see my two boys for one hour a week in a small. room, and I did that for five or six months. Never missed one time with my two boys, and stayed clean. I got me a job back again, and got my first big paycheck, and it was a Friday night, and I didn’t have anybody. You know, everybody I knew was at the bar or at the trap house, and I knew what would happen if I go there. I didn’t want to go there, so I went to the treatment center. A gentleman come out and talked to me, and I asked for help. And I bawled like a baby. First time I cried in a long, long time, and the guy gave me a suggestion.

He said they was having this bowling night, recovery bowl night. I actually took the suggestion. I went to the bowling alley. After about six, seven games of pinball, I finished my soda pop. I went home, laid down, woke up the next morning, feel like a million dollars. I made it, and I’m just so grateful to God that that guy was there, and that I had the willingness to go ask for help. The courts gave me my boys back to me at the end of this, and I actually got a job. I got a job in the recovery treatment center. I went through, and while I was there, a bunch of the guys went to a store, and they weren’t allowed to talk to girls.

But on the way back, these other guys told me they were talking to girls in this parking lot. So I confronted them about it, and they told me, you know, those girls are from a church. And I was like, yeah, right. And they gave me the card, and I told them, I said, I’ll check this church out. I brought my children to church, raising my two boys by myself, making minimum wage. Any time I needed something, I asked. The church was there for me to help me, you know. And I’ve been staying clean and working, and God has just been blessing me. My older two children, I have good relationships with them today. I talk to them all the time now, and I got in to celebrate recovery, and it’s a blessing.

I mean, my life’s better now than I ever thought it would be as a kid before I was using it. And God showed me that He’s a miracle maker. He can do it.

—————– Source —————–

Overflow Hope

Local stories. Real hope in the Central Lane County community. These are the stories of people in the greater Eugene and Springfield, Oregon community who have experienced Jesus Christ change their lives. Their stories prove Christianity is more than religion and that it's possible to change your life. There is hope when you are hopeless, lack purpose or motivation, struggling with anxiety and depression, or just know there has to be more than life than this. We hope these stories show you that Jesus is alive, loving and willing to meet anyone who cries out to Him.

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