In his videoed testimony, “A Life of Surrender” for the Christian Broadcasting Network’s 700 Club with Pat Robertson, Michael says after cocaine he started using crystal meth, then ecstasy, Percocet and Xanax, and various other prescrip-tion pills. Crack became his drug of choice. Homeless, in crack houses, stealing and selling himself as a male prostitute — anything to pay for drugs — Michael had cut himself off from everyone who loved him. “He was always scamming and stealing to get money to get drugs,” Richard says. “He’d go out and write a bad check for $10, he’d go out at night and write 10 -15 bad $10 checks.” “He’d call at night, drunk,” Esther says. “I just got sick of it.” Things culminated when Michael stole from the notorious crack dealer he was staying with. He didn’t get far, and the choice was pay the money back or be killed. Esther says, “I said, ‘Go ahead and let them cut your throat and bury you six foot under.’ I hung up.” “I loved my son so much. I was tough, but Esther was tougher than I was. Michael told me later, it took that, he says he didn’t realize how much he had put on his momma,” Richard says. “A lot of parents think, ‘If I don’t help them, they will die.’ That is what these parents do. That enables them. You just have to trust God that He is going to bring them out.” Richard was the associate pastor at The Potter’s Wheel, a Christian drug addiction treatment center in Mt. Olive, North Carolina. He was also a chaplain at Onslow Memorial Hospital and worked closely with the chaplains on the Marine base. Richard paid the drug dealer, and the agreement was Michael would go to rehab. Still, the road to recovery had a bumpy beginning. It was Michael’s birthday. “I got him lined up to go to The Potter’s Wheel on Monday morning. He’d been up two days try-ing to come off of cocaine. I was at church, Esther was home with Michael babysitting him round the clock,” Richard says. Esther interjects, “But God.” Richard resumes the story. “When the pastor got up to speak, this guy — about ten minutes into his sermon — stops. He knew me, but he didn’t really know my son. He came to me and said, ‘Richard, you’ve got a prodigal son, he’s going to come back home. He is going to preach the Gospel and do all these things.’ I was completely unglued.” When Richard returned home, Michael was gone. “He’d gotten real anxious,” Richard says. “He got his phone, called one of his drug buddies, jumped the fence and took off with the drug dealer. The next morning, 5 or 6 o’clock, doorbell rang and it was Michael.” That day Richard drove Michael to Mt. Olive and dropped him off. “He was in a mess, he was mad, he didn’t want to do it, but he had promised me he would,” Richard says. 26 WBM may 2015
Wrightsville Beach Magazine May 2015
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