June 10, 2025 • 32 mins
Adam is the son of former Muscogee County Sherriff Ralph Johnson. Adam's family was hit with much hardship throughout his childhood, and Adam did not deal with it well. As a teenager heard his dad talk about undercover work and drug gang life, which held a strong allure for Adam, so strong in fact that he dove headfirst into that world. Adam shares his story, and it is intense, including a period of time when he had to get far away from Columbus because a hit had been taken out on his life. I hope you enjoy Part 1 of Adam's story!
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Adam (00:00):
I would rob dope dealers and I would get so brazen that I
would not even cover my face.
Like I, I would tell people, Iwant'em to know who got'em, and
so I did one and Columbus PoliceDepartment got in touch with my
father, and they were like, weneed to talk to your son.
And of course he called me andsaid, you need to meet with
(00:20):
these detectives.
They want to talk to you.
And I was at the time, so in themiddle of the whole life that I
was like, I can't meet them inpo.
I could die for that.
And eventually I met them atTarget on Bradley Park.
And they said that a guy hadturned hisself into jail in fear
for his life because he knewthat I had a hit out on me.
(00:42):
And'cause of my father, he knewlike that these guys were trying
to kill me.
The police officers described itas a crack cocaine hit.
Whoever, like someone had it hitout on you.
Yeah.
So they were offering likepeople that were addicted to
crack or whatever, whoever killsme first or get$50 worth crack
or something.
And they do that, they're intheir addiction.
(01:04):
So they're hitman for hire justfor a little bit of crack.
Just who, yeah.
Phil Shuler (01:08):
HellO, and welcome to Renew, Restore, Rejoice, the
Safe House Ministries podcast,where we share stories of the
power of God to change livesthrough Safe House Ministries.
Safe House Ministries is basedout of Columbus, Georgia, and we
are a ministry that exists tolove and serve people who have
been affected by addiction,homelessness, and incarceration.
I'm your host, Phil Shuler, theDirector of Development for Safe
(01:30):
House Ministries here inColumbus, Georgia.
Safe House serves over 1, 100people each month as they
transition back into ourcommunity.
Safe House provides an abundanceof services including 213 beds
for homeless individuals andfamilies, case management for
obtaining job skills and longterm employment.
Over 300 hot meals every day,free clothing, and so much more.
(01:51):
One of the most incredibleservices that Safe House
provides is our free 9 12 monthintensive outpatient substance
abuse program, which is statelicensed, CARF accredited, and
has no wait list.
Almost 100 percent ofindividuals staying in our
shelters who follow our threephase program become fully
employed within a few months.
And 68 percent of individualswho stay at least one night with
(02:12):
us End up finding work andmoving into their own home.
Thank you for being with ustoday and listening to our
podcast.
We hope you enjoy this week'sepisode.
Phil (02:20):
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Safe House
Ministries podcast.
Today I have a sharp lookingyoung man in front of me.
First time I'd ever met him.
Adam Johnson, right?
Yes, sir.
Okay.
And I have heard that he alsohas a great, just a great story,
a great testimony, and the Lordhas done some great things and
(02:41):
I'm excited to hear Adam, yourstory and just the things that
the Lord has done and I'mexcited to have you here.
Thank you.
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
So Adam, just to get started, Iwould love to ask you if there
was one word that would bestdescribe you.
What do you think that one wordmight be?
Adam (03:02):
At this point?
Spiritual.
Phil (03:04):
That's good, man.
Yeah.
What do you mean when
Adam (03:07):
you say
Phil (03:07):
that?
Adam (03:07):
So I don't necessarily follow a church, but I met my
Lord Savior Jesus Christ.
And so it's like a broad, likethe whole, my whole life is
spiritual and the way I look atlife and the way I look at
people is now different.
Because of that spiritualawakening,
Phil (03:28):
Wow.
Adam (03:29):
Of, of the profound kind.
That's awesome, man.
It's
Phil (03:33):
wow.
That's good.
people who have not yet receivedJesus as their savior.
They have no understanding.
When you say something likethat, it's just like they don't
get it.
It's, It's miraculous.
Um, But yeah it really is.
That's awesome, man.
I
Adam (03:47):
walked away from meeting Jesus.
I was him meditation and when I,he came and sat on the bed next
to me and I felt him.
And when I tell you I know, likeI've got life answers.
I don't know what they are, butit's given me a peace and
Phil (04:04):
wow.
Yeah.
Adam (04:05):
It's not that's good man.
Life's not that serious, man.
It's just live it,
Phil (04:09):
yeah.
That's good.
Seems, it seems like the Lordhas got you in a really good
place right now.
I know it wasn't always thatway.
But share, if you would wherelife started for you.
Like where did you grow up andwhat was life as a kid like for
you in your home?
So
Adam (04:25):
this might surprise you, but I grew up in Columbus,
Georgia.
My grandmother worked for WRBL,the switchboard for 56 years.
Really?
So you grew up
Phil (04:34):
with your
Adam (04:35):
grandmother?
No my dad was Sheriff RalphJohnson.
Really?
Yes.
And I was raised good.
I had a good childhood.
My mother got sick when I was insecond grade, and stayed in
hospital for about three years.
Oh, wow.
A year here.
A year there.
Warm Springs St.
Joseph's in Atlanta.
(04:55):
And at the time my dad was chiefDeputy the sheriff that was
above him was getting ready togo and he filled the whole role
and it was like grooming him tobe sheriff.
So he had a lot on his plate andhe was spending half the time in
Atlanta, and then every otherweekend he'd come home with us.
Wow.
So we went and lived with mymother's parents duke and Lois
(05:16):
Miller.
Duke was higher up at Aflac formarketing.
And they hadn't had kids in thehome in 40 years or plus, and it
was like a white carpet greenIsland house, and we, I was in
second grade, my sister was infourth grade.
We were loved, but I think that,that was the early, now that I'm
older, I see that, not that Ifelt abandoned, but just that
(05:40):
loss of childhood.
And like talking to my sisterlast night, she's changed her
life and found God, she said, Ifelt that was a time in our life
where we were supposed to be theattention, or like I just, it
was impressionable.
Like he, yeah.
I had to leave sports.
I couldn't do the things I wasdoing because that's what was
going on.
Yeah.
And my dad did his best, youknow what I mean?
(06:01):
My dad drank a little bit and mygrandmother, his mother drank,
and I knew that I had apredisposition to this at an
early age.
Of course, I kinda said I'm notgonna drink alcohol.
But then other substances were,it is real cunning.
But then, so the allure, andthis is what I figured out is
(06:21):
that how did you decide to giveup?
'cause I could have had theworld man, I could, my
grandparents would've set me up.
I could have went and worked forAlac or whatever.
I could have been lawenforcement.
And I think being as a smallchild, my dad worked Metro
Narcotics and the way it lookedfrom the outside, because they
portrayed the other side.
(06:43):
That was their job.
And it was exciting to me.
Like him
Phil (06:47):
being on the law enforcement
Adam (06:49):
side.
No, the opposite side.
Like really?
Yeah.
They're out here.
Trying to portray the guys inthe streets and the gangsters
and the drug dealers, and it'sweird.
It was like, it is just someexcitement, yeah.
And then the culture of thattime, Scarface came out and
these movies that like,glorified it and then I got a
(07:10):
taste of it and it was so muchexcitement, you know what I
mean?
So growing up
Phil (07:15):
you saw that from a distance and it seemed exciting
and adventurous and
Adam (07:19):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, dad would share his storiesabout working the streets, and I
was, it wasn't like, oh man,that's not what I wanna do.
It seemed, it was weird.
It seemed like enticing, wow.
But,
Phil (07:33):
Anyway, so you mean as a so growing up as a teenager, did
you start to take a few steps
Adam (07:38):
in that direction?
Yeah.
We left when my mother got sick,we left Brookstone and went into
public schools and, it's aculture shock.
You see the, you're shelteredand then all sudden, yeah.
Man, this is exciting.
And then I, I got in because mysister was older, she had
friends and they had boyfriendsand I got tied up with some of
'em.
(07:58):
And they would like, like Idon't know how much detail we
want to go into, but yeah.
Yeah.
As much yeah.
As, I, the first illicit drug Iremember was a guy rubbing
cocaine on my teeth as a, as 12,13 years old.
You were hanging out with yoursister and her older, her
friends?
Yeah, her friend had a house.
Her friend's mother had a house,and I was friends with her
(08:20):
younger brother, so I would staythe night over there and it was
like a party house, the momwould be in the room with on
back then online dating andstuff, like a OL days, yeah.
Not nowadays, but she would bein the room all the time, so
we'd have free reign at thehouse.
And I started doing things likeburglaries and stuff with these
older guys that but it was thatlittle taste, he just, wow.
(08:44):
I didn't even get messed up offthat cocaine on my teeth, but I
thought I did, and it was like,it lit a fire, and you
Phil (08:50):
so that, that allure of what seemed exciting now, you
felt like you were in it now.
Yeah, and
Adam (08:56):
definitely.
And, I threw myselfwholeheartedly into it.
And I've always been one thatwas, I'm real hard headed and
like whatever happens.
And of course it brought a lotof institutions and jails and I,
it was not unmanageable atfirst.
It was, the cocaine stuff andthen the raves started like the
(09:17):
club scene.
And that filled that abandonmentissue for me of being alone with
all these people in thisbuilding that are like love,
love, and I thought that's whatI needed.
And still wasn't unmanageable,it was like,
Phil (09:31):
yeah.
Adam (09:31):
Weekends and stuff like that.
Phil (09:32):
So where was your dad at this time?
Was he still, was he a part ofyour life in any
Adam (09:38):
yeah, he was definitely a part of my life.
Dad was like so one night mysister and we, my dad would take
in our friends that had, didn'thave anywhere to go or their
parents weren't doing the best.
So you,
Phil (09:49):
were you still living with your grandparents at this time
or had you
Adam (09:52):
no.
I had, my mom was back home andokay, so
Phil (09:54):
now you're back with your mom and dad.
Yeah.
She was doing
Adam (09:56):
better.
She never was able to walkagain.
She stayed in a wheelchair theremainder of her life.
But.
She was independent.
She could move, she justcouldn't walk.
And so she had to, my dad washer caregiver.
She had nurses that would comeduring the day.
Still turbulent, and yeah.
And so I don't know.
I don't know what dad's logicwas and like, not making me do
(10:17):
better in school.
And so he just
Phil (10:19):
let you do your thing essentially.
Adam (10:21):
Like
Phil (10:22):
he didn't ever try to crack down or?
I don't remember
Adam (10:23):
a lot of repercussions.
We had ba but he was drinking,so he had a lot on his plate.
450 employees.
A wife that was handicapped.
Yeah.
When around I understand.
And I don't know if they gave usa free pass because of our
childhood, if they felt bad orwhatever.
I know years later he told me,he said, I know what y'all do.
(10:44):
I've always known what y'all do.
And we were vocal about itthroughout my life, but he said,
sometimes it's for me, I justdon't want to deal with it.
Mm-hmm.
You know what I mean?
Like, Like I say it,everything's okay for the most
part, and it didn't get reallybad until after he had passed.
But methamphetamines camearound.
I framed houses left high schoolto build houses.
Phil (11:05):
So as a teenager you just dropped out and you just started
Yeah.
You just in the drug world, inthe raves and started working,
doing construction?
Yeah.
I made,
Adam (11:13):
400 bucks at summer, eighth grade a week.
And I thought that was bigmoney, but I was still living at
mom's house, at some point, Iwas in and out of the house
since about 14.
I know that dad was at hypewhere we said we were gonna talk
about whether we were gonnaleave the house or not, wouldn't
be.
And my sister, we go outside andhe locked the door.
He said if you wanna talk aboutmoving out, go and kinda like
(11:36):
tough love, yeah.
I think it backfired.
Wow.
So jails started happeningpretty rapidly by 16, I was
getting into a lot of trouble.
And were you selling at the timeas well?
So they never actually got mefor selling or, you know, I
manufacture meth for quite awhile.
So you, you were part of a, likea meth lab creating and
(11:58):
manufacturing it?
Yeah.
Pre 2008 before that.
Wow.
But they did catch me when I was16 with five.
What they called nick bag orfive,$5 bags of pot.
And that was just the way Ibought it.
And it was in separate bags andthey got me, DUI stop, had a
(12:20):
fake id, I've been drinkingdowntown.
And they charged me withpossession with, to distribute
on those little, that$25 worthof pot.
And I got, I think it was 10 tofive, ended up with coming out
of the jail with 10 yearsprobation remaining.
Phil (12:35):
Wow.
So how old were you at thattime?
Adam (12:37):
16.
So at 16 you went I, they triedme as an adult.
Yeah.
You went into jail?
Yeah.
And then you got sentenced?
I got sentenced.
I did my time.
Phil (12:46):
How now?
How long were you in?
Adam (12:47):
So I had to go to Scott State Prison and do like a, I
think they call'em like, theyused to be called like a
penitentiary bootcamp kind ofthing.
And as a teenager.
As a teenager.
But you were
Phil (12:59):
tried as an adult?
Adam (13:01):
Yeah, it was in adult prison.
Phil (13:02):
What was that experience like of going in as a teenager
into prison essentially
Adam (13:07):
and hearing lies the problem with penitentiary and
drugs as if you.
There is no rehabilitation inthe prison system right now.
They have programs, but for themost part it's punishment.
It's, it is a money thing to me.
But, so this over and over,repetitive incarceration that I
went through for years you getused to it.
(13:30):
And I got used to it real quick,that first time I realized,
okay, when I get incarcerated,I'm not gonna, I'm gonna break
up with whoever I'm with,whatever girl I'm with.
Because you learn things likethat, that make it harder to do
your time.
Like I, I remember I dated thisgirl and I was, I would wait at
that time you, they still wroteletters and you had to go do
(13:52):
mail call.
And I would stand at the bottomof the guard here and look up,
they'd call names for the mailand your letter wouldn't come.
And after five months, mysister's like, stop writing her.
She's not with you.
She's with this other guy.
You know what I mean?
So you learn little things likethat to make your time better.
I wouldn't communicate withanybody on the outside and at
(14:13):
some point I gotta, where Icould just do the time and it
was just time I knew I wasgetting out, you know what I
mean?
you just became a little callousand you're like, just cut
everybody off and just, yeah.
And once you can, you can dothat.
Yeah.
Then it's not that big a deal.
Phil (14:27):
When you were on the inside, were you connecting with
everybody and still doing thedrugs or still?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I have,
Adam (14:34):
Pretty much every incarceration I've had, there's
been whatever drug at that timewas popular, it's in, it's in
there.
Unfortunately, but what it did,I had 10 years of felony
intensive probation is what theycalled it, remaining when I got
out.
And how old were you at thatpoint?
Probably 19.
Okay.
That entailed back then a seveno'clock curfew and, you're
(14:57):
reporting or whatever, once amonth you had a surveillance
officer that would come by andmake sure you were there
randomly.
But I was 19 and I was cookingmethamphetamine, so it wasn't, I
never followed that.
And I ended, it ended up turninginto 15 years of felony
probation with a lot of years injail.
Like I would get, and it grows,like the first one might be 30
(15:20):
days, but then it got to where Iwas doing two years at a time.
Phil (15:24):
Wow.
Adam (15:25):
A year and a half.
So during that
Phil (15:26):
probation time, like if you messed up or they would
birth, put you in prison for 30days and then you get out and
then they put you in for longerand that, that kind of a cycle.
Adam (15:34):
And I didn't, I was so gone.
See the deception with the methwas I worked from sun up to sun
up, almost take a shower, goback to work.
Wow.
Building houses, and didn't takebut maybe like Easter off one
day, one day a year.
So I thought I'm working all thetime.
I'm doing what I'm supposed todo.
This is just helping me to dothat.
(15:55):
But the meth was like keepingyou going essentially.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So a decade of that.
And, but now I realize, like theway that I would talk to the
probation officer when she wouldcome down there of course he'd
be like two years in jail.
You know what I mean?
You were like a smart mouse.
I just wasn't, I was awful.
Oh wow.
Like I was awful.
And so year, fast forward yearslater,
Phil (16:18):
Do you remember a lot of the craziness during that time?
Or were you like so strung out?
Like Is it just kind of blackoutperiods and you don't really
even know what happened half thetime?
Adam (16:27):
There's a lot that I wouldn't have remembered unless
somebody told me.
Yeah, just because of the sleepdeprivation.
The days on, it's notnecessarily the strength of what
you're doing, it's with that,it's the lack of sleep.
Know what I mean?
Yeah.
That really plays a toll on yourmind.
Wow.
So what Plus nutrition, you'renot eating it, right?
(16:48):
Yeah.
Phil (16:48):
Wow.
what were some of the craziestthings that you remember of just
during that time period that youdid or that happened around you?
Yeah.
So
Adam (16:59):
There's a lot.
I would rob dope dealers and Iwould get so brazen that I would
not even cover my face.
Like I, I would tell people, Iwant'em to know who got'em, and
so I did one and Columbus PoliceDepartment got in touch with my
father, and they were like, weneed to talk to your son.
And of course he called me andsaid, you need to meet with
(17:21):
these detectives.
They want to talk to you.
And I was at the time, so in themiddle of the whole life that I
was like, I can't meet them inpo.
I could die for that.
And eventually I met them atTarget on Bradley Park.
And they said that a guy hadturned hisself into jail in fear
for his life because he knewthat I had a hit out on me.
(17:42):
And'cause of my father, he knewlike that these guys were trying
to kill me.
The police officers described itas a crack cocaine hit.
Whoever, like someone had it hitout on you.
Yeah.
So they were offering likepeople that were addicted to
crack or whatever, whoever killsme first or get$50 worth crack
or something.
And they do that, they're intheir addiction.
(18:04):
So they're hitman for hire justfor a little bit of crack.
Just who, yeah.
Phil (18:08):
Go kill this person.
I'll give you some crack.
Wow.
That's, wow.
Adam (18:11):
And I was And that was, they were that someone had
targeted you?
Yeah.
So the dude had overheard orwhatever, he'd been offered to
carry it out and he, I guessturned himself into the jail
because he was fear for his lifefor what he knew.
And of course I was still young,like 20, something like that.
And so I told him, I said, I'mnot worried about, I knew who it
was.
(18:31):
I knew who had the put the hitout, I said, I'm not worried
about it.
And the only reason I left wasbecause they said, your mother's
in a wheelchair at the house allday.
They said They're gonna go, ifthey shoot your house up and
shoot your mother, then youknow, you've lost that.
And I said, okay.
I had some relatives, my auntand uncle lived in Oakland,
California, and I went out thereWow.
(18:53):
For a little while to get awayfrom just to let it die down.
Phil (18:56):
Yeah.
And, did you immediately jumpinto the darkness and the bad
life back there in Oakland
Adam (19:03):
too, or Not really.
I kinda had a barber that cut myhair in the middle of downtown
Oakland and he would smoke potwith me, which that was a whole
different life.
It wasn't legalized there yet,but we would just sit out there
on the street, like in themiddle of downtown like
Broadway, and smoke pot.
And that was crazy to me'causeI've come from Columbus where
you can't do that, but that wasshort, I wasn't out there very
(19:25):
long.
A few months
Phil (19:25):
maybe.
Yeah.
Adam (19:26):
And I came back home and I see the dude to this day and
nothing.
I don't know if he just, he gotover it or whatever, but a lot
of stuff like that.
I was dealing with some guys intown that were buying quite a
bit of methamphetamines and uh,I was fortunate that I had these
gut feelings about things.
(19:47):
And I would back out of asituation right before the hit
thing, or excuse me, sorry.
Wow.
So you could just sense ifsomething was about to Yeah,
this is time for me to step backand, and fortunately because a
lot of those guys ended upgetting 30 years and feds and
wow.
It was like, I missed it by twoweeks, had I not said, look,
this is the guy, y'all can dealwith him.
(20:08):
I'm not dealing with it anymore.
And just give him theconnection, it was just a crazy
time, every night was somethingand to the extreme, everything
was to the extreme.
Phil (20:18):
Wow.
You
Adam (20:19):
know what I mean?
And I think it was just thatadrenaline.
Plus the, I had, I haveemotional issues that I've
covered up with narcotics for solong that, just like, how much
more can I do?
And and I was, I escaped a lotof the negative, like with the
drug aspect, the negative sideeffects or issues from, so I
(20:40):
thought I was, I mean, you know,uh, so this is important.
I forgot about this.
And ninth grade before I droppedout, summer, eighth grade, they
found a brain tumor in my head.
Wow.
And it's a technical plate,glioma, it's in the middle of my
brain, sits on the pituitarygland, controls judgment.
Wow.
Lots of things that we found.
(21:02):
And at that point I was already.
Going to raves taking ecstasy.
And they went in and I went toAtlanta and they did I was
getting these headaches from thespinal fluid from where it
blocked the ventricles from thefluid draining.
So they went in and they decidedthat it was too dangerous to
touch the tumor because by myeyes, a lot of it's in a bad
(21:26):
spot.
And so they bypassed it anddrilled a hole to drain the
fluid off my brain.
And that doctor told me, then hesaid, Adam, the drugs are gonna
kill you before the brain tumoris.
Phil (21:36):
Wow.
Adam (21:37):
But I was I don't know what I would call it but I
looked at it as a free passbecause he was gonna MRI my
brain every six months.
So I thought if I'm doing anydamage he'll let me know.
You know what I mean?
And'cause ecstasy was the thingback then.
And that right there is whatended up really cranking up my
addiction, which was later on in2008, a lot of stuff happened
(22:00):
that year.
I met the woman I ended upmarrying, having kids with but I
did chemo that year to try andshrink the tumor.
Phil (22:09):
Yeah.
Adam (22:10):
And.
It didn't work.
I did it for a year and I gothooked on opiates and that was
my introduction to pain pills,which then became heroin and
fentanyl and wow.
Yeah.
Methamphetamines were not likethe, they weren't enough at that
point.
The methamphetamines didn'teven, there wasn't even in
comparison to the damage thatthe heroin and the fentanyl
(22:32):
really, the pain pills and thenthe heroin, fentanyl destroyed
my life.
Wow.
And you were married at thatpoint, or not yet?
Yeah.
Till me and my wife got marriedin 2008.
Was she in
Phil (22:44):
that world too?
Is that how y'all met, or?
Adam (22:46):
Yeah, she was she's found her own program now.
But yeah, we were just highfunctioning addicts, like I
said, I always carried a job.
It was just a strange time andme being on chemo, she took care
of me and, we're still marriedto this day.
We've been separated for a fewyears now, but it's been 18
years, wow.
(23:06):
And so what,
Phil (23:07):
So it got worse then with,
Adam (23:08):
Oh, it got a lot worse.
When my daughter was born in2009 and I left the life, but I
didn't leave the dope.
Okay.
You see what I'm saying?
Yeah.
So I would go get what I neededand I'd come to the house.
I wasn't running the streetswith the guys anymore.
I wasn't doing crimes out therelike that.
You're,
Phil (23:26):
I, at least in your head, trying to be a dad and Yeah.
Yeah.
Leaving the life, but justcouldn't Yeah.
Quit the addiction
Adam (23:32):
and it was hidden for quite a while, lemme tell maybe
13 years old or something.
My dad, he lost the election in2000.
I'm not even gonna, I'm notgonna lie to you.
When Obama was elected, he lostthat election.
Okay.
To John Dar.
And he bought a place inTennessee and built a house up
there, and it had cabins.
(23:52):
And he decided he wanted thewhole family up there almost
like communal living.
Yeah.
Family communal living.
So I went up there and like withyour wife and your daughter?
She was young.
She was probably four years old.
And it was good.
It was good up there.
Not, I was still using painpills, but I got a good job
running a guy's farm.
And he was a great dude.
(24:14):
I worked for him for six yearsup there.
I was I hate it.
Up there is what, I guess whatI'm getting at.
Yeah.
It was kinda like a new start.
Nobody knew me, but I definitelyinfiltrated the whole
prescription drug ring up there.
Phil (24:28):
Wow.
And it was it easy to do, likeknowing how it works, it was
pretty easy to just get accessto all of that.
Adam (24:34):
It, you take what you can get at first and then you have
to slowly figure out who's gotwhat.
But yeah, it's everywhere.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
If you want it bad enough,you'll find it.
So
Phil (24:45):
how dark did things get?
What did it, what did that looklike?
Adam (24:49):
Towards the end, guess it started my mom was in a
wheelchair, so my dad was hercaregiver.
So in Tennessee he got diagnosedwith cancer and he, it was
rapid.
Wow.
And so he couldn't take care ofher anymore.
My sister wasn't sober yet.
She was like not at home.
(25:09):
And so I was there like, to takecare of him and my mother and
your daughter, like my wifewould take care of my sister's
son and my daughter.
And she would do the stuff withthe kids and I'd take care of
both parents.
I ended up, I just built arestaurant.
I was the dude's foreman that Iworked for Yeah.
(25:30):
In that town at a restaurant andnightclub.
And he was like, I was gonnaquit my job to take care of my
parents.
And he was like, why don't youwork nights at the bar while
they're sleeping?
So I would do that.
I'd go to work from eight, eightto 3:00 AM come home, sleep for
a couple hours, take my dad toradiation.
It was a small town, real smallcommunity.
So like an hour to go anywhere.
(25:50):
Yeah.
But my dad and I, he knew about,my pain pill stuff and he was
getting a tremendous amount ofpain pills.
And we had dealings'cause he, hewas smoking pot at that point
and we were For medical reasonsor yeah.
And we were, we had, I had guysin that community that I helped
grow pot with and their dadswould also be on pain pills.
(26:13):
So we float other people withpain pills.
So it all, that all came to ahead when my sister came home.
My mother caught it between whenwe had already loaned out pills
and they were gonna come backand so she just thought, oh,
they're gone.
But nobody knew.
My dad and I like back roomdealings, like what we were
doing.
(26:33):
And so I left.
And I regret that because I justpacked the car up one night,
wife and kids, and left.
And I was it was a mistake.
I shouldn't have left.
Maybe I should have left, butnot that way.
And I didn't get to, I didn'tget to talk to him again.
He died.
Wow.
And I don't know.
I, that was tough for me andthat was the beginning of my,
when he died, I had so muchresentments towards myself and I
(26:56):
was at, in like mental battle inmy head with suicide, all kinds
of things, just'cause I didn'tknow how to deal with that.
And at the same time, my motherwas so mad that I didn't, that I
stepped out, that she didn'ttalk to me after he died.
Years later we started talkingagain and I was able to talk to
her before she passed.
But it was like, I lost both of'em at that time.
(27:17):
And so I, at that point I wasback in Columbus already and the
pain pills weren't in Columbus,so it was heroin.
And then it escalated realquickly to, I wanted the
fentanyl and it was likesubconsciously I was trying to
kill myself, I think,'cause Ididn't know how to handle it.
And I checked out with thefamily.
My daughter's told me now thatshe saw like me check out.
(27:39):
When my dad died, like you stepback and it wasn't really that I
stepped back.
I was just like, I'dinternalized everything and I
was
Phil (27:46):
yeah.
Adam (27:47):
Like I was at war with my, with myself.
Wow.
How old was
Phil (27:51):
she at that time?
Adam (27:52):
Probably 13.
Okay.
When, okay.
So she might have been youngerthan that.
When he passed I went on foranother year or two, then my
mother passed.
And then one day I just gottired and I left the house
thinking that Columbus streetswere the same as they were 30
years prior, or 20, 20 somethingyears prior when I was on them.
(28:13):
And they weren't, and my wifemoved in with my in-laws in a
little apartment in the back andI thought that they would let me
come, like whenever I gotwhatever was outta my system,
they would let me come back andthey didn't, and I remember the
first night being, having my carand sitting up at the gas
station and thinking what am Igonna do now?
I didn't think it through, youknow what I mean?
(28:34):
Yeah.
So you just left, your familywas gonna run the streets, but
then.
But I had a habit.
It wasn't what you thought itwas.
Yeah.
I had a drug habit.
So there wasn't hotel money.
What was your plan?
You know what I mean?
But I didn't think back then.
And I spent three years homelessin the street, wow.
And all over I've been homelessin, I, everywhere I would go,
I'd end up homeless.
(28:55):
It got so bad that the placesthat I would go, they call'em
like shot houses where peoplesit in there, do their drugs,
and they buy'em there and youcan sit, it's like a junkie
house basically.
They wouldn't let me come overthere anymore.
Like really?
I would get so messed up becauseyou're just violent and crazy
and not, it's I would just Idon't even know what I'd do
(29:15):
really.
'cause I wouldn't remember anyof it.
But like I know one house, I,they said I, I hit whatever I
was doing and then I went outand blocked the door so people
couldn't get in to do thedealings.
And that's the strange thing isyou come to, and it feels like
it's been seconds, but youmight've been out or sitting in
(29:37):
this bathroom at Waffle Housesmoking.
At that point I was smokingfentanyl.
And it's been hours that you'vebeen in there.
Wow.
And it feels like you just hitit.
'cause it's still in your handwhen you wake up.
Wow.
It just, everything just pauses,so in 2023 I had, I said at the
beginning of that year, I toldmy wife she would, like
Phil (29:56):
You were still communicating with her during
the time that you were homeless?
Yeah, she would sneak me in
Adam (29:59):
every once in a while without her parents knowing and
let me sleep and Or have, was
Phil (30:04):
she pretty clean and sober and was she doing well or not?
Not at that
Adam (30:08):
point, but she she definitely wasn't to the extent
that I was.
But it, but even in those thattime, she would video me coming
out the bathroom and I wouldn'tremember it.
And I would get mad and it waslike I was a zombie I'd, and I
don't recall it, so I would getmad because I knew that I was
messed up.
Like I knew that I had aproblem.
(30:29):
And so it was like it hurt towatch it.
Yeah.
So I would get mad at herbecause you're filming me.
But it was really internalstuff.
But I promised her that I wouldgo to treatment sometime before
the year was over.
So that was like the firstmoment that I was like, maybe I
can't do this.
Yeah.
Maybe I need some help.
(30:49):
And that is the end of part oneof Adam's story.
If you can imagine it, itactually does get worse from
there.
But next week Adam will sharehow it got worse, but then he'll
share how God changed everythingand brought him out of the
darkness and transformed hislife.
And if you could see him now,he's doing so well.
So you do not want to miss nextweek.
(31:11):
Thanks for being here this week,and we look forward to seeing
you again next week.
Phil Shuler (31:16):
We look forward to being with you again next week
as we share another testimonyabout the power and the goodness
of God to change lives throughSafe House Ministries.
if you are someone listening tothis podcast that loves to hear
these stories of the greatthings that God is doing in
changing people's lives for thebetter, and if you would like to
be a part of that work, pleasereach out to us You can reach us
(31:39):
at 2101 Hamilton Road, Columbus,Georgia, 31,904.
You can call us at seven oh sixthree two two.
3 7, 7 3, or you can email us atinfo@safehouse-ministries.com.
Microphone (Samson Q2U Mi (31:54):
Thank you so much for being with us
this week for the renew restoreand rejoice podcast of safe
house ministries, we pray thatGod will bless you this week.
And we look forward to havingyou back with us again next week
for a new episode.
I would rob dope dealers and I would get so brazen that I
would not even cover my face.
Like I, I would tell people, Iwant'em to know who got'em, and
so I did one and Columbus PoliceDepartment got in touch with my
father, and they were like, weneed to talk to your son.
And of course he called me andsaid, you need to meet with
(00:20):
these detectives.
They want to talk to you.
And I was at the time, so in themiddle of the whole life that I
was like, I can't meet them inpo.
I could die for that.
And eventually I met them atTarget on Bradley Park.
And they said that a guy hadturned hisself into jail in fear
for his life because he knewthat I had a hit out on me.
(00:42):
And'cause of my father, he knewlike that these guys were trying
to kill me.
The police officers described itas a crack cocaine hit.
Whoever, like someone had it hitout on you.
Yeah.
So they were offering likepeople that were addicted to
crack or whatever, whoever killsme first or get$50 worth crack
or something.
And they do that, they're intheir addiction.
(01:04):
So they're hitman for hire justfor a little bit of crack.
Just who, yeah.
Phil Shuler (01:08):
HellO, and welcome to Renew, Restore, Rejoice, the
Safe House Ministries podcast,where we share stories of the
power of God to change livesthrough Safe House Ministries.
Safe House Ministries is basedout of Columbus, Georgia, and we
are a ministry that exists tolove and serve people who have
been affected by addiction,homelessness, and incarceration.
I'm your host, Phil Shuler, theDirector of Development for Safe
(01:30):
House Ministries here inColumbus, Georgia.
Safe House serves over 1, 100people each month as they
transition back into ourcommunity.
Safe House provides an abundanceof services including 213 beds
for homeless individuals andfamilies, case management for
obtaining job skills and longterm employment.
Over 300 hot meals every day,free clothing, and so much more.
(01:51):
One of the most incredibleservices that Safe House
provides is our free 9 12 monthintensive outpatient substance
abuse program, which is statelicensed, CARF accredited, and
has no wait list.
Almost 100 percent ofindividuals staying in our
shelters who follow our threephase program become fully
employed within a few months.
And 68 percent of individualswho stay at least one night with
(02:12):
us End up finding work andmoving into their own home.
Thank you for being with ustoday and listening to our
podcast.
We hope you enjoy this week'sepisode.
Phil (02:20):
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Safe House
Ministries podcast.
Today I have a sharp lookingyoung man in front of me.
First time I'd ever met him.
Adam Johnson, right?
Yes, sir.
Okay.
And I have heard that he alsohas a great, just a great story,
a great testimony, and the Lordhas done some great things and
(02:41):
I'm excited to hear Adam, yourstory and just the things that
the Lord has done and I'mexcited to have you here.
Thank you.
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
So Adam, just to get started, Iwould love to ask you if there
was one word that would bestdescribe you.
What do you think that one wordmight be?
Adam (03:02):
At this point?
Spiritual.
Phil (03:04):
That's good, man.
Yeah.
What do you mean when
Adam (03:07):
you say
Phil (03:07):
that?
Adam (03:07):
So I don't necessarily follow a church, but I met my
Lord Savior Jesus Christ.
And so it's like a broad, likethe whole, my whole life is
spiritual and the way I look atlife and the way I look at
people is now different.
Because of that spiritualawakening,
Phil (03:28):
Wow.
Adam (03:29):
Of, of the profound kind.
That's awesome, man.
It's
Phil (03:33):
wow.
That's good.
people who have not yet receivedJesus as their savior.
They have no understanding.
When you say something likethat, it's just like they don't
get it.
It's, It's miraculous.
Um, But yeah it really is.
That's awesome, man.
I
Adam (03:47):
walked away from meeting Jesus.
I was him meditation and when I,he came and sat on the bed next
to me and I felt him.
And when I tell you I know, likeI've got life answers.
I don't know what they are, butit's given me a peace and
Phil (04:04):
wow.
Yeah.
Adam (04:05):
It's not that's good man.
Life's not that serious, man.
It's just live it,
Phil (04:09):
yeah.
That's good.
Seems, it seems like the Lordhas got you in a really good
place right now.
I know it wasn't always thatway.
But share, if you would wherelife started for you.
Like where did you grow up andwhat was life as a kid like for
you in your home?
So
Adam (04:25):
this might surprise you, but I grew up in Columbus,
Georgia.
My grandmother worked for WRBL,the switchboard for 56 years.
Really?
So you grew up
Phil (04:34):
with your
Adam (04:35):
grandmother?
No my dad was Sheriff RalphJohnson.
Really?
Yes.
And I was raised good.
I had a good childhood.
My mother got sick when I was insecond grade, and stayed in
hospital for about three years.
Oh, wow.
A year here.
A year there.
Warm Springs St.
Joseph's in Atlanta.
(04:55):
And at the time my dad was chiefDeputy the sheriff that was
above him was getting ready togo and he filled the whole role
and it was like grooming him tobe sheriff.
So he had a lot on his plate andhe was spending half the time in
Atlanta, and then every otherweekend he'd come home with us.
Wow.
So we went and lived with mymother's parents duke and Lois
(05:16):
Miller.
Duke was higher up at Aflac formarketing.
And they hadn't had kids in thehome in 40 years or plus, and it
was like a white carpet greenIsland house, and we, I was in
second grade, my sister was infourth grade.
We were loved, but I think that,that was the early, now that I'm
older, I see that, not that Ifelt abandoned, but just that
(05:40):
loss of childhood.
And like talking to my sisterlast night, she's changed her
life and found God, she said, Ifelt that was a time in our life
where we were supposed to be theattention, or like I just, it
was impressionable.
Like he, yeah.
I had to leave sports.
I couldn't do the things I wasdoing because that's what was
going on.
Yeah.
And my dad did his best, youknow what I mean?
(06:01):
My dad drank a little bit and mygrandmother, his mother drank,
and I knew that I had apredisposition to this at an
early age.
Of course, I kinda said I'm notgonna drink alcohol.
But then other substances were,it is real cunning.
But then, so the allure, andthis is what I figured out is
(06:21):
that how did you decide to giveup?
'cause I could have had theworld man, I could, my
grandparents would've set me up.
I could have went and worked forAlac or whatever.
I could have been lawenforcement.
And I think being as a smallchild, my dad worked Metro
Narcotics and the way it lookedfrom the outside, because they
portrayed the other side.
(06:43):
That was their job.
And it was exciting to me.
Like him
Phil (06:47):
being on the law enforcement
Adam (06:49):
side.
No, the opposite side.
Like really?
Yeah.
They're out here.
Trying to portray the guys inthe streets and the gangsters
and the drug dealers, and it'sweird.
It was like, it is just someexcitement, yeah.
And then the culture of thattime, Scarface came out and
these movies that like,glorified it and then I got a
(07:10):
taste of it and it was so muchexcitement, you know what I
mean?
So growing up
Phil (07:15):
you saw that from a distance and it seemed exciting
and adventurous and
Adam (07:19):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, dad would share his storiesabout working the streets, and I
was, it wasn't like, oh man,that's not what I wanna do.
It seemed, it was weird.
It seemed like enticing, wow.
But,
Phil (07:33):
Anyway, so you mean as a so growing up as a teenager, did
you start to take a few steps
Adam (07:38):
in that direction?
Yeah.
We left when my mother got sick,we left Brookstone and went into
public schools and, it's aculture shock.
You see the, you're shelteredand then all sudden, yeah.
Man, this is exciting.
And then I, I got in because mysister was older, she had
friends and they had boyfriendsand I got tied up with some of
'em.
(07:58):
And they would like, like Idon't know how much detail we
want to go into, but yeah.
Yeah.
As much yeah.
As, I, the first illicit drug Iremember was a guy rubbing
cocaine on my teeth as a, as 12,13 years old.
You were hanging out with yoursister and her older, her
friends?
Yeah, her friend had a house.
Her friend's mother had a house,and I was friends with her
(08:20):
younger brother, so I would staythe night over there and it was
like a party house, the momwould be in the room with on
back then online dating andstuff, like a OL days, yeah.
Not nowadays, but she would bein the room all the time, so
we'd have free reign at thehouse.
And I started doing things likeburglaries and stuff with these
older guys that but it was thatlittle taste, he just, wow.
(08:44):
I didn't even get messed up offthat cocaine on my teeth, but I
thought I did, and it was like,it lit a fire, and you
Phil (08:50):
so that, that allure of what seemed exciting now, you
felt like you were in it now.
Yeah, and
Adam (08:56):
definitely.
And, I threw myselfwholeheartedly into it.
And I've always been one thatwas, I'm real hard headed and
like whatever happens.
And of course it brought a lotof institutions and jails and I,
it was not unmanageable atfirst.
It was, the cocaine stuff andthen the raves started like the
(09:17):
club scene.
And that filled that abandonmentissue for me of being alone with
all these people in thisbuilding that are like love,
love, and I thought that's whatI needed.
And still wasn't unmanageable,it was like,
Phil (09:31):
yeah.
Adam (09:31):
Weekends and stuff like that.
Phil (09:32):
So where was your dad at this time?
Was he still, was he a part ofyour life in any
Adam (09:38):
yeah, he was definitely a part of my life.
Dad was like so one night mysister and we, my dad would take
in our friends that had, didn'thave anywhere to go or their
parents weren't doing the best.
So you,
Phil (09:49):
were you still living with your grandparents at this time
or had you
Adam (09:52):
no.
I had, my mom was back home andokay, so
Phil (09:54):
now you're back with your mom and dad.
Yeah.
She was doing
Adam (09:56):
better.
She never was able to walkagain.
She stayed in a wheelchair theremainder of her life.
But.
She was independent.
She could move, she justcouldn't walk.
And so she had to, my dad washer caregiver.
She had nurses that would comeduring the day.
Still turbulent, and yeah.
And so I don't know.
I don't know what dad's logicwas and like, not making me do
(10:17):
better in school.
And so he just
Phil (10:19):
let you do your thing essentially.
Adam (10:21):
Like
Phil (10:22):
he didn't ever try to crack down or?
I don't remember
Adam (10:23):
a lot of repercussions.
We had ba but he was drinking,so he had a lot on his plate.
450 employees.
A wife that was handicapped.
Yeah.
When around I understand.
And I don't know if they gave usa free pass because of our
childhood, if they felt bad orwhatever.
I know years later he told me,he said, I know what y'all do.
(10:44):
I've always known what y'all do.
And we were vocal about itthroughout my life, but he said,
sometimes it's for me, I justdon't want to deal with it.
Mm-hmm.
You know what I mean?
Like, Like I say it,everything's okay for the most
part, and it didn't get reallybad until after he had passed.
But methamphetamines camearound.
I framed houses left high schoolto build houses.
Phil (11:05):
So as a teenager you just dropped out and you just started
Yeah.
You just in the drug world, inthe raves and started working,
doing construction?
Yeah.
I made,
Adam (11:13):
400 bucks at summer, eighth grade a week.
And I thought that was bigmoney, but I was still living at
mom's house, at some point, Iwas in and out of the house
since about 14.
I know that dad was at hypewhere we said we were gonna talk
about whether we were gonnaleave the house or not, wouldn't
be.
And my sister, we go outside andhe locked the door.
He said if you wanna talk aboutmoving out, go and kinda like
(11:36):
tough love, yeah.
I think it backfired.
Wow.
So jails started happeningpretty rapidly by 16, I was
getting into a lot of trouble.
And were you selling at the timeas well?
So they never actually got mefor selling or, you know, I
manufacture meth for quite awhile.
So you, you were part of a, likea meth lab creating and
(11:58):
manufacturing it?
Yeah.
Pre 2008 before that.
Wow.
But they did catch me when I was16 with five.
What they called nick bag orfive,$5 bags of pot.
And that was just the way Ibought it.
And it was in separate bags andthey got me, DUI stop, had a
(12:20):
fake id, I've been drinkingdowntown.
And they charged me withpossession with, to distribute
on those little, that$25 worthof pot.
And I got, I think it was 10 tofive, ended up with coming out
of the jail with 10 yearsprobation remaining.
Phil (12:35):
Wow.
So how old were you at thattime?
Adam (12:37):
16.
So at 16 you went I, they triedme as an adult.
Yeah.
You went into jail?
Yeah.
And then you got sentenced?
I got sentenced.
I did my time.
Phil (12:46):
How now?
How long were you in?
Adam (12:47):
So I had to go to Scott State Prison and do like a, I
think they call'em like, theyused to be called like a
penitentiary bootcamp kind ofthing.
And as a teenager.
As a teenager.
But you were
Phil (12:59):
tried as an adult?
Adam (13:01):
Yeah, it was in adult prison.
Phil (13:02):
What was that experience like of going in as a teenager
into prison essentially
Adam (13:07):
and hearing lies the problem with penitentiary and
drugs as if you.
There is no rehabilitation inthe prison system right now.
They have programs, but for themost part it's punishment.
It's, it is a money thing to me.
But, so this over and over,repetitive incarceration that I
went through for years you getused to it.
(13:30):
And I got used to it real quick,that first time I realized,
okay, when I get incarcerated,I'm not gonna, I'm gonna break
up with whoever I'm with,whatever girl I'm with.
Because you learn things likethat, that make it harder to do
your time.
Like I, I remember I dated thisgirl and I was, I would wait at
that time you, they still wroteletters and you had to go do
(13:52):
mail call.
And I would stand at the bottomof the guard here and look up,
they'd call names for the mailand your letter wouldn't come.
And after five months, mysister's like, stop writing her.
She's not with you.
She's with this other guy.
You know what I mean?
So you learn little things likethat to make your time better.
I wouldn't communicate withanybody on the outside and at
(14:13):
some point I gotta, where Icould just do the time and it
was just time I knew I wasgetting out, you know what I
mean?
you just became a little callousand you're like, just cut
everybody off and just, yeah.
And once you can, you can dothat.
Yeah.
Then it's not that big a deal.
Phil (14:27):
When you were on the inside, were you connecting with
everybody and still doing thedrugs or still?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I have,
Adam (14:34):
Pretty much every incarceration I've had, there's
been whatever drug at that timewas popular, it's in, it's in
there.
Unfortunately, but what it did,I had 10 years of felony
intensive probation is what theycalled it, remaining when I got
out.
And how old were you at thatpoint?
Probably 19.
Okay.
That entailed back then a seveno'clock curfew and, you're
(14:57):
reporting or whatever, once amonth you had a surveillance
officer that would come by andmake sure you were there
randomly.
But I was 19 and I was cookingmethamphetamine, so it wasn't, I
never followed that.
And I ended, it ended up turninginto 15 years of felony
probation with a lot of years injail.
Like I would get, and it grows,like the first one might be 30
(15:20):
days, but then it got to where Iwas doing two years at a time.
Phil (15:24):
Wow.
Adam (15:25):
A year and a half.
So during that
Phil (15:26):
probation time, like if you messed up or they would
birth, put you in prison for 30days and then you get out and
then they put you in for longerand that, that kind of a cycle.
Adam (15:34):
And I didn't, I was so gone.
See the deception with the methwas I worked from sun up to sun
up, almost take a shower, goback to work.
Wow.
Building houses, and didn't takebut maybe like Easter off one
day, one day a year.
So I thought I'm working all thetime.
I'm doing what I'm supposed todo.
This is just helping me to dothat.
(15:55):
But the meth was like keepingyou going essentially.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So a decade of that.
And, but now I realize, like theway that I would talk to the
probation officer when she wouldcome down there of course he'd
be like two years in jail.
You know what I mean?
You were like a smart mouse.
I just wasn't, I was awful.
Oh wow.
Like I was awful.
And so year, fast forward yearslater,
Phil (16:18):
Do you remember a lot of the craziness during that time?
Or were you like so strung out?
Like Is it just kind of blackoutperiods and you don't really
even know what happened half thetime?
Adam (16:27):
There's a lot that I wouldn't have remembered unless
somebody told me.
Yeah, just because of the sleepdeprivation.
The days on, it's notnecessarily the strength of what
you're doing, it's with that,it's the lack of sleep.
Know what I mean?
Yeah.
That really plays a toll on yourmind.
Wow.
So what Plus nutrition, you'renot eating it, right?
(16:48):
Yeah.
Phil (16:48):
Wow.
what were some of the craziestthings that you remember of just
during that time period that youdid or that happened around you?
Yeah.
So
Adam (16:59):
There's a lot.
I would rob dope dealers and Iwould get so brazen that I would
not even cover my face.
Like I, I would tell people, Iwant'em to know who got'em, and
so I did one and Columbus PoliceDepartment got in touch with my
father, and they were like, weneed to talk to your son.
And of course he called me andsaid, you need to meet with
(17:21):
these detectives.
They want to talk to you.
And I was at the time, so in themiddle of the whole life that I
was like, I can't meet them inpo.
I could die for that.
And eventually I met them atTarget on Bradley Park.
And they said that a guy hadturned hisself into jail in fear
for his life because he knewthat I had a hit out on me.
(17:42):
And'cause of my father, he knewlike that these guys were trying
to kill me.
The police officers described itas a crack cocaine hit.
Whoever, like someone had it hitout on you.
Yeah.
So they were offering likepeople that were addicted to
crack or whatever, whoever killsme first or get$50 worth crack
or something.
And they do that, they're intheir addiction.
(18:04):
So they're hitman for hire justfor a little bit of crack.
Just who, yeah.
Phil (18:08):
Go kill this person.
I'll give you some crack.
Wow.
That's, wow.
Adam (18:11):
And I was And that was, they were that someone had
targeted you?
Yeah.
So the dude had overheard orwhatever, he'd been offered to
carry it out and he, I guessturned himself into the jail
because he was fear for his lifefor what he knew.
And of course I was still young,like 20, something like that.
And so I told him, I said, I'mnot worried about, I knew who it
was.
(18:31):
I knew who had the put the hitout, I said, I'm not worried
about it.
And the only reason I left wasbecause they said, your mother's
in a wheelchair at the house allday.
They said They're gonna go, ifthey shoot your house up and
shoot your mother, then youknow, you've lost that.
And I said, okay.
I had some relatives, my auntand uncle lived in Oakland,
California, and I went out thereWow.
(18:53):
For a little while to get awayfrom just to let it die down.
Phil (18:56):
Yeah.
And, did you immediately jumpinto the darkness and the bad
life back there in Oakland
Adam (19:03):
too, or Not really.
I kinda had a barber that cut myhair in the middle of downtown
Oakland and he would smoke potwith me, which that was a whole
different life.
It wasn't legalized there yet,but we would just sit out there
on the street, like in themiddle of downtown like
Broadway, and smoke pot.
And that was crazy to me'causeI've come from Columbus where
you can't do that, but that wasshort, I wasn't out there very
(19:25):
long.
A few months
Phil (19:25):
maybe.
Yeah.
Adam (19:26):
And I came back home and I see the dude to this day and
nothing.
I don't know if he just, he gotover it or whatever, but a lot
of stuff like that.
I was dealing with some guys intown that were buying quite a
bit of methamphetamines and uh,I was fortunate that I had these
gut feelings about things.
(19:47):
And I would back out of asituation right before the hit
thing, or excuse me, sorry.
Wow.
So you could just sense ifsomething was about to Yeah,
this is time for me to step backand, and fortunately because a
lot of those guys ended upgetting 30 years and feds and
wow.
It was like, I missed it by twoweeks, had I not said, look,
this is the guy, y'all can dealwith him.
(20:08):
I'm not dealing with it anymore.
And just give him theconnection, it was just a crazy
time, every night was somethingand to the extreme, everything
was to the extreme.
Phil (20:18):
Wow.
You
Adam (20:19):
know what I mean?
And I think it was just thatadrenaline.
Plus the, I had, I haveemotional issues that I've
covered up with narcotics for solong that, just like, how much
more can I do?
And and I was, I escaped a lotof the negative, like with the
drug aspect, the negative sideeffects or issues from, so I
(20:40):
thought I was, I mean, you know,uh, so this is important.
I forgot about this.
And ninth grade before I droppedout, summer, eighth grade, they
found a brain tumor in my head.
Wow.
And it's a technical plate,glioma, it's in the middle of my
brain, sits on the pituitarygland, controls judgment.
Wow.
Lots of things that we found.
(21:02):
And at that point I was already.
Going to raves taking ecstasy.
And they went in and I went toAtlanta and they did I was
getting these headaches from thespinal fluid from where it
blocked the ventricles from thefluid draining.
So they went in and they decidedthat it was too dangerous to
touch the tumor because by myeyes, a lot of it's in a bad
(21:26):
spot.
And so they bypassed it anddrilled a hole to drain the
fluid off my brain.
And that doctor told me, then hesaid, Adam, the drugs are gonna
kill you before the brain tumoris.
Phil (21:36):
Wow.
Adam (21:37):
But I was I don't know what I would call it but I
looked at it as a free passbecause he was gonna MRI my
brain every six months.
So I thought if I'm doing anydamage he'll let me know.
You know what I mean?
And'cause ecstasy was the thingback then.
And that right there is whatended up really cranking up my
addiction, which was later on in2008, a lot of stuff happened
(22:00):
that year.
I met the woman I ended upmarrying, having kids with but I
did chemo that year to try andshrink the tumor.
Phil (22:09):
Yeah.
Adam (22:10):
And.
It didn't work.
I did it for a year and I gothooked on opiates and that was
my introduction to pain pills,which then became heroin and
fentanyl and wow.
Yeah.
Methamphetamines were not likethe, they weren't enough at that
point.
The methamphetamines didn'teven, there wasn't even in
comparison to the damage thatthe heroin and the fentanyl
(22:32):
really, the pain pills and thenthe heroin, fentanyl destroyed
my life.
Wow.
And you were married at thatpoint, or not yet?
Yeah.
Till me and my wife got marriedin 2008.
Was she in
Phil (22:44):
that world too?
Is that how y'all met, or?
Adam (22:46):
Yeah, she was she's found her own program now.
But yeah, we were just highfunctioning addicts, like I
said, I always carried a job.
It was just a strange time andme being on chemo, she took care
of me and, we're still marriedto this day.
We've been separated for a fewyears now, but it's been 18
years, wow.
(23:06):
And so what,
Phil (23:07):
So it got worse then with,
Adam (23:08):
Oh, it got a lot worse.
When my daughter was born in2009 and I left the life, but I
didn't leave the dope.
Okay.
You see what I'm saying?
Yeah.
So I would go get what I neededand I'd come to the house.
I wasn't running the streetswith the guys anymore.
I wasn't doing crimes out therelike that.
You're,
Phil (23:26):
I, at least in your head, trying to be a dad and Yeah.
Yeah.
Leaving the life, but justcouldn't Yeah.
Quit the addiction
Adam (23:32):
and it was hidden for quite a while, lemme tell maybe
13 years old or something.
My dad, he lost the election in2000.
I'm not even gonna, I'm notgonna lie to you.
When Obama was elected, he lostthat election.
Okay.
To John Dar.
And he bought a place inTennessee and built a house up
there, and it had cabins.
(23:52):
And he decided he wanted thewhole family up there almost
like communal living.
Yeah.
Family communal living.
So I went up there and like withyour wife and your daughter?
She was young.
She was probably four years old.
And it was good.
It was good up there.
Not, I was still using painpills, but I got a good job
running a guy's farm.
And he was a great dude.
(24:14):
I worked for him for six yearsup there.
I was I hate it.
Up there is what, I guess whatI'm getting at.
Yeah.
It was kinda like a new start.
Nobody knew me, but I definitelyinfiltrated the whole
prescription drug ring up there.
Phil (24:28):
Wow.
And it was it easy to do, likeknowing how it works, it was
pretty easy to just get accessto all of that.
Adam (24:34):
It, you take what you can get at first and then you have
to slowly figure out who's gotwhat.
But yeah, it's everywhere.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
If you want it bad enough,you'll find it.
So
Phil (24:45):
how dark did things get?
What did it, what did that looklike?
Adam (24:49):
Towards the end, guess it started my mom was in a
wheelchair, so my dad was hercaregiver.
So in Tennessee he got diagnosedwith cancer and he, it was
rapid.
Wow.
And so he couldn't take care ofher anymore.
My sister wasn't sober yet.
She was like not at home.
(25:09):
And so I was there like, to takecare of him and my mother and
your daughter, like my wifewould take care of my sister's
son and my daughter.
And she would do the stuff withthe kids and I'd take care of
both parents.
I ended up, I just built arestaurant.
I was the dude's foreman that Iworked for Yeah.
(25:30):
In that town at a restaurant andnightclub.
And he was like, I was gonnaquit my job to take care of my
parents.
And he was like, why don't youwork nights at the bar while
they're sleeping?
So I would do that.
I'd go to work from eight, eightto 3:00 AM come home, sleep for
a couple hours, take my dad toradiation.
It was a small town, real smallcommunity.
So like an hour to go anywhere.
(25:50):
Yeah.
But my dad and I, he knew about,my pain pill stuff and he was
getting a tremendous amount ofpain pills.
And we had dealings'cause he, hewas smoking pot at that point
and we were For medical reasonsor yeah.
And we were, we had, I had guysin that community that I helped
grow pot with and their dadswould also be on pain pills.
(26:13):
So we float other people withpain pills.
So it all, that all came to ahead when my sister came home.
My mother caught it between whenwe had already loaned out pills
and they were gonna come backand so she just thought, oh,
they're gone.
But nobody knew.
My dad and I like back roomdealings, like what we were
doing.
(26:33):
And so I left.
And I regret that because I justpacked the car up one night,
wife and kids, and left.
And I was it was a mistake.
I shouldn't have left.
Maybe I should have left, butnot that way.
And I didn't get to, I didn'tget to talk to him again.
He died.
Wow.
And I don't know.
I, that was tough for me andthat was the beginning of my,
when he died, I had so muchresentments towards myself and I
(26:56):
was at, in like mental battle inmy head with suicide, all kinds
of things, just'cause I didn'tknow how to deal with that.
And at the same time, my motherwas so mad that I didn't, that I
stepped out, that she didn'ttalk to me after he died.
Years later we started talkingagain and I was able to talk to
her before she passed.
But it was like, I lost both of'em at that time.
(27:17):
And so I, at that point I wasback in Columbus already and the
pain pills weren't in Columbus,so it was heroin.
And then it escalated realquickly to, I wanted the
fentanyl and it was likesubconsciously I was trying to
kill myself, I think,'cause Ididn't know how to handle it.
And I checked out with thefamily.
My daughter's told me now thatshe saw like me check out.
(27:39):
When my dad died, like you stepback and it wasn't really that I
stepped back.
I was just like, I'dinternalized everything and I
was
Phil (27:46):
yeah.
Adam (27:47):
Like I was at war with my, with myself.
Wow.
How old was
Phil (27:51):
she at that time?
Adam (27:52):
Probably 13.
Okay.
When, okay.
So she might have been youngerthan that.
When he passed I went on foranother year or two, then my
mother passed.
And then one day I just gottired and I left the house
thinking that Columbus streetswere the same as they were 30
years prior, or 20, 20 somethingyears prior when I was on them.
(28:13):
And they weren't, and my wifemoved in with my in-laws in a
little apartment in the back andI thought that they would let me
come, like whenever I gotwhatever was outta my system,
they would let me come back andthey didn't, and I remember the
first night being, having my carand sitting up at the gas
station and thinking what am Igonna do now?
I didn't think it through, youknow what I mean?
(28:34):
Yeah.
So you just left, your familywas gonna run the streets, but
then.
But I had a habit.
It wasn't what you thought itwas.
Yeah.
I had a drug habit.
So there wasn't hotel money.
What was your plan?
You know what I mean?
But I didn't think back then.
And I spent three years homelessin the street, wow.
And all over I've been homelessin, I, everywhere I would go,
I'd end up homeless.
(28:55):
It got so bad that the placesthat I would go, they call'em
like shot houses where peoplesit in there, do their drugs,
and they buy'em there and youcan sit, it's like a junkie
house basically.
They wouldn't let me come overthere anymore.
Like really?
I would get so messed up becauseyou're just violent and crazy
and not, it's I would just Idon't even know what I'd do
(29:15):
really.
'cause I wouldn't remember anyof it.
But like I know one house, I,they said I, I hit whatever I
was doing and then I went outand blocked the door so people
couldn't get in to do thedealings.
And that's the strange thing isyou come to, and it feels like
it's been seconds, but youmight've been out or sitting in
(29:37):
this bathroom at Waffle Housesmoking.
At that point I was smokingfentanyl.
And it's been hours that you'vebeen in there.
Wow.
And it feels like you just hitit.
'cause it's still in your handwhen you wake up.
Wow.
It just, everything just pauses,so in 2023 I had, I said at the
beginning of that year, I toldmy wife she would, like
Phil (29:56):
You were still communicating with her during
the time that you were homeless?
Yeah, she would sneak me in
Adam (29:59):
every once in a while without her parents knowing and
let me sleep and Or have, was
Phil (30:04):
she pretty clean and sober and was she doing well or not?
Not at that
Adam (30:08):
point, but she she definitely wasn't to the extent
that I was.
But it, but even in those thattime, she would video me coming
out the bathroom and I wouldn'tremember it.
And I would get mad and it waslike I was a zombie I'd, and I
don't recall it, so I would getmad because I knew that I was
messed up.
Like I knew that I had aproblem.
(30:29):
And so it was like it hurt towatch it.
Yeah.
So I would get mad at herbecause you're filming me.
But it was really internalstuff.
But I promised her that I wouldgo to treatment sometime before
the year was over.
So that was like the firstmoment that I was like, maybe I
can't do this.
Yeah.
Maybe I need some help.
(30:49):
And that is the end of part oneof Adam's story.
If you can imagine it, itactually does get worse from
there.
But next week Adam will sharehow it got worse, but then he'll
share how God changed everythingand brought him out of the
darkness and transformed hislife.
And if you could see him now,he's doing so well.
So you do not want to miss nextweek.
(31:11):
Thanks for being here this week,and we look forward to seeing
you again next week.
Phil Shuler (31:16):
We look forward to being with you again next week
as we share another testimonyabout the power and the goodness
of God to change lives throughSafe House Ministries.
if you are someone listening tothis podcast that loves to hear
these stories of the greatthings that God is doing in
changing people's lives for thebetter, and if you would like to
be a part of that work, pleasereach out to us You can reach us
(31:39):
at 2101 Hamilton Road, Columbus,Georgia, 31,904.
You can call us at seven oh sixthree two two.
3 7, 7 3, or you can email us atinfo@safehouse-ministries.com.
Microphone (Samson Q2U Mi (31:54):
Thank you so much for being with us
this week for the renew restoreand rejoice podcast of safe
house ministries, we pray thatGod will bless you this week.
And we look forward to havingyou back with us again next week
for a new episode.
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