VDT Pusher preacher

A regional minister has written a riveting memoir accounting how he went from a life of abusing and selling drugs to becoming a preacher.

Harvey Williams Jr.’s “From Pusher to Preacher: By the Grace of God” is a blunt, straight-forward look at how drugs can unravel a life. In gripping detail, Williams explains how crack cocaine transformed lives in the mid-1980s in Florida and how the drug specifically changed his life.

Family problems led to crack. Addiction led to selling his home furnishings and belongings, led to the loss of electricity and services, led to losing his job, led to losing his apartment, and led to further separation from family and friends.

At times, he shared rooms with other users, sleeping on flea-infested clothing for a bed. To support his habit, he turned to selling drugs. Williams shares the brutal realities a drug user faces and a drug dealer distributes, and how being both simultaneously can destroy worlds and souls.

In addition to his personal experiences, Williams also shares general insights into the ways of crack and its users.

“There are basically two types of Crack addicts, male and female,” he writes. “The difference between the two is ‘bargaining power.’ The male addict usually exchanges money and/or merchandise to get high (straight males have been known to engage in homosexual activities to get high). On the other hand, female addicts can continue to bargain long after the money and merchandise are gone. She has no problem with exchanging her body for crack. This drug does not care about one’s gender, it treats everyone the same. It reduces both men and women to creatures that will crawl on hands and knees, looking for that piece of Crack that perhaps fell on the floor.”

He notes that most addicts are either single, separated, divorced or “soon will be because his first love is Crack.”

While crack led to prison and death for many, and experiences recounted in this book show that the author courted both, Williams found redemption through God and the church. It wasn’t overnight. It took time, but the Lord changed his life.

Williams is now pastor of the House of Deliverance Church, Willacoochee. He uses his experiences as an example of God’s power to change lives and he can minister to troubled souls as one who has been there.



BOOK

Harvey Williams Jr.’s “From Pusher to Preacher” may be ordered by calling (888) 280-7715; or visit the Web site (www. authorhouse.com).