By Duane Bradley

November 2008

Carefree

My life had always been carefree. I grew up in Coquitlam, with three older siblings. My parents modeled love and care, through relationships with those around them who were hurting. Their love of God was exemplified through service to church and love for people.

In youth group, church or school, I was never the popular kid – but I was never the introvert either. School was not my forte, and I struggled to just scrape by. The day after grade 8 ended, our move to a rural area of Abbotsford was the beginning of a whole new journey for me. 

We began searching for a church, and after every Sunday my parents would ask me how the youth group seemed. The Sunday I said I liked the youth group, we settled in East Aldergrove Mennonite Brethren Church (now known as Ross Road Community Church).

September brought another new school, more poor grades and no true friendships. Youth group was the highlight of the week. It was a chance to spend time with Christian friends, and be spurred on in my relationship with God. 

Distracted from Christ

I had accepted Christ as a child, but had no active relationship with him. My church friends did, and I longed to experience that. The school friends I had were able to squelch that desire, replacing it with distractions and trouble.

My parents saw my attitude change in public school; they decided to enroll me the following year in the Mennonite Education Institute (MEI), with my youth group friends.

So September brought another new school, but this time it was different. My first day at school, I had friends – and they introduced me to their friends.

I felt accepted; MEI was great for me. And the best part was that my relationship with God began to flourish.

As I prepared for graduation, it felt like most of my friends had plans for school or work. I knew I wanted to be a stuntman, but I had no idea how to attain that goal. I began looking for a way into the stunt union, and the front door seemed closed; so I looked for a back door, and found one.

Training animals for film gave me the possibility of doing stunts with them, which would get me into the union. So I started cleaning cages, and feeding animals, working for free to gain experience. Eventually, work trickled in – but only enough to pay down debt, never enough to get ahead. 

I would work six days a week and take Sundays off to be at church. I got so busy with work that, eventually, I stopped going to worship services; but I justified missing church because I was still reading my Bible – until that stopped, too. 

It was during this deviation from church that my morals started to slide. I was saying things I never used to say; I was in relationships that were unholy; and I had other things that I placed before God. 

Opportunity knocks

At this time, while my morals were weak and I was broke, an opportunity presented itself: I could make a lot of money transporting some drugs across the border.

I remember being asked to do it, and immediately thinking that there was no way I could do that. My morals had fallen, but there was still a line in the sand I didn’t want to cross. 

Drugs were a world I did not want to enter. I had never touched them, or even seen them. But when I was told the amount of money I would make, I allowed myself to be convinced to do it. I would pay off my debt, and that would be that. Well, at least until I was short of money again.

It was easy to convince myself that smuggling drugs wasn’t too bad. I was so detached from the drugs and their consequences that I wasn’t bothered.

I made more trips across the border; they got easier and bigger.  Soon I was no longer doing it to pay off debts. I was doing it because I had never seen so much money, and it was so easy. My greed and pride were soaring, and my guilt wasn’t – so why stop? Who was I hurting, anyhow?

Continue article >>

Previous article Scripture can bring us God’s active presence	Next article Homelessness made visible
Page 2	Page 3

My girlfriend Petina eventually found out I was doing it.  I think I told her because I wanted her to stop me. Despite my actions, we were going to a couples Bible study, and I was playing guitar on a Sunday worship team. But I didn’t have room in my life for God; I was simply pretending.

I convinced Petina the drug-runs were safe; there were only three more trips before I would have my desired amount of money, and could stop for good. With two trips to go, I remember feeling convicted by God, but shifted that to the back of my mind and suppressed it. On my next trip, the customs guards nailed me.

As they placed me in a holding cell for questioning, they asked if I needed anything. I asked if they could go through my bag and find my Bible. I knew this was between God and me, and I immediately took the opportunity to square my life up.

Guilty as charged

I was arrested, pleaded guilty, convicted and sentenced to 30 months in a federal prison in the U.S. Since the news of my arrest had been in the Abbotsford papers, there was no way of quietly dealing with this among family.

My parents and Petina openly asked our church for prayer. The church came around us like the body of Christ should, showing no judgment and asking to help in whatever way possible. 

When I came home in 2004, the church was excited to see me, and accepted me back – making me proud to call Ross Road my home church.

People from within the congregation offered me jobs to get me back on my feet. To this day, one thing that impresses me is how the church demonstrated their love for me and my family.

The ironic part is that, about six months after getting home, I got a call from a different animal training business, offering me a job. I have now been working there for over three years – and unlike before, I’ve been making a living at it. 

However, over the last three years, the call to ministry has been getting louder. I started to think about Bible school and talked about it with Petina; but I didn’t have the courage to step out of work and into school.

Still, the call kept getting louder, and the signs were getting clearer.

Step of faith

In August, I met with school admissions staff, and reserved my spot for four years of full-time school. I shouldn’t be surprised that I was contacted to have my testimony published in BCCN the same day I took this step of faith.

Petina and I have been married three years, and we have two children. In September, I started full time school at Columbia Bible College, studying for a BA in Worship Arts.

I’ve become passionate about my involvement with church, because I have experienced first hand that it can be so much more than a building. It’s a place for the imperfect, where love, restoration, forgiveness and redemption should rule.

I’m often asked what advice I would give to prevent a fall like mine from happening to others. There are a few things that are to clear to me in hindsight, but the one that would help most would be to establish unmovable moral lines. 

It is not enough to say, “I will not do [fill in blank].” We need to have a definite plan that clearly establishes our actions for when temptations are presented.

November 2008