The Ultimate Pursuit

Carl D. Smith

Description

After high school graduation, Carl enlisted in the U.S. Navy, was assigned to Guam and there in a dorm found himself being offered heroin for the first time. After multiple refusals to get high, he gave in once, which launched a 15-year downward spiral in his life. Carl became entrenched in the drug world as a heroin and cocaine user, smuggling drugs and living only for his next fix.

Personal experiences are brought to life from inside his maximum-security prison. "Drugs took me where I did not want to go, made me stay there longer than I wanted to stay, demanding more of me than I wanted to give." He communicates what it felt like to be homeless, hopeless, and a convict lost on the very streets he grew up on. He did not care whether he lived or died... but a much higher power did.

When all hope was lost and it looked as if he would die a dope fiend, an old friend wrote him in a letter while in prison about a Christian program called Teen Challenge. Here he would be loved, taught the Bible, and how to live a life free from drugs and the horrible life he knew. This poignant, true-life story will grip your heart as you journey with a man on The Ultimate Pursuit.

Sujets

• True Crime

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 21 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456603564
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE ULTIMATE

PURSUIT
 
 
LOST! — BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
 
 
by
 
 
Carl D. Smith


 
 
 
The Ultimate Pursuit
Copyright © 2011 by Carl D. Smith
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0356-4
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, tape recording— without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV), © 1973, 1978, and 1984, by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing.
Scripture quotations are taken from the ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION (ESV) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. HYPERLINK “ http://www.gnpcb.org ”.
Scripture quotations are taken from the KING JAMES VERSION (KJV), used by permission.
Edited by Julie Kirk.


Carl Smith shares his remarkable and deeply personal story in this important book which is captivating, realistic and moving. This is an autobiography which absorbs and entertains, while it is profoundly inspirational. It will strike a deep chord with those in dire straits, and who are thinking of giving up. Carl Smith’s story provides stirring, powerful messages about Heart and Faith.
Saul Levine, M.D.
Chair, Department of Psychiatry, Rady Children’s Hospital and Health Center
Professor and Director, Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry UCSD
 
The Ultimate Pursuit is a story of Jesus’ incomparable love and a demonstration of the intimate relationship with God that is available to us. It is a message of indescribable hope and an account of the Lord’s never-ending mercy even in the worst of times. This book is a great encouragement no matter where we are in life.
Dona and Sondra Tipton
Founders and Executive Directors of Friend Ships Unlimited
 
I love Carl’s story. Here is a personal example of a universal truth. We are never written off by God, we are never too far away for Him to rescue, and Jesus is relentless in His pursuit of us. The great news here is this can be your story.
Rev. Sue Hegle, Ph.D.
Director of Chi Alpha, San Diego State University
 
DEDICATION
I want to dedicate this book to my mother, Jean M. Smith. She never gave up on me even when times became very difficult. Her love and commitment kept me going. It was and continues to be the kind of love that never quits. She was a shining light when everything seemed to be dark and I had lost my way.
I am also very thankful for the lessons I learned from my father. Even though he and I had some misgivings when I was growing up, my father never stopped praying for me. He tried over and over again to help me even though I struggled. My father, Glen, and I have both grown in the Lord and enjoyed many loving years together.
Thank you Mom and Dad.
I love you very much.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to thank my Lord Jesus Christ who is the reason this book was written. Without Him I would not have a story worth sharing.
I also want to thank my wife Helen, who is not only a large part of the story and helped me type the manuscript, but gave me the encouragement and accountability I needed to live this story you are about to read. Also, thank you to my daughter, Moa Hope, who has filled my heart with love.
A huge thank you to Sonnie Hamner who edited and made me soul search through each and every page of the book. Sonnie and her husband, Gary Hamner, were a huge inspiration to me to even undertake this project.
I am very grateful for Judi Daniels who voluntarily used her professional skills to help make up for the fact that I barely got by English class in high school. Her love for Jesus was reason enough for her hard work.
I am forever indebted to the ministry of Teen Challenge that took me in when I smelled foul, looked scary and all I had was a parole officer and a drug addiction. They only asked me to do one thing—to surrender my life to Jesus and allow Him to love me—and it worked.
To all of my family, especially my mother who knew I was starting to write a book of miracles but went to heaven shortly after I started it. Her steadfast prayers, along with my father, Glen’s prayers were answered, which is also a huge part of this book.
Also to the awesome Julie and Gary Kirk of CSN Books, who were the answers to my prayers for the right publisher.
I cannot leave out Rev. Keith and Candy Jackson who were directors of Teen Challenge Ministry Institute, pastors of the Lynwood Worship Center, and my mentors and good friends. I learned so much from them about trusting God and believing Him for supernatural favor.
To Don and Sondra Tipton, owners and president of Friend Ships ministries, who gave me an opportunity to join with them in reaching out to the nations.
I also want to thank many of our friends who have helped make this book a reality through their support and prayers:
Glen Smith
Jack and Eletta Files
Jack and Retha Files
Ray and Ginny Allen
Lowell and Naomi Crocker
Norm and Betty Riley
Jim and Evie Jingling
Dan and Jeanie O’Dell
Ardith Kleindienst
Daniel Garber
Lynne Thomas
Terry and Susan Quinn
Mark and Teri Hersee
Arvin and Verla Smith
Steve and Sandy Bringhurst
Along with many others who have chosen to remain anonymous in America, Sweden and Australia.
 
FOREWORD
This story is one of miracles and a transformed life. I can remember sitting down with Carl as he told me his life story and it was like watching a movie. He has had so many adventures packed into his one life. As I read the pages of this book, I saw in my mind’s eye the ship he was on, his encounters with the law and the miraculous transformation of his life. You will enjoy reading his gripping life story.
Through my 33 years with Teen Challenge and my six years as a commissioner with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, I know and have seen people break away from the horrors of drug addiction and find a new life. Few have a story that is as inspiring as Carl’s.
Carl’s dramatic road to recovery is one of faith and courage. It has been an honor to know him and call him a friend.
Dennis Griffith Executive Director, Teen Challenge Southern California Teen Challenge USA Representative to Washington, DC
 
INTRODUCTION
I know something about the struggles that people encounter. I was an alcoholic, addicted to heroin for ten years, and spent five years locked up in jails and prisons. I have been homeless, hopeless, have Hepatitis C and have had to face cancer. I will take you on a personal journey with me back in time, and cruise our way forward to the present. I will recount what it was like to work as a police officer in a top-secret naval institution on the island of Guam only to become involved in undercover heroin trafficking. I will take you down the roads I traveled where drug addiction led me from high security prisons to being released only to become homeless and aimlessly wandering for months at a time.
This book is for everyone who feels like they have been too far away to ever come back, too depressed to ever be happy or too addicted to ever have their life changed. You may be on the verge of giving up, but God wants you to know that if He can change my life, He can and will change yours! This book is also for the friends and family members of someone who is struggling with substance abuse. Read and learn the thought processes of a hard-core addict…and how I found my way out of my living nightmare. Not one of these horrific experiences was too much for God to handle. He had already made plans for you and me to be “more than conquerors” in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:37). Only God could change the horrible life I made for myself into sweet mountaintop victories. As I leapt into the abyss of drugs and despair, God was planning to raise me up into a place of influence and honor. He changed my life and I can testify to the miracle of the truth of His Word.
This journey will account for how I went from a happy-go-lucky, typical high school kid to a “hope-to-die” dope fiend; from a heroin addict in and out of prison to the happily married husband of a wonderful Swedish woman. I then became an ordained minister and chaplain, a teacher, a counselor and then the father of the most beautiful little blue-eyed girl in the whole world.
This life-changing story is told openly and transparently with the hope that you will read and look just a bit closer for the directions from God in your own journey. The times in my life I listened to God were incredibly adventurous and fruitful experiences. On the other hand, when I lived for myself and shunned God, my life reaped a harvest of destruction, loneliness, complete chaos and sorrow.
I pray this book helps you (or someone you know) to find true freedom and experience the most incredible love anyone can have— a deep, unconditional love relationship with your Creator, Jesus Christ.
 
CHAPTER ONE

GUAM’S HIGHS AND LOWS
I t was 1972, the Vietnam War was in full swing, and the protests were in high gear. President Nixon was in the daily news, there was talk of impeaching him for the Watergate scandal, and the universities were continuously in an uproar. It was the age of “flower power,” “free love” and the mellow “hippies” with long hair who smoked grass and took LSD. On the other side of things was “the establishment”: the military with their crew cuts and the rednecks with their bumper stickers that read, “America, Love It or Leave It.” I was not really in either one of these groups but I did have somewhat long hair, I liked to surf and had smoked my share of weed. I thought it was normal; everyone else I knew smoked it too including some of my friends’ parents.
One day, I realized I was going to graduate from high school ver