Biography and Story of Salvation
Through out my life I have not always known God. I was introduced to Christ as a child but I did not understand him. I battled through addiction to alcohol and a sin soaked life when I was re-introduced to the saving grace of God. I learned more but was still held back by my addiction to the world. It wasn’t until I quit drinking that I could follow and serve God as it was meant to be and is taught in the Bible.
I was born on a Naval base in Great Lakes Illinois. I was the son to a 17-year-old delinquent boy, John Woolums Sr, and a sorrowful 15-year-old girl, Robin Leipfert. My grandfather stepped in at my birth to take custody of me but allowed my father to be a part of my life. My family were never followers, they had the view that there was a God but as long as they were good people they would be fine. I moved many times through my life due to the illness of my grandmother. She had multiple cancer sites in her body. We moved to Florida when I was in first grade because they thought she wouldn’t last a year and my grandfather wanted to make her happy. God had a different plan. He healed her and we moved back to Illinois a year later when the cancer went into remission. She fought this cancer for the rest of here life, I remember most of my high school weekends included driving her to dialysis after the removal of her kidneys. My entire senior year I lived alone as my grandfather stayed with her in the hospital in Indianapolis and I would stay over the weekends.
I started drinking when I was 12 years old. I was working full time at a lumberyard with my dad that summer and he told me that if I can work like a man I could relax like a man. To him his idea of a man was to drink, smoke, fight, and chase women. This was my view of a man long into my 20’s. The friend/father view started a relationship of fear and awkward mentorship between my father and I.
When I was moving into 8th grade my family moved again to Fort Wayne Indiana. This would be the formative years of my life that I remember the most. I got to reinvent myself as a cool guy instead of an unknown. The need of acceptance by my piers that started here would also follow my through my addiction ridden life unbeknown to me. I had been drinking almost daily even as a freshman stealing it from my grandfathers liquor cabinet and drinking it on the bus to school. The evenings were full of late nights and loud music
Due to good grades I was accepted to Purdue University. I think my whole family took a big sigh of relief, however this was the first stumbling block that would begin my fall to the proverbial bottom. I did well for the summer semester, but drinking and partying was still much of my life. As the classes got harder my interest became less until the point when I was put on academic probation because I didn’t even show up to classes. As sad as my life was at this time I never even thought of God, I felt that I was to far away to ever know him or that he would ever want to know me.
After I dropped out of Purdue I returned to Fort Wayne and lived with my grandparents. Well, as unhappy as I was I just kept drinking. I did finally break down and realize that something new had to happen. God wasn’t ready for me to serve him he had other plans for me to get to know him. That time of re introduction happened in a chapel in Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. I think many young men are re-introduced to God at that chapel. When everything is harder then they have ever known and no one cares but God.
I graduated boot camp and went to school in New River North Carolina. I learned a new way to work and drink. I worked hard and I played hard, the trusty Marine Corps ethos. I was at my first duty station when I got my first DUI. I had been in a fistfight over a girl when I drove away and was pulled over. Looking back at this now I realize how ridiculous this sounds. I was charged and convicted of DUI. I lost my license and did my alcohol awareness classes. The punishment in the Marine Corps was physically harder. I was put in a hard labor squad call Correctional Custody Unit. It was the most physical work of my life. These 30 days changed my work ethic for the rest of my life. At no time in my life since have I had a job as hard or as terrible. Of course during this time when I was hurting and needed help I went to God and as always he was there.
I went home for New Years right after that in 2003 and I met a wonderful woman who is now my wife. For the last 7 years she has been a rock in my faith and a guide for a wondering soul. I have learned through her what love really is and I have learned what a spiritual leader should look like in a father and a husband. I battled with alcoholism and another DUI through five years of our marriage. She was strong and faithful through out.
During the five years she prayed and stayed faithful even though I was less than a good husband in my behavior. I was baptized before our marriage and I proclaimed and understood my faith at that time, maybe for the first time. This all took place in March of 2003. I have sinned and caused drama in many lives but I understood fully who God was and who Jesus was, I also started to learn how the Holy Spirit was working in our lives.
When we were stationed in California for the first time we found a church that was just down the street from us. Lighthouse church was a great church for us to start in. We saw the need for youth workers and I wanted to do more in the church so I volunteered. This was the first time I got to meet Chris Martinez. I walked in my first night and told him, “I don’t know the bible very well and I have tattoo’s can I still help out?” He told me that it wasn’t all about what I know or how I look but if I really wanted to help the kids. This was the beginning of my service in youth ministry.
I served with Chris for almost 3 years until I was re-stationed in Indiana where I received my 2nd DUI. It seemed the only time I cared about being sober is when I was at church. I would plan to drink every other night but the nights before church. While I was in Indiana I served as a youth volunteer at Grace church. Here I learned that even through my issues, Christ and his people loved me.
After the DUI I was sure I wouldn’t be accepted at the church anymore or be able to work with the youth. Instead I was accepted with love, mentorship, and accountability. I received 30 days in house counseling for alcoholism and have been sober for over 2 and half years. It is because of AA, the love of Christ, and the support of my family and church that I could make it even this far.
I returned to California as God was doing awesome things with Chris and moving him to new places. He was going to plant a church in North Oceanside for the Generation Church family. I prayed with Amanda and we found that we wanted more than anything to be a part of reaching out to the community and serving God. We were a part of a 30-person core team. I was able to be a part of the plant all the way until the grand opening, and then I went on deployment.
On my return I found a great opportunity to serve on the set up team. I have since taken over as the team lead and am learning the enjoyment of watching the growth of my team members. I am also taking a step back into the youth, as I have volunteered to teach the middle school classes on Sunday. To be a part of a fledgling church that is constantly growing and bringing in the hurt, needy, and new in faith has been the greatest part of my service. I have found more favor and consistent praise with this than any other part of my life.
I have been through the trials and tribulations of bad decisions and the wrong teachings of life. I have run full sprint away from God and his plan. I have been accepted back and served in his most awesome callings. I am ready to take the next step in my walk to follow him in his great commission and bring him to others like or unlike me across this world.
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