I do not wish to draw attention or embarrass anyone; I am simply expressing my gratitude & hope with this post.

Last Friday, my family and I were driving from our home in Ontario, Canada to Findlay, Ohio to visit family and friends for a few days. Some pretty important things happened on 11 Warriors while we were gone, that I just learned about this morning while reading through some past threads over my Saturday morning tea.

Background: I come from a pretty messed up childhood. My Dad was a violent alcoholic abuser. I was his choice target. By ages 12-15, I was confused, self-destructive and suicidal and began doing serious damage to myself during my teens, through the abuse of chemicals and substances, any and all. For my 19th birthday, my Dad attempted to kill me, while on a weekend home from OSU. On my 21st birthday, he almost got the job done. Soon after, I overdosed in a hotel room in Gulf Breeze, Florida.

Then, something extraordinary happened.

By my 23rd birthday, I was training/assisting at a teen drop-in centre, directing a summer camp for teens, was the drug/suicide “go-to-guy” at a crisis hotline for youth, a public speaker on youth issues, and was the team chaplain/assistant varsity coach on my high school’s very successful basketball team, where I was a stabilizing influence on guys who were going through some crises in their own lives.

I have now been involved with adult, youth and children’s crisis/abuse prevention and advocacy, director of children & youth camps in 3 nations, pastoring & campus ministries, leadership training and/or life coaching for over 32 years now. Something extraordinary is still happening.

The Crux of the matter: Friday night/Saturday, something extraordinary happened on 11W.

I want to thank DJ, Jason, all the Staff and mods, all the members on the site last Friday & Saturday who prayed, sent encouragement, hope and good words & music of a future to someone who was fighting through a cloud of deep darkness. I was in tears as I read the thread(s) this morning, when I saw how you all did your very best to help a person in need!

Thank you for letting me be a member of this site! You guys have what it takes! This, to me, is actually more significant & extraordinary than all the ‘beat ‘Bama’ or ‘we won the NC’ or ‘death to skunk weasels’ posts(well maybe that’s going too far), and simply needed to be pointed out, by someone who has been there… gracias mi amigos y amigas!