Ex-drug user credits sobriety, salvation to church staying open amid COVID-19: ‘I would be dead’ By Nicole Alcindor, CP Reporter for Christian Post
Before surrendering to Christ, Jennifer Scott was a drug user, “smoking and shooting” 7 grams of crack cocaine into her body every day. But God “used other Christians” to save her life — and she believes if it wasn’t for her church staying open during the COVID-19 lockdowns, she “would be dead.”
Scott’s church, Trinity Bible Chapel in Ontario, Canada, posted a video on Twitter of her sharing her testimony, which has since gone viral.
Despite bans on worship gatherings and ongoing lockdowns in response to the pandemic, Trinity Bible Chapel incurred over $100,000 in fines for staying open in opposition to the Reopening Ontario Act and the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act.
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Scott, who testified ahead of her baptism that she’d abused drugs since she was 14, credited her recovery with the church’s decision to keep its doors open despite opposition.
“Before Christ, I was a very angry person, and filled with fear, doubt and self-pity. I was constantly seeking avenues of filling the hole in me that only Jesus could fill,” added Scott, according to The Daily Wire. “It began with marijuana and ended with smoking crack cocaine and intravenous drug use. I was a slave to darkness.”
While mired in drug addiction, Scott was invited to a prayer meeting at Trinity by her son. Shortly after attending that meeting, she started to attend the church, led by Pastor Jacob Reaume, regularly.
“In my small group, I asked for prayer to help me stop,” Scott shared in her video testimony, referring to her drug use. “I left a comment on one of Pastor Jacob’s sermons on YouTube. Pastor Jacob took the time to find out who I was and tracked me down and called me to pray for me to encourage me to keep coming to church. I did.”
Shortly after the pastor and church elders prayed for her, Scott received a phone call that there was a bed available at a sober living house in Cambridge. In the meantime, Scott said, she continued to attend Trinity.
“I’ve been clean and sober now for over seven months, moved into my own apartment and the Body of Christ here at Trinity has helped me with [furnishings] and other blessings,” she revealed. “None of these things would have happened if Trinity closed its doors and was solely online. I know for a fact that I would be dead right now if God had not used this church in my life.”
