ĐOKA KOSTIĆ
I’m the new creation
My Name is Djordje Kostic. I grew up as a child of divorced parents and I spent most of my free time on the street. I fell under bad influence of one gang and there in that gang I was looking for my ideals. I wanted to become something I have not been, so I started to drink alcohol, smoke grass, take pills and heroin. This helped me to change my personality and consciousness just for a while but that is how I got into the world of drug addiction…
Addiction brought chaos in my family life. I couldn’t get along with my mother and I was very rebellious toward her. After a short illness she committed a suicide and I went to live with my father…Then my life headed even more down, and heroin took total control over me. After my father’s death I stayed alone, so I sold his apartment and car, and spent all the money on heroin. The agony in me was rising and there was no help. I was on psychiatric ward twice, I went away on Zlatibor Mountain, I took Methadone therapy, I was looking for solution, but I couldn’t find it… I moved from Novi Sad to the countryside, but I still could not run away from the desire for heroin.
Simply, I was trapped. I decided to come back to the city and to sell the apartment that was left and to spend all the money on drugs and then to commit suicide. I realized there was no sense in torturing myself and the others around me.
But, “by coincidence” I heard about Raskršce Teen Challenge from a one old friend of mine. I went there and already first time I heard there was a way out for me from this situation. I felt love and acceptance and I heard that Jesus had set other drug addicts free. Raskrsce Teen Challenge staff prayed for me and from that moment my life is started to go up. Soon afterwards I entered the isolation program and period of my heeling and freedom from drugs begun. Trough prayers and reading the Bible, God gave me strength and healed the wounds from my childhood. He took away the guilt, agony, despair, hatred, and gives me happiness, love, joy, and the purpose of life. I spent 12 months in the rehabilitation program where I have intensively been working on changing my character and attitudes towards life. I have almost finished the program now and I am trying to be helpful to the people who have trouble with the addiction. I am slowly returning to normal life and I have plans for the future. I am a new creation and I am aware of God’s love and that He has a great plan for my life. All those things that heroin destroyed, God has returned to me…
Before and after
