A noted performer on Saginaw’s local music scene decided to kick a drug habit, so he went to church.
Sometimes to an empty church parking lot, alone, so he could think in silence.
His pastor, Augustine Delgado with New Beginnings Ministries Outreach at 701 Hess, invited him to share his story Saturday at the third annual Boys to Men Conference.
Recreational drugs were part of the life, the musician told an audience of 60 pastors and congregants, and he endlessly postponed quitting until five years ago, when he returned home to find his wife and children in the driveway, ready to load a U-Haul and depart.
For support, he turned to Delgado, who had been his childhood basketball coach and now had launched a ministry.
“Sometimes when I wanted to use again, instead I would just go to the parking lot and just sit there, instead of going back to smoking again,” he recalled. “Then I said, ‘Pastor, let me start cutting the grass.’ “
He was seeking anything right to do, keeping busy to stay out of wrong’s way.
“Now when I want to get high, I look up (to heaven),” was his summary.
He didn’t stash his electric guitar back in a case and he remains employed and fulfilled in performing. Acquaintances still use, of course, sometimes in front of him. They react that he hasn’t lost his ability in his riffs on stage, or in his sense of humor offstage during the breaks.
At the start of his pursuit to kick the habit, he said, “It seemed like I was doing a different high,” and so he gained momentum in his quest.
Featured speakers reacted to a testimonial that actually began, in large part, at the same place where they were gathered.
Pastor Marcelle Smith of Bay City’s Second Baptist Church broke from his prepared notes for an impromptu point from the testimonial. He explained that substance abuse causes users to stop recognizing their full gifts and talents, because they have come to believe they lack ability to succeed on their own drug-free merits.
“His friends remarked that he still was funny,” Smith noted from the story. “They had thought it was the drugs.”
From GraceValley Church in Saginaw Township, Pastor Kurt Cullison also made a connection.
“Sometimes we chase happiness and not holiness,” he said, and misbehavior among men occurs “when we don’t feel a purpose in life” and lose hope day by day.
(Claudia Delgado)
Rev. Dr. Joseph Rodriguez of Birch Run’s Agape Christian Fellowship on Dixie Highway joined the message of promoting self-worth.
“God doesn’t look at our mistakes,” he preached. “God looks at our hearts.”
Men being men, there was plenty of sports talk, especially the Dallas Cowboys vs. the Detroit Lions, but the fun turned to the serious message. Smith started with the story of 1992 Olympian Derek Redmond, with a muscle tear before he struggled to the finish line with his father’s support.
Marcelle Smith’s father, Pastor Marvin Smith of Mt. Olive Baptist in Saginaw’s First Ward, joined several members of the congregation in support of their protege. More than a dozen clergy were represented, in addition to the featured speakers.
Delgado is an Army retiree whose second career, beyond ministry, is as a success coach at nearby Jessie Rouse Elementary School. New Beginnings offers an array of community services with a credo of “mi casa su casa”, or my house is your house, including a food pantry that opens at 3 p.m. Tuesdays, operated by wife Claudia and their daughter Micaela, an SVSU student.
