By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press
The three- or four-block walk to Colt Baptist Church in Arkansas seemed long to Gary and Kim Gustin in the dark and fog of New Year’s Day 2017. For two months, they’d been too broke to buy the methamphetamine and alcohol they craved.
They had no food, no running water and no electricity in the rundown, decaying trailer they called home.
“We stunk, our clothes were tattered, and (we were) just completely lost,” Gary said.
Murl Horton, now 89, greeted them at the door of the church, offered them a seat and introduced them to Pastor James “Clint” Haynes, who led them to Jesus after the service. The church of about 50 worshipers took the couple food and water and began a discipleship that led to the couple’s marriage and baptism a few weeks later.
After years of spiritual growth and discipleship, Gary and Kim founded a street-side drive-through prayer ministry months before COVID-19 struck, and they moved the ministry online as the lines of cars dwindled in the midst of the pandemic.
The couple describe an instantaneous delivery from decades of drug and alcohol addiction and its trappings until they could Learn more about it, including theft, lies, jail stints, alienation from family and friends and running from a lifestyle they couldn’t shake.
“What if God won’t forgive us for everything that we’ve done?” Kim recalled with tears that night. “And understand, this is a community where we have been using drugs, this is the community where we have been out running around, and everybody knows everyone. This is a town of 380 people.”
The two grew up in alcoholic households and began drinking before their teen years. Gary began on methamphetamines at 16; Kim began using drugs in her 30s. They found each other in Arizona and made their way to Arkansas.
“We got saved and that was over four years ago, and we’ve never felt anything like that in our lives before,” she said.
“Our testimony is not our testimony,” Gary said. “It is God’s testimony through us. The things He has done for us since we’ve been saved has been nothing short of a miracle. He instantly took the desire to use, took it away. … I have no desire whatsoever to use again. And He’s used us in some phenomenal ways.”
Haynes admits he was skeptical when the couple accepted Jesus, simply because of the epidemic of drug abuse in the Arkansas Delta. About 450 people died of drug overdoses statewide in Arkansas in 2018, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
“I’ve had a lot of people come to the church, on drugs, wanting something,” Haynes said. “You shouldn’t, but you get jaded. … You have somebody come in, and all of us are like waiting for the other shoe to drop.” But the Gustins, who entered the church on a holiday when Haynes considered not even having services, were different.
“Most people I talk to, I need to convince them they need a Savior,” Haynes said. “And Gary was the first person to ever look me in the eye and mean it and say, ‘Jesus can’t forgive me. You don’t know what I’ve done. God don’t want me.’”
The talk seemed to last for hours.
“Jesus does love you. He died for you. He wants you,” Haynes told the couple. “And right there he gave his heart to Jesus.”
Kim said she was rededicating her life to Christ that night, but Haynes said “it became clear” she also had been saved that night.
At one time, Gary was down to 98 pounds, and Kim feared she would lose her hand to an infection that festered after she missed a vein trying to inject meth. She told others it was just a spider bite.
The two now rent a small home, have a car, are recovering from the physical side effects of drug abuse, are reclaiming family relationships and earning money doing home maintenance. A life Kim said had been “disgusting” is now characterized by a deliverance the couple says is miraculous. Gary’s weight has nearly doubled to 180 pounds.
“The evidence of His goodness in our life every day blows me away,” Kim said. “I can’t help but smile. I can’t help but just be lit up when I look at my husband. Although we’ve been together almost 10 years, we had a shattered relationship.”
Horton remains their friend, with the two helping to care for him as he ages. Welcoming Gary and Kim to the church was second nature for Horton.
“I’ve always loved people,” Horton said. “If I see a stranger or something, it’s my desire with God to try to help those people.”
To Gary and Kim, Horton and the church welcomed them with open arms and just loved them.
“Man, I never had a feeling like that,” Gary said, especially “and thinking, ‘What if we can’t be accepted?’”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This article was originally published by Baptist Press, news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. This article also appears in TAB News, a digital regional Baptist publication. For more information or to subscribe to the TAB News app, visit tabonline.org/TAB-News-app.
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