How God Saved Me After I Escaped A Gang, Drugs, & The Streets

When I was 16, I was bleeding to death from an overdose. A few things happened before that, though.

When I was 5, I asked Jesus to come into my heart. I remember it vividly.

Me around 5 years old

My parents went to a little church in Lakeport, California. One day, the pastor was preaching that if you don't accept Jesus into your heart, you will go to hell. My little brain was like, "I don't want to go to hell; that sounds scary!"

My dad was a hobbyist photographer and took tons of photos of our family. Me being a kid.

After the service, we went to a barbeque at the pastor's house. I went inside and into a bedroom that had wood paneling on the walls. I knelt in front of the closet that had mirrors on the doors. There I accepted Jesus into my heart. I immediately felt extremely joyful and started jumping around. It was a real experience. I was beside myself with joy. I ran to tell my parents what I did.

Of course, we don't understand a lot at that age, so my calling (back) came when I was 23.

My mom cheated on my dad and divorced him around the time I accepted Jesus. She left, and I saw her once or twice a year after that. Because of that, I grew up without a mother figure.

Both sides of my family were involved in Christian ministry from the time they arrived in America. Many were preachers, church planters, and missionaries, and one uncle was an Episcopal archbishop.

I was extremely shy growing up, which made it awkward for me in social settings, especially school. I was afraid to talk to anyone I didn't know.

I went to my uncle's K-12 school, which was attached to a megachurch he founded in Santa Rosa, California. It was the largest Protestant church in Northern California at the time.

This is my uncle Andrew Watson Argue Jr.'s father. Pastor Argue Sr. helped Billy Graham found the Youth for Christ ministry & traveled the world as a missionary. As a kid, family had me help Argue Sr. after he had a stroke. Both sides of my family were in ministry from way back.

I asked to leave the school after the 8th grade due to being bullied, which led to physical confrontations.

Public school was much different than the private one I left. It was a whole new experience I wasn't prepared for. There were fights, gangs, and drugs. People were disrespectful, cursing all the time (which wasn't allowed at the private school).

When I was 16, after a year of turning down offers to use drugs of all kinds at public schools, I was talked into trying a white powder by a normal-looking yuppy kid. It was the powerful stimulant, methamphetamine.

I was hooked immediately. The drug seemed to cause my shyness to disappear, and I was able to talk to people.

I started learning to play keyboard synthesizers at this time and made a goal to become a rock star.

Me in high school

I almost bled to death the same year as the drug ate through a blood vessel in my nose. I bled profusely for two hours. I was losing consciousness in the end, and I was crawling on my hands & knees because I couldn't stand up without blacking out. I began praying at that point. My stepbrother showed up at our home and called an ambulance. At the hospital, doctors cauterized the blood vessel shut. I walked home several miles in my blood-soaked clothes.

I began selling the drug to feed my addiction.

For the next three years I experienced homelessness, a powerful gang that got chemicals to manufacture meth from Mexican drug cartels, and a growing addiction. The gang wanted me to be a drug transporter. I wanted no part in the criminal enterprise, so I resisted. That led to me being poisoned with strychnine and possibly battery acid. Members of the gang also tried to set me up for a shooting, but they failed.

I escaped the gang and drug addiction when I was 19. I escaped homelessness & living on the streets later. No one helped. Not family, not friends, not government. It was sheer willpower & a desire to be free.

Going through all that changed me. I experienced a lot of violence, and I became angry and violent myself. It was only by God's grace that I didn't end up in prison. It would take years to become semi-normal again.

Fast forward four years.

God Comes A Calling

I was living in a friend's warehouse where a rock band that I sang for also practiced. Living the wannabe rockstar life of partying, fighting, etc., I was a rebel.

The warehouse where I lived and practiced with the band

One night I went to a friend's apartment for a little get-together. I ended up staying the night. In the morning, I found one of those big family Bibles in the apartment. I began reading the book of Revelation, as I was always interested in it when I was younger. I decided to look in the front of the Bible since I had never really read any of the other books.

I turned to Genesis and began reading the creation account. As I was reading, the page lit up, like a flash of lightning through my mind, and I understood all of a sudden that God really had made everything. Right as that happened, a voice said, "This is where the power is." I literally said, "Whoa" when it happened. I was raised in the church and went to a Christian school, so I knew some things about God. I remember thinking, "God's trying to get my attention" and "I can't ignore this." I knew I had to do something.

For the next three days I read the Bible non-stop. I couldn't get enough. I also knew that I had to change my life. I quit the band, quit partying/drinking, and quit hanging out with my old friends.

I found a church that I liked (which was actually the church I went to as a child with my dad) and went to live in a ministry house.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit

After about a year of growth, pastors and church leaders at a men's group meeting I went to believed I was ready to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. They laid their hands on me and prayed. I spoke in tongues for the first time.

I studied for the next four years to become a teacher/preacher.

During those years I saw many powerful moves of the Holy Spirit and learned to be led by Him. I'll be sharing my many testimonies of God's powerful miracles in other posts.

In the end, I pursued my political aspirations and ran for Congress and governor of CA and became the chairman of a political party.

After that I was chosen by triple-amputee vet Brian Kolfage to help build the first privately funded border wall in American history. I then became an international reporter & videographer, filming borders and border walls around the world for a documentary.

In Old Jerusalem while filming Israel's border walls & defense structures

Covering the border crisis during the Biden administration

Over time, God showed me that He allowed me to experience drug addiction, the gang, and homelessness in order to make me stronger.

Before that, I was a shy, weak child.

At a pool with my mom

Today I know without a doubt I can overcome anything, because God allowed me to experience extreme hardship so I would become an overcomer.

One major thing I learned through these experiences is, if God allows you to be broken harshly, the amount of grace bestowed on that person is almost limitless. It's a good thing, because I was a deadly mess & will never be fully normal.

Dark Figure

A month or so before I was called back, I had 4 dreams. They were all the same. I was living in a back room in the warehouse mentioned above, and the place was pitch black. In the dreams, I was riding a bicycle down a steep road in what looked to be San Francisco. I was going downhill toward the bay. As I was riding, there was a whistling noise like wind going through the trees. The whistling got louder and louder.

As this was happening, it felt like something was trying to take the life out of me (I was awake in the dream, and I knew I was dreaming). In my dream, I knew if I didn't wake up, I would die. In every dream, I struggled against whatever it was trying to (suck?) the life out of me (I wasn't spiritual at this point in life, so I didn't know what it was). I always woke up.

In the 4th and last dream, it felt as if something was literally holding my eyes shut so I couldn't wake up. It was much more difficult to wake up out of the dream, but I struggled hard against whatever it was.

When I woke up, I shot up in bed and immediately looked to the left corner of the room. There was some sort of power in the room coming from the corner. I knew it was what had given me the dream. The power didn't feel good (at all), and it was very thick in the room. As I turned to the corner of the room, I yelled, "Get out!" automatically. My hairs were all standing, and I had goosebumps all over. I felt whatever it was (or the power) leaving the room. It felt like it took two hours for the power to completely dissipate. I was completely shell-shocked and, to put it lightly, freaked out at what had happened. I slept with all of the lights on in the warehouse for the next week. I'll never forget that.

Being spiritual today, I understand that it was the enemy trying to thwart God's plan because he knew God was going to call me back soon.

And that's how I came to believe.