My name is Lequante Abbott. I was born into a broken home with two other siblings. We each have different dads. We were very poverty stricken. I can’t remember a time when I was growing up that we didn’t have some government help. My father was never really present in my life. I can count the number of times that me and my biological father spent time together on one hand. Marijuana and alcohol was always present in the home and used at least 2-3 times a day. 

I can remember a time when we were so poor that we couldn’t afford to pay our water bill and our water was shut off for months, so we would have to go to my grandad’s house and bathe as well as take care of other things that needed a source of running water like washing our clothes and things like that. There was always a part of me that wanted better and I knew that there was something better out there, but I didn’t know where to turn to or where to look. 

I loved to fight and the rush that it gave me. At a young age depression set in. I felt empty all the time and I couldn’t feel anything but at least I could still feel pain from getting a good punch to the head as well as inflicting pain on others, so fighting was how I coped. I would just wake up angry and walk around in that state of mind all day and I had the mouth of a sailor. I cursed all the time and I put up walls because I didn’t want to let anyone or anything in. I had anger on top of anger bottled up inside. 

In my pre teen years I could remember there were nights when we didn’t have enough food for the whole family to eat at supper time and so I would let my younger brother have my share of food. There have been a number of days where the only food I ate was a school lunch and there were some days where I just went without. 

I started hanging out with a group of kids when I was fourteen and It was cool if you professed to be an atheist.  This group said that there was no God and that they didn’t believe in a God.  At the age of fifteen I started to feel a strange tug and I really didn’t know what was going on so I just kept doing all the wrong things that I was doing. 

One day I found a bible laying in the house. It was one of those little purse sized ones but I remember opening up that word of God and reading Genesis. It talked about God creating the heavens and the earth. I would go to school and say there was no God but when I got home I would pull that bible from underneath my bed and read from time to time. Deep down I knew that there was a God, how else can you possibly explain the world that we walk around on everyday, and the perfect creations that we see with our own eyes, and hear with our own ears. 

At the age of sixteen more depression set in because I was sick and tired of the life that I was living. I felt so hopeless and helpless in the environment that I was in. I still felt that tug but I didn’t know where to look or who to turn to. One day I got a knock on my door and it was my cousin Charlie who had been going to First Pentecostal Church in Union City Tn.  He invited me and my brother to church, so I went. Instantly when the music started playing and the spirit of God started moving I knew in that moment that this was what I was looking for.  I kept going back. 

One day before service Bro. Dwayne Uzzle began to explain to me what the Holy Ghost could do for me and how it could give me peace and joy and happiness. He gave me a quick bible study in the hallway. That service I got baptized in the name of Jesus and the next service I received the gift of the Holy Ghost. I have never been the same since. All of a sudden I started waking up happy not angry. My speech cleared up and I wasn’t cursing any more. My desires to fight left me. I had no need to fight anymore because I was made whole. Depression was replaced by joy and my loneliness was gone because Jesus was living inside of me. 

A year and a half after I received the Holy Ghost and was baptized I felt my call to the ministry. God has been using me and showing me things that I would have never in a million years been able to see. I am blessed to be apart of something that is so much bigger than just myself. Being able to be apart of the kingdom of God, and work in the kingdom of God, is something I cherish and will cherish long after I am gone. At first I was the only one in my family living for God. My grandad has now been baptized and received the Holy Ghost. 

My family is just now coming to grips with the changes that I have made in living for God. They thought that I was a part of some cult and that I was crazy and out of my mind to live the lifestyle that I had chosen to pick up and live. I am 21 years old and I am now helping pray through kids who remind me of how I was when I was growing up. I know that if God did it for me then he can do it in their lives as well. I am looking forward to seeing more bus kids and youth in general to get a hold of this truth, whether they are first generation or fifth. We all have to get it for ourselves. 

I am thankful, and will forever be thankful, for the day that God found me. He didn’t just leave me where he found me, but he changed my life forever. I am currently living with a family in the church (the Hamils) and we have become so close. They are practically my mom my dad and my brothers. They took me under their wing and they have had a part in raising me and instilling more Godly values in me. I am a better man because of this family. They have fed me and clothed me and have blessed me in many ways that I couldn’t even begin to explain. I am just thankful beyond words, and I am looking forward to what God has in store for my life in the years to come!

Thanks for reading today…

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