Quince Barnett
“I came from a very broken home. My mom was 15 when she got pregnant with me. My dad was 38. He was a Vietnam War veteran, and that did a lot of damage to him. He would drink and would beat my mom. That's all I knew as a child, and it was very traumatizing.
When I was still a kid, my mom had to work and she would leave me with this guy babysitter. Unfortunately, that man stole my innocence. I went through some other horrible stuff, too – when I was 12 my mom was murdered and years later my dad committed suicide. This gave me a lot of nightmares. I think I just needed somebody to show that they cared. I like to use this analogy: how many licks can a boxer take before he falls?
My life got real dark. I remember waking up every day disappointed that I was still alive. Because of all the adversity, struggle, and pain that I experienced, I started numbing myself with prescription pills. I started by doing it once a week, then three times a week, then four times a week and then every day. The way drugs work is that it holds you in a grip.
Long story short, I overdosed and died because of it – I lost all oxygen to my brain for about seven minutes. It swelled my throat, and I was in a comma state. The hospital sent the pastor because I was not supposed to make it.
But God kept me here for some reason.
One day as I was walking towards the store to get a soda, I could hear singing. The song was “I surrender.” I followed the music and came across this group worshipping outside. I came over and sat behind them. I was homeless at this time, and was looking kind of grungy and thugged out; but what's so powerful is that this people welcomed me with open arms. They didn't judge the book by its cover.
The Lord used the Bluegrass Connections Church to show me what a family is supposed to be look like. Do you know what I mean? All I knew was dysfunction, and these people showed me love and acceptance. My life was transformed to the 10th power because of it. It was turned upside down in a positive way.
I now work as a patient transporter at the same hospital that once treated me for drug overdose. It's crazy because I always say that the seeds of our miracles are often sown into the same exact soil as our adversities. My job as a patient transporter is supposed just be this: grab my iPad, get send a person's name, and then take them to their appointments. But I've kind of added some other duties to my job.
These people are battling some serious battles, and so I like to be their cheerleader. I bring them comfort by sharing with them the word of God. I know what it's like to be in that hospital and have nobody there. It is very lonely and scary. Patients just need somebody to believe in them and say, ‘Come on, man, you got this!’ We need to be a light in the dark situations.
It's powerful because by trusting God truly and letting Him lead, He has delivered me from all the guilt, the shame, the remorse, and all the pain from the adversity that I once felt. Every day I thank the good Lord that He didn't give up on me when I gave up on me. He showed me that there's no piece of glass that's too dirty that He can't clean.”
- Quince Barnett from the Bluegrass Connections Church in Kentucky