The Testimony of A. Harold Haynes

One of our residents knows that God used alcohol to bring the man from self pride to total surrender, and that he now no longer needs to drink.

From Alcohol to Freedom

My name is A. Harold Haynes. I was born in Chattanooga, TN in 1941. At the age of 21, I moved to New York City.

I have lived most of my life mired in alcoholism, and at the same time I was a believer in God. I could never understand my on-again, off-again relationship between God, alcohol and myself. In reality, I was afraid of becoming what God wanted me to become, a true servant for Him -- a good success.

God always provided me with great jobs, which I used to enhance my drinking. The jobs provided more money for more drinking, until I started to have blackouts. My blackouts were progressive. I could function in a blackout for days. I would start relationships with women, and I would not remember beginning the relationship. I would gamble, and i would either win or lose lots of money and not remember either way. I would give money to churches and not remember.

All of my relations with women ended with the same line, "It's either me or the bottle." My response was always, "Well, I hate to see you (the woman) go."

I went to Alcoholics Anonymous by accident, drunk, and I didn't hear what was said, so I went back the next night. I stayed with AA for nearly five years, making at least one meeting a day, sometimes two or three, but usually taking a bottle of vodka with me, hiding it downstairs behind a garbage can, so when they had a coffee break, I'd take a vodka break.

One night I heard a man with a message, straight from God, that for the first time penetrated my understanding.

This man said, "You don't have to drink, and it's just that simple." At once a light turned on in my head and my eyes were open. Nobody had ever told me or said that you don't have to drink.

God was using alcohol to bring me from self pride to total surrender. THANKS BE TO GOD!

For a while I stayed sober, and I lived a fairly good life driving trains in New York City. I thought God was reasonably satisfied.

He wasn't.

Within one year's time, I was broke, homeless, and living on the street again. I found myself sleeping at night on the same trains that I used to drive. I couldn't understand why.

One day a woman addicted to crack cocaine came up to me and told me, "Harold, you are too good of a man to be on the street." She and her boyfriend bought me some clothes and put me on an airplane to Georgia.

I came South and stayed with my daughter. Miraculously, my daughter had heard about Promise Land Ministries Church of the Narrow Way.

When I got to PLM, I met Al Plume and his father, Al Plume, Sr.. and the two of them began to teach me about the Love of God for all mankind. As an African-American Christian, I had never really bought the idea that a white redneck could be loved by God, let alone that a white redneck might go to Heaven.

God had sent me here to Ellijay to learn how to love my fellow man in Christ in a one-on-one, face-to-face relationship. Al Plume and his father were just the right men for the job.

God through Al has shown me how my self-will and pride had kept me from knowing Jesus and from coming to a fuller understanding of the Bible. My own self interest is why I had never been able to completely put the bottle away.

I thank God for Jesus Christ living in me through the Holy Spirit and my freedom from alcohol and the cares of this world. The true Joy of Jesus Christ lives in my Heart.

It's alive and real. And that is the TRUTH.