Hello, my name is Dean Bales and I'm a born again Christian. This is a testimony of my life with drugs and how I came to know Jesus Christ. I am the youngest of three boys. My oldest brother was hooked on heroin and he died when I was seventeen in an automobile accident. My other brother smoked a lot of hash oil and pot. I started using drugs when I was fourteen. I started smoking pot at first. I then took Whites, Reds, Mescaline, LSD, PCP, Hash, and smoked every kind of pot there was. I took any drug that made me feel anything but normal. At that time I hated feeling normal, I thought it was boring. There was a time when there weren't any drugs so we inhaled Pam, glue, paint, and even gasoline...whatever made us feel a rush.

We smoked a lot of pot that was grown all over the world. Sometimes we smoked as much as an ounce a day. We would smoke pot, take Whites, and go to school. It wasn't long before we didn't want to go to school anymore. We just wanted to ditch school and hang out and do drugs. Nothing seemed more important than drugs.

I played the middleman for a long time. That means I would get drugs for somebody else and in return they would give me some. To do this I would have to know all the dealers and have all the connections. It was the easiest way to get drugs without having money. I could also charge extra for them and make a few bucks to buy even more.

One night my friend was stealing a stereo out of a car so we could sell it and buy some more pot. The owner came out and my friend jumped into my car. The owner jumped on the side of my car as I sped off down the street. We were reaching speeds of 40. His legs were dragging and he was pleading for me to stop. I slowed down and he let go. I'd often thought about this innocent man trying to protect his property. He had done the same thing that I would have done to keep my stereo.

Drugs had become a major part of my life and they also had become my hobby. There were times when I needed money for drugs. I got a job working for Rickinbaucker sanding guitars. I met a couple of guys at work that I got high with at lunch and break times.

There was also this guy there that read the Bible at every break and at lunchtime. He had long hair, a beard, and he wore sandals. He looked like all the pictures of Jesus Christ that I had ever seen. One day he started working at the table next to me. I didn't believe in God and I didn't care too much for people who did. It seemed like they were always pushing God onto me and that always made me feel uneasy. It made me feel like I was against them. But this guy was different. He had never said anything to me, just smiled.

I asked him, Why do you read the Bible? And, Don't you have anything better to do with your time? Haven't you read it all yet? He replied, Yes, several times. I was being a jerk and I asked him if he really believed that it rained for forty days and forty nights. He told me the story of Noah and the way he told it was short, sweet, and to the point. I understood it and it made sense. I tried to think of all the miracles I could. I wanted to ask him how all these miracles could have happened? I asked him how Jesus could have walked on water? He told me a story and the gentle way he told it, it made sense. I was trying to prove that there wasn't a God but I was losing. I wanted him to be right, but I was trying to prove him wrong. Everyday I thought up a new reason why I thought God didn't exist. Everyday he told me a story and it made sense.

I still didn't want to believe in God. I guess I was afraid of what I would not be able to do anymore. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to party anymore. I asked him what he thought God thought about alcohol. He said it was OK to drink it once and awhile, but don't abuse it. Don't drink it every day till you get drunk. Just drink it on special occasions. That way you might enjoy it, and you will not become addicted to it, and need more and more and more until you are sick and unable to stop.

I asked him about other drugs. I think what he was trying to tell me was that every kind of drug you do repetitively, you will crave and become addicted to it. I guess this answered why I wanted to smoke pot all the time. Everyday I came up with questions for this man. I couldn't wait to talk to him each day and try to disprove the Bible. It wasn't that I really wanted to prove him wrong. I just wanted to know more about the Bible and God. I had always thought that believing in God is too easy. God must be for people without a mind of their own! I always said that if I had a doubt about God's existence, God's the one that put it there. I guess I was just trying to cover my own ass in case there was a God.

This way I could blame it on God for my not believing in him one way or the other. I had asked this man so many things about God and drugs that he offered me this information. He said that in the late 1980's there will be a drug introduced into the United States that will be cheap to buy...it can be made out of household items. It will be easy to make, easy to consume, can be eaten, smoked, you can shoot it, snort it and drink it. It is totally addicting and it will play a huge part of the undoing of the United States. He said It was designed by Hitler and Castro in the 50's to be used against the U.S. I asked him how it was going to kill people. He said it was going to do so by way of mistrust. I asked him how he knew this. He said it is in the Bible, in the New Testament.

This whole question and answer time lasted about three or four days. We were not allowed to talk very much at work. The next day I had more questions for him and I couldn't wait to get to work to talk to him. I got there at 8:00 and he wasn't there. At 9:00 he still wasn't there. At about 10:00 I asked the lead man if he was coming in today. He said, "Is who coming in today?"

I said, "The guy that works next to me."

He replied, "What guy?"

I answered, "The long-haired guy with the beard and sandals."

He replied back, "I don't know who you are talking about."

I replied back to him, "The guy that reads the Bible at break and lunchtime."

To that statement he said, "I don't know -- maybe you are talking about somebody that works graveyard. Ask the foreman."

"No! I said, "He works the same hours as me."

His final reply was, "I don't know; ask the foreman."

A little while later the foreman came up to me and asked if I had a question for him. I said I just wanted to know if the guy that worked next to me was coming in today. I asked him if he was sick or something. He said, "Which guy are you talking about?

I said, "The longhaired guy with the Bible and sandals. He works right here next to me. You told us to stop talking yesterday and the day before."

He replied, "I don't know who you're talking about. I don't remember telling you to stop talking."

I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT SOBER WAS

(The Dean Bales Story)

By this time I was thinking to myself ... just forget it, Dean! He said he would get the attendance sheet.

After lunch I was called into the office of the president, Mr. Rickinbaucker. I was asked and grilled all about this mystery person. The three lead-men came in; the foreman came in; the secretaries were there; payroll was called up and brought in -- the other guys that I work with were brought in one by one. Everyone was questioned and nobody admitting knowing who this man was. They were all looking at me in disgust. They wanted me to just shut up and mind my own business. By this time I wished I had never said anything! I was finally told to go back to work. The next day, I came to work hoping to see this guy. Instead they gave me a pink slip. They told me I was fired. That was in 1972. Twenty-five years later I realized the drug he had been talking about was crystal meth. I never saw him again.