Story by Cam Schenk, as told by L. Wang

I knew I had hit rock bottom that night when I tried to take my own life. I don’t know why it didn’t work. I just remember waking up semi-conscious with nobody to turn to.

Succumbing to peer pressure

I grew up in a good home in Grande Prairie, Alberta, and was raised to be have good moral character. But at the age of 16, peer pressure got the best of me. I’m not saying that it’s not my fault, because ultimately I was the one who made my own decisions, but I can say that peer pressure was very real in my life.

I got into drinking and all kinds of drugs and chemicals—you name it, I’ve tried it. I was hooked on alcohol on the first try. I remember I couldn’t wait to go to my cousin’s wedding so I could get hammered. I got into the partying lifestyle and was known as a fun partyer because I didn’t fight or get violent when I was drunk.

I’ve drove home drunk over 1000 times and I’m fortunate I didn’t kill anyone or myself. Sometimes I didn’t even remember driving home after a party. The police took me to the drunk tank twice, a holding cell for drunken people. I remember seeing urine and vomit everywhere.

My lifestyle wouldn’t change

At 22, I moved to Calgary, Alberta, for a career change but continued the same lifestyle. My partying over the weekends started crowding into the rest of my weeks. I would show up for work in really bad shape because I would go out at night with my work clothes on, do some coke and drink some beer at some hotel room, then get up at 10:30 a.m. the next day and leave for work with the same clothes. I was supposed to be up at 8 a.m. but luckily the boss wasn’t there to see me.

The wake-up call

One night, after coming home from the bar, I wrapped my car around a lamp post. I saw this as a wake-up call and quit drinking for three months. But after that, I just started drinking all over again and fell into the same vicious cycle of drinking and doing drugs.

A year later, I quit my job in Calgary deciding I could make it big doing other things. Instead, I found myself utterly alone. I tried to end my life but it didn’t work. Where was I supposed to go from here?

Trying to get out of the mess

For the next year, I tried to drink socially, but always got carried away, and began to black out more and more often. One day I woke up and said to myself, “Oh yea, you had a great time Schenk. If you have a great time and can’t remember, don’t you think that’s defeating the purpose?” That day, I decided to go on one last binge and then quit cold turkey. That afternoon, as my friends and I were finishing up our stash of beers, we got down to our last beers and I told my friends the beer in my hand would be my last. I wasn’t going to drink again. Of course, they didn’t believe me.

I went for a walk by myself and cried out, “What do I do now?!” I was crying out, but not sure who I was crying out to. I was lost. I was addicted to alcohol. Everything my friends and I did involved alcohol and we thought we couldn’t have fun without drinking.

In hopes of overcoming my addiction, I tried the Alcoholics Anonymous thing. I went to meetings and at that time I was 24 while everyone else was in their 50s. People there were turning to drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes to fight their alcohol addictions.

A higher power

In AA, one of the 12 steps is finding a higher power. This got me thinking about Sunday School and church as a kid and I finally decided to try to the church thing. So I phoned a couple I knew and told them I wanted to check out church again. I went to church and the speaker talked about how getting together with other Christians and studying the Bible are very important. There was an advertisement in the bulletin for Bible study groups, so I thought, sure, why not? and invited myself to Bible study.

At the Bible study, I was a little bit paranoid because I didn’t want any of my friends to see me, Schenk, at a Bible study of all places! I didn’t have a clue what the people at the Bible study were talking about. We were studying Galatians, a book in the Bible, and I kept thinking to myself, what the heck is a Galatian? I waited until everyone left to ask the leader of the Bible study my dumb questions.

I kept going to Bible study and one night the leader, who became my friend, talked to me about the four spiritual laws. God created the world and he created me. I am a sinner—I have lied, cheated, hated… the list goes on. Jesus died on the cross for my sins and rose after three days. He offers me a new life, a life of freedom, a new beginning. I do not have to feel guilty for my sins anymore because he paid the price by dying on the cross for me. I prayed to God and told him I believe in Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God and he died for me because he loves me and so that I may live.

For awhile, I had to ask myself if these people were brainwashing me, just to make sure. And I realized they weren’t. I can actually know God is in my life and that I’m going to heaven. God’s not in outer space, he’s in my life. From then on, I started to see changes in my life. Not instant changes, but definitely changes. God works in people’s lives in different ways. For me, he took away my desire for alcohol—something I tried but couldn’t do on my own. He also gave me the desire to tell other people about him and what he has done in my life.

A new man

Today I am privileged to have a loving family—a beautiful wife, two sons and a daughter. I work with people in the business community, sharing with them the story of what Jesus has done in my life. I take them to Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Serbia so that they can experience what it’s like to tell people about Jesus. I won’t say that things are always perfect now that I have God in my life, because they’re not—life is never perfect. Sometimes I still struggle with destructive thoughts from the past, but as I’ve come to know Jesus more and more the thoughts come less and less. He gives me strength, hope and power to carry me through each day. Now that I know Jesus, I don’t want anyone else to miss out on him!

Living with hope

Remember how my friend shared the four spiritual laws with me and I came to understand and accept the gospel? Well, let me share that with you.

1. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
2. Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, we cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for us.
3. Jesus Christ is God’s ONLY provision for man’s sin. He died on the cross for our sins and rose after three days. Through him you can know and experience God’s love and plan for your life.
4. We must individually RECEIVE Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.

We can find hope in Jesus. I was without hope in my life and God brought me back into a relationship with him, giving me hope. Yes, a higher power is good, but I found any higher power was not enough—it has to be Jesus Christ.

You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer. Praying is simply talking to God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as he is with the attitude of your heart. Here’s a suggested prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be.