It was a time of jumping from one household to another. Full of physical and emotional abuse, fighting, violence, substance abuse and surrounded by gangsterism.
I was influenced by the wrong people, kicked out of schools because of anger issues, or not finishing my studies because of the addictions I was struggling with due to the abandonment and rejection I had gone through.
Even tried committing suicide a couple of times.
Moved then to live with my aunt, a godly woman living on her own. But things were just building up inside of me and it all just got worse, bringing a lot more drama along with it.
I ended up on the streets for 4 months living hand to mouth until I eventually realized I couldn’t do this anymore. It just, wasn’t me.
So my aunt got me into rehab, I relapsed after 3 months, went to rehab again, relapsed again and finally was introduced to Kelly. A man from church who was involved with working with people like me, who’ve found themselves living on the streets for various reasons. He got me into a center called “Betel”, where I was encouraged to start a relationship with Jesus. There the concept of grace was also explained to me and I don’t know what happened that day, but I remember going to the bathroom overwhelmed and just crying non-stop because I felt the love of the Lord upon my life.
So my relationship with Him grew ever since. It’s been a year and a couple months now and a lot of things have been restored back to me since then.
It isn’t always easy.
I’m still processing a lot of what’s happened and am currently building a relationship with my mother and dad. (He’s actually supporting this whole DTS thing going on.)
I’ve been filled with inexpressible joy, peace, love and hope.

BRANDON – South Africa // Engage & Embrace 2019