Sons & Daughters of Thunder Ministries

My name is Chris Pieczynski. And I was a drug addict for 25 years of my life. My addiction led to criminal behavior where I accumulated 9 felony convictions. I have a son now who is 26 years old and my criminal lifestyle and drug abuse caused me to miss out on much of his life. In the last 26 years I have been to prison 6 times and the first 5 times after released from prison I thought I could stay off drugs by my own will, but each time proved me wrong and I eventually ended up using again and falling back in the old habits and soon on my way back to prison again.. five times I had the chance to start over and live a clean and sober life and 5 times I failed because I thought I was in control of my own life. I failed because the enemy still had me chained to my addiction. And he had his hooks in me deep.

The last time I went to prison I was sitting in the county jail at 43 years old wondering where I went wrong in my life wondering what it’s going to take for me to change it.

Psalms 107 10 through 16 says…” those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in Affliction and irons– because they rebelled against the words of God, and despised the Council of the most high, Therefore He brought down their heart with labor; they fell down and there was none to help. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their chains and pieces. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful Works to the children of men! For He has broken the gates of bronze, and cut the bars of iron in two.”

I was sitting in this darkness. I had been for a long time. Now as I sat in the County Jail I reflected on some of the times that I went to church with my grandparents as a child and it occurred to me that there was one thing that I hadn’t tried. so I kneeled down beside my bunk, bowed my head, and I begin to pray. I started by telling God that I didn’t want to be a drug addict anymore and that I didn’t know what to do to change it and that I needed His help. I didn’t realize it then but the Holy Spirit took over and started praying for me and we asked God to take my addiction from me and that I would surrender my life to Him. Now by the time I said Amen and lifted my head I was crying big fat tears. I cried out to God from the darkness while I was still chained and bound to my addiction and He saved me from my distress. When I said amen and opened my eyes I heard the chains break and I felt them fall off of me. I knew right then that my life had changed. I was facing three criminal charges that could have added up to 40 years in prison. But I surrendered that to the Lord, too, and He saw fit to reduce my sentence and send me to Travis State Jail where I had the opportunity to build a relationship with Him and be fed with spiritual food with the help of brother Michael Bowen and other Ministries.

I was released from prison on March 22nd 2018. I have a new life now, a better life, a life in Christ. I am free from addiction and I don’t desire to get high, I don’t even think about getting high. I do not have the struggle, now, that I used to have all the previous times when I was released from prison. Jesus took that struggle away from me, He broke my chains of addiction he cut the prison bars of iron into. The enemy tells us that we will always be drug addicts, and that is a lie. Jesus tells me the truth of who I am that I am a child of God and I am no longer an addict. I now live a clean and sober life and the love of God fills me with so much peace and joy that I’ve never had before. The Lord has restored my family back to me. God is building a relationship between me and my son now and with my beautiful grand-kids. I Thank Jesus everyday for delivering me from my addiction and for giving me a new life. I give him all the glory because if it wasn’t for him I would still be bound in my afflictions. Glory to our Savior Jesus Christ. I love You, Lord!

It is February 18th 2021 And next month I will have been out of prison for 3 years. When I was released from prison in March 2018, I’m certain that my friends and family had doubts about how long my freedom would last, given my history of incarceration. I told everyone I had given my life to Jesus and that I was a new man. Everyone seemed happy when I told them that, but I’m sure they wondered how long it would be before I gave up on God and gave in to drugs. And I had given them every reason to feel that way.

It’s three years later and I will say that I’ve been holding onto the Lord and staying clean and sober. I can honestly say that I don’t get high anymore…that statement would have been a lie more than 5 years ago. I found a church home and I go to church every Sunday to worship the Lord and to give Him praise for delivering me from addiction. Also to receive His word. God tells us, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” I know it is important to stay connected to God because if I don’t, I know it will be easy for me to slide back into addiction.

But staying connected to God and being obedient to His word has given Him the chance to bless me in so many ways. God has restored a relationship with me and my son…a relationship that is still in the process of building. I missed much of my son’s life by me going to prison. He had some animosity towards me for that, but we went to a men’s retreat one weekend where we laid all our cards out on the table, so to speak, and poured our feelings out to each other. There was forgiveness…and with forgiveness came healing. And with healing came a bond and restoration and love between my son and I. I can’t make up for lost time, but God can build a future between us. We just had to be open with each other and open with God so that He could begin the healing process.

I have a good job and have found favor with my employers. Its a small business based on family values. I work with a brother in Christ who was an addict before he surrendered his life to God, and we encourage each other, minister to each other, and bear each other’s burdens from time to time. (Iron sharpens iron, right?) So God has placed me in a good position.

I work in the oilfield, but it wasn’t my intention to return to that line of work when I was released from prison. My brother called me and asked if I wanted to come to work for him on a rig. I turned it down at first. But I felt somewhat stirred up in my spirit, so I prayed about it and asked God for guidance. I had peace in my heart and felt like the Lord opened that door for me. So I called my friend back and took the job. I’ve not had to do without, I’ve been blessed enough to be able to bless others.

I also have a wife now. We’ve been married a year. In my addiction, I was bound by sexual immorality with women who I wasn’t married to. I never liked to be alone, so when a relationship fell apart with the girlfriend I had at the time, it wouldn’t be long before I found another girl to fill the gap… I was selfish in these relationships (maybe my girlfriends were too in some ways) and the drugs played a large part in destroying those relationships. I understand now, that I was trying to fill a void that only Jesus could fill. It wasn’t until I gave my life to Him that He filled that void. Jesus knew that I wanted a woman who would be with me the rest of my days on this earth, but He also wanted me to make a place for Him in my life, too. When I did that, He filled that void with Himself, and then He gave me a wife…

My wife and I went to high school together but never dated. We didn’t see each other after high school until almost two years ago. He brought us together and we just had a comfortability between us. It wasn’t long before I fell in love with her and asked her to marry me.

We have a Godly relationship. We communicate with each other, we value each other, we respect each other, we build each up instead of tearing down, we make decisions together (with God’s guidance), we worship the Lord together, we pray together, we minister together….

The Lord has blessed me tremendously, but I had to make Him part of my life. I had to put Him first. (Seek first the kingdom of God, and all His righteousness, and these things will be added unto you). I’ve discovered that I have to walk out my faith on a daily basis. I have struggles. Not with drugs, but other struggles…life’s struggles. But I get thru them alot easier now than I have in the past because the Lord gives me strength to get thru them. (I can do all things thru Christ, who strengthens me) And He had given me a helper, my wife, for encouragement, support, and wisdom. (He who finds a wife finds a good thing)

I posted my testimony on social media shortly after my release from prison about how God has delivered me from drug addiction. My brother, Michael, put it up on his website(the one this link sends you to). It’s a coupla years later, now, and I want to testify about what God has been doing for me since then.

He has given me a wife, restored my relationship with my family, and He has surrounded with brothers and sisters of the body of Christ. He has blessed me with a good job. He has opened doors and made opportunities for me to minister to others, especially my family. I am approved by the Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice to go into the prisons as a volunteer to minister to guys who are incarcerated. My kids and my nieces and nephews call me for advice now, where before there would be no way they’d seek guidance from me when I was strung out. God made a change in me that other’s see and they find encouragement.

Friends of mine who were in their addiction with me see what God has done in my life and they, too, find encouragement. I minister to all my friends and family, but I really don’t have to say much…they can see it! They see the light of Christ in me! If God can deliver me, He can deliver anybody!!

Like I said, it’s a daily process walking with God. A lot of transformation is taking place in my life. God has had to deal with me one issue at a time. I was 43 when I surrendered my life to Christ. He says we have to be be transformed by the renewing of our minds…I have 43 years of bad habits to to break!! But it gets easier when we yield to God and let Him renew our minds. I hafta do my part and be obedient and repent from sin, but when I yield to God and His word, my mind starts to think differently. I used to lie, cheat, steal, and cuss. Now I feel guilty if I even THINK about telling a lie. I don’t hafta steal because God has blessed me with all I need! I don’t cheat to get high anymore because I’m not addicted! Cussing is still a daily awareness that I’m always conscious of, but foul words that were part of my normal vocabulary sound trashy and uneducated now. I’m disgusted by it. I slip up on occasion but i ask forgiveness and repent. But my mind is being renewed! I’ve discovered that when I think differently, I respond differently to offense that would have offended me before; regretful words or actions made in anger; selfishness and pride. When I have the mind of Christ, I don’t get offended by things anymore. When I have the mind of Christ, I don’t say hurtful words toward someone else, especially my wife. It was my nature to say hurtful things to girlfriends in the past when I felt they did me wrong. They hurt me, so I hurt them back. When I have the mind of Christ, I put others first instead of me. When I have the mind of Christ, I humble myself and serve others. It’s because Christ has renewed my mind. I used to have the mind of Christopher…and I still do sometimes, but God is dealing with me on that. I thank the Lord for His patience and strength because I’m hard to deal with. He’s giving me the mind of Christ…to think as He does and to see others thru His eyes. It’s a process.

These are just some things God has been doing in my life and I wanted to bear witness to them. He has truly blessed me and all that my hand sets out to do. He’s restoring my family, He has enlarged my family, and He uses me as a vessel to show His love to others. I give thanks to Jesus for giving me a new life. Glory to God!!!