When people welcome methamphetamines into their lives, they don’t just hurt themselves with the drug, but those around them as well.

Ivey Meyers, receptionist at Calvary Baptist Church, recalled the ordeal of her then boyfriend, now husband, Rick.

“It was very scary,” Meyers said. “We never knew what kind of mood he would be in. The drug makes you paranoid and cold hearted.”

Meyers remembers a time when violence and anger nearly strained her relationship with Rick to the breaking point. Their lives deteriorated until a fateful day in November 2000 when Rick could no longer tolerate his addiction.

“He was trying to get off the meth himself,” Meyers said, “but he just couldn’t do it.

“He was driving around Galena with a .357 and was thinking of killing himself. He was pulled over in front of Galena Assembly of God Church, and the police pretty well had him surrounded.”

As the police closed in, Rick said a prayer: “Lord, if you help me out of this, I will work twice as hard for you as I have for Satan.”

Because the weapon had not been loaded and he didn’t resist police, Meyers was convinced Rick was finally crying out for help against the addiction.

He was sent by court order to the Girard Rehabilitation Center in Kansas for 45 days.

Following his recovery, Rick upheld his pledge to the Lord by bringing two drug dealers, the police officer who arrested him and many others to Christianity.

“I love him,” Meyers said, now re-united with the man she almost lost to meth.

Peggy Tucker of Joplin can relate to Meyers’s experience.

Her son, David, became addicted to meth and nearly died. She believes meth subverts an addict’s conscience and personality.

“When they get involved in this [meth], it takes away their soul. It blinds them to every good thing in the world,” Tucker said.

“They become obsessed with meth and their means of getting it.”

Tucker described David as a “skeleton.” The meth had reduced his appetite and made him oblivious to his own needs.

“I would go insane,” she said. “I just knew the meth was killing him, and he looked like he would die.”

In desperation, Tucker prayed for a miracle.

“I asked the good Lord to give him a moment of clarity so he could make the right choice,” she said.

David got that moment, and he chose. After making a full recovery and becoming a born again Christian, David returned to being the person he was before meth.

“God’s presence reached into David and caused a miracle,” Tucker said.

She believes faith and prayer are potent factors in combating addiction to meth.

Meyers would agree and emphasized that the prayers of others can make a big difference as well.

“Hang in there, and continue to pray,” she said. “Don’t give up hope, and always remember who they were when they started the drug.

“There’s a good person in there, and you have to bring the good person back out of them.”