My Testimony
MY TESTIMONY
My name is Morrie Thompson, Actually I am the Rev. Morrie Thompson JP and I headed up an organization called Teen Challenge. Situated now in Mansfield Park South Australia, it is one of the many church organizations that are desperately trying to put some vestige of hope into the community. Whenever some young person "tries it on" or assumes that I have always been a Pastor I have to smile.
I come from a good but poor family and was raised in the hills area of Western Australia.
I left home at 14 years of age, bored with school and already in trouble with alcohol and the police. I drifted around Australia, working at this and that, constantly in trouble. I spent my 17th, 19th and 20th birthday in gaol.
Not for anything serious, really I was too drunk to be a successful thief. No, most of the time I was locked up for fighting or being drunk in a public place.
I was in Maitland Prison spending my summer vacation. The Judge had asked me before he sentenced me if I had enrolled for National Service. At that time the VietNam war was on. I hadn't enrolled so I went from Maitland Gaol to Singleton Army Barracks and was soon in Vietnam.
I loved Vietnam. I spent 18 months up there (3 tours of duty) I loved the cheap alcohol. I served with 7 RAR and 1RAR (Infantry) and was involved in the Tet offensive. The Army decided they could lose the war without me and sent me home. I spent another two years at the Jungle Warfare school at Canungra and also got married. I was posted to Singapore. My drinking was way out of control. Suffice to say that after 30 months I was posted back to Australia. I was also well on the road to divorce. Being a person who sought to take the easy way out I decided to save myself some mileage and rather than dump some outdated supplies, donated them to the local convent who much against my wishes wrote a letter of thanks to my commanding officer. Hence, in 1976 the three D's happened. I was Discharged, Divorced and Derelict.
I again started on a futile journey around Australia trying to escape from me. I staggered into a little Baptist church one night to get out of the rain. I hadn't had a wash for a week or two so I got a seat real easy. I noticed that it was a ladies meeting. They asked if they could pray for me. I figured it couldn't hurt.
I staggered out of the meeting, after stealing a couple of hymn books ( I thought I could sell them in the pub. There's not a huge market for hymn books in pubs I found)
My life went down pretty fast after that. I finished up in South Australia, living in parks, surviving as best I could.
I finished up bankrupt as a human being. My memory was shot.
I caught a train, trying to run away again. I got off at the wrong station, Mount Gambier, which was supposed to be Port Augusta. A man came up to me and said "you don't have to live like this if you don't want to." I thought "Ok for you to say." But he proceeded to share Jesus Christ with me.
On the 28th of March 1980 I made a decision for Christ and have never regretted it.
I started a church a couple of years after I was saved (became a Christian). I remarried and have a wonderful relationship with my two sons from my first marriage. It hasn't always been easy, and I suspect that it may get rough again in the future.
I headed up Teen Challenge In South Australia. Each year across Australia Teen Challenge will respond to 232,000 calls for information, advice and counsel. Our High School programs will reach fifty thousand young people. We are committed to prevention.
On any day in when Teen Challenge was located at Hindley Street some fifty to one hundred people will come to Teen Challenge. They were of all different ages between eight and Eighty. There they were made to feel safe for a while. Safe from the pressures of the street, the drugs, the prostitution and the violence. Some will skip in and out before going on with their often illegal lifestyle. After all if you're on the street and you have no money, no benefit, no family unit, no job prospects, you've got to score somewhere. Others stay most of the day.
To some they are a nuisance, a blight on society. But each night one thousand young people sleep on the streets in Adelaide. Every high school has homeless youth attending it. Now if you're living in New York, or London those figures don't mean much. But Adelaide is recognized as one of the seven most livable cities in the world.
Suicide is devastating the ranks of the young. Young men commit suicide at a rate seven times that of young women, yet no one seems to know why. Could it be that boys, unsure of their roles in a more feminist world, are facing too many challenges without enough help? Australia, with New Zealand has the very dubious distinction of having the highest suicide rate in the western world.
But Jesus will make a difference in the lives of those who listen. He cares. He cared for me when I was an out of control drunk, and he cares for every individual across the face of the earth
If this testimony has touched your life or if you are in need of help Teen Challenge can be contacted through the link on this site.
I left home at 14 years of age, bored with school and already in trouble with alcohol and the police. I drifted around Australia, working at this and that, constantly in trouble. I spent my 17th, 19th and 20th birthday in gaol.
Not for anything serious, really I was too drunk to be a successful thief. No, most of the time I was locked up for fighting or being drunk in a public place.
I was in Maitland Prison spending my summer vacation. The Judge had asked me before he sentenced me if I had enrolled for National Service. At that time the VietNam war was on. I hadn't enrolled so I went from Maitland Gaol to Singleton Army Barracks and was soon in Vietnam.
I loved Vietnam. I spent 18 months up there (3 tours of duty) I loved the cheap alcohol. I served with 7 RAR and 1RAR (Infantry) and was involved in the Tet offensive. The Army decided they could lose the war without me and sent me home. I spent another two years at the Jungle Warfare school at Canungra and also got married. I was posted to Singapore. My drinking was way out of control. Suffice to say that after 30 months I was posted back to Australia. I was also well on the road to divorce. Being a person who sought to take the easy way out I decided to save myself some mileage and rather than dump some outdated supplies, donated them to the local convent who much against my wishes wrote a letter of thanks to my commanding officer. Hence, in 1976 the three D's happened. I was Discharged, Divorced and Derelict.
I again started on a futile journey around Australia trying to escape from me. I staggered into a little Baptist church one night to get out of the rain. I hadn't had a wash for a week or two so I got a seat real easy. I noticed that it was a ladies meeting. They asked if they could pray for me. I figured it couldn't hurt.
I staggered out of the meeting, after stealing a couple of hymn books ( I thought I could sell them in the pub. There's not a huge market for hymn books in pubs I found)
My life went down pretty fast after that. I finished up in South Australia, living in parks, surviving as best I could.
I finished up bankrupt as a human being. My memory was shot.
I caught a train, trying to run away again. I got off at the wrong station, Mount Gambier, which was supposed to be Port Augusta. A man came up to me and said "you don't have to live like this if you don't want to." I thought "Ok for you to say." But he proceeded to share Jesus Christ with me.
On the 28th of March 1980 I made a decision for Christ and have never regretted it.
I started a church a couple of years after I was saved (became a Christian). I remarried and have a wonderful relationship with my two sons from my first marriage. It hasn't always been easy, and I suspect that it may get rough again in the future.
I headed up Teen Challenge In South Australia. Each year across Australia Teen Challenge will respond to 232,000 calls for information, advice and counsel. Our High School programs will reach fifty thousand young people. We are committed to prevention.
On any day in when Teen Challenge was located at Hindley Street some fifty to one hundred people will come to Teen Challenge. They were of all different ages between eight and Eighty. There they were made to feel safe for a while. Safe from the pressures of the street, the drugs, the prostitution and the violence. Some will skip in and out before going on with their often illegal lifestyle. After all if you're on the street and you have no money, no benefit, no family unit, no job prospects, you've got to score somewhere. Others stay most of the day.
To some they are a nuisance, a blight on society. But each night one thousand young people sleep on the streets in Adelaide. Every high school has homeless youth attending it. Now if you're living in New York, or London those figures don't mean much. But Adelaide is recognized as one of the seven most livable cities in the world.
Suicide is devastating the ranks of the young. Young men commit suicide at a rate seven times that of young women, yet no one seems to know why. Could it be that boys, unsure of their roles in a more feminist world, are facing too many challenges without enough help? Australia, with New Zealand has the very dubious distinction of having the highest suicide rate in the western world.
But Jesus will make a difference in the lives of those who listen. He cares. He cared for me when I was an out of control drunk, and he cares for every individual across the face of the earth
If this testimony has touched your life or if you are in need of help Teen Challenge can be contacted through the link on this site.
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