The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa Post Correspondent
| THERE is a light at the end of the tunnel and one should not despair and lose hope in their fight against drug addiction, an African-American former drug addict-cum-street hustler has proven. |
From pulling out a butcher knife on his single mother to hustling drugs day and night, Dr Dwight Eric Haynes’s road to redemption has not been an easy one.
Dr Haynes, who is now a proud holder of a PHD in Systematic Theology, said he roamed the streets of San Francisco selling drugs while he was only nine-years-old and got his first 9mm shotgun when he was only 16.
He is currently in Mutare conducting his ‘Shekinah Glory Crusade’ from September 18 to October 8 at Courtauld Theatre.
“I got addicted to drugs when I was only nine-years-old and had to drop out of school when I was only 14,” he narrated.
Being the only son in a family of four children, Dr Haynes was raised by his mother and uncle (mother’s younger brother) who was a karate instructor and introduced him to the street world at the tender age of nine.
The street world which still is harsh to a nine-year-old child was not favourable to young Haynes as he came to near death experiences four times.
He said he sold heroine, cocaine, acids, marijuana, reds marleys, black marleys, drug pills and a whole lot other illegal narcotics.
Said Dr Haynes:“It was four times that I almost died in the streets and on each of those times, I remember praying to God asking for forgiveness and begging that he deliver me and spare my life.
“Like I had asked, God would always spare my life, and people around me would die from gunshots, but after that, silly me would always go back to hustling.”
He, however, said he got delivered in 1974 when he was only 20 after a young preacher whom he only identified as Robert came to their pool hall and asked him to follow him.
“After I had followed him, he said to me he had the latest drug in town and handed me the Bible. Then I saw a vision of all the times that I had escaped death. I then heard God asking me to give him a chance as I had given the drugs chances in my life.
“From then on, I knew that I was delivered and that the street life was no longer mine. I did not even need any rehabilitation as I was delivered from all the post-traumatic experiences that come with leaving drugs,” he said.
He has been in the ministry since August 25, 1975. To date, Dr Haynes has written five best selling Christian books namely, The sanctuary and final generation, Priesthood of believers, Salvation in the sanctuary, Until I went in and Witnessing through the sanctuary.
