07/20/2025
My name is Jacob Bradley Freeman. I’m 34 years old. I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland to a great family that took excellent care of me. The way that I turned out is no reflection of them.
I struggled most of my life with acceptance and was picked on most of my life, but when I got into high school, I found friends through drinking and smoking w**d. I eventually got into a fight and was pulled out of school and started working every day with my dad driving tow trucks and doing recovery work.
As I got older, I wanted to do my own thing, so at 17 I got a job at a body shop and started drinking and doing pills. Through that time, I met my first wife, and it wasn’t long before we were both in full-blown addiction, which led me to going through job after job.
I’d eventually land a job again driving a tow truck, working 24/7 doing recovery work and falling completely out of control. My addiction cost me this job, but instead of finding another job, I decided to steal his tow truck along with 3 cars. These felonies would be my fall.
I lost control and just kept catching charge after charge till I got a 3-year sentence in Maryland Department of Corrections, all suspended but 18 months. I got out and soon violated my probation and went on the run to Tennessee, where 11 months later the U.S. Marshals would find me and fly me back to Maryland.
I’d eventually finish that and find my way back to Tennessee with the want to change and desire, but it wouldn’t be but a couple of months before I hung out with old friends and found myself searching for a way to escape reality. I fell back in addiction that would cost another marriage.
I’d spiral out of control until I was working construction, living out of hotels, jumping back and forth between houses with my parents and girlfriend. I finally hit rock bottom.
My mom suggested Recovery Soldiers Ministries to me a while back. Thinking back now, I realize she sowed seed in my mind that would eventually change the whole course of my life. I thank God for a family that had the strength to pray for me when I wouldn’t even pray for myself.
The power of prayer is so strong that the prayers of the dead are being answered today, and if this wasn’t true, I wouldn’t be standing here today before you.
I thank God that with every closed door there is a new door opened. I finally found myself through the love of Christ working in and through my spiritual leaders at RSM. I’ve truly learned what it means to care and love for another person, and I’m truly grateful my God thought enough of me that He left the 99 to chase me down and draw me in.
Everything that I’ve lost in the past 17 years of drug abuse and addiction is nothing compared to what He has given me back in the last 18 months of me being in this program.
I’ve got my mental clarity and sobriety back. I’ve accomplished getting my education. I’ve got my license back. I graduated this program, but most importantly, I changed my life through the relationship I have with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
