Andy’s Testimony

Hi, my name is Andy Becker.  I am a believer in Christ and I suffer from sexual addiction, anger, control issues, and alcohol.

I grew up in a Christian home. My father and I had a normal relationship.  When I started high school, I started noticing that my Dad’s walk did not match his talk.  This changed my view of GOD and the relationship we were supposed to have with him.  Growing up I never felt accepted by kids my own age, and that furthered my separation from GOD. 

When I was 18 I became sexually active with a female that was a year older than me.  I was constantly having sexual thoughts of other girls that I saw.  Over the next 2 years I tried unsuccessfully on my own to control my tendency to do the wrong thing.  No matter how much I tried I couldn’t control the thoughts I kept having.  Finally at age 20 I had non-consensual sex with a 15 year old girl which resulted in 3rd degree CSC.  I was ordered to go to treatment and spent some time in and out of jail.  For the next 3 years I continued to abuse alcohol and was involved in multiple sexual relationships.  One of these was with a 17-year old that I got pregnant.

At this time I stopped drinking and made one of my first attempts at getting my life back together.  On April 20th, 2006 at 5:46 am my beautiful daughter was born.  Although knowing that we did not have a healthy relationship, her mother and I decided to raise our daughter by ourselves and not give her up for adoption.  We decided to see a therapist and work on our relationship.  During one of the sessions we got into a fight and I was no longer in control of my anger.  I hit my daughter’s mom with a rolled up magazine.

I was arrested for disorderly conduct and with my previous record I was sentenced to prison for 10 months.  Now in prison, I felt completely broken. I was truly alone and scared.  For the first time I started to evaluate my life.  I came to realize that I couldn’t get healthy on my own anymore and that I needed GOD in my life.  I started to read the Bible and study scripture.  Hope can be found in hopeless situations with the help of the Holy Spirit.

I was released from prison in June of 2008.  I have been attending classes at a treatment facility on Rochester 5 days a week and Celebrate Recovery meetings here in Winona every Friday night.  At CR I am doing the sound and media shout setup.  I assist other leaders and help welcome the newcomers.

Every single day I have to work on my hurts, habits, and hang-ups.  With the help of my sponsor, accountability team, all the people from CR, and my Rochester group, I am growing into the man and father GOD desires me to be.

When I came out of prison I was so very scared and nervous because life outside of prison is so very different from the life on the inside.  Thanks to my turning my life and my will power over to the care of Christ I have family and friends in my life who love and support me with encouragement.  I especially want to thank my Mom for always being there with me through it all.  GOD and my mother have never given up on me.  I also want to thank Pastor Joe, Ashley, and all the other CR leaders for walking their talk.

Today I am learning to accept me for me.  My advice to anyone with someone getting out of jail or prison is to be firm with them, but do it in a gentle loving way.  Encourage the positive decisions and help them feel loved and accepted.  However, do not go out of your way or go overboard.  It has to be real and it has to come from your heart.

In closing I’d like to say that GOD doesn’t want us to merely go through a situation, he desires us to grow through it.  Thanks for letting me share my story.