Life as a homeless alcoholic with a drug addiction and living in fear of being attacked by a vicious gang was a dark time for Andy Robinson.
But after a Sunday service at Locks Heath Free Church, he had a call from God which turned his life around and has led him to write a book about his experiences called The Choice: Serving Heaven or Serving Hell.
Now Andy is to return to Locks Heath Free Church this weekend where he will be the speaker at the men’s breakfast club meeting.
Louise and Andy Robinson
Andy grew up in Southampton with Christian parents but, as a teenager, he questioned faith and rebelled against those beliefs by getting involved in a cult that worshipped Satan.
By the age of 18 he had been living on the streets and in a few hostels for a couple of years, was abusing alcohol and was stealing from shops to get by.
He was even jailed in Winchester for pulling a knife on a policeman – because he knew he would be sent to prison and could get off the cold streets.
While living in Locks Heath in 1999, then aged 25, Andy was drugged by a gang from Wales who wanted him killed for talking to the gang leader’s girlfriend in a pub in Warsash.
“It was while I was in Locks Heath that I fell out with a rather nasty gang and they wanted to properly do me over and poisoned my drink,” said Andy, now aged 41.
“They gave me a whole cocktail of amphetamines which put me in hospital. I drank my drink and started having fits. Next thing I knew was waking up in hospital on a mat on the floor with two policemen on top of me.
“I had been so violent under the influence of the drugs before passing out, I had punched and been subdued by a number of policemen, that when I came around in hospital they said ‘ we thought you were going to be a violent handful again’. But I wasn’t, I was back to my normal self, if very ill.
“The hospital said it was enough to kill an elephant. So I was amazed that it didn’t finish me off.”
He lived in fear of the gang for about six months, living in a hideout in Sovereign Crescent, until one day a friend asked Andy to go with him to Locks Heath Free Church.
“I had no money to get high or stoned, so I thought why not,” said Andy.
“When I came home from that meeting on the Sunday I had an amazing meeting with God. I knew it was real because it was the one time I wasn’t high or stoned.
“It was this sense of how much God loved me and this amazing experience that God took me thorough my life and said I could change.
“I’d come to faith at that point and it was amazing. I still was an alcoholic and had debts and enemies. It was a long road of spiritual help and counselling to get over things.”
But Andy did. He went to college in Dorset to get a degree in theology, which then meant he could learn to become an ordained minister.
He even met his wife Louise at the church in Hunts Pond Road and the pair now live in Sherborne, Dorset where he was a church minister.
Despite a heart condition – not directly linked to his past experiences – which made him retire from ministry in 2009, Andy can still spread the word of his story by doing talks at churches and radio appearances around the UK .
Andy added: “The more I got into those Satanic beliefs the more I lost all my conscience and I didn’t care about anything or anyone.
“What first struck me when I went to church in Locks Heath was that I met a load of people who didn’t want anything from me. On the streets if people were nice to you it was because they wanted something from you or to abuse you.
“When I went there, they were genuine people, who cared and just wanted the best for you.
“It’s a real pleasure to go back and to give something back.”