"When I saw and experienced how my mother struggled to raise three children on her own, it made me very angry," Andrew says. "To have that absence, to be placed in a situation where I did not have that father, where that was something that my friends did, I always wondered what it would be like to have a father."

To fill the void of an absent father, Andrew started using marijuana at a young age.

"I smoked it on a regular basis, say about three or four times a day," he says.

Andrew also abused other substances.

"I drank excessively, spent a lot of money on alcohol and getting drunk. I didn't want to work for a living. I didn't want to do anything positive with my life," he says.

But one night, as he lay in bed, Andrew began to think about where his choices were taking him.

"As I reflected on my life," Andrew explains, "it was like the Lord was saying to me, 'The road you're heading on isn't a good one. It's either you try to make a change, or you will destroy your life.' "

God had gotten Andrew's attention.

"Right there and then, in my bed, I got down on my knees. I asked the Lord Jesus to come into my heart and forgive me and help me to be a better person," he says.

Two months later, as Andrew listened to his class valedictorian speak, God challenged him to make another change in his life -- one that took him completely by surprise.

Andrew recalls, "I envisioned myself dressed in vestments delivering a sermon. I believe I heard a voice say to me, 'I want you to be My priest.' The last thing in all my life I expected to be was a priest. When I get up to preach and I celebrate the Eucharist, or I get up in the morning, start to put on my vestments, and get dressed for work, I am, like, Is this really real? Am I really a priest?"

Andrew's life today is vastly different from just a few years ago and a great deal more satisfying.

"I found my purpose," he says. "There's a reason for living. Serving God in a special capacity beats anything out there in life because nothing is better than serving God and serving His people and making a positive impact on people's lives. When you really look at it, at the end of the day, only what is done for Jesus will last."

END