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Courtesy photo
Walter Voorhies, right, pictured with his son,
placed his trust in God's hands to help him
fight a drug addiction. "The only way I can live
is through Christ," he said.
Walter Voorhies, right, pictured with his son,
placed his trust in God's hands to help him
fight a drug addiction. "The only way I can live
is through Christ," he said.
For Voorhies, a life in pieces
now filled with peace
now filled with peace
By LaDawn Fletcher
The Pew
There was a time when Walter Voorhies could not imagine
living without drugs. He had many things going for him; he
grew up in the church, he was the owner of the 100-year-
old family business in New Iberia, La., and was well known
in the community. He had a loving wife and a beautiful
family, but it wasn’t enough to get him to stop using drugs.
Voorhies, owner of Uncle’s Barbecue Sauce, recently
celebrated seven years of sobriety. And he knows God
wants him to share the story of his journey back to Him.
The drug use started when Voorhies was a teenager and
soon grew from dabbling to daily use, he said. To support
his escalating addiction, he sold drugs; a practice that
landed him jail for more than a year. The time in jail kept
him away from his responsibilities at work and at home,
eventually contributing to the demise of his first marriage.
Voorhies said as soon as he was free from the constraints
of drug testing, he went back to using whatever he could
get his hands on. At its worst, he could barely go more
than a few minutes without his drug of choice, crack
cocaine.
Functional, but far from whole, Voorhies said he managed
to stay out of jail. He remarried, became immersed in his
work, and soon started a family. But he never gave up
drugs. Voorhies said he’d hide out in the office, getting
high. No longer selling the drug, he traded in on his name
and reputation in the community to get the money to feed
his addiction. No one ever turned him in for the tens of
thousands of dollars he wrote in “hot” checks to them.
Those around him watched his self-destruction helplessly.
An intervention was staged by family and friends, including
the sheriff and a judge.
“They valued my life more than I did,” Voorhies said.
But he left the intervention to get high.
Eventually his wife, tired of his deceit, gave him an
ultimatum: Get clean or get out. He chose to leave.
“I made a choice to go sleep with the rats in the machine
shop rather than trying to straighten up my life,” Voorhies
said.
Shortly after that, he sought treatment at a facility in
Virginia that he had researched before.
“When the airplane took off from Lafayette airport, I felt this
sudden release of emotion, and the compulsion I had been
feeling to do the drugs was gone. It’s a difficult thing to
explain, but I knew that something was changing at that
time,” he said.
At rehab a counselor told him the secret to his recovery
was to live in truth. He told him it wasn’t about what he told
him or his wife, but about the truth we tell ourselves, and
that is between us and God.
With the help of God, and taking it one day at a time,
Voorhies said he has been able to maintain his sobriety
and to work on the issues that led him to seek refuge in
drugs instead of God.
“The only way I can live is through Christ,” he says
resolutely. “Drugs mean certain death for me.”
The Pew
There was a time when Walter Voorhies could not imagine
living without drugs. He had many things going for him; he
grew up in the church, he was the owner of the 100-year-
old family business in New Iberia, La., and was well known
in the community. He had a loving wife and a beautiful
family, but it wasn’t enough to get him to stop using drugs.
Voorhies, owner of Uncle’s Barbecue Sauce, recently
celebrated seven years of sobriety. And he knows God
wants him to share the story of his journey back to Him.
The drug use started when Voorhies was a teenager and
soon grew from dabbling to daily use, he said. To support
his escalating addiction, he sold drugs; a practice that
landed him jail for more than a year. The time in jail kept
him away from his responsibilities at work and at home,
eventually contributing to the demise of his first marriage.
Voorhies said as soon as he was free from the constraints
of drug testing, he went back to using whatever he could
get his hands on. At its worst, he could barely go more
than a few minutes without his drug of choice, crack
cocaine.
Functional, but far from whole, Voorhies said he managed
to stay out of jail. He remarried, became immersed in his
work, and soon started a family. But he never gave up
drugs. Voorhies said he’d hide out in the office, getting
high. No longer selling the drug, he traded in on his name
and reputation in the community to get the money to feed
his addiction. No one ever turned him in for the tens of
thousands of dollars he wrote in “hot” checks to them.
Those around him watched his self-destruction helplessly.
An intervention was staged by family and friends, including
the sheriff and a judge.
“They valued my life more than I did,” Voorhies said.
But he left the intervention to get high.
Eventually his wife, tired of his deceit, gave him an
ultimatum: Get clean or get out. He chose to leave.
“I made a choice to go sleep with the rats in the machine
shop rather than trying to straighten up my life,” Voorhies
said.
Shortly after that, he sought treatment at a facility in
Virginia that he had researched before.
“When the airplane took off from Lafayette airport, I felt this
sudden release of emotion, and the compulsion I had been
feeling to do the drugs was gone. It’s a difficult thing to
explain, but I knew that something was changing at that
time,” he said.
At rehab a counselor told him the secret to his recovery
was to live in truth. He told him it wasn’t about what he told
him or his wife, but about the truth we tell ourselves, and
that is between us and God.
With the help of God, and taking it one day at a time,
Voorhies said he has been able to maintain his sobriety
and to work on the issues that led him to seek refuge in
drugs instead of God.
“The only way I can live is through Christ,” he says
resolutely. “Drugs mean certain death for me.”
Tidbit
Visit Uncle’s Barbecue at 422 W.
Washington St. in New Iberia, La., or
online (www.unclesbbq.com). Call (337)
365-5401 for more information.
Visit Uncle’s Barbecue at 422 W.
Washington St. in New Iberia, La., or
online (www.unclesbbq.com). Call (337)
365-5401 for more information.