Miracle on Lucky Street

Recently I have been asked to provide my testimony to several different Christian based organizations. One group wants to post it on their website in the hopes that others will benefit from it. I am not proud of my early life, but I do believe God is using my life struggles to assist others and thus I am willing to share.

I felt I should share it with the WFTD readers and it is posted today. Please feel free to send it to anyone whom you feel might benefit from it. Caution it is an exceedingly long read and for that I apologize. Soon it will be posted on the WFTD website.

Testimony of Bob Williamson

In 1970, at age 24, I hitch-hiked into Atlanta Georgia whereby ironically I ended up on a street named Lucky Street located smack dab downtown Atlanta near the bus station. I was alone and did not know a single person in Atlanta. I was homeless and did not have a single penny to my name. My only possessions were a pillowcase that I used for a suitcase with one change of clothes in it. I had no family member I could call upon for help and did not have a person in the world that I could call a friend.

I was addicted to drugs and had only just recently been released from Parrish Prison New Orleans for possession of heroin. Methamphetamine taken intravenously was my drug of choice, but like many addicts, I used most any drug that I could get my hands on in those days, often using “speed” to stay up for several days on end and then heroin or equivalent to come down and crash. I had been a drug addict for about four years, beginning my illustrious career of “shooting up” in the infamous Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco during the height of the hippie revolution in the 60’s during the Vietnam and race riots era.

I had several acquaintances that had died from overdoses, (one dropped dead before my very eyes), and I had in fact myself overdosed on two occasions and very nearly died. I had many other bad experiences with drugs including the equivalent of going completely insane for several days from a bad LSD trip. I also took a huge overdose of methamphetamine on an occasion whereby I went on a paranoid trip of hallucinogenic delusions for three solid days where I thought I was being chased all over the city by imaginary policemen and I ended up in the hospital with a malfunctioning liver that would not digest my food; I was told it was caused by methamphetamine crystals clogging my liver.

I had selected Atlanta as my destination because I did not know one person there. I wanted something different in my life and I felt it might help if I was not around all of the drug addicts and assorted criminals and bad influences that I knew. When I had nearly overdosed those couple of times, I had subsequently tried to straighten my life up with no success, and had decided that I would straighten up this time, or I was going to commit suicide like some acquaintances of mine had recently done and end my miserable existence.


I sometimes spent the night in missions and occasionally ate meals at the Salvation Army, and often slept on the side of the road as I hitch-hiked and hopped freights around the country. I was very skinny, dirty and in need of a bath. I had long greasy hair and a beard. I was pale as a ghost and not very healthy. I was divorced, having been married at nineteen and divorced by twenty, with a son being the only good thing resulting from that brief period of my life. I was behind on child support and my ex-wife had me put in jail the last time I had tried to visit him.

I was paranoid all of the time from years of trying to avoid the police and I had needle marks, (tracks), covering both arms. I had been incarcerated in numerous jails all over the country for fighting, illegal drug violations, and vagrancy. Indeed I had to leave New Orleans in a hurry because I had been tipped off that the police were passing my mug-shot all over town trying to find me in regard to numerous narcotics violations including felony medical forgery of medical prescriptions for narcotics and other illegal drugs.

In addition to a criminal record, I had been kicked out of the Air Force where after committing repeated serious offenses, (I spent almost as much time in the stockade as I did on active duty); I was finally diagnosed by a team of psychiatrists as being a certified sociopath and unfit to serve and I was administratively discharged, (oddly under honorable conditions).
I became sexually active at the unbelievably young age of twelve and had the morals of a junkyard dog from that point on. I also started smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol heavily at that young age and for as long as I can remember was always in trouble in and out of school. Our family moved quite often and I do not remember ever having a real close friend or being in a stable environment; I went to three different high schools. I do remember fighting incessantly and trying to get attention by being wild and reckless, but as time moved on I just became filled to the brim with hatred and bitterness and soon I became mean as a snake with pure evil dripping from every pore.

Spiritually I was in a very, very, dark place. While living in New Orleans I had experimented heavily with black magic and witchcraft and had in fact been able to achieve supernatural results through practicing it that scared the living daylights out of me causing me to abandon my quest to become a warlock. I did not know what to believe about God. I suspected that there had to be a God, but if indeed God existed, judging by my rotten life, He had to be very mean and I did not want anything to do with Him. My thoughts were dark and my life was evil. One of my favorite sayings was that I wished that I had been born dead.

So here I was standing on Lucky Street downtown Atlanta, tired and hungry but penniless. I decided to sell a pint of blood. (To this day I still feel bad about that because my blood was not the quality that I would wish on my worst enemy.) I sold the blood for seven dollars and got a room for one night for five dollars at the Lucky Street YMCA, (it has subsequently been torn down). I had two dollars leftover and the next morning I went down to a daily workforce type job center and I got a job cleaning mortar off of used bricks with a hatchet whereby they could be re-used again. I was paid daily and my pay was fifteen dollars cash per day. I got a room at a boarding house for fifteen dollars per week that included two meals per day, breakfast and supper. It was a dump, but the food was good. I took a city bus to work each day. I eventually got a regular job working at a factory to keep the labels straight in a very large paint company and I made $350 per month.

Fast forward to today. I have been happily married for thirty seven years; I have three wonderful sons all are Christians and all have earned their college degrees; (something that eluded me and that I deeply regret to this day). My sons are all happily married themselves and we have five wonderful grandchildren with another on the way. My children and grandchildren, like my wife and I, are very happy with friends too numerous to count. Today I do not drink alcohol or take illegal drugs anymore and I achieved that difficult goal through God’s help without going to rehab or to Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous. I quit smoking cigarettes at age 24; needless to say I do not have sex outside my marriage. I am active in my church, very happy and content, have many good friends and some of my friends ironically are police officers.

I am a millionaire many times over, having started nine different businesses including two distribution companies, a manufacturing company, a video production company, two retail stores, and a consulting company, a publishing company where I published nineteen books and a nationally recognized magazine for wildlife artists. The largest and most successful company that I have founded to date is Horizon Software International LLC, which has sales revenue of approximately thirty million dollars and approximately 180 employees. It is recognized as one of the leading food service technology companies in the world with over fifteen thousand installations worldwide. Deloitte has honored Horizon as being one of the fastest growing privately held companies in the United States four years running. I won Business Person of the Year in 2006 in Gwinnet County the third largest Chamber of Commerce in the United States. I have received national recognition for my entrepreneurial skills with feature articles in Inc. and Business Week magazines. I was selected as a finalist for the prestigious Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year event in 2008. This event has been won by such accomplished entrepreneurs as Michael Dell of Dell Computers and Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons.


Wait a minute; how is all of that possible? It would take a miracle to transform someone from the person that was previously described into the person that is now being described. What happened?


Not long after I came to Atlanta I managed to get a car. Within a week I had a very serious head on collision car crash one night and ended up in intensive care in Grady hospital downtown Atlanta where I very nearly died. I badly broke my right femur along with numerous other injuries, and my stay at Grady and my recovery was long. While hospitalized at that wonderful charity hospital, a very nice nurse that I had befriended would bring me books to read to help pass the time as I recovered from my serious injuries. Each week she would give me a list from which to make my book selection that indicated all of the number one best-selling books. She would then stop by the library and check them out for me and I would read them the following week. Each week when I reviewed the best-seller list I kept noticing that the Bible was always at the top of the list as being the best-selling book in the world. I decided to read it, more to disprove it than anything really.

I started in the Old Testament and to tell the truth found it to be very boring. I had been exposed to church and the Bible in my youth and knew that the New Testament would be a better read, so I skipped the Old Testament and started to read the New Testament. When I finished I went back and read the Old Testament through, word for word all of the way to the end and then re-read the New Testament again word for word. I became a Christian as a result of that. It all made sense to me that no matter how badly someone is broken that Jesus Christ can fix the problem and that He loves everyone including a wretch like me more than we can imagine. He gave His life in order that I could be forgiven and live. I just needed to accept him for who He is and to repent and try to turn from my wicked, wicked, ways. I am eternally grateful for what Jesus did for me; I think more so than the average person because I know that I deserved to be punished in Hell for my many black sins and not Jesus Christ. Jesus took my place on that cross and I truly have heartfelt thanks throughout my being.

I cannot say that all of sudden I was a good Christian guy. I had just been born again and was now a baby Christian; (and in my case especially it did mean that I was a baby Christian). Babies do not know how to act as they should. I was a baby for several years and I am sure the Lord got exceedingly tired of changing my diapers on more than one occasion as I messed up many times for years to come and even through today. However slowly my life and character did begin to improve and eventually I began to crawl and perhaps take a few baby steps as a small child of God entering Christian adolescence. After a few more years of biblical training and study I began to walk the Christian walk of a Christian adolescent. Mind you I still made mistakes and often serious mistakes, but slowly God changed me and I have made steady progress for many years. I am very much hoping to be off to the races as a mature Christian and be running before I die. My number one goal is for the Lord to look at me one day and say, “Well done my good and faithful servant”, though I must admit I am far from where I need to be for that to happen.

Early on after getting out of the hospital God led me to a wonderful wife who did not have all of the problems that I had, and in fact had been raised as a good girl in a typical American apple pie type situation of going on family picnics and living in the same home in a quiet little neighborhood most of her life. She was exactly what I needed in my life. Aside from God, she has proven to be the most influential force in my life and helped to bring about change for the better in my life, bringing stability and love into my life and to this day remains as my best friend and importantly my anchor which helps to keep me from going adrift.

God helped me find a career and then led me on to start businesses of my own. He did not speak directly to me, but like the ocean current I could feel His gentle pull of encouragement when I was despondent, and I could feel His pragmatic wisdom as I prayed to Him for guidance as I made big decisions throughout my life. Make no mistake about it I did not start at the top and it was exceedingly difficult, and I worked harder and longer than those around me and I had serious problems to solve, but through God’s help I did not give up. I worked twenty hours per day six days per week literally for years to achieve success.

It took many years to conquer my personal problems with drugs, my temper, drinking alcohol, fighting, etc. and I’m still working on things like profanity, but a miracle has indeed occurred in my life, and His name is Jesus Christ. I’m still a sinner, but I am forgiven and I know that God almighty Himself loved me enough to send His beloved Son Jesus Christ in order that a reprobate like me might have a second chance to one day be reunited with Him in heaven and I praise His holy name for so doing.

I might add that my life has not been eternal bliss since I became a Christian. It rains on Christians just like it does on the non-Christian. I have experienced deep tragedy in my life including near unbearable grief of losing my beloved brother to suicide just a few years ago. I faced financial ruin when several employees nearly stole us blind and it took seven long years to recover. Through it all God was faithful to me and provided me the strength to carry on and I would not have wanted to face it all alone.

I don’t know your situation today but I doubt it is as bad as mine was in 1970 when I arrived in Atlanta standing on that nasty street corner downtown Atlanta contemplating ending my life. I do know that God can fix anything that is broken including your life. Nothing is beyond him including marital problems or divorce, drugs, alcohol abuse, temper, sexual temptation, financial woes, or health issues. My suggestion is to obtain a Bible and begin reading it. Read Romans first and then perhaps work your way through the New Testament as I did and have done so many times since that first read. It is after all God’s holy word and message to us and should be the foundation of our belief system.

I am living proof of just one of God’s miracles. There are innumerable miracles just like mine recorded in the Bible and throughout the world today. We can all rest assured that God is alive and well and continuously working miracles in people’s lives throughout the world every single day. Most importantly He cares deeply even for a wretch like me and of course you. My advice: Only believe! All things are possible if you only believe! His name is Jesus Christ and He miraculously saved me and He stands at the door of your heart and knocks and wants to save you as well. Won’t you invite Him in?

Bob Williamson
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that
whoever believes in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son
into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him
might be saved.