I was always the biggest and tallest kid in school. I weighed close to 11 pounds and birth and just went up from there! By the high school years, I had become very anti-social, very angry and generally depressed. Even though, I went to church growing up, all that I knew to do, was to eat. I ate all the time, when I was depressed, when I was bored, when it was just sitting there in front of me. My first year of college, I dropped out and was diagnosed as manic depressive. I started taking a variety of pills to help me overcome this, all the while my weight had escalated to 500 pounds. While still taking my anti-depressant drugs, I started experimenting with numerous illegal drugs, because frankly, the doctor prescribed medications weren't helping. On top of this, I was SO deluded in my own selfish pride that I thought everyone else was the problem. I thought they should change and I should be accepted for who I was. I was always pushing the envelope with authority and grasping for someone's attention, but claiming to not really want it. My life was quickly spiraling down, with seemingly no hope for the future. I was looking for a companion in my misery, for maybe someone who could help me out of this mess that I had made of my life. I met Maggie online in 2000 and we started an up and down relationship for the following year. On September 11th, 2001, I finally got fear. I realized that life was short and that I seriously needed to make some changes. Maggie moved to Tennessee from Chicago, and we were married in August of 2002. She had read the Rise Above book and done Weigh Down at Home in Illinois and had had great success. Unfortunately, she gained some of the weight back while we had dated. She called the Weigh Down offices and got into a Weigh Down Advanced class at the end of 2002. I watched her changed emotionally, spiritually and physically. I was very skeptical, but also intrigued. We joined Remnant Fellowship Church in February of 2003 and I began listening to the Weigh Down and took a Weigh Down Advanced class myself. Within 17 months, I had lost all of my weight, down 257 pounds!!!! I had also came off anti-depressants, the illegal drugs and am now full of joy and hope!!!!! Through Weigh Down, I learned that God is very real. I know that He has, thankfully, let me live to see another day—a day where He rules, where He is the focus, and where He is God. Changing this focus, this mindset, this attitude to serve God has rid me of all of the former sins and the evil that I once delighted in. I have never looked back. Food, nor anything else, gives me comfort or soothes my soul; this belongs to God. I praise God for the truth being taught in Weigh Down. I praise God that it is SO available to us and may we never take that for granted. One of the many products that inspire me to keep going and keep changing is Constant Encouragement. While I'm driving, or at home, or wherever, I can pop in a Constant Encouragement CD and hear the truth that will set me free! I praise God for the Weigh Down Ministries and for Remnant Fellowship Church!
Andy Sorrells