Ace Ghanaian actor Timothy Bentum has opened up on the destructive days of his past, when he was addicted to cocaine and nearly destroyed everything he had ever worked for.
Bentum, who has since turned his life around and is now a bona fide man of God, said that he fell into his terrible addiction because he ignored the Christian training his parents had drilled into him.
Bentum opened up on his past struggles in a recent interview with the Revelation newspaper in Accra.
“I grew up in a home where morning devotion was held every day. You would either be part of it or move out, and even if you were dying, you’d still go to church. My parents were staunch Christians,” he said.
Bentum said he first got introduced to drugs at the age of 13, when he took a cigarette and got hooked on the ‘highs’ of drugs.
He said as time went on, he continued to indulge in all sorts of drugs, even stealing from his parents to finance his habit, even though they continued to pray for him to change.
The turning point for him, he said, was seeing a former addict like himself one day, taking his family to church.
“One Sunday morning, I was walking to the ghetto to get some cocaine and then I met a friend who used to come to my house to eat. He was going to church with his wife and kids and then I wondered what had changed for him because we used to be together?
“The devil has a cunning way of stealing you away so slowly that you don’t know how fast or far you have fallen until the light of God comes through. It always start with a little desire for something and then you realise you are craving for it the more. “That morning, there was a blast in my head. I went back home and I cried. I told God that if He could hear me, then it was time for Him to take me back. God came through for me,”
He added that his recovery was so miraculous, that he suffered no withdrawal symptoms despite being addicted for 12 years, something he attributed to the hand of God.
After being saved, Bentum went into Ministry, setting up the Timothy Bentum Ministries (TBM). TBM organises the annual Actors, Presenters, Professionals and Musicians for Christ (APPMC) event, where celebrities gather to try and win souls for Christ.
Bentum himself says he does his best work with addicts like himself, trying to save them from the thrall he was formerly in.
“Gays, addicts and prostitutes reach out to us for help and the change that comes is awesome,” he  continued.
“We have crazy testimonies. Some of the transformations are slow but just like taking a basket of rice to the river to wash, with intention of fetching the water but by the time you get to your destination all the water is drained. You go back to fetch and it’s the same story but unknown to you, the rice is being washed,” he adds.
Bentum, who’s married with two kids, said the transition after kicking his addiction was far from easy, with most friends shunning him for kicking his addiction.
“It’s always been my parents’ prayers that kept me alive. Probably, I would have been long gone. I heard them almost every night begging God and seeking His face on my behalf,”