Meth dealer makes things right
WINNIPEG, MB–“I have to make things right with God... I'm giving [the law] a rope to hang myself."
With that determined courage and a deep-seated conviction, Gary Quinn, a meth distributor, packed his car to the gills with drug-making equipment and turned himself in to Winnipeg police on October 16, 2008 with enough evidence to put him behind bars for years.
Quinn, 48, became a Christian as a young adult. He and his wife served at church: “God reigned in my heart and my home," he says. In 1995, he visited his sister who was so severely handicapped by Multiple Sclerosis that she could hardly speak. He spoke to her about Jesus and prayed with her. Her response was a miracle in a complete sentence, “I gave my heart to the Lord."
“I saw God in all His glory that day!" beams Quinn.
But in 2002, after a near-death experience from a massive heart attack, the abandonment of his wife and children and several failed businesses, Quinn's world crumbled: “Satan darkened my heart. I slammed the door in God's face, and cursed Him."
Quinn became a middle-man in the drug trade. Having money and life's amenities, but not peace and love, he spiralled into deep depression.
Then one night he decided to end it all. The gun's first bullet misfired under his nose. He had one more bullet left in the chamber. Pointing at his temple, he pulled the trigger 12 times with no success. In utter frustration, he was about to throw the revolver down when it fired the last bullet, barely missing him again.
Quinn's death wish hadn't diminished, but he decided to see Canada shore-to-shore first. He drove across the country, east then west, and ended up in Winnipeg again. "It was on that trip that God started whispering to me," he says. “I asked God to show me a sign that He exists. He refreshed my memory of the miracles with my sister and my attempted suicide."
Quinn decided to pursue God and found Waverley Fellowship Baptist Church on the Internet. He made an appointment to speak with the pastor with three requests for help: “A pastor to walk with me; a Christian lawyer who will help me do the right thing but not to get me off the hook and fellow believers to pray profusely for me."
Encouraged by the pastor, Quinn gave his testimony to the congregation.
Four days after his testimony, Quinn turned himself in to the police. After the interview and an examination of his surrendered evidence of crime, two detectives from the Organized Crime Unit pronounced, “Mr. Quinn, you are free to go. We have your cell number. If we ever need to talk to you, we'll call."
In utter disbelief, Quinn protested, “I can't just leave and never know when you're going to arrest me. Just get it over with now." The equally perplexed detectives said, “Arrest you for what? We don't have anything to charge you with."
Quinn's story is not over yet. Yearning to be totally obedient to God, he is preparing to come clean with the taxman next.
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