TESTIMONY
The Happoldts: Happily Married At Last
By Mia Evans-Saracual
The 700 Club
CBN.com
– They say some women are attracted to dangerous men. Robet Happoldt was a biker and a rebel. That’s what first drew Alicia to him. But the danger that seemed so exciting in the beginning turned into something much more sinister.
"My and Alicia’s marriage was made in hell," Robert tells The 700 Club.
Alicia says, "I can’t even say we loved each other. We were addicted to each other."
From the start, Robert had just one rule. "You do what I say, no matter what! Or you suffer the consequences."
"I was really scared I was going to die," Alicia says.
The only thing holding their marriage together was their drug addiction. When Alicia was five, a man began sexually abusing her and introduced her to marijuana.
"I didn’t feel right about what was going on, but they tell you not to tell. And respecting what adults tell me I didn’t tell," she says.
Throughout her childhood, a series of sexual predators abused her. "When I was 13, I started doing the drugs to cover up the pain and the shame."
Robert, too began using drugs in school hoping it would make him popular. He soon found his niche, selling drugs to his classmates. When Robert and Alicia married, they went into business together, dealing cocaine and meth. Their vices fueled the fights at home.
"When I drank, I was a mean drunk," Robert says. "I’d turn violent right off the bat. Anything would set me off. Not doing something I said. I’d start shooting holes in the house. I was real heavy handed. I’m ashamed of this, but I’ve blackened her eyes. I was a bad person, but it was normal."
Alicia says, "We both carried big guns, and we both had bad tempers. I loved him but I hated him, because I hated being treated like that. I had been treated violently before but never that violently. It just made me hate him. I would try to leave, and he would always find me and drag me back. Or even if he didn’t find me, then I always wanted to come back because I loved him."
Years of living in terror eventually wore her down. Alicia says, "It’s a lot of depression and stress and anxiety. I can remember times I thought I was having a heart attack, but I know it was an anxiety attack. The more I tried to fill that void with drugs and alcohol whatever we were doing, the bigger that void got, the bigger black hole it got."
Alicia found an unlikely refuge from the violence. Authorities raided their home, and arrested them on drug charges. They both ended up in prison.
"After I’d been in the jail for about three weeks, I woke up one morning and finally had a moment of clarity I guess. Finally you know the brain working a little bit you know, not all drugged out. I just raised my hands and said, 'OK, Lord. This is no life. I give it up. I give it all over to You. I’m done. Do with me as You please.' When Jesus came into my life, that big old black hole got filled up with Jesus and it’s overflowing now."
Robert wanted nothing to do with God, but one prison minister wouldn’t give up on him.
Robert says, "Every Thursday this fellow would come back and talk about Jesus. I didn’t want to hear it. He came one time and told me that he had a message from God for me. I’m like this dude’s hearing voices. He’s nuttier than I am. He said, 'God is tired of knocking on the door of your heart. If you don’t answer Him, you’re gone, lost, you’re going to hell.' It still scares me."
That night Robert had trouble sleeping.
"God woke me up at 2 a.m., and I was in a tizzy. I was crying. I opened the Bible up and it fell to 2 Corinthians 5:17. If any man be in Christ the old is gone. My question was, what do You want with me? I didn’t believe there was a God, but I’m asking God what do You want with me? I mean I’m nothing. Look what I’ve done. Look at the lives I’ve destroyed. The trouble I’ve caused, what I’ve put my wife through, my family through, other people’s family. I accepted the Lord right there in that jail. That night I got saved. The next morning the world was different. Well I was different. The hate was gone."
Jesus freed them both from drug addiction. After they were released from prison, God healed and restored their marriage.
"I’ve totally forgiven Robert for everything that has gone on," Alicia says. "I’ve forgiven my abusers for everything. He’s never hit me again since we’ve been out of prison. He’s never raised a hand to me."
"The only reason I can just tell you why I don’t beat my wife no more is because that person that she married doesn’t exist," Robert says. "She went through a lot because of me. She deserved better but she hung around. And God is the one who turned everything around."
"I know he’s not the same person anymore," Alicia says. "He really has put me up on a pedestal, he really does treat me like a little queen."
Robert says, "She’s the most precious thing in life. I don’t know what life would be like without her."
Today Alicia and Robert are members of Heaven’s Saints. They ride across the country to share the healing and deliverance they found in Jesus. Robert says, "God’s cool! I get to ride my motorcycle. I get to minister to hurting people."
"If you got Jesus and you’re really depending on Him and you’re learning the Word and learning how to apply it to your life, you can overcome any kind of temptation," Alicia says.
Robert says, "Through Jesus Christ, everything changes. Now I use all that bad stuff to minister to people. My story -- if it can touch one person and show them that there is hope…That’s what Christ is: He’s hope."
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