- You know, after everyday you're listening

to the grenades and bulletsand everything else.

It's all terrible thing that happened

in Yugoslavia at that time.

Just the brothers and sisters separating,

killings everywhere, it's just terrible.

- [Narrator] AleksandarOpancic is from Yugoslavia

and witnessed firsthand theterror of the Bosnian War.

In 1997 he moved to the United States,

but was unable to escape the horrors

of what he had experienced.

- After the war, I had pretty bad PTSD.

I've been shot over there.

I have shrapnels in leg.

You wake up in the night in a cold sweat

and all these memories are going,

you try not to think of,

you try to deal with everything.

Trying to heal myselfwith everything else,

it's like, it's all good, it's gone.

And I try to tell myself things,

it happened because, you'vegotta forget this because

it's gonna affect me in the future.

- [Narrator] Aleksandar turned to drugs

and alcohol to cope with the trauma.

- I was doing themethamphetamines at that time

and smoked a lot of weed,and drink a bunch of alcohol

so I could cope withwhatever I was going through,

forget about all thememories and everything.

I was drunk.

I would work midnightto eight and after that,

I would go to the bar untiltwo, three o'clock afternoon

and then pass out at thehouse and go back to work.

And that was my days.

- [Narrator] He eventuallygot married and had a son

but his escalating drug addiction

destroyed his young family.

- Drugs and alcohol, that'sall I could see at that time.

There was no attention to her

Then I started going out.

Like I would stay out forlike a couple of days.

I understand everything that happened,

what drove her to justtake my son and just go.

- [Narrator] Aleksandar's wifetook everything and left him.

He became friends with a group of bikers

who led him into a life ofcrime selling drugs and guns.

- We would hang out and they were friends.

At that time to help meout, they would give me,

"Here you go, buddy, take some of this,

take some of that andyou'll make this much."

- [Narrator] Many arrests followed,

but in the summer of 2006,while locked up in jail,

he heard a minister talk aboutthe gospel of Jesus Christ.

- And they're like,"Jesus is the Son of God.

The Father's Son."

And then I listened and listened

and all of a sudden it just like,

I received and it was justlike a lightning to me.

And I was like, "Wow, and He loves me?"

And then I felt His Spirit on me.

And I was just overwhelmed with love.

- [Narrator] When hewas released from jail,

he went back to his old ways.

Before long, he was arrestedagain on weapons charges

and became overwhelmed with hopelessness.

- And I was just like, what my life is,

I thought like, "Why am I doing drugs,

stealing, taxing people for money?"

And I decide to hang myself that day.

I was like, "It's time for me to go."

I lived kind of a rough life.

So I decided and then I hear this voice,

it says, "Open the Bible."

And I was like, "Open the Bible?"

I said, "Okay."

And I opened the Bible.

I mean, I just openedthe Bible and I read.

- [Narrator] In his cell that night,

God revealed the manyways He had protected him

and saved his life through the years.

Aleksandar then fullysurrendered his life to Jesus.

His gun charge was dropped unexpectedly,

and he was released from jail,

this time to a new life in Christ.

- There is freedom in Jesus.

There is love in Jesus.

There is acceptance in Jesus.

There is a friend in Jesus.

Anything that your heart is missing

and it needs is in Jesus ifyou decide to believe Him.

I decided to believe Him all the way

on every word that He told me.

I knew the life without it and right now

I know a life with Him.

It's fulfillment ofevery need that I have.

Right now I just want tolive the life for the Lord.

- [Narrator] God has givenAleksandar a new start in life.

He was also set free from the PTSD

that had kept him chainedto a cycle of destruction.

- I'm so thankful for Godright now in my life right now.

He gave me a beautiful wife.

He gave me a mission to do in my life

to glorify His namethrough to whatever I do

that He'd be in the first place.

And it's amazing freedom that I feel

and cleanness inside me.

He cleansed me from all my sins.

I feel clean like I'm just a newborn man.