Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 1990

Tonight's special guest is Jeremy Oppman from Des Moines, Iowa, a child abuse survivor who serves as NAASCA's Ambassador for Iowa. As a child he and his three siblings were always on edge, never really able to feel comfortable or to relax. "The tension in our house was always extremely high," he reports. They moved a lot, and his father was one of those people that "on Sundays at church was an angel, but at home he was very very controlling." He was very verbally and emotionally abusive toward Jeremy's mom and the kids, but especially with Jeremy himself. "I think me being the oldest had something to do with that. As I got older he became physically abusive as well." When he was 17 they got into an all-out fist fight. "It didn't end well for him." Jeremy's early adulthood, was very unstable and full of partying. "Things that are good for me have always made me feel very uncomfortable." He tried hard to live a Godly life, but found himself failing a lot. The ups and downs of his life eventually led him to Meth, and he got busted for felony possession in 2017. He bonded out, took a plea deal to avoid prison time, and was sentenced to a 4 year suspended sentence. "Since then I have remained clean with no issues," he reports. "I truly believe that was God's love reaching down, and pulling me out of a life that would have ended with me dying in the very near future had I continued in that downward spiral." He's now working towards a degree in clinical psychology. "Life is still a challenge at times," he says, but it's obvious Jeremy's grateful. "God has done things, and allowed me to do things, I never could have imagined."