John Edwards in a “grave” during a previous event in Belfast.
Irishman John Edwards was planning to be “buried” in a coffin at a church the US on Sunday afternoon in a bid to offer “words of life from the grave” for those affected by a drug epidemic that is sweeping across the US and other parts of the world.
Speaking to ASSIST News Service prior to the event, Mr Edwards, who had struggled with addiction for more than 20 years before his recovery, said that the US was in the midst of an “opioid epidemic” with more than 60,000 dying from drug overdoses in 2016 alone.
“I am so broken from attending funerals of both young and older people who have died as a direct result of addiction or depression,” he told ANS. “I have prayed and thought deeply about radical ways to reach these people and came up with the idea of getting buried, this way I can speak to many people before they end up in a premature grave.”
Mr Edwards was expected to be lowered into the grave during a Thanksgiving Sunday service at River at Tampa Bay Church on Sunday and is live-streaming his time in the “grave”.
Having previously performed #Gravechats in England and Northern Irelend, he’s looking at doing another couple elsewhere in the US next year.
Mr Edwards struggled with addiction for more than 20 years during which time he was homeless, accidentally overdosed many times and survived a liver transplant, Hepatitis C and cancer – twice. He has now been working with the broken and addicted for 26 years.
For more on Mr Edwards and his mission to bring hope to the addicted, see www.walkingfree.org.