THE STORY OF GLORY BACKMAN
Glory Backman, a drug addict 20 years ago, was better known back then as Druggie-Eeva. The Savo-born Eeva Backman was heading down the wrong way until a glorious change upward!
The story of Backman was in the mouths of Finns in the beginning of the 80’s. Back then she was imprisoned in a Thai prison names Lard Yaos for smuggling drugs. Out of her 16 year sentence, she served less than three, when the king of Thailand freed her.
Glory Backman started using marijuana in Stockholm at the end of the 70’s.
-It was so easy to just take some and try it, because I didn’t like myself, says Backman.
-The friends who offered drugs to me didn’t look like addicts on the outside, so it looked like using drugs was harmless.
Like many other users, Glory Backman also feared the hardcore drugs. After some time her attitude changed. First she experimented with Amphetamine, and later on Heroine.
-It’s so easy to go downwards. It was easy to get friends who pull you down, but it was harder to get friends who pull you up and out, Backman reminisces. In the beginning of the 80’s Backman went on a vacation in Thailand. She continued using drugs, until reality slapped her on the face. Backman now wanted to get rid of the drug addiction. Finally she tried prayer.
Three weeks after Glory had prayed to God for help, she was arrested in the customs of Bangkok for smuggling drugs. She was found carrying Heroine about the amount of two cubes of sugar.
Initially Backman was sentenced to 33 year in prison, but after she confessed, her sentence was cut shorter. The final sentence was now 16,8 years.
In Lard Yaos Glory found God and started to spread the gospel among other inmates. Two years and nine months later the king of Thailand had mercy on her and set her free.
A week after returning to Finland Backman received a word from the Lord saying she would meet her future husband at the bible school she was about to attend. And so it happened.
The couple has since then preached the gospel for several years. They have done missions on all continents of the world, and lately Glory has also been going around Finland quite a bit. The dream of Glory is to see Finnish believers bold and moving forward with the Lord, in unity.
Glory Backman has also started a Christian women’s magazine called “KokoNainen” (A whole woman), organized women’s conferences annually and started her own cosmetic line.
-A human being’s road to God, for men and women alike, starts with a simple question: If you look at yourself in the mirror, do you love yourself? God’s love changes you so that you are able to first love yourself, and therefore love your neighbors. Love takes into account other people. Only personal faith in God and in His Son Jesus Christ will save you. That’s Life with a capital L, concludes Glory Backman.