Anthony Lessard Part 1 "Shine Your Light"

In this episode of the DP1 Podcast, host Rick Campbell interviews Anthony Lessard, a 41-year-old Canadian military sergeant and combat engineer with deployments to Afghanistan and Poland, who shares his powerful testimony of faith. Raised in a Christian family in Quebec City, Anthony committed his life to Christ as a teenager but strayed after his parents' divorce, delving into drugs, alcohol, and crime, including drug dealing. Meeting his future wife prompted him to quit that lifestyle and join the military, but his Afghanistan experiences led to severe PTSD, emotional numbness, renewed drug use, and suicidal tendencies, straining his family relationships. A pivotal moment came during a solitary summer job removing bombs, where a YouTube video about heaven and hell convicted him, leading to intense spiritual oppression, prayer, and eventual surrender to God on January 2nd, 2026. This resulted in a profound transformation on January 4th, 2026, filling him with joy, delivering him from addictions, fear, and anger, and reigniting his passion for the Bible and sharing his faith. Anthony emphasizes daily reliance on God, forgiving others, and conversing with Him naturally, while crediting divine intervention for quitting smoking and restoring his life, urging listeners to connect with military Christian communities.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello everyone. I just want to welcome you to another DP1 podcast. Today we have with us Anthony Anthony Lasard. Good day, Anthony. How are you? I'm good yourself, Rick. Good. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

I'm in the military. I'm a sergeant in the combat engineer trade. I got a wife and I got three kids. I'm 41. I've been to Afghanistan. I've been in Poland. I've been everywhere the military wants us to go. And I'm here today to speak about my testimony and God.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

All right. Anthony, you you mentioned that you'd like to open in prayer. You want to go right ahead.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yes, I would just like to read uh Psalm 119.105 before we start. Okay. Uh it's it's a little verse, it's not too too long. Sure, go for it. Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

So, Lord, I would like to pray you to guide me every day, to guide Rick every day with your light, with your word, with your love. God, you gave us your love to guide us through this this life. And I would like to ask you to give to give me and gave Rick the words on our lips, the words on our tongues, to touch people through that podcast, and to touch Christian people, to to uh you know, iron, forge iron, to to exhort them to be to stay with you, God, and love you, God, and follow you, God, but non-Christian as well. If we could touch their heart, God, like touch their heart, do your work, Lord. We're just sending seeds, and you do the rest. So align our heart, align our intelligence, align our wisdom with you, God. And yeah, I wish Rick the best, the best for his podcast, and I know you'll take care of him, Lord. So thank you. In the name of your son Jesus, amen.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Amen, brother. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Yeah, sorry, I'm not too good in English for prayer.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

You're doing great, you're you're doing great. Don't worry about that. Don't worry about that, man. So let's talk about faith. How did you come to faith in Christ? How did you come to know Christ?

SPEAKER_00 2:32

When I was young, I remember still to this day, my dad came in in my sister's room. We were playing together. Me and my sister, I got two two younger sisters, uh-huh, and uh we were playing all together, and he told us, Hey, Sunday we're going to church. Do you guys want to come? And we said, like, okay, we're just kids. For sure, we're gonna follow where you go, right? So, and it was a Protestant church back in Quebec City, uh, the Carfou Cat de la Capitale. It's still open, I think, but it just changed place because it burned down or something uh happened. I don't, I'm not too sure. And uh, this is how I met God for the first time, and I grew up in a Christian family, Christian uh church, Christian school with all kinds of Christian friends, and I gave my life around like 13, 14, and then I got lost real bad after that. Okay, right, yeah, yeah. My parents got divorced, and we're we were kind of left alone a little bit. Uh, and I'm not I'm not throwing any stones at my parents or whatever, but that's okay. They had to deal with their issue. Uh, so we I started to like hang out with the wrong people and stuff like that. Drugs, alcohol, uh girls, uh everything, you know, pretty much like everybody else, I would say. And and uh I even like back in the day when I was around 1920, I was uh selling drugs for else angels back in Quebec City and stuff like that. And then I met my wife, Sandra. She's not my wife yet, we're gonna be married soon, but anyway, and uh the so it's been 20 years we're together, so we were 21 when we met, and one day she told me, like, that life uh you stop that, or even so she uh so it was good. I quit it right away and uh I joined the military. So it's been 19 years I'm in the military. Um I've been through basic everything within a year, and the year after I was in workup training to go in Afghanistan, and the year after, boom, Afghanistan. So within three years, I was already boots on the ground in Afghanistan. Like uh yeah, we did a lot of work down there. I blew up a couple times in in vehicles and by foot and seeing some stuff like some like a guy got shot through the legs and stuff like that, and being shot at. So I remember one thing that my dad told me before going down there. He said, like, because he he knew I always been like a how can I say like a good guy, but sometimes a little too much. So my dad told me before going. I remember he said uh don't be nice down there, yeah, yeah. And when I finished my tour, when we came back, something changed in me, and I didn't realize it right away. That's how the the devil works, right? So it seems okay or whatever, but something was not okay. Like I raised um walls when I was down there for my emotions, for caring for people and stuff like that. All those years, like I've been I started to be treated for PTSD maybe like three years ago, four years ago. So all those years from I would say like 12-13 years before I started to be followed for therapy and everything with a psychologist and uh psychotherapist and uh everything, the the I was feeling it inside. Like when my sons uh were born, I was not crying, I was not having any emotions, it was kind of weird. I was always like distant, no relationship, no nothing. Like I was feeling alone and having a hole having a hole in my heart and uh yeah, so all those years and uh in the last couple of years uh I started using drugs a lot and uh and uh suicidal uh tendencies sorry about that, it's just it's okay, it's okay, and uh I was starting to lose my family, my kids, my wife. I know they were getting away, but I was not caring. It was very, very weird. And this year in uh in January, January 2nd. Actually, it started before that. Sorry, I like I just have to go back a little bit. Every every summer I go, I took some vacation for a month, and I go work in trackety to remove bombs for a civilian company. So I took my vacation from the military, I let them know, sign all the papers that if something happens, I'm off the hook, kind of of the military, right? So uh I go there every year, and this year it was the only year ever that it happens. I was in a cabin in the middle of the wood, like nice cabin, German couple, sweet people, very amazing, Rose and Hans. But I was alone, usually it's two guys, it's a big place, so usually it's two guys who live in there, and I was alone, and I mean, you're alone in the wood next to a river, it's beautiful, but at night you're lonely. I don't know if you know what I mean. So I had a lot of time to think and think and think, and I know I was at the crossroad, the fan, the famous crossroad that uh you you uh so I just went there, I was there at the crossroads, and I was like, if I keep doing that path, I'm gonna kill myself. Period. I'm gonna lose my wife, I'm gonna lose my kid, and I don't know what to do. And and I started to watch YouTube video for whatever reason while I was thinking about that, and I saw an American pastor, I don't know his name, I don't know, I don't know anything. It's just a video that pops up, and he was talking about that he he died, he saw Jesus, he saw the kingdom of heaven, and he was saying, like while he was there, God allowed him to see how many people go in heaven and how many people go in hell. So he said on 2,000 people, there was only 50 going in the kingdom of heaven, and 1950 going in hell. And I don't know what happened to me when he said that, but I said, Oh, I don't want to be one of those guys, I want to be one of the 50. And but as soon as I started thinking that I feel I felt oppressed in the wood alone, there was nobody there, so but I felt like all kinds of shame and all kinds of everything at the same time, and I went in uh in the bathroom in the bathtub, and um I I started the water and I just started crying and uh I still left it there. I still he was knocking on the door and I was still closing the door. And I started that night, I started to do some well, they call that in English, like uh sleep paralysis. That night, that same night, but like oppressed, oppressed. I was there not moving, just oppression, oppression, oppression. I was feeling like I was afraid, I was like there was something wrong, and it lasted for like two, three days, and then I was like, no, no, no, I cannot do that. Now it's day and night, no, no, thank you. So I remember that my second son, James, uh, he's 11, and he got a friend who's called whose name is Scott, and I remember that his parents, uh, his mother is Christian, Lynn Sweeney, and his dad too, Ryan Sweeney. And I said, like, wow, okay, I got that name that pops up. And I right away I started to write. I said, like, hey, do you know somebody in town in Fredericton that would do like Bible study in French, something in French, you know? And uh it's kind of funny because she answered right away. She was kind of waiting for my text for whatever reason. She gave me the name of one of my good friends now, Charles Millet. He's um he's having a nice ministry about like uh sports and sharing God through sports, like a missionary, a little bit, and he did some missions in Peru and stuff like that. So I I texted the guy, and after that, for like a month, I was like, uh no, I was kind of yeah, he said, Yeah, sure, whatever, whenever you're ready. And I kind of again I pushed it, and then all of a sudden, one day he texted me and he said, Hey, this week, this time. And I kind of say, Okay, now I'm cornered, so I'm like, Yeah, okay. And I showed up there without a Bible or anything, and he he had one Bible for me, and I still got the same. All right, yeah, and that so it lasted like that. I went to see him, study Bible. I was I was not feeling anything, I was not like I was just kind of on the edge, I was still on that crossroad, right? And and then January this year, uh, the second of January, all of a sudden in my head, something showed like I was thinking about God for like uh 0.5 seconds, I would say, and and the only thing I heard was like what in French uh Poquet Pognese, like what are you doing? What are you waiting for? Kind of so and I just fell right there. I just felt like I cannot do it anymore.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

And it was the most beautiful day of my life, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

And I just emptied it, I emptied everything, everything. I surrendered everything, and I just told him like I don't know what to do anymore. Help me and and I cried, I cried, and then I went to bed next day, normal, the three of January, and the fourth. You could ask my wife, the fourth of January, something changed. You can ask my wife and my kids. I I promise anybody like ask my wife anytime she remembered the date uh at 180. I was angry, I was like sweating to go in the store. Like, she asked me to go to Walmart. Oh, Walmart and Fredericton, Walmart Fredericton South. It's the gate of heaven for me. And uh yeah, I was sweating in my car, and she asked me to go and PTSD, so I don't want to go, I don't want to meet people. I don't you would have come to me before, I would ask Port and kick you in the chest to stay away from me, you know what I mean? And I remember I was walking to go to the door of Walmart, and I was like, Oh, I don't want to do that again. I don't want, I don't want to, and I crossed those doors, and boom, boom, it came like this, like I felt I felt warm, I felt the hole in my heart got filled right away. Boom, and I felt warm and happy. I've never been happy like that in my life. I wanted to talk to people, I wanted to shake everybody's hand, I wanted to cuddle everybody. It was it was weird, it was weird, Rick. That was not me. And I finally was able to finish buying my stuff. I was just I was like that in all night, just like crying and happy, and people were looking at me weird, and I was just not caring at all. And I came back home, and I remember I showed up home and I was smiling. And and Sandra, first thing she looked at me weird, it was like, Are you okay? I'm like, I'm happy, I'm happy. I was just yelling, I'm happy. She was like, she started crying, she was like, What's cool with you? I'm I'm happy, just crying and yelling, and my kids it was wonderful, and then that week after that, that week, it was amazing. Like I was not able to sleep, I was not able to eat properly, I was just I was just talking to God the entire week, praying, happy. I was I was I was reading I started to read the Bible, and I was like, Wow, I want more, I want more, let's go. I was and I was tired. I remember I was tired, tired of being happy, and I was like, God, if it is what it is to be with you, make me more tired. I want to be more tired. And I was just yelling that in the house. And my wife, she was she was like, Are you in a cult? Are you like, are you taking a new drug that I don't know? Because I told her everything. Like I told her that like I did so much cocaine that my septum is broken. Like I can I can put my finger in my you know what I mean? So I don't know. He filled my heart, and and and since then I posting everything I can. I talk to everybody I can. I'm not any and he's and he's showing me, he's showing me stuff. Like it's it's crazy, it's alive. That his word is alive for real. I take I read it when I was young, and now I read it and it's totally different. It's it's beautiful, and it's I want everybody, I want everybody to to know him. Now it hurts me when somebody's like now, or somebody's like I hear about somebody dying, or whatever, and I'm like, oh, I hope you knew God. I you know what I mean. And I and I'm not perfect, I still got selfish thinking and stuff like that sometimes, but I try, I try real hard, and I understood some stuff now. Like I quit smoking as well. It's been two months now, and but but the way it happens, it's it's funny. I was I was reading Malachi 310, and in in 310, he says, like, put me to the like to the um, oh you say that like uh give me some challenge, you know, like put me through the challenge. Right. Uh wait, I'll I'll I'll find it. Look it up if you want.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

It's too good. Malachi 310. He's talking about like he's not talking exactly about that, but he's talking about like giving money to to the the saints and uh giving money to the to the priest and stuff like that, 10% of your premises and your work and everything. But okay, in that that verse, like uh here, I got it here. I just I need to say it. Bring all the tithe into the storehouse or there will be enough food in my temple. That's that's not what I'm talking about. If you do so, say the Lord of heaven armies, I will open the windows of heaven for you, I will pour out a blessing. So great you won't have enough room to take it. Try it, put me to this to the test. So he's asking, he's asking us to put him to the test as well, in a sense. And I just I just did it before I quit smoking. I was like, Lord, you know it's been many years. I quit I tried to quit smoking and this and that, and I'm not able to do it. Like, I just not able to do it. And so I went, I was in my living room, and I just put my feet on the ground. You say, like, do an act of of faith. I'm putting my feet right now, right here, right now. You will deliver me from smoking cigarettes. Help me, like, do it, please, Lord. And I finished my prayer, and that day I smoked like five cigarettes before that prayer. It's the worst, worst way to do it to try to stop smoking. If you smoke cigarettes during your day, impossible. I'm let I'm I will let you know, Rick. It worked that day because the um, you know, the feeling. I I don't know if you ever smoked in your life, but when you try to quit smoking, it's in your it's inside you. You're just like, Yeah, I need to smoke, and God took that away. I was still thinking about cigarette, but I was not feeling the hey you need to smoke. He took it away. So I was carrying my cross, and he just left the end of my cross with his finger following me. He made it bearable, bearable, you know what I mean? Like he made it livable for me. So he did the same with drugs, he did the same with fear. Like that day at Walmart, he delivered me the chain, broke the chain of fear, hatred, anger, drug addiction, all at the same place. Like I tell you, as it came, it came like this, like a big warmth, and he filled my heart that I was trying to fill with all kinds of other stuff. And I don't know how to say it. It's just okay, it was beautiful, and it's still beautiful. Like he's teaching me every day something, a little bit by a little. Like I never understood in 41 years, and I know him for a little bit, like when I was young. I like I said, I already read the whole Bible and everything, and I never understood that I have to do some work as well. I thought you just sit there and Lord help me, and He's gonna do everything. No, no, no, no. And he showed it to me to quit smoking, he showed it to me through loving my family. He's showing it every day. Every day I have to wake up and I have to go through the kids. I don't want to go to school. He's doing this, and and now instead of being angry, I try to sit down with them and explain to them like what are they doing, how they can change it, how they can change their way of seeing things. And so you have to do some work, but he's making it he's making it so easy for us compared to how hard it is for people who live in the dark, you know what I mean? And I I I noticed that it's been three months. Like I said, one of my friends say, Oh, it's been 15 minutes, you're in the faith. But he's saying that just as a joke. He's like, Man, keep going, my friend. Keep going, brother. Keep going, you know. But it's been 15 minutes, but it's the most wonderful 15 minutes ever.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

So this is where you are right now. This is this is yeah, yeah, yeah. From the beginning, right up until until now. Is that is that right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

And I I uh there's some stuff I didn't put in there as well, but I'm okay. That there's a lot, there's a lot, but like I need he put in my mind too lately, like to start forgiving a lot more myself, others, like a dot a lot. Like, I got some stuff with my dad that we need to go through, and sure, I will do it. Hopefully, my dad will be open to do it as well.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Maybe something to pray about.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I already started that. Yeah, I pray, I pray a lot in a day. I'm always talking. And if I can give a little tip for everybody, it would be, and I I'm saying the same thing to my kids and saying the same thing to my wife, and that talk to him like you're talking to each other, you know, is he's there. He say he says in his in his book, he say he say in his truth that he's always gonna be there with us in the dirt, in the field, everywhere we are. So I'm talking to him, I'm just talking like and you don't need to do a big prayer every time, beautiful and this and that. Yes, do that, there's no problem. But I I I talk to him like I talk to you, Rick.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

We hope you have enjoyed this episode of DP1. Also, if you are hoping to connect with other military Christians in your area, consider joining the Military Christian Fellowship of Canada, which you can connect with online at mcfanada.ca.