Lenne Edwardson: From WMW fugitive to a life of faith and purpose

ENUMCLAW, Wash. -- The story of former Washington's Most Wanted fugitive Tyler Ware's 

transformation from reckless to redemption has inspired another man that I profiled on the show to reach out and talk publicly about his own  recovery.

Lenne Edwardson was Washington's Most Wanted Capture #421 in May of 2013 after he was accused in a home burglary in Kent.  He was in and out of jail and prison for years so he knows firsthand what it's like to struggle with addiction. 

"If anything that I say makes it to somebody, I just want to say that it's not too late," he said. "That I was in that mess for 25 years and I'm not completely normal, but I'm living a pretty normal lifestyle now."

Now,  you will find Lenne in a park behind the Enumclaw Courthouse every Saturday afternoon feeding the hungry and sharing hugs.

"I was a drug addict and I think that makes your decision making, to where at the time, in my head I justified everything I did," he said. "You know, and I don't think I was necessarily a bad guy, but I was definitely doing bad things."

He spent three weeks in hiding after being featured on the show.

"When you're on TV, like you could go to Safeway and get caught, because a viewer might see you, so it was just intense pressure," he said. "Super scary. I didn't go anywhere until they found me."

He was arrested at a home in Maple Valley after a viewer tip.   Our pasts, however, do not have to define our future.

"What Lenne's story is, is a story of redemption," said Pastor Heath Rainwater.

Lenne found peace and purpose when he walked into Pastor Rainwater's Grace Point Northwest Church.

"Lenne allowed God to love him, to forgive him, and invited God into his heart," Rainwater said.

Lenne's life now has a purpose.

"He actually spends a lot of his time, efforts and passion helping people who have been stuck in the same things he was stuck in," Rainwater said.

Lenne now works as a union electrician, waking up every morning at 3:45 a.m. Two nights a week he goes to school in Tacoma while also taking care of his growing family.

"I've got a beautiful house, beautiful car, beautiful wife, in contact with four of my five children and I'm, just, people say blessed and it's kind of, like, generic, but I'm truly blessed," Lenne said. "It's been amazing. But it was, it was tough."

Lenne says he finally flushed the drugs for good the day his son was born 3 years ago.

"God changes a person so deeply, so instantaneously and so completely that our minds will spend the rest of our lives trying to catch up with what God has already done on the inside," Rainwater said.

At church last month, Lenne spoke to the congregation openly about his past and how fear, faith and freedom are intertwined.

"I feel like fear and faith are something that cancel each other out and too much of one will definitely overcome the other.  Fear keeps you from freedom and faith brings you freedom," Edwardson said.