God put the brakes on my life because he cared enough to say, 'Lia, you are going to stop and think and listen to what I have planned for you.' At the time, I wasn't convinced that being in jail on the other side of the world for more than four years was a great plan, but I know better now. My punishment, rightly deserved, only helped me see how brightly the light of Jesus shines in extremely difficult situations."

The difficult situations began in February 1992. Raised in a Christian home, Eliadah "Lia" McCord had moved out of her parents' house after high school, was modeling swimwear and lingerie by day, drinking and doing the club scene at night (even though she was underage), and not enjoying it at all. "I remember hearing a voice inside me saying, 'Lia, you need to get your act together and get back to school. This is not where you want to be.'" She quit modeling and set her sights on business school. The tuition?$8,000?was more than she or her parents could afford.

When Lia told her friend, Cindy, about the money woes, Cindy casually mentioned she was going to make $10,000 in cash for a one-time "top secret" business trip. Lia pressed her until Cindy admitted she would be smuggling diamonds. A few weeks later, Cindy returned, full of stories of lavish travel arrangements as well as easy money. The trap was set for Lia. Only one detail had changed: it wasn't diamonds she had smuggled?it was heroin.

"I had agreed to meet Cindy's connection, and I told him straight out I didn't want to do anything with drugs," Lia says. "A good friend in high school had committed suicide because he got so messed up on drugs, and at his funeral I vowed I would never touch them." When the contact said that was the only thing he had to offer, Lia said, "I can't do that" and stood up to leave.

"Sit down, sweetheart. We can work with this," the man said in a smooth voice. "I like your morals, I really respect that in a person. Here's what you can do. Just take the heroin to Switzerland?drugs are practically legal there-you won't be hurting anyone and you won't be responsible for bringing it into your own country."

Lia still balked, but then Cindy began firing questions: "What about school? How will you ever get the money for that? And what about your mom? She could use some extra money right now, couldn't she?" The man jumped in, doubling the offer, emphasizing it was Lia's one big chance to get on her feet financially. As a million thoughts rushed through her head, she nodded yes.

"I did tell my parents about the idea," she said. "Their response was what I expected: 'Don't do it. Don't go out of the country. It's too dangerous.' In the meantime, I snuck my birth certificate out of the house to apply for my passport. And I left."

The destination was Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Because of Lia's natural skin coloring, the U.S. contact felt it was perfect?Lia would blend in with people easily, not arousing undue suspicion. The amenities were just as Cindy described, but after a week in her five-star hotel, Lia was spending most of her time in bed-fighting nausea and a fever. Because of her unexpected illness, the quick in-and-out-of-the-country job was turning into a two-week stay. Enough time for her to reconsider what she was about to do.

"I decided I didn't want to do it. I hadn't received the heroin yet from the dealer, so if I could sneak out of the hotel without him knowing, I could get to the airport, fly home, and that would be that."

The next evening, two-and-a-half hours before her plane was scheduled to leave, Lia slipped down a service stairway clutching her plane tickets and passport. "When I opened the door at the bottom, I was in the lobby! A bellboy rushed over to help, drawing attention to me. At that moment, Tony, the dealer, walked into the hotel and saw me."

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"It's over. It's not going to happen," Lia said, trying to get by. "I'll miss my plane."