I'm 20 years old and from Sanford, NC. I was raised in a Christian home, attending church regularly as a kid. About the age of 15 I started hanging around with bad influences and became rebellious, wanting to do things my way. I turned away from what I had been taught by my parents and God. I started drinking alcohol and one thing led to another. By 17, I was addicted to cocaine and crystal meth (methamphetamine). It quickly took my life in a downward spiral. At 19 I was living in my truck, broke, without a hope and a future. I thank God for my family and our church; they prayed for me. My family found me when I was at my lowest. They took me home and told me they still loved me. They told me about Teen Challenge and on October 6, 2006 I entered Sandhills Teen Challenge. God is changing my life. I have a personal relationship with Him and it's the greatest thing I've ever done. He has taken me out of my misery and given me a joy and peace that I never had. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you and a future".(NIV) Before I had no hope and future, but now I have hope and a future through the love and strength of Jesus Christ.

I am 44 years old and come from a large family in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I am the middle child of eight kids. I had a lot responsibility put on me, since the death of my mother when I was six. I graduated from high school in 1982 and joined the United States Army. Shortly after I received my first duty assignment overseas I started drinking alcohol. It then became a serious issue for me for the duration of my military career and for years after.

I want to write about a tool that helped build a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. Teen Challenge is where I have been delivered from my alcoholism. It is a yearlong faith based discipleship program that helps people with substance abuse issues. I accepted the Lord as my Savior in March of 2006. During my time in Teen Challenge my relationship with the Lord has grown a great deal. I decided to put myself aside and let Him work within me. I do my personal devotions and study my Bible on a daily basis.

While in this program I was the secretary of our prison team outreach. We go to prisons throughout the area and speak to inmates through skits, life stories and the freedom of a changed life. I have been given an opportunity to further my education and my relationship with Jesus Christ. Through Him I have gained peace and joy in my life. I have also been able to pass that peace and joy on to others as well. I believe in my heart that I am being called by God to help the ministry of Teen Challenge. The avenue I have chosen to start that process is the Logos Leadership Institute.

One of my goals is to prepare myself to be able to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people throughout the world. I want to be a tool for God to use to help save the lives of those who are lost. The scripture that God has put on my heart is Hebrews 11:6 - "But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him". (NIV)

I was abused as a child with everything from bats to fists. I was tossed around to different family members until I ended up with my father. Then my stepmother came into the picture with more abuse. I threatened to kill her when I was 16. This landed me in a mental hospital. I was released to my mother and her husband and began using drugs. They kicked me out of the house. While I was away they had started to go to church. I went with them one day and got saved, but relapsed shortly thereafter. I met my dream girl, Amy, and stayed clean again until I had a back injury. I was prescribed painkillers and became addicted, destroying my relationship with Amy and becoming addicted to heroin. After a time period of addiction, I went to the pastor of my church and asked for help - he sent me to Teen Challenge. It was through a counselor at Teen Challenge that I learned drugs weren't my problem, my heart was. Understanding this made me realize that I could not follow God's ideals on my own abilities. To accept Jesus Christ and follow Him daily, I now refer to the bible and accept Christ's righteousness to remove my harmful and distractive life. He has restored my relationship with both my mother and stepfather. Now my mother tells me she is proud of me - something I have waited to hear for a long time. Praise God!

This is my 2nd time in Teen Challenge. My first time at Teen Challenge was in August 2001 at the Pittsburgh Induction Center. At the time I was 20 years old, going thru my first rehab, detoxing heavily from OxyContin. After about a week I started feeling better and getting into the swing of things and made up my mind that I was only going to complete the first four months and not go to the Training Center in Rehrersburg. I still had parts of my life that I was not willing to give up like my girlfriend and my music. Basically God planted the seed but I did not allow it to shine into my heart yet. God knew that I had to learn some hard lesions. Over the next 5 years I went to jail 6 times, attended 3 outpatient secular rehabs programs, 2 impatient secular rehabs and a Suboxone maintenance program for a year and a half.

At my lowest point I cut my finger off to legally get opiates into my system to avoid an unexpected drug test from my probation officer. God used this event to reveal my lost heart of flesh and brought me back to Teen Challenge of Western Pa and now I am at the mountain. I praise God for giving me a new heart and for His grace that I do not deserve. Everything that happens in my life is the way God wants it and who am I to try to control that. The blood of Christ justifies me in God's eyes. I trust in His merits, not my own and again I praise God for this miracle, because without His intervention I would be on my way to eternal death. One of my favorite Bible verses is 2 Corinthians 5:21 "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for the righteousness of God". (NIV)