CELEBRATE!

We Celebrate lost of things……we Celebrate our birthdays, some of us Celebrate Jesus’ birthday, we Celebrate the Stanly Cup, we Celebrate our graduations, we Celebrate first steps or words. Now I’m Celebrating my Recovery. As a ministry we have started the Celebrate Recovery leadership training, a 12 step, Christ centered recovery group that meets once a week.

Two years ago, when I started to manage the addiction side of our ministry, Ray D. (our director) passed me some papers to look into. It happened to be Celebrate Recovery. I did a little research and shrugged it off thinking we have all we need in the Alcoholics Anonymous fellowship. A year goes by and I’m asked if any of our discipleship guys would be interested in a leadership training in C.R. We nominated one of our guys to take the 14 week course in hopes we could start our own. He finished the course, everyone loved him and still talks about him, then he felt called to live out in Perth, so our group never got under way.

This summer, on holidays, out of the blue, I was asked to speak at a Celebrate Recovery meeting at my cousins church down in Strathroy. I felt right at home. I felt equally yoked. We all had the same Higher Power and they based their recovery on the 12 steps of A.A. After holiday’s I immediately looked for a group to join. I found one and had all our discipleship men committed to going. I will be honest this meeting was not the best fit for our group. Three months later Ray D. approached me stating that a couple of men would like to help us start a Jericho Road Celebrate Recovery. WOW. And we have, as of October 26, 2009. We have a beautiful location, great leaders and the Holy Spirit.

At our first group on Monday night I heard a man say that he didn’t agree with 12 step programs because it took away from what God had done and felt that this could be a waste of time, although he admitted that he struggled with self-centeredness and pride and that until a year ago he covered it up with alcohol, drugs and sex. I was amazed, this reluctant man is one of the few that get it. Substances aren’t the problem, we are. In the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous it says “our liquor was but a symptom”.

I cant wait to see what God is going to do in the hearts of addicts through this group. So lets Celebrate life, lets Celebrate Recovery and the power of God.

3 Roads

We have a large display hutch in our living room at the Discipleship house. Today I went and got 5 pictures printed off and put them in elegant but cheap dollar store frames.

I had begun displaying pictures of the Discipleship men shortly after we lost one to a drinking and driving wreck just over a year ago.

As I put them in and rearranged with the old ones I started to feel sad, remembering three men in particular.

These three men were all at the discipleship house together just over a year ago. Within a 12 hour span, each man had called me to tell me he had relapsed on crack cocaine and was in detox.

What were the odds of that happening?

They all waited for me to give them further instructions to be able to stay at the Discipleship house. After 5 days at detox they were to enroll in the stabilization program at the Mission, stay for the month, get their heads together and come back with a renewed surrender.

A week into their stay at the Mission, two of the men gave in to the temptation to use again. Forget the Promised Land and go back to Egypt.

One of them is in jail to this day, the second lost his life soon after in a drinking and driving wreck. The third, Steph, chose to surrender completely to God. To stop running, stop fighting, drop the weapons and surrender.

Today Steph is married to a Godly woman. He serves in our church as a worship leader and operates a cleaning business with his wife.

In Steph’s picture he is sitting on a fallen cross in the middle of a field… “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13)

Pray for full surrender and that the new men in our house may see the Promised Land.

SUNSHINE

As an employee of Jericho Road, I have the privilege of facilitating our Discipleship House, where men are changing their lives as they pursue a relationship with Jesus Christ.

One of the weekly aspects of the Discipleship program is what we call ‘street ministry’. Just as Jesus met a physical need as well as a spiritual need, we give out granola bars and juice boxes and, when possible, share our stories and pray for the people we meet on the street.

I want to share just one of the street ministry moments that has broken my heart:

Sunshine is what we see after a storm or when the dark is gone and a new beginning is coming.

We were pretty much finished street ministry for the day, handing out the last of our ‘goodies’ down near the Shepherds of Good Hope. As we were walking away 50feet behind us or so 2 women were yelling in our direction. No one was ahead of us so it was definitely directed at us. I felt like we needed to put our heads down and speed up our walk to make our way out of a compromising situation. Something in me decided instead to quickly turn around, walk towards them and yell “hey are you talking to me?” They seemed startled, then began to laugh and wondered aloud if we had any more juice boxes.

We gave them what we had left and started to ask them questions. I noticed one with beautiful hair, but her dirty black feet and the hurt on her face didn’t match. I asked if she was ok and immediately an avalanche of pain fell forth through her tears. She said she was sick of this life and the men she uses to make money from. She wanted out. Tears welled up in my eyes as I felt her pain. I began to tell her I understood; that I had been there and found a new way to live. I told her there is hope in a relationship with a God who loves you and created you. There is a way out of here and that way is with Jesus. I asked her if I could pray with her, and she nodded yes.

As her tears poured down I was reassured that God has a plan and a hope for this beautiful creation named Sunshine. Two weeks after we prayed for Sunshine, I miraculously found out that she is in jail and is being ministered to by a friend that works in the jails telling women the good news of Jesus Christ.

Take a minute a pray for SUNSHINE.

It's been a while!!!!!!!

So much has happened since the last entry. Working in the field of addiction I see how powerful God really is. Addicts literally being raised from the dead, but losing some as well. I'm ready to share some of these stories as hope, encouragement, or help. God has told me I can hang out and see him do some cool stuff, so it's all about him and what he can do.

I AM, OF MYSELF........NOTHING