For those who are feeling lost, hope is within reach

I was in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2002 to help develop a piece of land on a lake that would eventually become a summer youth camp. Communism had collapsed in this little nation and they were looking for help in giving hope and enjoyment to their youth.

While there, I was asked to fly to Novi Sad, Serbia to meet with a husband and wife team who had started a ministry outreach to drug addicts. The ministry was called Adult & Teen Challenge, a worldwide ministry more than 40 years old at the time. Sasha and Svetlana were themselves former heroin addicts who had been set free from their addiction several years before, after reading the book “The Cross and the Switchblade.”

This couple spoke in Lodi and surrounding areas a few years ago. Their story is miraculous.

While in Novi Sad, I attended a church on a Friday evening Sasha and Svetlana had started with new believers, family and friends, and former addicts and alcoholics. The service was powerful. During the altar call, a young, emaciated woman responded. The women in the church gathered around her, prayed with her, cried with her and hugged her for quite some time. It was very emotional for everyone present.

The next morning I visited the ministry’s women’s center. It was in an old house in a rough neighborhood, but it was a refuge for the dozen women there. I sat and talked with them for several hours that morning. The young woman from the previous night’s service was there; she had been accepted into the center. Her story was horrific. I wept as I listened. Each woman shared their stories. You can’t imagine how tragic they were. But each of them had found hope, love, and deliverance from addiction. The young woman said, “I have never felt such love in my entire life.”

When I returned to the States, I began to help raise funds to build a new, safe center for women and children. That trip changed my life. I began to concentrate my ministry on Adult Teen Challenge worldwide. The ministry is in more than 130 countries. In the U.S., there are more than 250 locations. There has been a men’s center in Ceres for more than 30 years, representing north-central California. But there is no women’s center in the seven counties from Lodi to Kerman, the Sierras to I-5, with a population of 1.85 million people.

Two years ago I was asked to assume leadership of Adult & Teen Challenge encompassing those seven counties. For 30 years I had ministered in more than 45 countries, but I felt the Holy Spirit say I was to spend the rest of my ministry in my own backyard.

I have been in Lodi most of my life. That is why we have started the Adult & Teen Challenge contact office in Lodi. It is located at 715 S. Central Ave, 209-294-9454, www.fhtc.life. It is a place where hope can be found, where individuals can be set free from life-controlling issues.

In future articles I will share stories of individuals who have been set free from addiction, whose relationships have been restored, who have found hope. There are many in our community who need to be restored. If you or someone you know is struggling, contact us by phone or online. “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).