Teen Challenge, USA
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Donate Fundraising: Teen Challenge International, USA
Teen Challenge International, USA
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Teen Challenge International, USA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
Recent Cause Activity
Hi! My son ,Daniel graduated from the greater Cleveland and Teen Challenge Mid -America. It's a wonderful program to change people's life and focus. He since then has become an intercessary missionary to the United States at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City,MO. He and his wife ,Beverly are a full time family in this work. While I have not shown financial support at this cite, My husband and I contribute to the Greater Cleveland and Mid- America Teen Challenge in Cape Girardeau, Mo. God is good!
Updated: The cause has reached 7,500 members.
Updated: The cause has reached 7,500 members.
When I was in elementary school, the pastor of my home church introduced me to the head of the local chapter of Teen Challenge when he and some of the others there came to minister. It's been over 20 years, and those men have stayed in my mind. Teen Challenge is real, folks. Each person who is bold and broken enough to submit to God and get in the program has a 100% chance that something there will change their lives. I started this Cause because of the respect and admiration I have for the program, and because each person it helps is one less person ruining their life in the name of drugs and crime.
Even though I grew up in church, I soon began living the lifestyle my family tried so hard to keep me from. I became so addicted to drugs that I would be gone for weeks at a time only to return home for a change of clothes, food, and a shower. I would even steal money from my own mother to support my habit. My own family didn’t even want me to come around anymore. In 2007 I was arrested for three counts of felony forgery and was headed to 2 years prison. Praise God that He had another plan!
My court appointed attorney, on her own time, joined forces with my mom. They presented the Teen Challenge ministry as an alternative that could actually help change my life. After one month of Teen Challenge, I made the decision to live my life for Jesus Christ. Since then, I have experienced forgiveness for my sins and freedom from drugs that once had a stronghold on my life. He has restored my relationship with my family. God has also made it possible for me to get my GED here at Teen Challenge. I know that I am finally in God’s will, and I thank Him every day for saving me.”
Updated: The cause has reached 7,000 members.
i graduated from teen challenge lakeland girls campus in september of 2007 when i was eighteen. saved my life and gave me a real relationship with jesus. i will be forever grateful for my experience there.
I was a senior at the University of Tennessee when I first began to experiment with cocaine. In what seemed like only moments I became everything I said that I would never be. I became a liar, a thief, and eventually a convicted felon. Along the way I managed to devastate everyone that loved me. I hurt them over, and over, and over, and over again. I used to drive to meet the drug dealers with tears in my eyes. I didn’t want to be that person any longer, but I just could not stop.
I went through seven different secular treatment facilities of varying lengths. Invariably I found myself going back to the misery the very day I completed each stay. Over the course of the decade I spent in addiction I became convinced that there was just something wrong with me. That while I was willing, I was physically unable to change and this left me utterly defeated.
I began to put myself in unpredictable and dangerous circumstances. I was stabbed three times and left beaten and bloody on numerous occasions. I was never shot, but I had bullets whiz by ear several times. I was convicted of theft over a thousand and forgery. I was sentenced to two years in prison. I had gone from a college classroom to crack houses and jail cells. Prison, as bad as it was, did nothing to serve as any sort of deterrent. I was released after a year and had a drug dealer pick me up outside of the prison gates.
I was on parole for another year and somehow managed to get stay high and not violate. Once that term ended I really lost my mind in addiction. Every single day, every hour, every minute was consumed by robbing, stealing, lying, and using. I didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep, and I hated myself. My life was a furious pursuit of crack cocaine without regard to who I hurt. My parents were forced to change the locks on their home several times. They never quit trying to help me and I stole from them. My mother retired after thirty years of working for one company and they rewarded her with a set of sterling silver candlesticks. This was her gift for three decades of dedicated service and I took them and pawned them for dope. When I showed up on their doorstep to eat and take a nap, my father would lock his credit cards and checkbook in the trunk of his car where I could not reach them. I was relentless in my efforts to destroy my life and make everyone pay for loving me.
I sat in a body shop in East Nashville, a literal den of thieves, and I had an epiphany. What I have heard others refer to as “a moment of clarity.” The full weight of what I had become crashed down on me. I simply could not do this anymore. I couldn’t bear the thought of my mother crying herself to sleep every night because of her only child. I could no longer cope with the knowledge that my father was ashamed of what his son had become. I stood up and began to walk out of the room. I knew there was a gun in the next room and I was going to get it, put the barrel in my mouth, and pull the trigger. The thought passed through my mind that I would be saving my parents. I actually thought that the pain of my death would be mercifully brief compared to another 20 years of agony. As I walked out of the room into the hallway I saw someone walking toward me. It was my father. He was dressed in a suit and tie having left work on his lunch hour to look for me. He looked at me and said, “Son, let me help you.” I screamed at him. I told him to just write me off. I told him that there was something wrong with my head, that I wasn’t wired correctly. I told him that I had tried and that I couldn’t change. I screamed that I didn’t deserve his love and that I wasn’t worth his effort. He wouldn’t leave. I screamed at him to forget about me. “Son, let me help you,” Was his only reply over and over again. He stepped forward, hugged me, and said, “I was at a rotary club meeting the other day and I heard a man talk about a program called Teen Challenge. God touched my heart and I know that this program will help you.”
That was seven years ago and today I am a licensed minister. The first thing that I learned as a Teen Challenge student was that I am not an addict, but 2 Corinthian 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” I didn’t have to try to “manage” my addiction; instead I could become a new person! That singular truth changed everything for me. Its no wonder that my favorite Scripture is John 8:32 “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
I am a 1983 grad of the Farm in PA. My family helped start the TC in Columbus, GA. I went on to college from there and became a substance abuse counselor @ a maxium security prison. I am retired now. 26 years later still clean & sober, active member of my church, happily married w/kids. I have a nephew who completed ALA Teen Challenge a couple of years ago.
Updated: The cause has raised $500.
I graduated from Mid-Michigan Teen Challenge in March, completed my internship, and now am staff. I'd be dead if it wasn't for T.C. I'm forever grateful.
Updated: The cause has reached 6,000 members.
I am blessed to have found Teen Challenge 3 years ago. I have been rescued from a life of pain and addiction and thank God everyday for the amazing pastors and staff that He has put In my path. I graduated from Saginaw in oct. 07 and did an internship that has changed me forever. i am eternally grateful and praise God for such an amazing ministry that is fighting to restore God's people.
I am regularly being helped with food as a neighbor of the Newark Teen Challenge. I CAN NOT EVER thank your organization enough or tell enough people about you! Jesus is proud that you are listening to Him!
I have a son who attended Teen Challenge and graduated from the program. He has been free from drugs for 18 months now. What a wonderful feeling for him and myself. I had prayed so hard for my son to have a place to go and be healed. And then came Teen Challenge. He has found the Lord and we (his parents) have too. What a GREAT world we live in to know that someone heres your prayers. I Thank God everyday for Teen Challenge. I tell everyone i know and everyone I don't know about Teen Challenge. My son is still at Teen Challenge working in the intake department.Trying to help other with there addiction. Thank You Teen Challenge and Thank you God!! We know the Lord as our savior now and will never dought him...
I graduated from The Teen Challenge Training Center (The Farm,God's Mountain) in PA. I then went to college and got involved in prison ministry. My family helped start TC in Columbus, Ga. I had a nephew graduate from TC in Birmingham, Al.
Please check out our ministry at www.greatharvestministries.org. We are starting a Teen Challenge transition house for graduates called the Harvest House.
Hello, my name is Randy. I am 33 years old and was born and raised in the Fredericksburg area. I was raised in a good home and never used drugs in school. Upon completion of high school I began to work for my fathers’ construction company. I became exposed to many different types of drugs and began experimenting with some of them. Before I realized I was addicted to drugs and was spending a lot of time and money on them. My parents who had been really involved in the church asked me to start coming with them. I still hadn’t completely let go of my addictions and continued to dabble in drugs. During the next few years I became very involved with the youth group, choir and other activities at church. I got married, bought a nice house and was a soon to be father.
Around the age of 25 I had a knee surgery and was prescribed narcotic pain killers. Because of my past tendency towards addiction I quickly became addicted to them. Within a few months I was taking a variety of drugs again including Oxycontin, which was the one that really almost ruined my life. Even though I was getting high everyday, I still managed to make it to church most weeks. I would drag myself up to the alter and fall on my knees in tears know that God had a plan for my life, but it seemed that I had no control over my addiction. I was truly bound. It was at this point that people began to tell me about Teen Challenge, but I struggled with the idea of leaving my family for a whole year. Less than two years later I had lost my wife and son, my house, wrecked my vehicle and was sitting in jail.
As I sat in the jail cell many thoughts ran through my head. I thought about my relationship with the Lord and Teen Challenge. I asked God if I was supposed to go to Teen Challenge to give me a sign. That very night I went to the chapel in the jail and a Teen Challenge representative was there. Not convinced yet, I asked God for another sign. A few days later I walked into the jail library and the first book I saw was “Cross and the Switchblade”, which is the story of Teen Challenge. I finally submitted to God and after 4 months in jail went directly to Teen Challenge.
While in Teen Challenge I learned what it is to be a true Godly man. I was shown so much love and taught to live in victory. Everyday became better and better as my relationship with the Lord grew. I graduated in the beginning of 2004 and God revealed a purpose for my life. For the next 3 ½ years I worked as a staff member at Teen Challenge Boston, am enrolled in Global University to eventually receive my credentials as a minister so that I can go to jails and other places where people need to hear a message of hope, received my certification to teach the Teen challenge curriculum and built many strong relationships.
Last year I was called to come back to my home town and work for Pastor Mike and Cindy as a staff member at Teen Challenge Fredericksburg. It is such a great opportunity to be back in my home town to work with addicts that are in the same place that I used to be. Everyday I receive numerous calls from broken addicts and family members that need help. I’m able to give them hope through my testimony and get them help through Teen Challenge. It was such a blessing to be back for Christmas this year to be around my son Ethan, my mom and the rest of my family that I have restored relationships with. I am so very grateful to God, my family, Teen Challenge and all of the supporters of Teen Challenge for giving me a second chance at life and the ability to fulfill the purpose in my life. God Bless!