I Help Families Who Love Someone Trapped in Addiction
Not the addict directly. The mom Googling at 2am. The grandmother making phone calls she never thought she'd have to make. The wife who doesn't know if she should stay or go. The pastor sitting across from a desperate family with no idea what to tell them.
I've been where your loved one is. I've also been where you are.
After 20 years of sobriety, nearly two decades in ministry leadership, and walking hundreds of families through the worst seasons of their lives, I've learned something most recovery programs won't tell you:
Recovery stops at sobriety. Restoration goes further.
But Before I Tell You What I Do, Let Me Show You Where I've Been
I was 14 the first time I tried crystal meth. By 15, I was a full-blown addict. Shooting up in bathrooms. Burning through every relationship I had.
Finding yourself at 15 smack dab in the middle of a drug addiction is absolutely exhausting. The day to day grind of trying to find the next high, trying to save face around friends and family members, and ultimately the battle you face when your life comes crashing down around you and you start to pick up the pieces again.
I dropped out of high school. Got my GED while coming down off meth. Talked my way into the Army to avoid charges. Made it through basic training at Fort Benning, came home clean, ran into old friends, and blew every dollar I'd saved in a weekend.
The Army quietly discharged me. I was 19 with nothing to show for it but track marks and a trail of broken trust.
The Intervention I Didn't See Coming
My parents moved into my grandmother's house. What I didn't know was that I wasn't invited.
I showed up looking for a couch to crash on and walked into a living room full of family members. I didn't even know what an intervention was. But the message was clear: get help or get out.
I walked into the backyard with an eightball in my pocket and a needle in my shoe. I called everyone I knew. Nobody came.
Standing in that yard, the weight settled on me. What have I become? The people who should love me no matter what want nothing to do with me anymore.
I thought about doing all the drugs at once. Maybe there was no way out.
Instead, I looked up and prayed the only honest prayer I'd prayed in years:
"Lord, if you can do something with this mess, I'm asking for help."
For the first time in years, something broke loose inside me.
A few days later, my parents threw me in the back of a van and drove seven hours to Teen Challenge in Long Island, New York. I didn't know it yet, but I was about to meet the man who would change everything.
"Justin, God Has a Plan for Your Life"
I was about 110 pounds. Bruises and sores on my face. Long sleeves to cover the track marks. Detoxing. A complete mess.
A man walked across the parking lot, introduced himself, looked me in the eyes, and said those words.
I'd grown up in church. I'd heard that phrase a hundred times. But something about this moment hit different.
Maybe it was the Holy Spirit. Maybe it was the timing. But this man looked at a 110-pound meth addict with needle marks up and down his arms and actually believed what he was saying.
Something broke through.
I tried to leave the program 20 times. One year felt like 30. Long Island for the first phase, Albany for the second. But God did a work in me in New York.
I came home with fire in my bones and one message I couldn't shake: God has a plan for your life.
"I've spent the last 20 years telling anyone who will listen."
What I've Built Since Then
Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge
I started alongside my dad in 2007. Unpaid. Live-in staff. We opened the men's home together. I had no idea what I was doing. I just knew I was supposed to be there.
I moved from staff to Program Director to Executive Director. Multiple campuses. Hundreds of people through the doors. Celebrating with one family while mourning with another. Long days in front of accounting software praying for miracles.
After 13 years, I stepped away to pastor Brookside Church for four years. Then I came back to lead SVTC again. Today the ministry focuses on equipping families and churches with the tools they need to walk someone from addiction to restoration.
Speaking and Content
I speak at churches, conferences, and events. I host the Rebuilding Life After Addiction podcast. I create content that reaches families in crisis at 2am when they're searching for answers and don't know where to turn.
I've spoken to rooms of ten and rooms of thousands. Youth groups, men's retreats, recovery graduations, Sunday morning services. The message adapts, but the core stays the same: God has a plan for your life, and restoration goes further than recovery.
Whether it's a keynote, a weekend series, or a podcast conversation, I bring 20 years of living this message, not just teaching it.
The Framework That Guides Everything I Teach
Sobriety is the starting line, not the finish line. Getting clean is essential, but it's not the whole story.
When the Prodigal Son came home, his father didn't just welcome him back. He restored him. He gave him three things:
The Robe
Identity Restored
You're not defined by the worst thing you ever did. You're not an addict forever. You're a son. You're a daughter.
The Ring
Authority Returned
You have permission to make decisions again. You're not on probation forever. You get to rebuild.
The Sandals
Mission Activated
You're not just clean. You're called. There's a purpose on the other side of this mess.
That's the framework. That's the message. That's what I wish someone had told me and my family 20 years ago.
What God Gave Me on the Other Side
20 years ago I was a 110-pound meth addict with no future, no family, and no hope.
Now I lead a ministry alongside my wife Ashley. We're raising four daughters in the Shenandoah Valley. I get to do work that matters with people I love.
Life doesn't get easier when we become Christians, but it does get better. The blessing comes on the other end of sacrifice and commitment.
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