Finding Purpose After 28 Years of Addiction (Jeff's Story)

everything in our lives have a purpose even if it's things that happen in our lives behind our own bad decisions where we go through like you and I did a lifetime of pain and misery from drug addiction I believe that even that God can use God doesn't waste anything and personally I believe anyone that has come to Christ the way that we have come have a purpose Jeff I'm excited to have you on tonight man how are you doing well Justin it's good to see you yeah you too man so you are in Texas now you're leading a Ministry called project hope what is Project hope well project hope is probably first cousin I would call it of Teen Challenge we do the Teen Challenge curriculum we're a one-year Bible faith-based Point him to Jesus addiction recovery Ministry and it's it's it's set up really similar to adult and Teen Challenge as it yeah that's awesome and now as your program work with men women both all the above well our project hope is the men's side and we have a sister program called Saving Grace and so we have H three men's centers and we have five women's centers so we have a total of eight addiction Ministries in Texas Arkansas Florida we have a women's home in Tennessee and another women's home in Mississippi oh fantastic wow man that's awesome so I I started there because as we jump into this conversation tonight I just wanted to give some context for your experience on working with people that have gone through this struggle of course you've got your own Journey you've been there but how long have you been working directly after addiction after your journey came to fruition you got free and got saved and really heading toward the direction of ministry how long have you been working with addicts and those dealing with life controlling issues well I went into Teen Challenge as a broken man coming out of a 28-year Addiction in 2013 and honestly bro I never left my intentions when I came in you if you listen to the testimony was to learn how to live without getting high and go back to work I was a welder by trade but of course just like it happened for you I'm sure the Lord arrested my heart and he grabbed a hold of me and I've honestly I've just committed my life to this cause and so I would the short answer would be about 10 years so let me ask you a question that's a great segue to the the first question of really where I wanted to go with this conversation so you got free hit the ground running have never left tC have been involved in Ministry of some sort since coming out of TC and no relapses from what I know of your story right you stayed the course you've been serving Jesus since all this happened but from our experience of working with people struggling coming out not everybody finds that sense of purpose right and they end up struggling and going through the licks and all the struggles coming out of TC like what do you think it is that sets that apart for those who come out and really find their purpose and get focused and start to build a future versus those Who come out and I don't want to say play the game but continue to struggle what I'm saying man that's something that I've really been considering a lot lately and even with the students that I deal with on a day-to-day basis why some of them seem to just get it and grab a hold of Jesus While others don't and honestly I don't think it's complicated I think the simple part is it goes back to Jes Jesus being the answer he's he's the answer for all of our difficulties and some people they're willing to buy into the idea of Jesus but not believe as the scripture says as it's written in John and just really sell completely out I think the reality of it is and this isn't just among folks like us it's I think it's among Christianity as a whole they want Jesus and the world and for people like you and me and the ones that we deal with it's impossible to stay alive very long like that or to stay out of jail or to stay out of the things that we get into because it just doesn't work I believe they can have that encounter they can make that decision in a program to make Jesus Lord but then begin to slip and so man I just I would love to hear you speak to that and maybe give your opinions on how you would encourage somebody coming right out of the program to be able to keep Jesus at the center and find that sense of purpose it doesn't have to be going behind a Pulpit like you and I right honestly man I say it all the time to our graduates and one of the wonderful things that I love about project hope and saving grace is that most of the people that graduate our program not just most but like 99.5% stay on to be interns and stay on to be staff and we don't graduate as many as I would like a lot of people start but few finish but usually the ones that get to that Finish Line man have a heart to serve the Lord and to give back and things like that and I guess to speak to what you're saying I can't I just feel like everything in our lives have a purpose even if it's even if it's things that happen in Our Lives behind our own bad decisions where we go through like you and I did a lifetime of pain and misery from drug addiction I believe that even that God can use God doesn't waste anything and personally I believe anyone that has come to Christ the way that we have come have a purpose to bring others that way inwardly we all know the benefit of having friendships no matter how introverted we may be right like that's just a mask at times or an excuse sometimes but like the value of having people the Bible talks about mourning with those who mourn and not just the bad times but also people that can celebrate you and celebrate you when you win even those small wins that most of the world would Overlook having good friends close to you helps push some of that on have there been any times where your community of people around you have helped you get through a difficult season absolutely all the time well sure we've got I think I think everyone has like a Target type thing of circles and we've got our inner circles and our outer circles and then people that we just deal with very generally but I think it's important to have a core group of people that you can tell anything to you should never have secrets you should never have you should never go through anything by yourself I absolutely the answer to your question is yes I've always I never go through things by myself anymore I seek the Lord my wife and then I have a few really close friends who know everything about me all the time yeah one of the 12 steppers that said we're only as sick as our secrets and that that lie of the enemy to isolate us and try to keep us trapped and keep us alone where sin ultimately grows in the dark yeah so Jeff what are you excited about what the Lord's doing right now in your community and where you're at oh man right now just we've been with project hope for about seven months now almost eight months and it's I never Pastor Justin I never would have imagined ined that the Lord would be able to use me as the Director of a program I love to preach I love to travel I love to minister around the altars and pray for people and deal with people on the phone but I honestly I feel like we're exactly where we're supposed to be project hope and saving grace when whenever we were praying about joining up with these folks I feel like I heard the Lord and I know that's people think that's crazy that you hear the Lord but I do believe he speaks to our hearts and I believe he spoke to my heart this that we were getting in on the bottom floor of something great and already since we've been here we've seen incredible growth the Texas women are moving out of a house that they've rented since saving grace started into their own property actually this weekend the Lord just continues to bless this min indry we were able to because of our fundraising efforts and good stewardship we were able to purchase 50 Vehicles Min Ministry wide not purchase but lease them Ministry wide so that our fundraising Crews don't have to rent cars and don't have to be in junkers because that is our really our huh 50 yes sir but remember but yes sir but remember we have eight campuses too and fundraising storefront fundraising is it's not our sole form of Revenue but it's a big part of it and our program is free to the guys and 100% of what we raise goes into our properties into our vehicles into our students we don't want to just have a program where they just come and they're in the shop and they're in the class man we take them to ball games we take them to we teach them how to live teach them that we can have fun sober man doing the same things that we used to feel like we had to be jacked up to do and we just really we want to love on our folks and anyways I'm probably way off of the question but I we love what we're doing we started three months ago I started a a service on Tuesday night a midweek service it's a chapel but it's an open Chapel because I want to bridge the gap we're in a really we're in the hood bro we're in a really poor Community where our project hope is located and I want to bridge the gap between the church and the unchurched and so we have an open Chapel on Tuesday nights we call it Freedom nights where our men come the women come sometimes and we're starting to get more and more people from the community that are coming that are that can connect with the message that we share and that we bring and we do time of worship and testimonies and refreshments and fellowship we do that once a week so we've got that going on we've always got something cool going on I just want to ask you a question so one of the things I do consistently on this podcast over my that shoulder that thing that's lit up behind me you see it's a it's a Lego DeLorean so back to the future is one of my favorite movie series of all times right and I love the fact that they can go to any period in history or into the future and experience that period And so one of the questions that I set up guessed with at the end of the show especially containing pertaining to the topic we talked about tonight community and morphed into the recovery program but I think it's important for as many people to hear about the ministry that you have that you're are part of because free recovery just doesn't exist that often anymore like a place where people can go get help for free is God is doing something because I've I've been in this chair that you're in at a different program and I know how hard it is to put those funds together and to see the Lord providing for you guys like that it's such an encouragement 50 Vehicles across all your centers what a testimony of the Lord's faithfulness to the work that you guys are engaged in but the question I wanted to ask Jeff is if Jeff today you said two 2013 2003 what year did you get 2013 if Jeff today could hop in the DeLorean go talk to Jeff back in 2013 fresh out of the TC program and knowing everything that now you could tell him one thing that would help set him up for the future what would Jeff today tell Jeff back then probably exercise more that's a great I'm sorry I when I met the Lord man I just chased after him and I don't think I would do anything different along those lines but I wish I would have gotten I'm disciplined in my Bible read I'm disciplined in all my God stuff but man if I could be more disciplined in my health that's what I would tell me really because I'm 55 now I've got a four-year-old granddaughter and I just I want to be around I want to live yeah no that's was a cooler answer but that's what came to my mind it's a great answer because I feel I didn't I was never pregnant but yet I still gained weight I don't understand so no man I think that's good it's the holistic nature of recovery and like I had a conversation with a health coach on my podcast a few weeks back and we talked about the nature of food addiction and that's one of those things that it's it's like a third rail to touch like it because it brings a lot of Shame and I'm not a fan of shame to motivate people I've never been a fan of shame to motivate people but that was one of the things we spent some time talking about he's in his 50s and he's got this goal that he wants to be in the best shape of his life in the mid 80s like he's convinced like and he's on his way there it's pretty powerful conversation but man Jeff I just wanted to say I appreciate you taking the time tonight I know I am absent mind did and I was chatting with you earlier and was supposed to send a time back at 8 and you got to hit send friends like you've got to hit send on the messages or they don't go through that's that's a tweetable right there but I appreciate you man I appreciate the work you're doing project hope and I'm going to drop all the information for them down below so if you are a loved one needs help man these guys love Jesus Jeff is the real deal I don't just know him via the Internet we've seen each other face to face I've seen him Minister I've seen his love for people in this struggle and so this is a safe place to reach out to if you need help and so I really just wanted to leave and encourage that Jeff did you have any closing words you wanted to say no I just wanted to tell you thank you for considering me for this interview and just thank you for everything that you've done and just continued to do you could definitely be in the living room with your family right now but you choose to do things like this to get the word out that there's hope it's just one of those things that once once you've experienced something I always when I'm preaching I say it like this it's like I spent many years in a prison and then somebody came and unlocked my gate and then gave me the key it's like we can't in good conscience put that key in our pocket and go on about our Liv lives it's our it's it's almost like a responsibility to do that and what's really cool is that when you're doing it for Christ and for no other reason I've noticed that God will give the grace to our wives and to our families for us to be out in the shed at 8 o'clock at night [Music]