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

God Uses Everything, Even Our Pain

Everything in our lives has 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 has 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 set up really similar to adult and Teen Challenge as you know it. Yeah, that's awesome.

And now, does 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 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 started there because as we jump into this conversation tonight, I just wanted to give some context for your experience in working with people that have gone through this struggle. I mean, of course you've got your own journey. You've been there. But I mean, how long have you been working directly with addiction after your journey, you know, kind of came to fruition? You got free and got saved and really headed 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. I mean, my intentions when I came in, if you listen to the testimony, was to learn how to live without getting high and go back to work. You know, 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 just committed my life to this cause. And so, the short answer would be about 10 years.

Finding Purpose Versus Continuing to Struggle

So let me ask you a question. That's a great segue to kind of 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, you know, 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, kind of coming out, not everybody finds that sense of purpose, right? And they end up struggling and kind of 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 kind of come out and really find their purpose and get focused and start to build a future versus those who come out and kind of, I don't want to say play the game, but continue to struggle, you know 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, you know, don't. And honestly, I don't think it's complicated. I think the simple part is it goes back to Jesus being the answer. He's the answer for all of our difficulties. And some people, you know, 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, you know. 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, you know. 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, you know, to be able to keep Jesus at the center and find that sense of purpose. I mean, it doesn't have to be going behind a pulpit like you and I, you know, 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—I mean, not just most, but like 99.5%—stay on to be interns and stay on to be staff, you know. 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 just feel like everything in our lives has 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 has a purpose to bring others that way.

The Power of Community and Accountability

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 the value of having people—you know, the Bible talks about mourning with those who mourn, you know, and not just the bad times, but also people that can celebrate you and celebrate when you win, you know what I mean? 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. Absolutely. All the time. I think everyone has like a target type thing of circles, you know. We've got our inner circles and our outer circles, and then, you know, 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 go through anything by yourself. You know, I absolutely, the answer to your question is yes. I've always—I never go through things by myself anymore, you know? 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, you know. And that lie of the enemy to isolate us and try to keep us trapped, you know, and keep us alone where sin ultimately grows—it grows in the dark. Yeah.

What God is Doing at Project Hope

So Jeff, what are you excited about with what the Lord's doing right now in your community and where you're at? Oh man, right now, you know, we've been with Project Hope for about seven months now, almost eight months. And I never, Pastor Justin, I never would have imagined that the Lord would be able to use me as the director of a program. I mean, 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 feel like we're exactly where we're supposed to be. Project Hope and Saving Grace, when we were praying about joining up with these folks, I feel like I heard the Lord. You know, and I know that 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 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, you know. The Lord just continues to bless this ministry. We were able to, because of our fundraising efforts and good stewardship, we were able to purchase—well, lease them, Ministry-wide—50 vehicles. So that our fundraising crews don't have to rent cars and don't have to be in junkers, you know, because that is our really... huh? 50? Yes sir. Yes sir. But remember, we have eight campuses too. And fundraising, storefront fundraising, 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. We 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, you know?

And we just really want to love on our folks. And anyways, I'm probably way off of the question, but we love what we're doing. We started three months ago. I started 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 can connect with the message that we share and that we bring. And we do a 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 shoulder, that thing that's lit up behind me, you see it? 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, you know, or into the future, and experience that period. And so one of the questions that I kind of set up guests with at the end of the show, especially pertaining to the topic we kind of talked about tonight—community, and it kind of 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 a part of, you know. Because free recovery just doesn't exist that often anymore, you know? Like a place where people can go get help for free is—I mean, God is doing something. Because 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. I mean, 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 2013, right? 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 you know 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'm sorry. 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 reading. 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, you know?

Yeah, yeah. No, that's a great answer. It's a great answer because I feel you, you know? I didn't, I was never pregnant, but yet I still gained weight. I don't understand, you know. So, no man, I think that's good. I mean, 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 like a third rail to touch, you know, 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 his mid-80s, like he's convinced. 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 was absentminded 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 tweetable right there. But I appreciate you, man. I appreciate the work you're doing at Project Hope. And I'm going to drop all the information for them down below. So if you or 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 kind of 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 continue to do, you know. 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 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 lives, you know? It's our, it's almost like a responsibility, you know, 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.