Recovery Doesn’t End at Rehab - Here’s What Comes Next

they get that revelation of freedom for a moment but like you said earlier the world seems to pull them back in and so I believe they can have that encounter they can make that decision in a program to make Jesus Lord but then begin to Slit 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 I just feel like 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 to bring others that way 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 is 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 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 those 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 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 that the first question of really where I wanted to go with this conversation on so you got free hit the ground running I've 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 on they end up struggling and going through the licks and all the struggles coming out of TCC 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 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 yeah I heard a preacher say a long time ago Jeff like the difference is 18 inches right between The Head and the Heart that's it and it's that that challenge of like a lot of people are infatuated with the idea of Jesus's savior but like the real transformation happens when he becomes Lord that's right and so what do you if you have a student that's grappling with that right and you see that they're in that position where they're they're infatuated with the world a little bit still and hadn't really quite made that leap over to the other side from savior lordship how are you encouraging a guy like that honestly man I just love on him I keep sharing the gospel just keep pointing them to Jesus and I spent a lot of time on my face for our students because it's not something we can do Justin as well as I do you can look back on your career dealing with those people how many of them would you have loved to just open their head up and just dump in what and it don't matter how hard you shake them how much you yell at them man it's a spiritual thing that they just have to have the Revelation I'm always reminded of when Jesus said who do you say I am and Peter said it and Christ told him he said Flesh and Blood didn't reveal that to it's it's man the things of God are just so deep yet they're so simple it's it's it's hard to understand and I just I really believe in love my Ministry you've known us I just really believe that love is the key and we just keep loving on them through their failures haven't we done that in the recovery space though like tried to over complicate things especially in a lot of the Christian recovery circles it's like the antidote is Jesus I told the story at my church the other day Jeff I still reference TC and talk about Teen Challenge all the time and I'll never stop it was such a pivotal part of my life and I shared David wilkerson's interaction with Nikki Cruz where he told David he was going to cut him and David responded and said you could cut me in a thousand pieces and all of them would say I love you and that's like the beauty of like what we know to be true recovery right it's a love relationship with Christ and when that takes hold that's where the lasting freedom is found everything else is just it's window dressing it's not the real thing outside of that love so for guys I shared with you a little bit before I hit the record button offline about really the target of this podcast and the people that on I feel like the Lord's calling me to reach in this season I'm local church past three I'm raising a family and all of that but inside of me there's still this Burning Heart because I know Jeff I buried myself and I not buried myself but I consumed my life in Ministry to other people after getting out of TC and I know for me purpose personally that had I not found my place in Ministry and found that clear purpose I would have went back to what I was living before and man it breaks my heart at time to see people that go through TC type programs or even just have an encounter with Jesus in a church service and never do A discipleship Ministry they get that revelation of freedom for a moment but like you said earlier the world seems to pull them back in and so I believe they can have that encounter they can make that decision in a program to make Jesus Lord but then begin to Slit 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 oh 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 99.5 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 just 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 and a lot of people don't see it that way they don't feel like and I think what you said a little earlier about the pulpit I think a lot of people have this misconception that Ministry is simply behind a teaching Pulpit or a preaching Pulpit or a worship leader on the keyboard or on the platform when in reality of it is man I we raise up ministers all the time that minister in the wood shop or they Minister in the marketing office or they do other things they lead other men and women in that direction and I don't know I think maybe it's a pride thing that a man like for me for instance a welder I had a dude I had a welding truck parked at home when I went into the program and my plan was to get out and get back to work but of course man once God got a hold of me and like you said it's that love it's not the rules it's not all the disciplines that we learn it's the love once the love of got a hold of me I couldn't do anything else Paul says the love of Christ is what constrains me my love for my wife is what makes me choose to do things that would not hurt her upset her and and so man I don't even I feel like I'm talking in circles but not to say that say that a man can't go back to his family or a woman to go back to his family if he was a nurse or if he was a businessman or something and have a productive life but I believe that Christ has to be at the center of everything that we do I just believe that It can't be about how big my paycheck is or how many hours I work or any of those things really Christ has to be number one those who tend to get on fire for the Lord and are engaged in the work of making disciples and reproducing themselves in the Lord as the scriptures called us to do the Great Commission there's a staying power in that now I think the church has made the mistake is that we have the people on the stage we expect them to do all the ministry that's a huge part of this process in my opinion like getting people on fire for the Lord and it's like okay now I'm going out and I'm reproducing because there's so much purpose and Direction and then I was just going to comment on what you were saying about a church in general I have really been blessed to the church that we were at in powderly for the last three years of our in his grip traveling Ministry it's called The Gospel Lighthouse and their mission statement is to reach love disciple and send and so when we left to come here it wasn't a sad thing it was a celebration because that and I believe that goes right along with what Paul was saying when he was giving those offices and what the purpose of the church was and now we're at a church that it's it's it's called Community Transformation Church and our church here our mission statement is reach Empower disciple and send and so it's all about sending the end result should always be to send not to see how many we can gather right and if that is the heart of the body of Christ man we just can't lose because that was the heart of Christ it was go heck two-thirds of God is go yeah 100 yeah and I think but I think that's what separates like Christian discipleship Ministries from typical rehab right because getting off the drugs are the Loaves and the fish if you will right it's what brings them there to hear the message to hear the message of the Cross and help them become disciples in Christ there's no question about it a place like Teen Challenge a place like project hope our goal is to evangelize you we want to win you to Jesus getting off of drugs is great it's a byproduct of the evangelism and the discipleship that's going to take place when you come to a Ministry like that let's talk about community and how valuable that was you on I had a conversation with a few Brothers last night on a live podcast and we were talking about the value in the Christian Community and on how strong that was I'm sure you remember some of your brothers in the program when you were in TC and those relationships that you formed how do we continue need to maintain that after a recovery program if you will where do we go to find that if somebody let's say doesn't stay I want to become an intern how do they seek that out and find that type of community I just think it's important to connect to a good strong church that has more than just a Sunday meeting and sadly enough that has become difficult after 2020 because many of the churches I was just talking to a brother in Christ that lives in South Carolina earlier today about that and how some of the churches that were having several Services a week when covet hit and they shut down when they came back they stopped having the Sunday night service they stopped having the Tuesday night prayer meetings they stopped doing a lot of things and they never got back to those things but I will say I believe that there are places out there you man listen when we were doing drugs bro we would go to the ends of the Earth to find out I think if we would be just as diligent in looking for the community's there's other people that are just like us looking for that this church CT Community Transformation Church that I'm a part of now ma'am we've got life groups we've got Kingdom leadership classes on Mondays and there's always something going on that you can get around the family of God and do things if you want to now I say that and I live in Houston you live in the mountains somewhere out behind everything so it may not always be that easy but I think honestly man I'll say this how bad do you want it if you want something bad enough I think you can how is community impacted you Jeff like you talked about your church what all the stuff that you have going on at your home church and the connectivity right you're connected to the men at the program you lead how does that impact your day-to-day walk having those people that surround you it's I think it's huge the reality of it is the way that I start my day I think sets the tone for my day I get up early with my coffee and my Bible and I sit at least for an hour with the Lord some morning as I get up earlier and sit longer I couldn't I don't know what my life would be like without that I look into the face of God before I even look at my wife I wake up before her but then what to answer your question I think it's I think it helps me drastically to be around good people throughout my day I don't honestly man I never tried anything else I found something that worked and that's just what I did I don't risk today I could go just I think I could go to any neighborhood or any place and be fine but I think it's important to pick and choose wisely and it's biblical who we surround ourselves with yeah it's the whole Bad Company corrupt character thing and the opposite is also true good friends and good Community helped build us up and help you pull us out of our mess and yeah having those people man it's it's it's so vital and I think you make a good point man about if you want it bad enough like and 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 though 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 on that live 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 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 ministry we were able to because of our fundraising efforts and good stewardship we were able to purchase 50 Vehicles 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 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 that'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 think that's that speaks back though you mean Sharon we want to show them how to have a good time right and I think so many of us have forgot how to have fun outside of drugs and relearning that part of community is like having people that you can have fun with and not having to be intoxicated to do it that's another skill to learn for people that are gonna the guy was talking last night he was talking about his his addiction story and he's like I used to drink when I was happy I drank when I was sad I drank when I had a good day I drink when I had a bad day and that became the center of his entire world and it's like there are other ways to celebrate and have fun other than turning for me it was a needle maybe a bottle or whatever and learning that part of it man I really loved that and I don't want to gloss over the fact that you said the program's free so to clarify that if somebody happens to come across this Jeff and they want to reach out to project Hope they've got no money they got no insurance that's the place for them to go they can reach out to you for help 877 -491-3816 and another thing that I really admire about this program is if you are on the admissions team we have several men that are on the admissions team and several women that are on the admissions team it's not an option to not answer your phone these the ones that choose to do that know that and I love their hearts they have a heart to help anybody it doesn't matter if it's the middle of the night doesn't matter if it's Sunday afternoon I've seen him get up and walk out of a church service to take a phone call the heart of this ministry is incredible and and also man if somebody's far away from us and they're desperate and we pray about it and we feel like they are serious man we'll put them on a bus because we know that people by the time they get to that broken place we know that they're broke and and it's our heart and one of the things that I've noticed it's really a little different here is although we have policies in place concerning relatives like wives and things like that man we deal with everyone on an individual basis we've got some guys here that we come in and we find out about their husband and wife Dynamic may not be the best maybe they don't get to talk after two weeks like most people get a phone call after two weeks it might be a month and then it's monitored and then it might be a few months before they get a visit we just man our whoever God sends to us that's our priority not the relationship not the family Dynamic not any of that because until we get this individual right they're not going to be good for anybody anyways and we the last thing we want to do is send somebody back Half Baked to half cooked whatever you want yeah hopefully not baked we're not doing that anymore we're speaking of a cake but fat boys all right my brain yeah man so 12 months though right the program's still a year 12 months and then we offer a six-month internship for anybody that wants to serve in Ministry or just wants a little extra footing we really encourage it because I really think that's where the real growth happens it's one thing to be in the men's home when somebody's always telling you everything but quite another to be like just down the street in the staff and intern house and have to show up for work yourself and be responsible for your own money and things like that and it's it's good it helps them to grow yeah that's one of the things that I think in the recovery world like the soft skills that are just non-existent after living the livestock and had it for so many years learning that and relearning that just the Practical things the value like you said of showing up on time to work committing to a task and following through and finishing it and even some of the other stuff learning how to manage money right and getting credit back together and all the things that are just often a mess after going through the lifestyle of addiction having an opportunity to Really fix all that it's so important yeah I have a great testimony that I can share really quickly Michael Jacoby who heads up our he's a staff member now but he graduated just a little bit over a year ago and didn't have a driver's license or anything and he was able to take his intern pay and the bonuses he gets for fundraising and all of that and within eight months he was able to save enough money to fly to Florida to pay five thousand dollars to the courts so that he could get his driver's license back and then a few months after that he was able to have enough save to buy a car and then he just recently two weeks ago he moved into his own apartment and so it can be done in Ministry a lot of people think that you it's hard to make a living in Ministry and it how bad do you want it all goes back to that same little phrase that I use with our men a lot how bad do you really want it I just want to ask you a question so on 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 guests 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 a 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 a different program and I know how hard it is to put those funds together and to see the Lord provide them for you guys like that is such an encouragement 50 Vehicles across all your centers what a testimony 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 2003 what year did you get out 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 answer I'm sorry I when I've 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 good that's another 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 the 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-minded and I was chatting with you earlier and was supposed to send the time back at eight and you got to hit send friends like you've got to hit send on 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 on 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 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 continue 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 lives it's our it's 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 eight o'clock at night foreign [Music]