Transformed Lives

	Personal Testimonies
*Names can be changed for confidentiality*

Tod

I didn't realize at the age of fourteen that I would be in a battle for my life. I loved living life on the edge. It was then I started experimenting with drugs and alcohol. In 1983, my father was murdered. That was the pivotal moment that threw me into the pit of hopelessness. The battle waged on with eight DWI's and numerous years in jail, two failed marriages and a grand jury indictment. Trying to fill the void in my life with everything but Jesus, I started attending chapel in jail. There I learned how to pray. I asked the Lord to show me what He wanted me to do. Within a week , I heard about Teen Challenge. That was the beginning of victory! I completed the program successfully in March of 1997 and began working full time in the heavy duty truck industry where I am still employed today. I am now celebrating a life of hope with my children, Tyler and Leslea. I thank God and all who are affiliated with Teen Challenge for laying down the blueprints to the foundation of a life of hope. I give our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ all the praise and glory! Matthew 6:33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

Grace

I was the young girl who sat next to you in church. I gave JESUS my heart at age nine. I never gave Him my life until I was 21. I was in a youth group and went to summer camp all through my teenage years. Even through all this, I still lost HOPE. I couldn't hear God's voice because of the hurt and sin in my life. For years I had emotional and mental problems. The more I tried to help myself, the deeper I fell into my own pit of depression. I lost hope and wanted to die. But GOD IS FAITHFUL! I entered Teen Challenge February 6, 1989. The Lord restored my mind. He healed me of a chemical imbalance. "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or fear but a spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind." I clung to that promise! Jesus gave me hope again! After Teen Challenge, I went on to Bible College and got married in 1995. I have two beautiful children and today work with my husband in the RV business. God allowed me to go through the pain and rejection in my life so I could minister to others. Hold on to His promises! Claim them in your life! God allows us to get to the end of our rope. He longs for us to let go into His loving hands. Let go! He is able to do more than we could ever think or imagine. My prayer is, "God make me a better example. I want to be Your reflection of grace to my husband, my children, and to the world around me. Lord, use me!"

Tom

I grew up in a Christian home and somewhere along the way, I had confused religion and the relationship that God had truly wanted. I thought if I did good, then God would love me; if I didn't, He wouldn't. I also ran hard and fast from God's call on my life into drugs and a life of crime, despair and aloneness. Through a series of miracles and a desperate surrendering to Christ, I now found myself in the Teen Challenge Program. The week I finished the program, I found myself on a mission trip to the Middle East with the Church, where I serve full time on staff in the office of Global and Urban Outreach. I also pastor a growing congregation and outreach center in the heart of the city where I live. Teen Challenge was an instrument in the hand of God to equip me for the ministries where I now serve. Thank you Jesus, for using Teen Challenge.

Patty

Looking back on my early beginnings in my walk with the Lord, I am extremely thankful for the ministry of Teen Challenge, which provided an integral part of my foundation in the Lord. Their daily schedule of godly activities in a loving environment really ministered to me during a critical time in my life. Thank you so much for your support of his ministry, which has been the springboard of so many who are in vital ministries today. My husband and I work with Wycliffe Bible Translators helping a language group numbering about 6500. We are excited about what God is doing among the people there. I am a Testimony At Work!

David

Approximately ten years ago, my life was in a dismal valley of despair and selfishness due to unresolved hurts. As a teenager with no real purpose other than partying weekends and every available moment in-between, I was angry at the world and felt empty with my life ahead of me. I rebelled at most authority figures out of disenchantment from a broken home life. At the final phase of my difficulties, I was given two basic choices. First, I could allow the State to sentence me to their programs and systems until I attained the age of 18 or I could try a completely new way of life, cease from complaining about my parents' problems, and trust the Teen Challenge Program. Teen Challenge believed in my potential and invited me to focus on who I was and how I could be a better person. They offered me a chance to contemplate what life is about in the desert (away from society) for nearly a year, and emerge a brand new adult with a strong enough character base to stay out of trouble and possibly have a fulfilling life.

Michael

My mother served the Lord with all her heart, while my father served the Lord halfheartedly due to his alcoholism and smoking. I realize now that God had His hand on me. I left my home state at age 18 to go to college and play football. After four years of education and sports, I settled in and started a family and began working in the construction industry. As I began to succeed at my job, upper level positions came with upper level pay. Slowly, I began to neglect my family as I started to intensify my use of alcohol and began using drugs. The secular world with its quick fixes didn't give my life back. I clearly see now that only Jesus could do that. Through the support of a very special friend, the Lord opened the doors of Teen Challenge to me. This was the beginning of my brand new life. God, using Teen Challenge as a tool, changed my life. As the Lord promised through His word, He restored to me all that I had lost, my family, my job and a life full of ministry.

Names can be changed for confidentiality

"Thank God for Teen Challenge!"

Reverend Billy Graham