Click here to view in your browser, or to join the Heartland Recovery e-mail list.
“What you need is God to intervene in your life…”
Paul battled alcohol addiction for most of his life and although he tried to get help, it just never seemed to work. After crashing his car, Paul told himself, “That’s it! You’re gonna die if you don’t quit doing this.” With some help from his sister-in-law, they looked for a faith-based program and found Heartland. “This gave me a good solid start. I have a good church home when I leave here so I’m ready for that, looking forward to it.”
What about you, have you headed down a wrong road? Through his testimony Paul now encourages others, “What you need is God to intervene in your life and to follow Him.” Please take the first step to getting on track.
“Don’t let your past mistakes influence and control who you are…”
How does someone from Anchorage, Alaska, end up in the middle of Missouri cornfields for addiction recovery?
Brian grew up in a destructive house around addicts who were both physically and mentally abusive. He left home at 16 and lived with a Christian family for a time, which is when he first experienced God and going to church. He admits, though, that he still wanted to go his own way.
Spending the past year in the Heartland Men’s Recovery Program has begun a change in Brian. Experiencing the love of God and the joy that comes from serving others played a key part in that. Now, he encourages others, “Don’t let your past mistakes influence and control who you are, or let them define how you’re gonna spend the rest of your life. It’s not a good way to live… it can be destructive and disheartening. Once you let God into your life, He can take all that away from you.”
“In my moments of deepest despair, God snatched me…
Austin came into the Heartland Recovery program with nothing. Multiple arrests and a parole violation had him facing up to 30 years of jail time. When the option of going through the Heartland Recovery Program was put on the table, Austin thought he’d get sober and try living a life the right way so his parents could be proud of him. “I didn’t realize the depth and gravity of that ‘right way,'” he now realizes. “In my moments of deepest despair, God snatched me. He used my own will and my own consequences and He turned it for good.”
After graduation, Austin looks forward to being able to point others in the right direction, and has a message for people on the same path. “Don’t give up! Don’t quit before your miracle happens.”
Recovery Staff Highlights – Dwayne Aldridge
Dwayne spent most of his life in programs of one kind or another and describes the timeline of those years as a broken and hopeless existence, followed by desperation and despair. “I cried out to God for help and He made Himself known to me. My life didn’t change immediately in that moment but over the course of the next two decades, I began to learn what it meant to have a relationship with him.”
A big turning point in Dwayne’s life came when he was sitting in a classroom and felt the Lord ask him, “What good would it do if you went to hell sober?” After years of pursuing sobriety and fighting addiction, Dwayne realized that knowing Christ is where true power comes from. “There was so much more to what He was wanting to do with me and in my life than simply just get me sober.”
Today as a Group Leader and teacher at the Heartland Men’s Recovery Program, Dwayne regularly encourages people to do more than just get clean. “What I’ve found to be something that was very effective for me was that I needed a healthy body of Believers to be attached to. I needed a community of people to come around me because we’re prone to try to do this kind of stuff on our own.”
If you’re looking for help to get on the path to recovery and the life that God has planned for you, contact Heartland Recovery today. Staff members and our church community are here to help you every step of the way.
“We almost died…”
“There is a way out! If I had a billboard, I’d put that on it!” exclaims Sheena, after successfully completing the Heartland Women’s Recovery Program. Wrong decisions in life led her down the path of drugs, to the point where she and her husband both overdosed. “We almost died. And we knew after that it was life or death… We needed to make a change.” A month later they arrived at Heartland.
After experiencing the love of God through the people in the Heartland Community, Sheena says, “We have both changed. We are new creations. I never really understood that until I was able to see it with my own eyes. There is a way out. But you’ve got to make the first step.”