Dear Family Member:
This is our favorite time of the year – Graduation!
Did you know that all our employees are graduates of the program – Wayne Dooley, Program Director; Tracy Wise and Robert Hassler, Work Therapy Supervisors. These men have a passion for this ministry and choose to give back to help the men coming behind them. Who can better help their brothers than men who have ‘walked in their shoes.’
All three of these men came through DAP with no money and the scholarship fund, presently called “My Brother’s Keeper”, paid their way through the program. Family member, your donations made it possible for Wayne, Tracy and Robert to experience a new life in Christ with Christian wives by their sides to support them and the ministry.
Graduation will be held on Saturday, May 5, 2018, 5:30 p.m.
Campus Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church, Linda Hall, 11057 Hill Drive, Loma Linda, CA.
Please RSVP at 909-783-1094 by April 20, 2018 if you would like to attend.
I grew up in New Jersey in an Adventist household. I played a variety of sports. Every year my entire family enjoyed vacations together. Life was good! In high school, I started going down the wrong road, wanting to fit in with the wrong crowd. At the age of 18, I had more freedom to do what I wanted to do. I chose to party and stay out late on Friday nights and Saturdays. After I stopped going to church, I was introduced to drugs and alcohol. My addiction started off slowly. Soon it gradually grew to where I could not function until I had drugs in my system. I did anything I could to get the drugs, including stilling from family, friends and even my employer.
I entered four different rehab programs and did not stop using drugs. Feeling extremely depressed, I stopped by my grandmother’s house and she told me that she had seen DAP’s TV program, “Drugs Close to Home”. After mentioning their residential program, she asked me to give the Harris’s a call. After my phone interview with Mr. Harris, I packed my bags and two days later I entered the program.
Upon arrival, reality hit me, and I realized that I was in ‘another’ rehab. Two days later, I told Mr. Harris that I was ready to leave. I packed my bags and he dropped me off at the bus station. I called all my family to see if they would help me get back to New Jersey. They all said no and encouraged me to complete the program. Later that day, I went back to DAP. After one week, I decided to walk off the premises for a cigarette. A staff member found me and discovered that I had not followed the guidelines of the program and dismissed me.
Again, I found myself at the bus station trying to find a way back to New Jersey. I was denied any help from my family and was stranded for four days and three nights. I went through a lot during those miserable days including being robbed at gun point. After that death blow from Satan, I prayed and asked God to please get me out of that environment. Of course, he placed me back at DAP, the place I didn’t want to go. However, over time I accepted the fact that I was trapped in California and decided to work with the program. And I’m glad I did.
DAP has taught me discipline, respect, self-value, and most importantly, how to have a personal relationship with Christ. Without Him, nothing is possible. During my time here, I have built that relationship with Jesus and I continue to do so every day.
I have decided to live in California. God has blessed me with an excellent job in my field, Commercial Refrigeration. I have built a healthy relationship with my family. Placing God first, I will continue to move forward in my life. I am excited to see what He holds for me in the future to come. Thank you, Family Member, for making it possible for me to have a second chance in life.
I never dreamed of becoming an addict. My life had become so unmanageable, that living in a false sense of reality had become my norm. I suffered for so long and missed out on so many things in life, but in the end, I survived because I allowed the Lord to do for me what I couldn’t do on my own.
The thought of DAP was purely accidental. Or was it? After being on another two-year run with meth and heroin, among other things, I found my way back home where my mother encouraged me to attend a Bible study my family had been a part of. It was at that Bible study where I gave my life to the Lord, and almost immediately did His goodness began to impact my life.
Before leaving the Bible study, my aunt gave me the number to DAP which she had stored away for almost five years with me in mind. Talk about God’s perfect timing! Two days later, I made the call to Mr. and Mrs. Harris, and a couple days thereafter, I was checking into the recovery home in Grand Terrace, where for the next 18 months, my life would change for the good.
Life at DAP was different for me at first. I was a stranger to structure and discipline, but I felt the need to better myself. For the first time in a while, I was being exposed to right living. Being lost in my addiction for almost 15 years, the devil had taken that away from me.
Mr. Harris taught me the skills of working hard and just to stand and be my own man. Mrs. Harris introduced me to a beautiful relationship with the Lord. Through her guidance and constant reminders of the Lord’s faithfulness, I was baptized and extremely blessed to be in my position today.
My life has transformed since December 8, 2015. I feel better, look better and appreciate everything the Lord has restored in me. I have been working at Costco Distribution Center where the hard work and humility that I gained through DAP has been utilized. I am also in the process of completing my general studies to transfer and begin a Radiology Program.
The relationship with my family is my greatest blessing. Their support and unconditional love has been a key factor in my growth, along with God’s hands. I understood myself only after I destroyed myself. And only in the process of fixing myself, did I know who I really was. Life is great. God is Greater. DAP says, “Every life is worth saving.” Thank you, Family Member, for helping to save mine.
No one ever says, “When I grow up I want to be an addict.” I had a great childhood! Loving family, attended private school and enjoyed life to the fullest. In the 11th grade, once I tasted alcohol and drugs, my life changed forever. Slowly I became an entirely different person. I lost my innocence and the image of God.
During my early 20’s, I was introduced to opiates. I started stealing the pills from the company I worked for at that time. The pills sucked the life right out of me. I was in the clutches of the devil! He had me in his death grip where he wanted me. I was a slave for him. No more joy in my life.
For 15 years I was under the influence of some type of drug. My mind was consumed with how I was going to get high. Steal, cheat, lie, swindle church folk out of money. Posing as a saint, I was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Jesus had a close eye on me! He had a plan for me. As I was hurting the body of Christ, He was devising a plan to pull me out of utter darkness into His marvelous light.
Jesus gave me the strength to tell my parents and family that I had a horrible addiction to opiates. One of the elders who I had taken money from knew of Drug Alternative Program. She gave the card to my mother and my mother gave it to me. It took me three weeks to call and thank God I did. The DAP family welcomed me with open arms and warm hearts.
A damaged man like me was transformed by the Holy Spirit. I learned discipline, integrity and to worship daily at DAP. I learned to be a man of God. But not without a fight. The number one rule of the program is to be like CHRIST!! Have a saving personal relationship with Him. I learned to cry, to share my past, my present and my future. My senses were awakened! My future is bright! I will be a pastor for the Seventh-day Adventist Church and live life full of joy forevermore. To God be the glory!!! Forever and ever!!! And praise God for people like you who show me God’s love ‘with skin on it.
As we witness the miraculous change God has brought about in the lives of these three DAP graduates, we can’t help but rejoice – – not only in the way God transforms each of us but also in the way He takes us, when we need Him most and brings about the changes we cannot make on our own. This is the story of our graduates this year – – and every year.
How thankful we are for Family Members like you who faithfully support the DAP vision of our “My Brother’s Keeper” Scholarship Fund. Your gift of $100 or $50, or possibly $1000 or $500, every gift of any size, helps testify to the power of God at work in the lives of our men here at DAP. Thank you for all you are doing today and every day.
With Grateful Hearts,
