We are here to help people with life controlling addictions in a program that is long-term and faith-based. We allow plenty of time for our students to work hand-in-hand with staff to target the underlying issues causing addictive behaviors and to conquer their demons in a safe and structured home.
Testimonials
Have you ever felt so trapped in despair, that the darkness brought on by that desperation had a tangible weight so immense that breathing became an effort? Have you ever been crushed by the darkness not knowing if you would ever experience light again? People are being crushed by their own chains of addiction and imprisoned every day in hopelessness. My name is Sharlene, and this is my story of desperation and redemption.
I used to go to the School of Discipleship at Rocky Mountain Calvary in Colorado Springs so I could follow what I felt God had called me to do. I felt like I was actually walking in God's plan for me while I was in school, but that was before my addiction. I had high aspirations to become a true disciple of His Word, and to speak to the lost, bringing them into the light to be found. I had less than six months until I was going to graduate and take my first discipleship mission to Africa, and suddenly, I was in a darkness that surrounded me in a way I never thought possible; my addiction came on like a bandit.
"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy."
John 10:10
Addiction, for me, started out as a few drinks each night. Quickly, a few drinks became heavy drinking every day until my alcoholism turned into a life controlling meth addiction that I never could have imagined on my worst day. I was a student at the School of Discipleship at Rocky Mountain Calvary, this was not supposed to happen, not to me. I had lost everything within eight months' time. My entire life disappeared, my marriage, my car, my career, and all of my hard-earned savings. My family had disowned me and kicked me out of their house. I had only one desire, one care in the world at that time, and it was a selfish one. All I could focus on was where to get my next fix. Every relationship I had was in shambles, including my relationship with the Lord, and it was nobody's fault but my own. I no longer could feel that oh-so-familiar presence of His I had come to depend on. I was running the streets, utterly alone. I had no other means to support my habit, but I had to make a way. I turned to prostitution to make the money that I needed to keep myself and my addiction alive, but just barely. I was in complete bondage, a literal slave to my fleshly desires. I had strayed so far from the path, losing hope, I saw no end in sight.
Before Teen Challenge of the Rocky Mountains Women's Program, drug and alcohol addiction stole my existence away from me. The girl I once was, no longer exsisted. If there was any hope of getting her back, I could not see even a shimmer of that dream. At the end of my two and a half years of addiction, my situation was soundly fixed at that rock bottom point that all addicts come to know at one point or another. I was living in a van, in an extremely abusive relationship with an abusive man, and to make matters even more complex, I was also pregnant. I felt like this was going to be my life, I was here and deserved to be here, and there was nobody that could help me, or even cared to do so. I seemingly had no one that I could turn to for anything. The last thing I wanted was for my unborn child to be born into this situation with me, but that day was fast approaching.
I gave birth six weeks early, and it was no longer about me. Lily Grace came into the world and, due to the condition I was in, I could not give her what she deserved. My daughter became the "why" in my life, she became my reason for getting better, and getting out. She gave me a new hope. The Lord knew what He was doing when He gave her to me. The day she was born was the first day that I had felt alive in several painful and dark years. Lily Grace's entry into this world, gave me hope again. I made a choice in that moment, a choice to change, to get better, for the two of us. I wanted to give my daughter the world. I finally understood what love was and how it was to have that sort of bond with another person. From the first moment that I looked into her eyes, everything inside me changed. My heart began to beat again, as if it had been lying dormant in the darkness and despair that was my life. Lily Grace, God's gift to me, was the catalyst that drove me back to Jesus.
I remember sitting in the hospital in the Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit with Lily Grace, thanking God for her. I then realized the gravity of the situation. I knew my life could not continue to operate in the same manner it had been. My baby deserved so much more than what I had to offer her. All I wanted was to keep her, and be her mother, and provide her with a beautiful life...