Adult Teen Challenge

Regular worship and chapel times are an integral part of the Adult Teen Challenge program.

Ph ot os c ourt esy of ad ult and t een ch allen ge of Tex as

Adult Teen Challenge changes lives in Azle

By van ess a ph am

Just two years ago, Adult and Teen Challenge of Texas celebrated fifty years of helping men and women recover from serious addictions and rise to become successful members of society.

What many in the Azle area may not realize is that this nonprofit organization has a men’s campus serving the Fort Worth area right here in Azle.

Before it moved to Azle, the campus was opened in Weatherford when Pastor Mark Crawford offered to lease his three bedroom home, and the program welcomed its first students in January of 2008.

Not long after that, Dave Woodcock, a Teen Challenge of the Midlands graduate, was invited to speak at the Azle Ministerial Alliance and shared his vision to expand the campus beyond the three-bedroom house.

It was at this meeting that Pastor Paul Brownback of The Abbey Church in Azle tapped Woodcock on the shoulder and told him he wanted to show him something. He then showed Woodcock the building his church was selling.

Adult Teen Challenge purchased the seven and a half acre church property at 1099 Flat Rock Road in March 2009. Since then, the program has admitted over 650 men and has a 78 percent success rate.

This success rate reflects not just graduates, but men who graduate and don’t return to their old lifestyles.

Like other Teen Challenge programs across the state, the Azle men’s campus is a nonprofit and offers a yearlong, faith-based residential recovery program for men who struggle with a variety of addictions.

“It can be any kind of addiction,” Azle campus Director Greg Ambroson said. “We’ve had a lot who come in with gambling addictions. Other addictions are pornography, gaming, and the most common ones are drug or alcohol addictions.”

Acceptance into the program is based on a referral process. One can be referred by individuals, pastors, other programs, attorneys, or they can be mandated by the courts. “Some of them ask the courts if they can come,” Ambroson said. “But ultimately, the person has to want to be here.”

Just last July, the campus opened a new men’s dormitory that houses up to 48 men and has four rooms with 12 beds and wardrobes each. The Azle campus currently has 50 residents.

When asked why the program is residential, Ambroson said for accountability, but “Often they’re in toxic situations they need to get away from.”

The program isn’t just about taking these men out of their situation, either; it’s also about getting them back on their feet so they can re-enter society to become contributing members. Still, some graduates go beyond even

that.

“There are graduates who are pastors or have gone back to college and are doing incredible things,” Ambroson said. “It’s amazing some of the things these men are doing in our community.”

One example is Cody Joplin, who graduated from the Azle men’s campus in 2011. After graduating, he began an internship at the Azle facility but didn’t complete it.

“I messed up by drinking and left,” Joplin said.

From there Joplin found himself on a downward spiral.

“Then I was working a lot, so there was no time for God. Then I slipped up and got into a car accident and went to jail.”

After hitting rock bottom, Joplin made it a goal to return to Adult Teen Challenge and finish his internship. It was that decision that led to his success.

Upon completing the internship, he was asked to take a staff position in the education department and taught classes. During that time, he became involved in helping lead the youth group at his church where he met and married his wife.

Today, Joplin and his wife are youth pastors at Victory Christian Center in Azle. He has been sober for four years, and he and his wife have a newborn baby.

Joplin still works at the Azle campus, too, where he is now the Graduate and Program Coordinator. He has his hands full with his job, church, and young family, but it’s clear he has come a long way from where he started.

When asked what was instrumental in him getting back on track, Joplin replied with one word: “surrender.”

“I knew I needed help, so I asked God to handle it,” he said. “I stopped trying to do what I wanted to do and just did what I needed to do.”

Ambroson credits graduates like Joplin’s success to the fact that the Teen Challenge program is cooperative and faith based.

“People can’t grow alone,” he said. “You need others to help you grow— you grow in relationship with the Lord and with each other, and that is the key to the program’s success.”

The program consists of three phases. The first phase includes orientation, induction, and adjustment Students stay busy with projects from soap making (above) to coffee roasting (below) as a part of fundraising to support their rehabilitation. Ph ot os by Van ess a Ph am

to living without addictive substances. The second phase requires learning how to live a life that glorifies God, isn’t controlled by something external, and involves replacing lies with truth. The third and last phase is coping and preparing for the outside world and implements a society re-entry plan.

Several program components are essential for completing these phases. These include group and individual counseling, parenting classes, spiritual support and worship, relapse prevention, anger management, drug and alcohol education, societal and recreational activities, vocational rehabilitation, and sober living for graduates. Ultimately, the goal of the program is to give men a new lease on life so they can start over, and Ambroson says none of it would be possible without community support.

“Our success story is the city’s success story really—is the community support,” he said.

Although Adult Teen Challenge charges an admission fee, Ambroson said the students are not charged for services or tuition. Instead, they have fundraisers and accept donations for items students make and package on campus, such as decorative wooden crosses, candles, bath products, silk

screened T-shirts, and their own line of Columbian and Brazilian coffee.

Student sponsorships are also available for $35 per month, and sponsors can get to know their student.

Ambroson said sponsorships go toward a student’s room and board, which costs about $1500 per month.

Anyone can donate on the Azle Men’s Campus website as well at fortworthrehab.org.

Kid’s Health 101

Give your kids and grandkids an amazing head start toward a lifetime of good health simply by following the safe, effective and inexpensive protocols in Bruce West’s Kids’ Health 101 article.

B y J e s s i c a B r a c e , D . C . , C . C . S . P .

When it comes to the health of your kids and grandkids, drugs, vaccines, and even invasive procedures like tonsillectomies and more start early and come often. Can you remember back to high school, when your first basic English class was called English 101? Well to start your kids and grandkids off on the right foot toward a healthy life, you will need to use what I like to call Kids’ Health 101.

In a nutshell, if you practice Kids’ Health 101 outlined in the simple protocols in this article, your kids and grandkids will have an amazing head start toward a lifetime of good health. Everything in Kids’ Health 101 is simple, basic, pragmatic, safe, effective, inexpensive, time tested, and based on common sense.

The Basics of Kids’ Health 101

1. Eat a whole foods diet, with less fast- and processed-foods and more whole foods.

2. Practice alternatives to chronic use of antibiotics, prescription drugs, and surgeries. These alternatives will be primarily a healthy diet, real nutritional supplements, pure water, and exercise.

What to Do …

1. For Kids Who Are Exhausted, Depressed and Have Emotional Problems

If your kids are chronically tired, exhausted, sullen, depressed, or are having emotional problems like anxiety, rage, anorexia, nervousness, apprehension, uneasiness, vague or morbid fears, hostility, hallucinations, ADD, ADHD, and a debilitating feeling that something horrible will happen, there is a possibility that they are suffering from B‐Complex Deficiency Syndrome (BCDS). They desperately need real vitamin B. B-Complex delivers a wide variety of B vitamins that the body needs to function optimally.

2. For Kids Who Suffer from Chronic Pain and Infections If your kids suffer with “growing pains,” which are really a calcium deficiency, feed them real bioavailable calcium. If they get chronic colds, bronchitis, ear infections, flu, gut infections, fevers, muscle cramps, or are always tense and uneasy, give them bioavailable calcium. And if they can’t sit still in school, can’t concentrate, or are having chronic joint or muscle aches, give them bioavailable calcium.

3. To Fight Colds, Flu, and Infections Without Dangerous Antibiotics

If your kids can’t get over a simple cold, or just chronically get colds, flu, coughs, sinus, ear infections, etc., give them real vitamin complexes of A, C and bioflavonoids as well as calcium lactate.

4. For Skin and Gut Problems, Allergies and Asthma: The Magic of Cod Liver Oil

If your kids have any kind of skin problems, gut problems, allergies, or asthma give them cod liver oil or a quality fish oil. And if they are having any of the first three problems discussed in this article: 1) emotional, 2) chronic aches/pains, 3) chronic colds/flu/sinus/bronchitis/ear infections, add cod liver oil or a quality fish oil to their protocol.

It is important to get ahead of the common cold or any other virus and infection that have the possibility of developing into pneumonia. Here are some interesting facts from a recent article from the New England Journal of Medicine of kids who are hospitalized with pneumonia: • 70% were younger than five years old. • Most of the kids had a history of asthma. • 66% of the pneumonia was caused by viruses, and only 8% by bacteria • Almost three-quarters of the viruses were identified as the common colds, flu, sinus, bronchitis viruses. • 21% of the kids required intensive care.

There is really so much information available to us pertaining to children’s health and diet....how to fight infections.... and overall health. Please feel free to discuss any of these scenarios with Dr. Jessica Brace or Dr. Matt Mishio at Brace Chiropractic and Wellness Center on Main Street in Azle. We carry an entire line of kids’ supplements called Springboard. They do a fantastic job of making supplements fun and taste good, because most children, even mine, become a little picky when it comes to taking supplements!