And I said, you know what, I’ll give it a shot, I will go to Teen Challenge and see what it is.
My name is Jose A. I come from the Bronx, New York. I was addicted to 90 milligrams of methadone, 20 pills every other day, 20 bags of heroin every day. I came to Teen Challenge because I got out of control, I was out of control. I didn’t know what to do anymore. I tried a couple of detoxes, seven day detox. I went to like seven detoxes within a year to try to get off pills, heroine, methadone, and whenever I was hooked to. One day, my pastor had asked me if I wanted to try a Christian program to see if that will work for me. I was really not a believer in Christ. I have a wife that is faithfully a Christian woman that I’m married to for five years. And she just kept praying for me.
And you know, every day I was leaving to go to my methadone program, go to my cop man, go to my pain medication doctor and just to try to get my fix. But every day I saw my wife praying and fasting and praying and fasting. And every day I will go to work. And one day I just asked her why are you praying so much? Why are you reading the Bible so much when we have everything we need? And she told me and her response was I’m not praying for me. I’m praying for you. I’m praying that you can get your life together, and that God can touch your heart. And as I was going to work, I thought about that, and she actually read the Bible every day to me and put music, Christian music on. And it’s like, I mean, I just didn’t know what to do any more. So my pastor told me about Teen Challenge. And my wife told me about Teen Challenge. They knew about Teen Challenge. And I said, you know what, I’ll give it a shot, I will go to Teen Challenge and see what it is. I went into my detox, one more time, went to detox. And that day, I believe that God was speaking to me.
Because the day that I came out of that detox, my pastor, my wife, that was supposed to be waiting for me downstairs in the morning and bring me into Teen Challenge. When I got downstairs, and I was waiting in front of the building, I didn’t see my wife, I didn’t see my Pastor. I had my money with me, I had my wallet and my credit card. And I just thought about just wanting to just try to get a quick fix cause I came out of there sick. And I asked this security guy, please can I use your phone because I just got out of detox. And he told me to sit down, I’m a pastor. And you know, that was just God talking to me. And you know, he brought me a pastor, he brought me someone that can help me right in front of the hospital just when I got out of detox. God is doing some tremendous work in my life in Teen Challenge. I mean, just reading the Bible, praying every single day, worshiping God every day, the music. I mean, I’m so full of joy right now. I mean, it’s like I know that God wants me, He wants me to do the right thing, He wants me to be the man that I was when I first met my family, when I first met my wife. I mean, I have joy in my life. Now I have Christ in my life. I can live, you know, I can go home and be with my wife and kids and not worrying about having to go to the cop man, not worrying about where I’m going to get my next fix anymore. I know when I get out of Teen Challenge, I’m going to continue with the ministry. I’m going to continue serving God. I’m going to continue praying to Him every single morning. I’m going to read the Bible. I’m gonna listen to music because for me, that’s the only way to go. I mean, I have Christ in my heart.
