The Difference with Matt and Kendal Hagee – “The Heart of Addiction”
George Thomas CEO of Adult Teen Challenge of Texas and his wife provide teens and adults freedom from addiction and other life controlling issues through Christ -centered solutions.
today on the difference we address the
heart of addiction finding Freedom
through cry centered Solutions I grabbed
my gun and I shot up my house and I sat
there on the couch with this 3030 rifle
up underneath my chin and I pulled the
trigger today on the difference we
address the heart of addiction we all
have been affected or know someone who
has been affected by addiction today
we’re speaking with the director of the
women’s program and the C CEO of adult
teen challenge here in Texas welcome to
the difference Dolly and George
Thomas has God placed a precious dream
in your heart one that you’ve gently
tucked away perhaps it feels
overwhelming too big or too costly and
you wonder what If I Stumble where do I
begin take heart when God plants a Dream
Within you he also gives you everything
you need to make it a reality our part
is to stay close to his word if God
brings you to it he will surely bring
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sdream welcome back to the difference
joining us today are George and Dolly
Thomas George you are the director and
CEO of adult teen challenge that’s right
so how did these two work get smashed
together adult and teen well for so many
years uh Teen Challenge was a household
name in the drug recovery area and we
would get questions all the time about
well do you just serve teens and we
don’t we serve you know people of all uh
ages uh back in the 50s a lot of the
drug addiction issues were with
teenagers correct and so we started off
as teenage evangelism and then within
many years we turned the the name into
Teen Challenge and then we realized it’s
time to change the name again
soad exactly and so in 2014 we changed
the name officially to adult and Teen
Challenge well the work that you’re
doing is changing lives and many of
those lives have sat down with our team
to uh share the testimonies of what
God’s been doing with them I want our
audience to meet
Floyd my mom um died of a heroin
overdose when she was 28 years old and
my dad was a heroin addict for for um 20
years and when I used to see my dad on
the Street in Harlem and where I’m from
um my dad would run away from me because
the type of addict that he was it was
really bad he had abscesses over his all
over his body I mean just a hardcore um
drug addict and he didn’t want me to see
him like
that one day I was hanging out with um
my friends on on the stoop um in Harlem
and um I saw this guy U approaching me
and um he had a suit on and and
he he had a suit on and um it was my dad
his well dressed and had a Bible he took
me upstairs and told my grandmother that
he had become a Christian in Teen
Challenge and he was doing well he was
living out in New Jersey and as I became
older my dad would always tell me about
the Lord and he had married this
wonderful wonderful lady so my dad would
always preach to me about Teen Challenge
you know as I got older I started you
know um you know hustling in the streets
and just doing what kids do and in the
city and I was happy that he got saved
but you know I didn’t really think I I
needed Jesus and especially when I
started you know drinking alcohol and
beer alcohol Reaper you know so I was
like but Dad you know um you needed Teen
Challenge you know you was a heron
addict but you know I’m just smoking
weed you know whatever I know you know I
I I I don’t really need
[Music]
that my life begin to just spiral out of
control but then it you know it just
became I came became addicted to it and
I remember smoking smoking it and asking
God to help me stop but I I had
deteriorated so bad that I would wind up
living in an abandoned building in
Harlem
[Music]
I was in an abandoned building and you
know I tell my father hey Teen Challenge
what were you talking about what was
that you
said and he took me to Brooklyn Teen
Challenge where he graduated from and um
um that’s that’s that’s how how um I I
came to Teen Challenge and Teen
Challenge has been the the best decision
other than accepting the Lord um and and
and gave me my dad back uh my sister is
an evangelist today she’s a graduate of
Teen Challenge she graduated from the
Philadelphia teen challenge um um this
next year would be the I I will have
been here for 10 years so as since I
graduated from Teen Challenge in 1982
I’ve been with Teen Challenge ever
since so right there you got to see the
story of Floyd who if you were to meet
him today he’d tell you about his
grandchildren he’d tell you about his
children he’d tell you about the decades
that he’s been married and yet this is
the story that you guys get to live out
on a daily basis because prodigals they
they have as as Floyd shared I I use the
word prodigal because he’s saying I’m in
an abandoned building and and Teen
Challenge must be better than this isn’t
that really what Jesus shared in the
Book of Luke when he said that you know
the prodical in a pig pin that says look
even the lowest in my dad’s house have
better have better than this how many of
these people do you get to engage with
on daily basis well just uh this past
year so far uh We’ve uh admitted 400
over 400 students wow uh last year 495
in the total year so um I get the
opportunity to travel from campus to
campus so I get a chance to to see and
engage with a lot of these students um
weekly um Dolly gets to to as the
Director of the women’s program I see
them every day and it’s amazing it never
gets old watching people who come in off
the streets the women from a lifestyle
of prostitution and absolute
hopelessness to come into our doors to
encounter Christ and then to see their
lives change even their faces their
countenances change day by day it’s
amazing well and you talk about their
countenance it it I call it a glow yep
you know because I mean it it it’s
almost like you watch the transformation
from the darkness of the world that
we’re living in the light and the love
of Jesus Christ now you you’ve got 400
people in the program what are their age
ranges um so our adolescent programs are
ages 12 to 17 wow and our adult programs
they’re all adults 18 and up and they
can go um as as old as where they as
long as they can make their bed and do
their chores and get around um well and
you talk about you know the the making
your bed and doing your chores one of
the things that I’m familiar with
because of the the personal you know
contact we’ve had working with Teen
Challenge in this area is that it is
highly centered on responsibility
structure work you know this is this is
something that is intended to in Floyd’s
case you know make you productive put
you back into the world not not pull you
out and say you live on this island for
the rest of your life but say we’re
going to let Jesus and his Redemptive
work you know take action in this moment
but whenever you walk out of here you’re
going to be a productive person that’s
going to go back and do some some good
for the future absolutely in fact when
they come into the program we want to
hear them say that I want to change that
I want to to be different and when they
come in we’ll we’ll plug them in with a
big brother or big sister kind of show
them the ropes but then within 30 days
they’re acclimated to some chore or Duty
on campus maybe even off- campus they’ll
be on a team uh they’ll know where to go
what time to be there and they have to
be there on time yeah they have to wake
up early and that structure is part of
the discipleship process I mean they
wake up at 5:30 in the morning they go
to bed at 9:30 and literally every
minute something going on every hour too
tired to S that’s right that’s right 400
do they voluntarily come they sign up is
it a program that they most of the time
it’s their family members that are are D
it’s really all the above so we’ll get
them from Court as an alternative
sentencing site Teen Challenge takes a
lot of individuals from Court um they’ll
come in a family member will bring them
in a spouse a mother um some will slow
it down to 30 push them out yeah just
kidding but they they come in some of
them will come in on on their own on
their own that they’re ready for a
change they start writing us from prison
and uh tell us that hey we want to I
want to come into the program as soon as
I’m able to and they’ll come in on their
own sometimes well a picture’s worth a
thousand words and and always being able
to hear directly from individuals whose
lives have been changed is what enables
people to understand the impact that’s
being uh created by Teen Challenge I
want you to take a look at this next
success
story I come from a long background of
addiction from my family both of my
parents have passed away from drug
overdoses and I remember as a little
girl I had this determination that I
would never ever do drugs in my life
because I saw how it destroyed my family
I really really believed that my life
was going to be different than my
parents I had the white picked fence
dream and just to grow up and be the
best mommy I could ever be and just be
different I think I at a young age I
felt a lot of bitterness and resentment
so at a young age my first addiction was
actually food I I didn’t realize at a
young age I had started already taking
care of myself in unhealthy ways from
eating and so constantly eating and
eating so I grew up building a barrier
around myself with food and I thought my
only problem in life other than my
parents’ addiction was that I was fat
back in 2001 I had a gastric bass I had
gotten to a weight of 400 lb at that
point and so when I had that gastric
bypass in my mind my world was going to
be better everything was going to be so
much better I was going to find the man
of my dreams I was going to be the best
mom because the only issue I had was my
physical weight I didn’t realize at that
moment I really had a heart issue I had
a lot of wounds a lot of struggles um
because of the environment that I was
raised in because of the cycles of
addiction that had entrapped my family
for so long so when I had that gastric
bypass I found a new friend and it was
[Music]
alcohol alcohol destroyed my life it
took away my
children it destroyed my self-image even
more so though because I became very
sexually
promiscuous I couldn’t maintain a job
became very depressed and I lived my
life for the longest as a victim I
thought I was a victim because I grew up
because my parents were addicts all
these terrible things had happened
through bad relationships which I had
chosen my kids were taken away from me
but it was all because I was a victim
but that wasn’t the truth literally I
remember praying many times in my life
Lord just don’t wake me up tomorrow I’m
done there’s not a purpose there’s not a
plan and there was a woman who entered
my life and cookie told me Deana I know
a
[Music]
place and she put me on a bus to go to
Adan tee Challenge and I got there and I
had to deal with Deanna I had to deal
with Deana who had become a victim I had
had to deal with Deanna who felt
rejected and in that year a Teen
Challenge God did a work God has just
been really ever so present in my life
he’s been ever so faithful in my life
and and now I’m blessed to serve here I
I’m really in awe of what God has done
in my life in the transformation
process so dolly that is obviously a
very powerful and personal testimony but
it connects back to what we were Hearing
in Floyd’s testimony you know Floyd had
a history with his father being an
addict you know here here we have Deanna
who’s got the same situation but both
Floyd and Deana say you know one day the
person that I knew to be in trouble was
changed by Jesus Christ yes now teen
challenged their history was personal
evangelism for young people uh you know
and the addiction recovery thing was one
of the the areas where they saw so much
need that they began to kind of treat
that but it was still with the same
intent to treat it with Jesus Christ yes
when do you recognize you know in this
program it hits you when you walk
through the front door this is this is
Jesus based
you where do the addicts start to
recognize that because I mean for Dean
she was saying you know I went there to
get better but then I became a Believer
you know kind of what I heard her say
yeah so how long does it take for that
to happen you know it varies depending
on the individual but right from the
beginning they’re met with the love of
Christ and I think the fellowship of
Believers the other sisters or brothers
in the program is what really hits
people it’s not just the the message of
the Gospel just through the word of God
but through the people of God
surrounding them and when they feel that
love and that acceptance it opens their
heart to hear and receive the word and
of course they’re in a a what we we use
a nationally accredited curriculum so
they’re in the word of God every day and
so little by little through the people
of God through the word of God they’re
they’re just being inundated with the
message of Hope and and so we see people
getting saved on a regular basis I mean
every day all throughout our campuses
even in the admissions uh process a lot
of times our admissions coordinator is a
graduate of the program yeah so they’re
talking to someone that’s been through
the entire process so from the phone
call initially they’re hearing about how
Jesus changed the adion coordinator life
and so from the beginning they’re
hearing okay it’s this is not a disease
that I’m going to find the Cure of
necessarily at it’s a person it’s a
person that I’m meeting you know Jesus
Christ here at this program and they
come in knowing that now it takes from
what I’ve seen typically between 30 and
90 days for them to really allow what
we’re teaching them to sink down into
their heart well and I would imagine
that some of your harder cases are the
ones who think they’re already saved
yeah
absolutely they’re the ones who walk in
and go no no I’ve got that Christian
side of me figured out I just have this
little addic issue and and what they’re
recognizing is that they’ve got a label
but they don’t have a relationship
absolutely half of our students have no
Christian background but half of them do
yeah and so they’ll come in with those
preconceived notions um jail house
mentality jail house religion relig and
they’ll know how to quote scripture and
it it hits them pretty hard when they
realize you know what it’s not just what
I say it’s you know who I am and where
my heart is and what I do a beautiful
part of de’s testimonies you know if I
was the only one he to come for me
that’s when you that that’s when you as
an individual recognize this personal
relationship with Jesus Christ yeah you
know there’s lots of kids in the world
there are only four I want at my house
tonight and those are the ones that I
brought I brought into this world and
and you know but that’s the beauty of
the intimacy of the relationship that
you have Jesus Christ he wants you in
his home every night of the week because
he’s the one who’s watching over you you
know and that so much is the the story
and the power of love that is that is
absent in the lives of so many of the
individuals that are there even to the
point that they want to give up yes in
this next Story You’re going to hear
about a person who wanted to give up but
because of the love of God they didn’t
amen
my name is Tony Frasier I was uh born in
Little Rock
Arkansas um my mom and my sister was the
only one I really knew my my stepdad or
my real dad my biological dad he used to
beat my mom and sister and then when I
was born he he uh he left so I never
knew him I I have a couple memories of
him very very
vague but we ended up moving to Germany
and uh when I was 10 years old I had
been a pretty good kid you know up until
that point but I skipped a lot of school
and I started drinking at the age of 15
and and started smoking uh heroin laced
hash and and over in Germany if you
could see over a counter they would
servey a beer so getting alcohol was no
problem for me and when I came back I
had like $112,000 saved up and and to
turn a a 19-year-old loose in San
Antonio with that $1,000 I just went
crazy and and I started doing acid and
and cocaine and and and alcohol I just
continue to drink and and I got in
trouble the police raid our apartment
and I got arrested for a u possession of
of a barbituates and was charged with a
felony and I was sitting at home on July
January the January the 6th 2003 I’m
sitting in my my living room at at uh
like 2:00 in the morning and my my
table’s covered with drugs and alcohol
and I I went to my
kitchen you know and and I said go I
can’t do this Lord Lord I cannot do this
anymore I grabbed my gun and I shot up
my house and I sat there on the couch
with this 3030 rifle up under underneath
my chin and I pulled the trigger
and nothing
[Music]
happened when I walked onto this
campus I felt the presence of God was so
so
strong the next day in the
classroom when uh Pastor Robertson led
me through the Salvation program that’s
when the tears started
[Music]
and uh they’ve been cleansing me ever
since that hope was all that hope had
been sparked in me you know just from
that moment I stepped foot on the campus
that hope was there yeah I am happy I’ve
been really happy with this and you know
it’s like all right God you’ve got me
this far you’re going to have to show me
the rest of the way and every time I’ve
taken a position in this ministry that’s
how it’s been
you know you’re hearing these
testimonies and
and looking at the individuals where
they’re at today you have no context for
where they were where they were right
you would never know and that to me is
the thing that speaks so much of of
transformation absolutely you know that
you’ve become a new creature in Christ
Jesus you know when we read these words
and we hear these words in scripture
sometimes we we don’t really fully
Embrace what they mean but whenever you
get to see individuals like this like
Donnie you know he’s become a new
creature in Christ his old self is
totally gone yes uh you know there’s
people who are watching right now that
they’re seeing what we’re showing and
they’re automatically pulling up the
faces and names of people they know who
need to change yeah how do they get in
touch with adult and Teen Challenge and
and what is it that they need to do to
start this person that they know on that
process of change the best way to get in
contact is to go to our website TCT
texas.org all of our campuses their
contact information um and then to give
us a call if they’re not comfortable
giving us a call just to email us um ask
a friend to email us ask a friend to
give us a call we would like to get on
the phone with them at some point if
they’re in the area put them on hold
like suici they will get a person and um
and at some point we want to sit down
with them if they’re far away outside of
uh the city limits or or if it’s too far
to drive we’ll we’ll video chat with
them talk with them over the phone but
that’s one thing I want to say cost
people are probably thinking well I
can’t afford this I need help but I just
don’t have the money what is yeah a lot
of programs are very expensive we ask
for an admissions fee when they come in
but if they are not able to afford the
admissions fee which many of our uh
clients cannot uh we will not turn
anyone away for financial reasons well
and in many cases you know maybe the
client can’t but there’s people in their
life who
family and I think that that’s an
important thing to make sure that that
one you know fees sounds like barriers
to entry right uh this in many ways is
not a barrier to entry this is a
commitment to A New Beginning exactly
it’s an investment into so there are
people that can make that investment in
their life because it’s very nominal but
it’s just saying I have a commitment and
the yeah exactly and so you know I don’t
want people to hear that and say well
there’s a fee that fee is nothing more
than an opportunity for you to see the
rest of your life changed adult and Teen
Challenge in Texas you you’ve made
mention of campuses but there’s people
who are watching that you know they’re
all over the United States adult and
Teen Challenge how many states do you
operate in currently every single state
except for one I believe so we’re in 49
states 49 is that one like Alaska I
think it’s Wyoming okay I believe it’s
Wyoming if I’m not mistaken well with
regard to that if you’re in Wyoming you
can go to Idaho or Montana and find what
you need there and there is a program in
Alaska Wasilla Alaska Wasilla Alaska has
a Teen Challenge so all of our viewers
in Wasilla your you’ve got hope uh you
know the the the thing that I love about
the testimonies that come out of Teen
Challenge is that you’re constantly
hearing about success rates you know not
not failure rates relapse rates you’re
hearing about success rates and and the
rates they have fruit and and it’s I’m
married I’ve got children I got my
family back I got a business I got you
know I mean everybody has their own you
know testimony but the testimonies are
sustainable you know how do you
attribute that kind of a recovery rate
well the Center for compassion at
Evangel university did a study recently
that put that rate at
78% and they they studied multiple
programs across the country but we we
call it the Jesus Factor absolutely and
that’s what keeps that number so High um
when you look at stat when you look at
statistics in uh secular drug and
alcohol recovery program it’s anywhere
between 5 and 10% correct so it’s a huge
discrepancy and Jesus being integrated
into everything we do into the entire
discipleship process is what makes the
difference well and and I love that word
the difference that’s the title of our
show and and what we try to communicate
in each and every program is that he’s
the Difference Maker it doesn’t matter
what you’re talking about he’s the
Difference Maker in a marriage he’s the
Difference Maker in a business he’s the
Difference Maker on an everyday basis
and he’s the Difference Maker in the
lives of individuals who are bound by
addiction who need to be set free
because the Bible says that he came came
to set captives free you know George
dolly for the work you’re doing may God
just continue to bless you and I pray
those of you who are watching if you
know somebody who is in the bondage of
addiction you’ll introduce them to the
Difference Maker Jesus Christ through an
organization like adult and Teen
Challenge
[Music]
I’m so grateful that I chose
differently I’m so happy that I chose
you I get to see you become the person
God intended you to be thank you heggy
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partner I want to thank George and Dolly
for coming by and sharing the
testimonies of adult and Teen Challenge
here in Texas I also want to thank those
who were willing to share their personal
stories of how God changed their life
and encourage others to believe that he
can change theirs too if you’d like to
see more of these stories you can go to
jhm.org or look it up on the web as we
have the opportunity to continue the
conversation about what great things God
is doing to set captives free through
adult and Teen Challenge here in Texas
God bless you and don’t ever forget
Jesus Christ is the difference
[Music]