In the last few years, the average age of people desiring to enter the program has dropped from age 35 to 20. Along with the drop in age, the main drug of choice has changed from crack-cocaine to prescription pain killers. The good news is these drugs bring people to the end much faster than street drugs. That is good because they can start getting help sooner. A recent report substantiated what I'm seeing. The national report shows that  pharmacies received and ultimately dispensed the equivalent of 69 tons of pure oxycodone and 42 tons of pure hydrocodone in 2010, the last year for which statistics are available. That is enough to give 40 5mg Percocets and 24 5mg Vicodins to every person in the United States. Below is the story of one of these young men.

My name is Austin and I'd like to tell you how God
has been working in my life since coming to His Steps in May.

If someone came up to me a year ago and told me about this program, I probably would have just laughed at them. I treasured my selfish life of sin more than anything God gave me, even the ones I would claim to be so dear to me. I was living every day with all the wrong motives of this world. When I finally got the taste of freedom I desired it so much, it was all she wrote. No true responsibilities, a house all to myself, and all the desires of my flesh right at my fingertips. I made it my ultimate goal to not deprive myself of whatever made me happy, all in hopes of drowning out the pain and sorrow that controlled my soul.

Although I refused to acknowledge God at all anymore, He still loved me. I had completely turned my back on all that I’d been taught and ran as far as I possibly could to try and hide from the Truth. The only way I’d learn now was the hard way, and it was much harder than I’d ever imagined. All of my addictions that I constantly fueled over the past few years had finally caught up to me. All that was left was sheer terror and agony. I was now slipping out of reality, fully convinced that there would be no return for me. I had no idea what was going on around me, but I can now see that God was surely using the weakest point in my life to assure me of His sovereignty and unconditional love. There was nowhere to hide.

Praise God for giving us families and a body of faithful believers. If I had not been blessed with such a loving family and friends that cared about my salvation, I have no idea where I would be right now, maybe dead.  For the first time in a very long time, I know that God has put me exactly where I am supposed to be. I’ll admit I was very skeptical about joining any type of long term program, much less a fully Scripture based one (which is unheard of). But when I first came to visit His Steps, all my doubts were quickly laid to rest and I had peace.

Tim, Kit, and everyone at Faith Community Church have been more than welcoming to me. The discipleship I receive here is unlike anything I have ever experienced in any church or program that I have been part of. I have without a doubt been given a unique opportunity to fellowship with those around me not only as men but also as believers. This type of devotion and accountability for one another is what the body of Christ is all about and I’m proud to be a part of it. Each day, according to His will, I live by the Creator as He reveals Himself to me through the diligent expositional teaching of His Word and the humble example of His servants. I thank God for the power He has given us to overcome all obstacles that life can toss at us. I fully believe that there is no philosophy of man that can save me from myself. I can’t wait to see how much more God is going to teach me in the days ahead. 
 

 Prayer:

• Please continue to pray for all the men in the program. We continue to be full, as soon as one graduates another comes. It’s often a difficult adjustment for the men to receive someone new.
• Please pray for all of the men that have volunteered to teach the evening Bible studies. They have been a real blessing to me in taking the teaching responsibilities for the evening sessions.
• Continue to pray for new ministry partners.

If you are interested in partnering with us financially and beyond, you may contact Tim Brown:
timbrown@hissteps.org
or (770) 595-4249

All support is welcome. We exist by the grace of God through partners who care about helping others as our Lord commanded. Your gift is tax deductible.

We have been keeping busy this summer with various work projects. One of the things I like for the men to be involved with is serving people in the body of Christ. This summer we have been able to help move two families. It’s great interaction for the men in the program to be involved with giving of themselves to help others without expecting anything in return. Typically addicts are takers so it is always good to be able to involve them in projects that require them to give.
 

 
 
 



















It always breaks my heart to see men leave the program before they are ready. Recently a new resident Doug decided the program wasn’t for him. so he headed back home against all advice from me and his pastors. These situations remind me of Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” I teach this verse over and over at His Steps. It deals with human perception verses reality. What seems the right path of life may well turn out to lead to dire consequences, and, sad to say, in the life of addicts it usually does. Please pray for him.
 
I also had to ask Andrew that has been here 6 weeks to leave. He would not stop using tobacco and continued to give into his flesh. This broke my heart because at times I’d really see some growth in his life, but he continued to give into his sin. This was hard for me because I really liked this young man and as is always the case discipline is hard. But I knew as a spiritual father in his life I had to discipline him for his own good. My goal with all the men the Lord sends to His Steps is Colossians 1:28, “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” Please pray for Andrew.
 

 
On a brighter note, during a counseling session with Derrell, I asked him how his life had gotten so far off track that he needed to come into a residential program. He had lots of shallow excuses but wasn’t able to pinpoint the reason until I nudged him into seeing that he had failed to trust God with what was going on in his life and had chosen once again to trust himself. He said, “Before I came here my pastors came and talked with me, because I'd been clean for a while. It was discouraging to me to have gotten back into it. I was walking well with The Lord, but I ended up back out there again. I see now it’s like you’ve said. I trusted in myself, and I know that leads to destruction. It always has and always will take me down the wrong path.” 
I asked, “So what's going to keep it from happening again?”
He replied, “I know that I must live my life in a manner that is pleasing to God and deny myself. I know now I can’t touch it again. I can't moderate it. It  has to be radical amputation for me. I must cut it and everything using drugs involves out of my life and live only for God and not for myself.”

We have been studying the book, “Relapse Prevention” (by Mark Shaw), and Derrell is gaining a biblical perspective on how he  has been living in recent months which led to his destruction. Relapse is described in the book using 2 Peter 2:22, “the dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” Derrell had been experiencing the freedom of a sober life, attending church, and growing in his relationship with the Lord. but one day he chose to return to the voluntary slavery of addiction.  Mark Shaw explains it this way, “in a relapse, the choice a person makes to satisfy a temporal pleasure reveals a momentary loss of eternal perspective. All relapses involve a decision to live for the moment without regard for the far-reaching consequences and damage in this life and in the life to come.”

Derrell told me he now understands that he has been sinning against God and desires to live the rest of his life according to Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” 

Tim Brown

Be sure and visit our new website at www.hissteps.org 

 Two of the new men helping my mom with her grow box garden. Mom moved in with us last fall and one of her hobbies is gardening, these two youngsters got a lesson on patio gardening. You never know what you might learn here at His Steps.


Rec time at the ministry house, not quite Kobe Bryant, but you gotta love the uniforms! 

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Last fall something different took place at His Steps. We received four new guys into the program in very close proximity to one another. In the past it has always been staggered; one man would come, one would graduate and so on. I was a bit concerned with all of them coming at once because that meant they all leave about the same time, leaving me empty. Upon returning from Peru, all of the men were to be gone within five weeks. One left the day we got back, another the week after that and a third one the week after that.

All of the sudden it was going to be me and one guy, Bardin.  Poor guy! We were talking one day and he asked, "What are we going to do to get some more guys in here?" I replied, “We need to pray and ask God to send them.”

God responded very quickly. Within a week we had four new men! Bardin, the lone remainder of the Peru group, is going home on June 6 and his replacement is coming June 8.  God continues to be faithful to me in sending men here to be taught the truth about addictions.
Addiction is definitely a sin that doesn’t discriminate according to age. I currently have a 58 year old addicted to alcohol and a 19 year old addicted to alcohol, and there are three others in between those ages addicted to various substances. I’ve learned there is a prominent common sin among these guys regardless of their age: selfishness. Addicts are very selfish people! They live for self pleasure. That’s why the personality altering substances they choose to use appeal so much to them; it’s all about them and how they feel. The Puritan writer Richard Baxter wrote, “Wherever the interest of carnal self is stronger than and more predominate habitually than the interest of God, of everlasting life, there is no true self-denial”. That is why we spend a tremendous amount of time here teaching the centrality of God’s sovereignty in all things. These guys have to learn they are really insignificant in all things, then they begin to see how awesome God is and that life is really all about Him. As I’ve seen these guys come here after years of following their own evil desires, I’m constantly reminded of what Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself…”To follow Jesus we must deny ourselves! The exact opposite of what addicts do. I love showing these guys that answer to addiction.

I had a guy here a few years ago. When it was time for him to depart, I asked him what stuck out most to him about his time here. He said the main thing he learned was how big God is and how small he is. He told me when he arrived he saw himself as being significant in the grand scheme of things and now he saw himself as the size of a pea and God the size of a basketball. He got it!


Along with a house full of new men, the Lord has given me a new area of ministry this summer. John Michael was here a year ago; he returned home last June and has done well going to school full time and working part time. While he was here in the program, he grew tremendously in his relationship with God. After discussing the options for him this summer with his dad, they decided to give me a call and see if I’d be interested in having him come for the summer and help around the ministry house with the guys as well as me spending some time discipling him. I didn’t need to pray long about it, spending time with these young guys is what I love doing. So, he is here now and it’s been fun getting to pour into him again.
 

Tim Brown

Be sure and visit our new website at www.hissteps.org 

 
The crew  and me on the way to a village to share Christ.


These are the people that stayed for the midday meal during the addiction seminar.


Driving on the Edge!


The long and winding road.


Milk for the breakfast meal.


My dear brother and sister, Freddie and Berta with their three kids. The first time I went to Peru in 2007 Freddie was under church discipline. I remember him telling me he hoped and prayed God would transform him and allow him to continue in the church. He has been restored and has turned into the key leader among the brothers in Coatahusi. What a blessing!


Newly renovated roads will be a big improvement to Cotahausi once completed.

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We made it! Yes we all returned safe and sound. I (Tim) and the 4 guys in the program left on April 8 headed for Cotahuasi Peru. I was invited by Brad Shaw the missionary there to come and teach a seminar on addiction. I thought it would be a good idea to expose the men in the program to another culture and for them to see people all over the world struggle with the sin of addiction. We left Atlanta Monday afternoon and arrived in Lima, Peru around 10:30 PM, hung out at the airport until 6:00 AM and then flew to Arequipa, Peru. We pretty much slept until noon then went into town and had a Peruvian lunch and did some sightseeing.

We left Arequipa Wednesday morning at 5:30 AM and started the 11 hour drive across the high plains reaching altitudes of 16,000 feet at one point. We finally arrived in Cotahuasi late Wednesday afternoon. Shortly after getting settled in it was off to church for Wednesday night service; I had the pleasure of preaching Proverbs 1 that evening. We were very busy from that night on.  We were truly blessed and had 100 people attend the seminar! I taught 8 sessions between Friday and Saturday and was truly worn out, but blessed to see how these dear people hung in there and were so attentive to our teaching. Three of the men also taught a session. I was thrilled to see how God had prepared them to teach about what He has been doing in their own lives personally.

After the seminar we spent several days visiting various villages scattered throughout the canyon, which is the deepest canyon in the world. We would gather in small one room adobe mud buildings and sing praises to our Lord and then share from the Scriptures. In one village a woman found out I am a counselor and asked if I could meet with her and her drunkard husband and rebellious 15 year old son. What a joy to be able to share in this manner. I was amazed how God brought this woman to the meeting and how her problems fit right into the area of my training!
Another night we were in a village in the deepest part of the canyon and a young lady 22 years old came in to the meeting very excited talking up a storm. I asked what this was all about and was told that she is a shepherd up on the high plains and hardly ever has contact with other people. She has one of the solar powered radios the missionary gives out that picks up his Christian station only.  The day before they gave a shout out to her on the air to let her know we were coming to that village. She ran 3 hours to get there. She said it was a 5 hour walk and she knew she would be late if she walked so she ran the whole way and made it in time. What a reminder of how easy we have it here!

As the second week continued we were able to do several work projects around the ministry center as well as joining in the daily devotional and prayer time with the missionary family and the brothers and sisters that work in the ministry there.

Sunday afternoon after church one of the brothers Faustino, whom I met in 2007, told me that since my original visit God had changed his life dramatically. During that visit I was asked to speak in one of the villages on the topic of alcohol abuse. The way the system works there is everyone pitches in and helps each other with their farms. These are sustenance farmers, whatever they grow is what they have to sustain their families. Without the help of neighbors they cannot get their work done, so they all help each other. The problem is you are required to serve the workers an alcoholic beverage, "chicha", when it’s your day to have the help. The drinking starts around 10:30 AM. If you don’t serve it, you don’t get any help. Faustino and his wife had just become Christians when I spoke to them about the sin of drunkenness. Brad had been working with them for months. He told me Sunday afternoon that God deeply convicted he and his wife. They both repented of their sin of drunkenness and serving “chicha” to the other people and have had no dealings with “chicha” since then. God has blessed them with other believers coming to help them with their farm so they don’t have to be involved with “chicha”.

Since returning two of the men that went on the trip have graduated from the program and moved on. Another leaves in two weeks. Growing close to these men and then seeing them leave is one of the sad parts of my job, but also a blessing to see them enter the next phase of life our Lord has carved out for them. Please pray for them as they return home and put into practice all they have learned.

Tim Brown

Our goodbye picture with Brad and Gina Shaw.

Be sure and visit our new website at www.hissteps.org