HopeQuest News!

 

 

As a child i was really happy and outgoing, but at adolescence I strayed into an abyss of rebellion and anger. I was consumed by a world that hated establishment and always wanted to “stick it to the man.” My parents drug me to church weekly and put me on sports teams to try and encourage me into a more positive lifestyle that I strongly resisted. I resented my parents; I hated God and had little or no self-esteem. I found relief in prescription drugs, alcohol, sex, music and many other destructive behaviors. My life was out of control by fifteen, and no one could convince me of changing in any way. By my senior year in high school I maintained a daily drug habit, supported by selling the drugs I took.

After graduation I started school at The Art Institute of Atlanta and was dating the girl of my dreams. I had the world at my fingertips but quickly lost control because of my excessive lifestyle. I started using Heroin, prescription pain killers, Xanax and cocaine on a daily basis. At the end of 2006 I went to my first rehabilitation facility to detox. I was put on a maintenance drug to subside the drug cravings and left in ten days when my insurance quit paying. Three months later I found out that I was going to be a dad. I will never forget that discussion I had in a Waffle House late one night right after we found out. At that point I made a decision I wanted to change but it was only short-lived. I tried desperately to get off the maintenance medication by using other prescription drugs to help me through the cravings. Within a week or two I was right back in the same lifestyle I had been living before. By the time my son was born I had spun completely out of control and I had no relationship with his mom. I was in rehabilitation under lock-down the day he was born. They let me go to see my son delivered and there was no joy for me, the whole day I was consumed by my drug seeking behavior. I didn’t care about anything else. I will never forget digging through a trashcan looking for what was left in the box of anesthetics the doctor had thrown in just hours before my son was born.

I spent the next three months in the Trek program trying to get my life straightened out. In the program I handed my life over to Christ for the first time on my own accord, outside of my parents influence. The program challenged me in ways that I had never been challenged. Trek helped expose so many things in my life that had been holding me in my addiction. The most crucial time for me in Trek was during the Family and Friends weekend where God brought an enormous amount of clarity and healing in my family life. The program allowed me to come to a point where through Christ I could stand on my own two feet again.

Even during the program I began to compromise in more ways than I would like to admit. The glow of my salvation experience faded and I eventually finished that program. I stayed off all drugs and alcohol for the next year. In that time I re-enrolled in college, married my son’s mother, paid of my debts, got my own place and car. My son had been living with his grandparents since birth and I had a dream of bringing my wife, son and I together in a house and pursuing the American dream. I was happy and everything seemed to be going well until the next year. Our marriage crumbled in a matter of months because of the fact that there was no foundation beneath it. When the marriage fell apart so did my dream. When I lost my dream I crumbled. My whole world seemingly fell apart.

Eventually I fell back into my old ways for about a six months period and came to yet another breaking point in my life. By God’s grace he drew me back to himself relentlessly. No matter how far I ran he would not let me go. I finally re-submitted my life to Christ almost two years ago and went through a discipleship program in Texas that helped me grow even further with Him. I really think that the foundation that Trek had laid in my life is was led me back into God’s will for my life when I tried to turn the other way. My biggest lesson I have learned since being with HopeQuest is that you really must submit all of yourself to Christ before you will ever walk in true victory! Even though it has been rough, the journey since I graduated Trek has been one I wouldn’t trade for anything!

Today I now work at a ministry and training school affiliated with Teen Challenge International for those seeking to work in missions, drug/alcohol rehabilitation and ministry in general. I have been all over the United States and even gone globally sharing what Christ has done in my life. My greatest blessing is spending time with my now 4 year old son who was born a month before I walked into the doors of HopeQuest Ministries. I truly believe today that Jesus Christ IS the solution for those with life controlling issues like drugs and alcohol because God is the only one that can change the heart of a person and not just place a band-aid on surface issues.

What I have discovered through this journey is that God is real. I have found that God is a God that loves us all more than we could ever imagine and doesn’t base His love on our performance. I have found that it has never been His expectation for us to change ourselves but for us to let go and allow him to change us. Today I can only look forward with hope and optimism. Each time I look back I am reminded of how great Gods plan is for all of us. The following scripture sums it up:

Marketing and Development Coordinator

Every single one of us knows people affected by the evil dragons of addictions. This place helps people struggling with all kinds of addictions, and works to encourage, restore, heal, and rewire people’s brains to have successful recovery and abundant lives.

We are all created to love and to be loved, yet we live in a difficult, broken world, and life is painful. You are not alone. Hope is real, and help is real.

 

Hope is Real. In 2011 there was an estimated 20 million people who needed treatment for substance abuse, yet only 3 million sought help. For the ones who choose Recovery Road, it takes a large group of people to support them and help fight the dragons of addictions. I had the honor to get to go to HopeQuest, a driven team of people, fueled by love. This place is dedicated to helping heal the hurting so people can achieve their dreams.

 

My name is Jessica Holdbrooks. I am 25 years old, and my life was saved since going through the TREK program at HopeQuest. 

Most people trapped in the snares of addictions are people like you. Respectable members of society, successful career folks, people with families. Your neighbor, doctor, preacher, teacher, or government official. Not what you think of when you hear the word “addict.” People get stuck in false beliefs about themselves, feeling isolated, as if they are the only one. Stigmas in our society further the lies and keep them trapped. It takes a mighty act of courage to seek help, and this is why places like HopeQuest are so important. There is healing in the power of human connection, brutal honestly and a safe place. Life is too short and too great an adventure to settle for anything less than wondrous!

The root of addictions isn’t the substance, but the shame

One year ago today I woke up in a hotel room in Lynchburg, Virginia separated from my family with my sin publicly exposed. Over the course of this past year I have lost my marriage, family, ministry, and credibility. For years I had wanted to be free from the sins that ensnarled me, but I still struggled with feelings that led me to do inappropriate things. I remember sitting in that hotel room feeling worthless, unimportant, ashamed, guilty, and worst of all alone. Many people considered me a colossal failure. In July of last year I entered a program called HopeQuest that helps the fallen back up on their feet regardless of what sin entangles them. Over time, God showed me I was a failure when I lived according to the flesh – when I lived in my own strengths and abilities. I came into HopeQuest genuinely believing that God had given up on me. The idea of ever being used to help others seemed unimaginable. I have learned that a mistake is never a failure unless I fail to learn from it. I learned that Satan, better known as the accuser, uses traumas and failures of our history to tell us we’re worthless, insignificant, shamed, guilty and alone. Thank God that Jeremiah 31:34 says, “God will forgive our wicked ways and remember our sins no more.” Many people go to their graves carrying the baggage that I tried for years to cover up. The good news in Christ is that separate of what I’ve done, He has redeemed me! I consider one of my greatest credentials to be my failure and brokenness because it has allowed my life circumstances to minister to so many who are hurting and need help. My testimony has become one of redemption and how God redeemed me from my sinful way of life. For years I believed that I was the worst Christian who ever lived. I was in bondage to lies. Instead of living life in bondage, I’ve chosen to receive God’s unconditional love and acceptance knowing that believing that doesn’t mean I’ve reached perfection, take sin lightly, or make excuses for it. I have learned that I have victory in Christ and holding onto bitterness is nothing short of giving the devil an opportunity. I am most like Christ, when I forgive. Now, I say all this to update and let you know that God has changed me from the inside out. It’s a continual transformation, but it’s a journey that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. It’s in the moments of toughest love when we learn some of life’s greatest lessons. I spent several months in a residential Christian discipleship program called HopeQuest and I say from the bottom of my heart, that God has used this ministry to help me walk a successful road of recovery. I give God the glory first, but without the team at HopeQuest I could have never accomplished what I have been able to accomplish this past year. I completed the program with such a level of success that I was offered a full time position earlier this year to come onto the staff with the very people that had helped me in one of my darkest times of life. I’m writing to ask if you would prayerfully considering donating to our ministry here in Woodstock, Georgia. There are countless people looking for light at the end of a dark tunnel. Without adequate donations, we are simply unable to help in many of the areas we would like to as a ministry. I was able to attend HopeQuest because of contributions of people just like you. Many of our clients are granted scholarships to attend as I was. Without the generous support of others, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Would you please consider sending a donation to The HopeQuest Ministry Group? I am available to answer any questions that you may have. God bless!

My life at 25 was a complex but fragile house of cards waiting to crumble down the more it grew. I was a believer; however the core beliefs, self-contempt, and self-protection caused by the trauma of my childhood trumped any truth from the God I was desperate for. I was a daily drug user for years. The drugs and the self-protection were my sin of independence in a fallen world that had hurt me, abandoned me, and I perceived had labeled me unworthy and unlovable. The deep pain and darkness was always there and my professional baseball career, endless relationships, and no amount of drugs ever ultimately remedied the raging storm in my soul. The house of cards fell as it was doomed to. I entered the TREK residential program on February 26th 2009, two days before I was supposed to be married. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy and my sin of rebellion against God had reaped a harvest of pure destruction for me and all of those around me I loved the most.

Our God never stopped pursuing me. That is something that leaves me speechless every day. His love and desire for us is immeasurable. A year after I left the TREK residential program, I know freedom, peace, redemption, love, and relationships I thought I never would know. God put a call on my life to take His message of freedom from the chains of our choices to act out in response to the sin we all encounter. I use my life now to write, teach, and mentor at the program that helped set me free. That place is TREK. While the enemy uses our sin to steal, kill, and destroy, we have a God who never leaves us and wants us to have life like we’ve never known it. It is the goal of my life to help as many as I can find that God and the life He longs to give the broken.

Wow, God is awesome!! A year ago today, I was laying in my bed here at home detoxing off heroin and other drugs thinking I was never going to make it, but today I am celebrating the goodness of my Saviour and his grace and mercy of 1 year being sober. It is an amazing feeling. I wanted to thank everyone at HopeQuest for their support and many many prayers that have been lifted up for me and my family. We have gone through manydifficult trials over the past year(s) but today we are stronger than ever. I want to say a special thank you to the HopeQuest ministry for their grace of allowing me to come back and never giving up on me. You all have  no idea what that meant to me and my family. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day and I just wanted to say thank you.

God bless you all,

Melissa Walraven

Please be a Partner in Hope. Visit our Prayer Needs page. God is using this ministry. We are making a difference! Lives are being transformed, daily! Families are being healed. Children are getting their parents back. People are getting saved, baptized, and discipled!It takes money to make it happen. I will never apologize for the fact that we have to spend money in order to accomplish the Lord Jesus’ work. Will you prayerfully consider helping us? Will you be an instrument in our Redeemer’s hand? Willyou help make His ministry work possible?Make a contribution now!

Help us with gardening at the Crossroads Campus! We need a rotary tiller, tools for hoeing, weeding, pruing, planting, etc.Want to help with the gardening project? Email us at: click here

Do you have a vehicle you could donate to HopeQuest? Currently, there are four clients who need to establish some form of transportation.Do you know how to work on vehicles? We currently have one nice automobile that needs some engine work.Clients who have successfully completed the TREK Program and who are in our transitional Continuing Care program really need transportation options.

Our Executive Director shares about HopeQuest and our current national economic condition.
What is your ministry doing? Get an update here.

Have you read about the acquisition of our new campus, the initial development of the property, and the opening of the men’s dorm?Click here to visit the HopeQuest Blog Site and read the history of this miraculous project!

Could you be a Challenge 1000 business partner?

One of may favorite Swahili sayings – actually, it is the only Swahili saying I know:“Kidogo Kidogo, Kujaza Kibaba.”“Little by little, The bucket get’s full.”With all of us working together, we can continue to be an instrument in the hand of our Lord Jesus as we minister grace and healing to so many who are in bondage to alcohol, drug abuse, and sexual brokenness. Every 1$ that is contributed helps.Make a contribution now!

Will you be a Partner in Hope with us?

Facilites and land are never what we set our sights on. We fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Facilities and land exist simply for the purpose of accomodating souls that our Heavenly Father sends to HopeQuest to receive discipleship, counseling, therapeutic assistance, healing, and resulting life transformation. I have come to believe that the resources that are miraculously made available to us are in fact a way to evidence God’s provision for the ministry work that He is doing at HopeQuest. The Crossroads Campus is certainly an evidence of God’s provision and His blessing upon the ministry work that we do in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In May of 2009, the adjacent five acres to our current campus was made available to us. It has two residential structures that afforded us the opportunity to move all of our female clients to the campus home. The unbelievable thing is that we were able to accomplish this with less cash outflow that we were already spending for rented facilities in Cobb County neighborhoods. In other words, we have better facilities and we are spending less cash! We now have almost 17 acres at the Crossroads Campus, literally all of the land needed to build the facilities and ministry space for the future of HopeQuest. The vision of becoming a national training center with replicatable programs continues unfold. Please pray for this Kingdom work. Blessings! Roy Blankenship
	Women’s Dormitory.
	Storage and work space for vehicles and equipment.
	Transitional housing residence for female clients.
	Azalea’s in full bloom behind the men’s dormitory.
	Picnic tables for client use at the campus.

Please help me get the word out about the Save a life, Save a Family Rally at the new CrossRoads Campus of The HopeQuest Ministry Group. I have attached a poster showing our special guests, Ashley Smith, Hostage of the Atlanta court house shooting, former professional wrestler Lex Lugar and Georgia State Senator Chip Rogers. Please pass along this email, print out the poster and hang it somewhere and most importantly come to the event. Saturday September 27^th 8:30-12 Noon. Parking behind Woodstock Furniture outlet 6250 Highway 92 Acworth, GA.

Click here to view the flyer!

Stephen D. Hendrix, CADC

Director of Clinical Programs

HopeQuest Ministry Group Inc.

678-391-5950

www.hopequestgroup.org