PROGRAM HELPS ADDICTS TRADE DRUGS FOR BIBLE

GREENSBORO -- Soon, Lewis Blackstock Sr. will be a father again. First,
Blackstock is showing his family and himself that he's regaining control of
his life.

Nine men celebrated their graduation Sunday night from the Malachi House, a
discipleship program to rehabilitate alcoholics and drug addicts.

They gathered with the program's staff, their families and Pastor Otis T.
Lockett at Evangel Fellowship Church of God in Christ on Balboa Street to
celebrate their newfound freedom.

"Today, I feel wonderful," said Blackstock, 30, of Reidsville. "I'm just
real thankful and grateful."

Blackstock said he became addicted to drugs three years ago and came to
Malachi House's Bessemer Avenue location on May 9, 2000, after family
members found him with a gun to his head in a suicide attempt. It was in
the Malachi House program that Blackstock said he found the strength,
encouragement and inspiration from God to move away from drugs.

"Someone said to me, 'If you're dead, you're no good to your children,'" he
said. "So right there, I made a willing decision to God to go to any length
to get my life back."

On Sunday, Blackstock celebrated his recovery with his 11-year-old twin
sons in the audience.

"When I relapsed, it hurt him so bad," Blackstock said of one of his sons.
"I have to build his trust back up, which is real understandable. It's been
hard for them, but they understand that daddy has got to get his life
together."

Since Malachi House opened its first home in 1993, more than 350 men have
graduated from the program. Now Malachi House operates five homes
throughout Greensboro.

Men admitted to the program live together in the homes and stick to an
eight-month regimen of Bible study and classes on personal relationships
and anger management. Church attendance is required, and everyone shares in
chores.

The men also work various jobs outside the home to help pay for the
$300,000-a-year program, which receives no federal funding.

At graduation, the men receive a medallion, a plaque and a Bible.

Cliff Lovick, the executive director of Malachi House, said graduation
depends on the vocational skills the men have mastered and the growth they
have shown while in the program.

"These men are ready to step back into society and be an asset to their
communities," he said. "We're putting men back into society who were once
drug addicts with no hope. Now, they have hope. That's what Malachi House
represents." While several of the graduates returned to their families, two
others are moving to Florida and California to participate as staff members
in the Teen Challenge Bible Institutes in those states.

Blackstock and others will stay at Malachi House to continue their recovery
and give others the same chance that was given to them.

"Today, I'm so grateful that I have completed something in my life,"
Blackstock said. "Today, I just want to give something back, help another
person. "I've made a commitment to stay for the next months," he said. "I
still feel God has a lot to do with me."