GRADUATES PRAISE CHRISTIAN DRUG REHAB

When graduates of Alabama Teen Challenge and their parents talk about how
the ministry changed their lives, the testimonies tend to get very emotional.

"It's a program that works," said Jerry Norris Jr., 35, who entered Teen
Challenge's yearlong rehabilitation program in 1992 to kick a crack cocaine
addiction. "Without Teen Challenge, I wouldn't be alive today, or if I was,
I'd be in prison. It rearranged my life and gave me something to live for."

His father, Jerry Sr., agrees.

"When they're on drugs, nothing else matters," said Jerry Sr., now a board
member for Alabama Teen Challenge. He will be speaking today in the 10:30
a.m. service at Garywood Assembly of God near Hueytown. The service will be
a rally to recognize National Teen Challenge Day, with people offering
testimonies and a Teen Challenge choir providing the music.

Teen Challenge, started in 1958 by "The Cross and the Switchblade" author
David Wilkerson, has operated in Alabama for 30 years and recently has
expanded. It opened two centers in Alabama this year, one in Sylacauga in
February and one in Bay Minette in October.

Those facilities can house 10 men each and serve as four-month induction
centers. Graduates move on to an eight-month program at the men's training
center on a 40-acre campus in the Hayden-Warrior area, which can house 60
men at a time.

A women's facility in Double Springs houses 15.

"All of our programs are yearlong," said Robert Angles, who took over as
executive director of Alabama Teen Challenge in June after 14 years as
pastor of Heritage Assembly of God in Oxford.

Teen Challenge claims an 86 percent success rate for its graduates in
staying sober for several years.

"The absolute key is Jesus Christ, the proven cure for the drug epidemic,"
Angles said. "We are certainly faith-based."

Alabama Teen Challenge has an annual budget of about $700,000 to run its
four facilities, Angles said. It hopes to increase the budget and expand
services. "We hope to plant three or four more induction centers across the
state as finances permit," Angles said.

Drug use remains at disturbing levels in the state, Angles said. "It's
alarming and it's not just outside the churches."

Church members who approach Teen Challenge and ask for counseling help for
their drug-addicted relatives are a main source of the clientele. "They're
referred by churches and family members, or occasionally by a court,"
Angles said.

Anyone under 18 is referred to Teen Challenge juvenile centers in other
states, Angles said. Alabama Teen Challenge centers are for adults only at
this point, he said.

The centers take an adult approach to the addicts, Angles said. "If they
don't want to stay, they can walk off," Angles said. "We have some that leave."

Those who agree to stay get a heavy dose of spiritual training and
counseling, along with intense guidance.

"It's highly supervised and there are heavy restrictions on their lives,"
Angles said. "They're not allowed to leave the campus unsupervised."

When addicts arrive at the induction center, they are asked to pay a $500
admission fee for the one-year program. "If they don't have it, we don't
let that keep us from taking them," Angles said.

Norris Sr. said that when his son flunked out of college and eventually hit
bottom with drug abuse, Teen Challenge turned his life around when it
appeared there was no other hope. There's no way to put a price on that, he
said. "He's a good Christian and a good family man now," Norris said. "I'm
glad I have my son back."