'JESUS FACTOR' IS THE KEY TO TEEN CHALLENGE DRUG REHAB SUCCESS

A FAITH-BASED drug rehabilitation centre in Yarrow claims a higher
'cure' rate than government-run facilities - up to 86 percent,
compared to 15 percent.

The "Jesus factor" is the key, says Teen Challenge Centre director
Rev. Sean Sabourin, "because Jesus is the focus and centre of this ministry."

Sometimes called the "Bible boot camp," the privately-funded
residential rehabilitation centre on Eckert Street provides
spiritual, academic and vocational training to adult men 19 - 45
years old. There is also a centre for women in Abbotsford, and
another in the Okanagan near Winfield.

Sabourin says the centre has a "lengthy" wait list, and would welcome
government funding - but not the strings that come with it.

"When you get involved with a government, they have their own
motivations," he says. "We believe drug addiction is just a surface
problem to deeper issues in [addicts' ] lives."

He says the centre's definition of a cure is when clients become
"good taxpaying citizens . . . leading lives that are not being
devastated by drug addiction and pornography."

Cylena Halladay, now 21, says she was a teenage mother living on
Chilliwack's streets - who had lost her faith and become hooked on
crystal meth and crack cocaine, until she went to the Teen Challenge
centre for women in Abbotsford. She 'graduated' from the program
after 14 months in October last year.

The reason for her successful rehabilitation? "I plugged right back
into God when I went to the centre," she says.

But Sabourin says you don't need to be a Christian to get help at the
centre. "We have more guys [at the centre] who are unsaved," he says.

Sabourin, 30, is also a graduate of the program, which he says "freed
me from 11 years of drug addiction."

"It's not this program that is changing peoples lives," he says,
"it's the relationship they build with God through this program."

A Sardis mother told The Progress her son had a $200-a-day crystal
meth habit until he went to the centre - which, unlike government-run
centres, is not restricted to 90-day sessions.

"The objective with the 90-day program is turnover," she says. "Get
'em in, get the money, run the course and let them back on the street."

Neither the city nor the B.C. government fund the Teen Challenge
centres. But Chilliwack councillor Sharon Gaetz, chair of the city's
public safety advisory committee - and an evangelical pastor - says
she is very familiar with the organization, and "highly recommends" them.

Contact: bcteenchallenge.com.

- - courtesy of The Chilliwack Progress