THERE IS HOPE ON THE HORIZON IN THE UPHILL BATTLE AGAINST DRUG ABUSE

Methamphetamine is an addictive stimulant, like cocaine. It is easy to
make, and the materials are cheap and readily available, although some of
them - drain cleaner, battery acid, and antifreeze -are hazardous.
Explosions in "meth labs" are common.

The short-term effects of methamphetamine include wakefulness, increased
physical activity, aggressiveness, irritability, decreased appetite,
increased perspiration, tremors, elevated body temperature, and
convulsions; the last two can be lethal.

Long-term effects include stroke, violent behavior, anxiety, con-fusion,
paranoia, mood disturbances, auditory hallucinations, delu-sions, and, of
course, addiction.

Some effects persist for years after use is discontinued, and some may be
permanent.

Chemically, methamphetamine is related to amphetamine, but its effects upon
the central nervous system are more pronounced.

It increases the levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine and
norepinephrine in the synapses (neural junctions) in several areas of the
brain, including the nucleus accumbens, the prefrontal cortex, and the
striatum. It not only stimulates the release of dopamine and
norepinephrine, it inhibits enzymes that destroy them. The excess dopamine
causes euphoria, while the excess norepinephrine raises alertness and
reduces fatigue.

Tony is a handsome young man. He speaks with the assurance you would expect
of a college professor's son. In a few weeks he could, if he chose, return
to a job with Airborne Express in Murfreesboro, even though he has been
absent from this job for more than 11 months...

Eight months ago, Willie was the manager of two restaurants in Rockhill
N.C.. He could return anytime he says the word. They need him and his
skills, but he is not ready just yet to resume his position. I found him
playing his guitar and singing hymns.

There is a serenity about him that could only come from a deep peace in his
soul.

Markus has arrived just today. He carries himself with pride.

He is a chef with a dream of one day having his own restaurant, a unique
place where the food will be all but Heaven-sent.

He is ready for a transformation in his life that will prepare him to
realize his dreams. Just yesterday, he was sitting in court in Huntsville,
wondering what the consequences of writing 20 or more bad checks would be.

He was filled with shame for having let a drug habit control his life in
such a despicable way. But he had finally been able, after 12 years, to
admit that he had a problem.

The relief that had come with sharing this secret were visible on his face
and in his demeanor.

Do these three men conjure up images of "junkies"? Probably not. But that's
what they were! It's not what they are now.

The following picture of a junkie is the one most of us have in our minds;
it's the one that strikes fear and hopelessness into our hearts.

"He is thin and pale, his eyes lifeless in a sad face.

"He is trapped by an addiction so strong that, deep within him-self, he
does not really want to see it as his enemy, and in fact would find it much
easier to remain its servant than to mount a fight he has little hope of
winning.

"The enemy is methamphetamine."

("Herald-Chronicle", Cookeville, Tennessee, July 18, 2001- describing a
woman addicted to methamphetamine; I've changed the feminine pronouns to
masculine ones.)

While the odds are overwhelmingly in favor of the addict remaining hooked
on his habit, there is hope! That is what this story is about.

Hope is evident in Markus's face, after just a few hours - once he decided
to let go his secret addiction, and seek help - to own his part in the
shame of that addiction choking out his life.

But he has found a place where he is safe, a healing place, a shelter where
he may take the first steps on a journey that will bring him to wholeness
of soul, body, and spirit.

Let me tell you how it is that I know of this place.

About two years ago, a friend and I were shopping at K-Mart. As we left the
store, two very nice young men handed us a brochure about New Life Outreach
in Huntsville, Alabama. We stopped to visit with them.

They shared their stories -how they had been drug users, but had broken the
habit, and were living witnesses that drug and alcohol addictions can be
beaten.

I want to commend K-Mart for taking such a positive stand in the fight
against drugs in our city. They allowed these young men to use their
parking lot to distribute their brochures there.

They went on to tell us about their personal experience with New Life's
program -which was absolutely free. I was so impressed that I went home and
called New Life.

I knew some young people who needed such a program.

Unfortunately, my experience is not unusual. Most of us "normal" people
know someone with a life-controlling problem. If you are involved with any
church, any business, any social organization, you will sooner or later
witness the devastation of alcoholism, drug addiction, food addictions,
child abuse...the list goes on and on.

Almost every week, there are stories in our newspapers and on the local and
national TV news dealing with the tragic consequences of these
life-controlling problems.

There are headlines about drug abuse, meth labs, robbery, violence, and
murder right here in our own city and in the surrounding counties.

We used to think that those ugly things only happened in big cities, that
normal people could live normal lives unaffected by them. But today the
drug pushers are waiting just outside the doors of our schools, and alcohol
use is rampant and accepted among our youth.

There is a horrifying epidemic of substance abuse invading our homes.
Broken families and broken lives are the products of this epidemic. Our
children, even in their teens, are finding themselves addicted.

The time is long past when we could afford to look the other way, or, worse
yet, look down on families with such problems. The situation forces itself
upon our awareness!

The very structure of the society we live in is at stake. Our children are
at stake!

We must be ready to facilitate change in any way we can; we must know what
programs are out there.

That was the purpose of my call to New Life, and of several visits over the
last two years. There are many "programs" that are attempting to deal with
these problems, but almost all of them are quite expensive and are
available only to the affluent, or at least to those who are covered by
insurance.

New Life's purpose is saving lives. It is a non-profit organization that
gives help to people with life-controlling problems that hinder their
ability to function normally and rob them of peace.

New Life's offers a twelve-to-eighteen-month residential program at no cost
whatsoever to those in need and want help.

By the time a person is willing to admit that he needs help, it is unlikely
that he will be working, but if he is working it will be at a temporary
job, that provides him with inadequate insurance or no insurance.

It is also likely that his family has been bled dry financially in trying
to help him. He may have been thrown out by his family. He may even have
been in prison.

It is at this point of desperate need in the addict's life that he may
finally be ready to be helped.

When Tim was about 20, he left Coffee County and moved to Lynchburg. But he
didn't know anyone there, and, after a while, he got lonely and looked up
some old friends.

They would go out and find drug parties.

Soon Tim began selling crack himself.

When one begins using crack, after playing around with other drugs, it
produces an incredibly powerful high. One goes back to it again and again,
seeking the ultimate experience...but it never comes.

Crack is easy to buy and sell. He bought it in Shelbyville and Franklin,
but he stored it in Lynchburg.

Unexpectedly, he became obsessed with the fear that someone would break
into his "warehouse", where he kept large amounts of cash and a huge
inventory of crack.

So he gave up both his "business" and his habit ... cold turkey, not
realizing how severely his body would punish him for taking away what it
had become accustomed to.

He experienced profuse uncontrollable sweating and unbearable pain in his
joints. But he succeeded in quitting.

He got a job at a local factory, on the graveyard shift. His boss, knowing
that it isn't easy to stay awake all night, gave him pills that would help
keep him from falling asleep on the job. Of course, that was all it took to
revive the irresistible craving. He got hooked again, and he lost his job.
Soon he found another late-night job, and, because he needed the stay-awake
pills, he started selling again.

Then someone stole his supply. Now he was desperate. He couldn't exist
without his regular fix. All kinds of things began disappearing from the
house ... jewelry, keepsakes, tools, you name it. It didn't matter whether
it belonged to his wife, his father-in-law, his stepchildren, or his own
parents.

He went to work at a fast-food restaurant, where he kept trying to "hook
up" with someone. Manchester was full of meth labs, but you could get all
the crack you wanted in Tullahoma.

He lost his job, but soon found another. Then he was fired when he was
caught taking money from the cash register.

After he ran out of things to pawn, he began stealing and forging checks.
He was arrested, and spent several months in jail. At one point, he was
offered release, but he elected to stay a while longer because he knew he
needed help.

About the first of May, he was released into the care of New Life. He went
into the program seeking help. That's the crucial point. You have to want
help before you can participate in the New Life program.

Tim has only been with New Life one month, but the change in him is hard to
believe, even when you see it with your own eyes.

He went in a skinny kid...now he's a man.

He was skinny because he hardly ate...he lived on drugs. Now he gets three
square meals a day. He has a regular routine; he does gardening, helps the
cook, washes dishes, runs errand, works in the print shop, etc.

He goes to bed at a certain time, and gets up at a certain time.

There's Bible study, regular prayer times, and church. His wife is going to
church with him.

Tim's mind and body are being healed by this discipline and or-der. And he
cannot describe it too glowingly!

Tim isn't out of the woods yet, but now there's hope, more than he's had
for a long time.

This story has been repeated hundreds of times in the past 30 years at New
Life Outreach in Richmond, Virginia founded by Victor and Carmen Torres.
Victor has a powerful story of deliver-ance from heroin.

The foreword to his autobiography, "Son of Evil Street", is by Nicky Cruz,
of "The Cross and the Switchblade" fame; Nicky is now director of Teen
Challenge.

He begins, "When I first met Victor Torres, he was a junkie, an outcast of
society. He was skinny, pale, and sick because his body needed heroin."

He goes on to tell how seeing Victor "brought our staff of ex-convicts and
ex-drug-addicts to our knees to ask God for a miracle in this life so lost
because of sin."

He adds, "I remember the day God broke through...through to victor's mind,
his heart, his very soul. I remember when love, peace and joy infiltrated
his life. He was lifted up into the place of God's forgiveness."

Victor Torres' life was transformed. For over thirty years, he has
ministered to the needs of young people who need God's power to free them
from drugs, as he himself once did.

"His is an incredible story of the grace and mercy of God." (Don Wilkerson,
co-pastor, Times Square Church, and brother of David Wilkerson, author of
"The Cross and the Switchblade")

In November 1997, the church in Richmond commissioned Leon Manigan and his
wife to start New Life Outreach International Church of Huntsville, out of
which grew the men's home in Huntsville. The church is having an impact,
not just in the surrounding community, but in the whole Tennessee Valley.

Pastor Leon is a dynamic speaker who can identify with hurting individuals
who are struggling to overcome life's pressures. He too has a powerful
testimony. He was a heroin addict for 13 years and lived a life of crime,
spending many years in and out of jails. At times, he was homeless,
wandering the streets of his hometown, Portsmouth, Virginia.

All the destruction came to an end when he gave his life to Christ and was
completely delivered at New Life for Youth in Richmond, Virginia.

Proof again that there is real hope for real change. When we hear about the
awful effects of drug abuse, we may think that we are defenseless,
especially against meth; but there is a way out, and there is help close
by, only a phone call away, and it's free to the addict.

Such faith and such sincere desire to help merits our attention and help.
This is a ministry that is dependent entirely on contributions from caring
people.

The results are in. The lives of desperate young men are being redeemed. I
hope you will take it upon yourself to become more acquainted with this
ministry.

If you don't know someone right now who needs their services, you may tomorrow.

I don't know how to help an addict be set free from drugs or alcohol, but I
know there is a remedy. There is hope for change at New Life Outreach.

Theirs is the story of what can be accomplished when ordinary people trust
in an extraordinary God. There are endless possibilities. For more
information about how to help someone in need of the services of New Life
Outreach or if you want to help in any way in this ministry, call (256)
853-1816.