First Contact is proud to now offer an intensive outpatient program for those suffering from addiction. This class is for those individuals who wish to remain in the community during their treatment. We will meet one day a week (Saturday) with outside class assignments during the week to help with sobriety. We are excited to offer this Christian-based behavioral therapy training.
Born and raised in Hendersonville, Michael Todd grew up on a farm with his mother and step-father. After his biological father was removed from the home at a young age, Michael’s step-father taught him a strong work ethic and how to always be on his best behavior.
Michael said that his step-father was strict with him, and he was never allowed to show any weakness. A few years into their life on the farm, Michael’s parents started using methamphetamine and things took a dark turn, by age 12 Michael had smoked his first joint. With pressure at home to be perfect, Michael’s grades started dropping, he began skipping school and he started using other recreational drugs. By senior year of high school Michael had dropped out and was now selling cocaine.
After making contact with his biological father again, Michael was forced to leave town, on the run. He became homeless in Jacksonville, FL at the age of just 18. After a short stint in Florida, Michael made his way back to North Carolina to his uncle’s homeless shelter. He was able to get back on his feet and got his high school diploma! Following graduation, Michael became a manager at Lowe’s Home Improvements. He stayed there for 3 years until he got a phone call that changed everything…
His biological father was at Mission Hospital due to an overdose on Ativan and cocaine, coupled with alcohol. His father passed away shortly after and so many responsibilities fell on Michael at just 21 years old. Using his father’s death as a crutch, Michael started using again- even learning how to make the drugs.
While in a toxic relationship, Michael also began using needles to inject his drugs- including Percocet, heroine and meth. He remembers he never had withdrawals, because he was always high.
After getting caught buying large amounts of Sudafed to produce these drugs, Michael was arrested and charged with five felonies and two misdemeanors. He was given the chance to go to rehab rather than jail, and all of his charges would be dismissed. He completed a 28-day rehab program and came out victorious.
But shortly after began using again, to get him through his swing shifts. He was excelling at work, becoming a lead in his department and even got his own place. He was truly a functioning addict.
Michael met a girl and they began using together. She was hospitalized and they found out she was pregnant with their daughter. Michael vowed to quit using but never did, he tried to hide it. Michael lost his house and they were forced to move in with family.
One day, Michael’s family went to get vouchers for day care and they could see he was acting strange. The Department of Social Services was called and they performed a drug test on Michael and found methamphetamine in his system. They told him if he couldn’t get clean and pass his next drug test, that he couldn’t see his children anymore. Michael cleaned up his act, passed the next drug test and the case was closed.
When Michael’s second child was born, the pressure of fatherhood was too much and he started using again. His family moved to Tennessee and he found people that shared his addiction there. When his family found out, they kicked him out of the house and he returned to Hendersonville. Then Michael found First Contact and moved into Crossroads Rehab. After only being there for 6 days, Michael decided he was cured and moved back in with his family.
After a cancer diagnosis for Michael’s grandmother, he began using again. Michael remembers the Godly woman that his grandmother was and how passionate she was for Christ. Soon after the diagnosis, she was on her death bed and Michael made a promise to her that he would stop using. She died that day and the grief was too much, Michael couldn’t quit. He was so disappointed in himself, he had broken a promise to someone who had never broken a promise to him.
Michael was then living in a tent with his three children and continuing to use. He was spiraling out of control. But with the mother of his children often absent, Michael was raising his children all on his own. He recalls one morning when he had all three children at the park. A bystander called the police when he saw Michael acting strange around the children. They found needles on him that he had used that morning to shoot a gram of meth, in addition to his prescribed Methadone dose. He was incredibly high. He was charged on the spot with three counts of child abuse and one could of paraphernalia. He was given the option to go to a rehab facility and they wouldn’t release his warrants until after his treatments were complete.
Once again, Michael turns to First Contact. He was admitted to Renewed Hope Rehab and was there for 13 days before he left. He was immediately picked up and taken to jail.
After hitting rock bottom and being incarcerated for a week, Michael found himself alone in his cell reaching out to God. He asked the Lord; “Whatever you want me to do, I will do it. Whatever I need to do, I will follow you.”
Shortly after, Michael reached out to Kevin, a placement coordinator with First Contact, who posted Michael’s bail and sent him off to Renewed Hope Rehab once again. After 3 months at the rehab facility, he still hadn’t seen his children and gets a call from DSS to let him know that his children would be placed in the foster care system. After just accepting Jesus into his heart, and now getting this horrible news- Michael just couldn’t understand why his children were being handed over to strangers.
After 5-months in the rehab program, DSS lets Michael know that if he begins to start the process of drug screening and continually passes the tests, he can see his children for two hours, once a month, under supervision- an answered prayer! Two months later, Renewed Hope hired Michael on as an intern- he was getting paid to go to rehab!
At the 11-month mark of his 12-month rehab program, Michael got a call from his Mother and she shared that she has stage 3 lung cancer. Michael was crushed, but after prayerful consideration he decided to stay and finish out the program that he had tried to complete so many times before.
After graduation, Michael moved in with his Mother and immediately got a job. From there, he started getting more time with his children, ultimately building up to overnight visits where he could take his children to church on Sunday mornings- something that was so important to him.
Michael continued to work hard, gain more and more time with his children, all while taking care of his Mom. On Christmas Eve 2021, Michael and his children moved into their very own house! During this time Michael was keeping himself busy with First Contact meetings, Celebrated Recovery meetings, and bible studies. He learned that being surrounded by a network of people was the key to accountability in his walk with the Lord.
On May 24, 2022 Michael received full custody of all three of his children, praise the Lord! Michael has a great job at Blue Ridge Mountain Water and even works extra when he can! He is over 2 years clean!
Are you in recovery from the struggle with addiction? Do you have a family member or friend who has experienced addiction? Do you need a community surrounding you to lift you up and help you through this phase of life? Then you’ve come to the right place! We invite you to join us on Tuesday nights beginning August 23rd at Mud Creek Baptist Church and Thursday nights beginning August 25th at Ebenezer Baptist Church for our fall session of Over-Comers and Family Support Classes.
Call us at 828.435.2180 for more information.
First Contact Ministries could not survive without the generous support of our donors and event sponsors. Join us each year for our annual fundraising even, the First Contact Addiction Ministries “Chip Away at Addiction” Golf Tournament. The 2022 date for this event is TBD.
WHEN: Fall Fundraising Event
Click here to sponsor or play in this event.
For more information: email Bonnie.Edge@FirstContactWNC.org
Most, if not all New Year’s resolutions are aimed at making us better versions of ourselves. Start that diet, work out more, learn a new language or give up smoking. Regardless of the want, without commitment, sustainable change is impossible. What we discuss for this post is one of the hardest biblical principles to be consistently and mindfully aware of. And the only easy way I can think of, is to lay a framework for a comparison using the following electronic signals: analog and digital. Follow along in lesson 17 of our Bible study on overcoming addictions.
An analog signal is best described using the word intensity and a scale of 0 to 10. Analog describes things like how loud the volume is, how fast is the fan spinning. The curious thing about this type of signal is that it is observed best over time. Time affects our perception and interpretation of analog. Over the course of time, analog signals tend to trend one direction or the other, much like our lives and the choices we make.
A digital signal is either a 0 or 1. It is either on or off. These signals are commonly referred to as binary system. Think of digital as a coin has either heads or tails, it is a light switch that is either on or off. Many complex systems can be built from this framework, because of the logic behind it. That logic is based on the argument, “Is this thing on or off?” This sort of argument occurs every single moment of every single day in our lives, just in a different fashion. So, just as an experiment for a moment, try to imagine all the decisions going on inside your mind right now. Now to make it a little more complicated, try to ascertain if those decisions are self-based or spiritual-based. Staggering, isn’t it?
Binary Logic
Some sacrifices are the ones that reveal themselves over time in a chronologic analog fashion. When we repeatedly choose something that we are willing to give up for something else, convinced the payment is worth the price. Some of these components: family, friends, employment, health and reputation. Which of these have you had to sacrifice for your drug or alcohol use, had to sacrifice for a promotion at work, sacrificed for your own personal wants?
Jesus was quite clear of this truth when He said “we cannot serve two masters…” Trying to serve the self and Christ at the same time are contrary to each other, their wants are different. This is especially true when it comes to thoughts of who you used to be competing with thoughts of who Jesus wants you to be. Once you accept Christ, your identity changes as well as your investment. In this regard, sacrifice addresses the issues of ownership. This conundrum, as it appears to be, is as simple as a choice, yet as complex as the analyzing of patterns and trends. For us, this subject of sacrifice is merely a question of a 0 or a 1. Are we going to serve ourselves or are we going to serve Jesus?
A most likely premise
Since we live in such a me-centered society, this is no easy topic to broach without stepping on some toes. Understand my intention, I am not here to beat you up as I have said before. My goal is to help you live the Christ-centered life as best as possible and fill in some of the cracks that I have stepped in. In our anchor verse, Peter is writing to God’s chosen people to remind them who they are and encourage them to be what God wants them to be as well as a warning.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
1 Peter 2:10-11
He is saying to them, yes, that is who you used to be, but that’s not who you are now, you are worth more that what you have sold yourself for. He is trying to instill in them their true identity; God’s people, not whatever desire the heart of the self may have at the moment.
What may seem like a sacrifice is nothing more than separation anxiety with the articles we have found to be comfortable in this world. When we do this, we submit to the world to give us our identity. Which is flawed logic. The world is primarily responsible for showing us things to be desired. Then we sellout for them. The world changes every minute, how can you expect to have any form of stability when that is your bedrock? I’m not downing the world, I’m saying our Father in heaven does not change, He is steadfast and capable of not only giving but showing us how to live in our new identity. The only way to do this is to ask the question:
Whose are you now?
Bible Study on Overcoming Addictions
Application – a Bloody Mess
This is a digital question and it is constantly being asked all the time, whether we know it or not. How you answer this over time will determine what your analog signal is; do you lean more this way or that way? Do you find that you constantly revert to who you used to be, serving self or do you find your actions falling in line with your heavenly identity? Has drug use stolen your worth? Has anger destroyed your investments in life? This identity goes hand in hand with our investment, which we will discuss next.
Many components are necessary for success. Determination, motivation and hard work. For things that truly matter though, sacrifice is essential. Sacrifice is hard and it is costly, especially if you have a particular attachment to the thing being given away. Because to sacrifice for something means that you believe it the cause, not with words, but with actions and possessions. There better be a reason and it had better be a good one. Refinement is war.
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
Luke 9:23
To sacrifice things that mean something to us takes receptiveness, willingness and commitment. In many ways it is an investment in something better. It means we not only see value in what it is we are sacrificing, but that what we get in return is worth more than what is being sacrificed. What is standing in your way of better? What is in your life that needs to be given up, that is not producing good fruit in your life? These are the things that need to be offered up. Just be aware, chances are they will not give up easy, especially if you hold on to them too tightly.
The battle for the self will always rage on. Some days will be easy, others will be a slaughter. Some days you’ll make progress in one area only to find you are losing ground in another. Understand the severity of the decision to fight the self. It is a choice we make every moment of the day. And thankfully for us, Jesus made that decision to sacrifice for us. In fact, He sacrificed everything:
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:8
This Bible Study on Overcoming Addictions is part of the discipleship program at First Contact Ministries in Hendersonville, NC.
Did you miss the other lessons in this series? Click see the entire Bible Study on Overcoming Addictions series.
We always look forward to meeting new people at our Tuesday night support group meetings at 6:30 pm, located at Mud Creek Church in Hendersonville, NC. Our classes are designed to teach biblical principles for addiction recovery through discipleship. Our goal is to show the love of Jesus by supporting those who need it most.
For more information or to purchase “The Resistance” by Josh Staton to use as a Christian leadership book, or curriculum for an addiction recovery class, please visit: The Resistance: Becoming A Servant Leader Through the Beatitudes Christian Leadership Book
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