A Son and Family Restored, Joshua’s Story
All Joshua wanted was to make his dad proud.
“I would try to get good grades,” he remembers, “I would try to be a good kid, but I felt like there was always something that I wasn’t doing to earn his approval.”
Joshua was confused and hurt. He thought he was doing his best, but he figured it would never be enough, “Inside I was saying, ‘You know what, Pops, if I can’t get your approval, then I’m gonna make your life a living hell.’”
As he started partying and hanging around the wrong people, he began experimenting with drugs, “I started to use heroin intravenously, and to justify to myself that I wasn’t a drug addict, I’d let my friend do the heroin purchase and load up the syringe — just to make myself feel better about the situation.”
Until one day, as his friend was shooting heroin into his veins, Joshua overdosed.
“My mom said he was doing CPR on me for about 25 to 30 minutes,” Joshua says, “And he would have let me die because he was selling heroin and he didn’t wanna get caught.” It wasn’t until someone busted through the door that they called 911 and rushed Joshua to the ER.
After recovering, he found himself walking through the doors of Teen Challenge, “God started to reconstruct my heart. God started to change my idea of who he was. That he wasn’t distant, he loved me, he had a plan and a purpose for my life, and he was a perfect Father.”
But Joshua still had some reservations in his heart. When he graduated, he thought he might start drinking or smoking again, “A few weeks after graduation I started hanging around the same people and I thought I was gonna evangelize to them and preach the good news … but little by little they started to influence me.” Joshua started to walk down the same path as before: drinking, smoking, and taking pills.
He wound up in jail after committing a crime, but instead of going to prison he entered Teen Challenge’s restoration program, “God really started to work on me. I feel like I was the prodigal child. God had something in store for me, but I wanted to just get my inheritance, and blow it on everything my flesh wanted instead of what the Father had for me.”
Toward the end of his restoration program, Joshua was given an application to attend the Teen Challenge Ministry Institute. There he felt called to become a Teen Challenge staff member, and eventually was called to serve as the choir director at Central Valley Teen Challenge, where God could use Joshua’s musical gifts for his glory.
This experience has not only transformed his life, but his family’s as well.
God is beautifully mending Joshua’s relationship with his dad and his other family members. Where there was once pain and destruction, God is bringing healing and restoration. Joshua always felt like the black sheep — that there was no hope for him. But through the work God is doing at Teen Challenge, he has become a new creation.
Will you help others like Joshua find hope and restoration? Your faithful giving is what makes this work possible.
All Joshua wanted was to make his dad proud.
“I would try to get good grades,” he remembers, “I would try to be a good kid, but I felt like there was always something that I wasn’t doing to earn his approval.”
Joshua was confused and hurt. He thought he was doing his best, but he figured it would never be enough, “Inside I was saying, ‘You know what, Pops, if I can’t get your approval, then I’m gonna make your life a living hell.’”
As he started partying and hanging around the wrong people, he began experimenting with drugs, “I started to use heroin intravenously, and to justify to myself that I wasn’t a drug addict, I’d let my friend do the heroin purchase and load up the syringe — just to make myself feel better about the situation.”
Until one day, as his friend was shooting heroin into his veins, Joshua overdosed.
“My mom said he was doing CPR on me for about 25 to 30 minutes,” Joshua says, “And he would have let me die because he was selling heroin and he didn’t wanna get caught.” It wasn’t until someone busted through the door that they called 911 and rushed Joshua to the ER.
After recovering, he found himself walking through the doors of Teen Challenge, “God started to reconstruct my heart. God started to change my idea of who he was. That he wasn’t distant, he loved me, he had a plan and a purpose for my life, and he was a perfect Father.”
But Joshua still had some reservations in his heart. When he graduated, he thought he might start drinking or smoking again, “A few weeks after graduation I started hanging around the same people and I thought I was gonna evangelize to them and preach the good news … but little by little they started to influence me.” Joshua started to walk down the same path as before: drinking, smoking, and taking pills.
He wound up in jail after committing a crime, but instead of going to prison he entered Teen Challenge’s restoration program, “God really started to work on me. I feel like I was the prodigal child. God had something in store for me, but I wanted to just get my inheritance, and blow it on everything my flesh wanted instead of what the Father had for me.”
Toward the end of his restoration program, Joshua was given an application to attend the Teen Challenge Ministry Institute. There he felt called to become a Teen Challenge staff member, and eventually was called to serve as the choir director at Central Valley Teen Challenge, where God could use Joshua’s musical gifts for his glory.
This experience has not only transformed his life, but his family’s as well.
God is beautifully mending Joshua’s relationship with his dad and his other family members. Where there was once pain and destruction, God is bringing healing and restoration. Joshua always felt like the black sheep — that there was no hope for him. But through the work God is doing at Teen Challenge, he has become a new creation.
Will you help others like Joshua find hope and restoration? Your faithful giving is what makes this work possible.