Today, March 27th, marks exactly four years that I have been clean and sober. Four years of no drugs, no parties, and no relationships. Praise God!! It is also our last day here at the Village of Hope, the gospel centered men’s rehabilitation center we have been serving this month in Estonia. It is a place where men who are alcoholics and drug addicts and ex-cons can come and learn to live in authentic Christian community. It is also the place where many of these men experience the true, powerful, all consuming love of our savior Jesus Christ, and for the first time in their lives, Hope. I do not think its a coincidence that these two days fall on the same date, today.
The Program here is simple. In the mornings the men have classes that are centered on the Gospel and designed to show them that there is so much more life available to them and to give them a safe platform to learn how to share their struggles and thoughts. Then for the rest of the day, until dinner time, they work. Since we are in the forest, their work is usually done at the sawmill, where they make wooden pallets, the main thing that brings in income so the Village of hope can operate. The entire leadership team, everyone who teaches and leads during work, is made up of men who have gone through the program here and had their lives radically changed by Jesus. They then decided that the only way they could live is to devote their lives to serving Jesus and helping other men discover the hope in Christ that they have found. Its an amazing and simple system , and it works.
The Village of Hope has become a home to me and my team this past month. We have been given our own house to live in, complete with kitchen, electricity and hot water, but its more than the comforts that make this place home, it’s the people.
I had the honor of preaching to the men the other day, and I will never forget looking around the room and seeing the hope in the eyes of many of them. Many of these men are hardened ex-cons who have spent extended lengths of time in prison, and they were all hungry to listen and held on to every word I said.
Men like Ron, the pastor turned international bank robber who is now here serving in the program as a house leader.
Or Alexander who is a former boxer who got mixed up in drugs and is here because he knows that Jesus is the only hope for his life.
The stories are many, and truly amazing.
This place has had a big impact on me, and will always hold a special place in my heart. Before I was born, drugs got a hold of my father, and ruined his life. He then went on to put my mother through much, much suffering and eventually, I came along from the situation. The first half of my life was greatly influenced by his decisions. He has been in and out of prison my whole life, and I always wondered what it would have been like to grow up with him. He has been given many opportunities to come clean at rehab centers and halfway houses, but drugs have had too strong of a hold on him and he has never been able to get free of them. I look at the men I have gotten to serve with this month, and in each of their face I see my father. In all of their testimonies I hear my father’s story. It breaks my heart and fills me with hope for him all at once. After all of the horrible things he has done, the people he has hurt, the suffering he has caused my family, he is still a child of The One True King and Gods heart breaks for him. God loves him and is still fervently pursuing him, wherever he is. I see the life change the men here have experienced, and I know that God loves them, he loves my earthly father, and I fully believe he will find Jesus soon, and his heart and mind will be healed.
When I signed up for the World Race, I knew making relationships and then leaving would be a part of the journey, that it would happen over and over. You can know every detail about something, but it doesn’t FULLY become real until you have to walk through it. I love this place. My team and I have made deep connections with the men and servant leaders here. When I look around at their faces and realize that I may never see them again, it breaks my heart. Who is going to make it through the program? Who is going to go back t their old life? Who is going to come through with the anointing of Christ on them and be used mightily for the Kingdom? I do not know, I may never know, but this is what I signed up for. I fully believe that the work we did here MEANT something. That seeds were planted through our words and our actions. That God used us as vessels to pour out onto his sons here. I know God has something great for our team next, new relationships and great adventures, but even so, its going to be hard to leave this place. In the famous words of the immortal Michael Scott…
