Know Someone in Addiction?

This post wraps up our Blog Series focusing on Addiction! Scroll down for the complete listing of posts in this Series. As you read these stories we invite you to share your thoughts, reflections and insights. Our hope is that as we engage in conversation together, we can gain a deeper understanding in the midst of trials and celebrations of overcoming addiction.

Article 8 of 8. (from the Winter 2011 Messenger Magazine)


Ways a non-professional can help
•Remember that your involvement is important to the person and to the God who loves us.

•Pray for the individual, and remind him/her to pray for you.

•Know when to refer. If you feel like you’re in over your head, you probably are.

•Be direct. Chances are the individual wants to talk about the addiction but doesn’t know how.

•Be an active listener:
- Listen more than you speak.
- Look the individual in the eye as you speak and listen.
- Paraphrase and repeat statements, for example, “What I hear you saying is...”

•Ask open-ended questions that require more than a yes or no response:
- How does the addiction make you feel?
- What makes it ok for you?

•Don’t enable
- Set boundaries and stick to them; don’t be afraid to show firm love.
- Don’t ignore behaviors; try to address them in the moment.
- Don’t own the individual’s issues — remember that their urgency is not your emergency.

•Listen for the cause. Instead of focusing on the behavior itself, try to listen for the cause of the
behavior.

•Don’t expect quick fixes. Long-standing issues require long-term solutions.

•Remember to speak with other people who are helping in an individual’s life.

We hope you enjoyed this series on Addiction! For more stories like these, click here to receive the Messenger Magazine electronically!

FORMER POSTS within our Blog Series on Addiction:

Fighting Addiction With the Armor of God

Fighting Addiction, and Experiencing God's Love

Dying to be FREE

She Walked In

Caught Between Egypt & the Promised Land

Quitting is the easy part!

Preventing Teen Drug Use

Realizing our addictions (remember... even Jesus was tempted)

Now That Was God

Access to Health & Hope

Healing from Hurts, Hang-ups & Habits

A Journey to Christ

Children's Prayers Reach God's Ears

Celebrating at a Concert Together
Give It Away to Keep It

New Life, and Spring - BLOOM at the Lydia Center

This story of new life and transformation, is part of our 'REVIVE 2011 Spring Campaign.' For details about how you can join this campaign, check out below...

Andrea Handwerk • Lydia Center Intern

Spring is in bloom on Grace Plateau. The grass is green. The flowers are showing their buds. Life is coming forth after a long winter. Just as spring is taking its root in the creation around us it is also evident in the hearts and lives of the women here.

The other day I had the opportunity to talk with one of our residents about what the first two months in the program have been like for her. She is one who came to us from prison. As a young girl, she found she could be valued by others by acting tough and strong. The “tough girl” approach became the way that she would relate to whatever came her way, and the people in her world. She cared little for others and only looked out for her own well-being.

A little over a month ago this “tough girl” chose to surrender her life to Christ. Since then her countenance has completely changed. It has softened. This is, without a doubt, the work of the Holy Spirit in her life. A new tender part of her heart is being exposed. She is breaking free and walking in freedom for, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17).

It is not only evident to her, but also to those in our community, that she is becoming more others centered. She described this as something new and unknown for her having rarely cared what happens to people in the past. For the one who went through life being numb she is now starting to feel more than just anger well up inside her. The ways in which she would manage any kind of unwanted feelings in the past is no longer working. She shared, “I know I don’t really understand everything that’s going on inside of me, but I know that God is with me and I just have to trust Him with that.” While the newness of actually feeling a range of emotions brings a sense of being out of control, she is choosing to rest in the One who is in control.

I can’t help but reflect on the verses in Isaiah 43 where God speaks to his people of their redemption:“Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” (v. 18, 19)

God is doing a new thing in the life his precious daughter. He is making beauty out of ashes. She has been given new eyes to see that she is valued far more beyond the constraining facade she projected as the “tough girl”. She is valued by her King simply for the beauty she is!

This Spring, we’re inviting you to revive your partnership with Water Street Ministries. Through your prayers and your giving, you can revive lives and advance God’s Kingdom.

Will you join us?
- Send a special gift this Spring. Donate online.
- We welcome your wisdom and counsel. Email us at Contact@WaterStreetMinistries.org.
- Commit to pray for God’s wisdom, provision, and the organization as a whole. Sign up for our Prayer Calendar.

For more information, visit www.WaterStreetMinistries.org/Revive, email Contact@WaterStreetMinistries.org or call Keith at (717) 358-2010.

Join the 'revive - 2011 Spring Campaign'

Did you know that over 200 people committed their lives to Christ last year through Water Street Ministries? Plus thousands of lives were touched through our practical expressions of Christ’s love.

Everything we do is made possible through donations, but recently donations haven’t been matching ministry costs. Over the last 3 years, we’ve been operating in a deficit. Because of previous donors’ generosity, we have been able to pull from savings and investments to cover those deficits. We felt it was important to continue serving the community during these difficult economic times.

However we cannot continue to apply this strategy into the future. As we look at 2011 through 2013, we either need to see donations increase or we will need to reduce services.

This Spring, we’re inviting you to revive your partnership with Water Street Ministries. Through your prayers and your giving, you can revive lives and advance God’s Kingdom.

Will you join us?
- Send a special gift this Spring. Donate online.
- We welcome your wisdom and counsel. Email us at Contact@WaterStreetMinistries.org.
- Commit to pray for God’s wisdom, provision, and the organization as a whole. Sign up for our Prayer Calendar.

For more information, visit www.WaterStreetMinistries.org/Revive, email Contact@WaterStreetMinistries.org or call Keith at (717) 358-2010.

Give It Away to Keep It

This post is part of our current Blog Series - focusing on Addiction! As you read these stories we invite you to share your thoughts, reflections and insights. This series will include stories on addiction, along with 8 articles from our most recent Messenger magazine. Our hope is that as we engage in conversation together, we can gain a deeper understanding in the midst of trials and celebrations of overcoming addiction.

About two years ago, I had significant back surgery but was not ready to surrender to the idea that my body had given out. At the same time, a Water Street Ministries flyer came through our church mailbox, and the mentoring program at the Mission jumped out at me. I am an alcoholic with 20+ years of sobriety under my belt. The old AA saying is, “give it away to keep it”, so what better opportunity than to share some counsel and hope from my own experiences with destitution, homelessness and depravity? I could do this whether or not my back healed.

Thus started my relationship with my mentee, George. In the 12+ months I’ve known him, I’ve seen him blossom from a person hiding in an angry shell to a person with feelings and compassion.

Not too long ago, I attended “Landmarks”, a ceremony celebrating Water Street Mission clients’ landmarks on their journeys out of homelessness. The stories were nothing but amazing. As George got up to share, I thought, “Could this man be the same person I met so many months ago?” He is not; he is a new being on both the outside and inside by the grace of God. I look forward to continuing my relationship with George and being a part of what God is doing throughout Water Street Ministries. By Bill Holder, Volunteer Mentor, Water Street Mission

We hope you enjoyed article 7 of 8 from the Messenger magazine - Winter 2011 Edition! Sign Up to receive the Messenger magazine electronically, here!

Stay tuned for the next post in this series on Addiction!

Celebrating at a Concert Together

This post is part of our current Blog Series - focusing on Addiction! As you read these stories we invite you to share your thoughts, reflections and insights. This series will include stories on addiction, along with 8 articles from our most recent Messenger magazine. Our hope is that as we engage in conversation together, we can gain a deeper understanding in the midst of trials and celebrations of overcoming addiction.

Jim Stanton • Program Counselor

“Where you go, I’ll go, where you stay, I’ll stay, when you move, I’ll move, I will follow you.” These lyrics are by Jason Ingram, Reuben Morgan and Chris Tomlin in the song: I WILL FOLLOW. I can say that they really sunk into my head and heart one memorable night at the Giant Center in Hershey, PA as singer, Chris Tomlin sang them March 8, 2011. A co-worker, Mark Noel, and I had the luxury of enjoying the concert with 2 van loads of men from the LifeRecovery Program at Water Street Mission. Men who had previously lived in addiction, prison, and various levels of life apart from God’s will had joined us and thousands in worship and surrender to the "YOU", Almighty God!

For my life to move forward in surrender and obedience to God it actually involved a move for my wife and I to the big city of Lancaster and taking on a job as a Program Counselor to men who needed help, and yes, lots of love. God had prepared my heart to love others that some folks might find difficult to love unconditionally. The same song included these words: “Who you love, I’ll love, how you serve, I’ll serve, If this life I lose, I will follow you.” Humbled by this challenge I turned to my co-worker and mentioned that the men standing in worship together with us are “who you love, I’ll love.”

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Previous Posts in this Series:

Fighting Addiction With the Armor of God

Fighting Addiction, and Experiencing God's Love

Dying to be FREE

She Walked In

Caught Between Egypt & the Promised Land

Quitting is the easy part!

Preventing Teen Drug Use

Realizing our addictions (remember... even Jesus was tempted)

Now That Was God

Access to Health & Hope

Healing from Hurts, Hang-ups & Habits

A Journey to Christ

Children's Prayers Reach God's Ears

Stay tuned for the next post in this series on Addiction!