Hope for the desperate

He looks and acts kind of like the postman he was; tall, quick-talking and moving.  He hasn’t handled mail for ten years now.  He’s been too busy.

The Clearwater Center of Hope (aka Clearwater Dream Center) exists for the purpose of helping men escape drug and alcohol dependence.  But it never exactly had a master plan.  You could almost say it crept up on Dale and Vicki Hendry.

Dale went to Countryside Christian Center in 1993 after a rough divorce because he thought it would be a good place to look for a new wife.  (Hey, you’ve done some funky stuff, too.)  There, Jesus met him and saved him.  The wife, Vicki, came later, in 1998.  She too was newly Jesus-found.

They started helping people who needed help.  Dale started giving people groceries, eventually handing out 6000 pounds per month.  One person led to another, and another.  By 2000, Dale felt like God was asking him to quit the post office and go to school (Bible, etc.) full time.  I’m pretty sure people said he was crazy.  I’m pretty sure he said he was crazy, a few times.  And more people kept coming.  Somehow, God kept providing enough housing and food for them.

There’s never a shortage of people who need help escaping their chemical prisons.  Even today, partnering with over a dozen other churches and organizations, there’s always a shortage of resources to help them: people, housing, money, and so on.  These men are addicted to powerful drugs.  It takes the strongest drug of all, God, to overcome them.  But God works miracles.  Strangely enough, we’re usually surprised.

God raised up a ministry in the rough High Point neighborhood.  He raised it up independent of traditional churches, but connected to them.  He didn’t insist that the ministry sit under a particular label or franchise.  He just gave a couple a calling, showed them one step at a time, and kept building.  One step at a time.  One man at a time.

The Dream Center program is intense; Monday through Friday are 12-14 hour days.  Study, work, study some more.  Other activities and work fill the weekend.  Accountability is very high.  Not everyone makes it.

Men come in with multiple DUIs, arrests, and often years of jail time.  Many are homeless.  Desperation is pretty much a prerequisite.  Men who choose the God-drug often graduate from the program and stay clean.  Those are the stories that make your heart sing.

Sometimes the stories don’t end so well.  Jason was a major-college graduate, with lots of potential and a crack addiction.  He cycled in and out of the program several times.  While out the last time, he said, “Pastor Dale, I’m going to die out here!”

A few days later, he jumped off a 13-story building.

Those are the stories that break your heart, leave you asking how to go on.  Dale’s buried 9 men who died from their addictions; about one a year.  But God’s call on his life is why he keeps on.  That, the graduates’ success stories, and a couple of core beliefs.

“If you fall, it’s just another step to your recovery.”

“I think of us as standing between these guys and the world; we show the world how we oughta be loving these guys.”

That’s the kind of Good News I need to hear.  And do.  Thanks to all the people who work in and with the Center, a whole bunch of people get to hear and do it, too.