Accountability and a fresh start for Malik

Recovery stories are not always linear. There are times when people may unfortunately and tragically fall into temptation and relapse. Recovery may not be linear but then, our faith walk isn’t either. God doesn’t give up on us when we sin, however we are held accountable for our actions.

Take Malik’s story for example (name changed for privacy). Malik came to us this fall to explore his faith. He had been an alcoholic and had been through rehab and had been clean for about 10 months. For about 6-8 weeks he was faithfully at church every Sunday and wanted to move into one of Greenhouse’s recovery houses.

On the day he was supposed to move in, he relapsed. He drank so much he ended up blacking out and woke up in the hospital. Very early the next morning he came back to the house. 

What did we do? 

The same thing God does for us. We showed love with open arms. We do not abandon people because they relapsed, we are very intentionally making long term commitments to people. Our whole goal is recovery and complete transformation so we are there for them as best as we can be.

While we do hold people accountable for their actions and behavior they will always have the opportunity to be restored and come back. Malik was allowed back but needed to agree to go back to rehab because he needed to work through more stuff.

Greenhouse Project wants to champion people for life. That’s what mentorship did for me. There were people in my life who never gave up on me. But for recovery to work people have to be willing to go to treatment. We want them to be well, we want them to get help but we cannot force that on anyone. They have to want it themselves.

Malik went into a 28-day in-patient rehab program. These programs are professional in-patient facilities who help patients detox, have group meetings, 1 on 1 sessions, relapse therapy, teach steps of recovery, provide tools for recovery, etc.

After completing his rehab came back to us. He completed that program on Thanksgiving Day and my wife and I invited him to spend Thanksgiving with our family. We don’t want anyone to be alone for the holidays.

We want to maintain contact with people coming out of addiction and provide resources for long term recovery. Our desire is to see people coming out of addiction grow and thrive so they can have a completely new life. We want to be a part of that process and we want to bring people into our families which is what we did for Malik.

The ministry we have at Greenhouse Project isn't a 9-5 work week, this is the lifestyle we are living. We are available and intentionally make ourselves available to those in need. Crisis doesn’t happen during “normal” hours and our resources aren’t limited to that either.

We currently have 11 guys in recovery houses. These men could use your prayers. They need resources like housing and food, and they also need the recovery resources that we are able to provide them with. Most importantly they need God in their lives.

Thank you for your ongoing prayer and support of this ministry. We’re able to be here for people like Malik because of your generosity.