Page 0: Page 1: Local couple using Christian ministry to rescue young men from the bondage of drug addiction Page 2: “I had nowhere to go and I realized pretty much my life was down the drain,” said Rinker, now 19. “I didn’t have anything. I didn’t own anything. I wanted to change my life.” By STEPHANIE MILLER Thomas Rinker was 17 and had hit rock bottom. He had no one who seemed to care about him as he sat in jail facing the consequences of where his drug addiction had led him. “I had nowhere to go and I realized pretty much my life was down the drain,” said Rinker, now 19. “I didn’t have anything. I didn’t own anything. I wanted to change my life.” That desire to change seemingly came too late for Rinker. He started using drugs at age 16 despite an understanding of their devastating effects on a life. His mother was an addict, as are most of his other family members. “I saw my mom doing it, and it had been in my life since I was born. I saw how it affected them and I still decided to use drugs,” the humble-sounding teen said. Rinker’s skirmishes with the law and drug use led him to a boy’s home where he was offered help and the opportunity to change his life. He didn’t take that opportunity. Instead he ran away and broke into a church to use a telephone to call a friend to come pick him up. That burglary landed him in jail where he had to stay for 15 months because he had nowhere else to go if he were released. But the time he spent incarcerated gave Rinker time to think — time to remember some of the people who had tried to help him — time for a deputy to realize he was just a scared young man who needed a positive force in his life. That deputy contacted Scott Mormon, founder of Breaking Free Inc., a Christ-centered training program aimed at helping drug addicts, ages 17 to 25, turn their lives around. That deputy asked Mormon to take Rinker in. “When we found out about him he was ready,” said Mormon of Rinker. Mormon knew all too well the path Rinker had taken. He understood the loneliness and the feeling that no one cared. “I spent years in prison in the ‘80s,” he said, citing a list of crimes that would make some fear to be in his company. Yet, the transformation Christ had done in his own life is evident when he talks about his desire to offer a place to bring … the transformation Christ had done in his own life is evident when he talks about his desire to offer a place to bring peace to troubled peace to troubled youth — a different kind of place. “One thing that really spurred this on is we just saw that there was nowhere that did not charge,” he said of the drug recovery services Breaking Free offers. “I felt the Lord telling us two things — never charge for services and stay out of debt. We just saw so many parents and people that could not afford help and there was nowhere for them to go.” With his wife Melanie by his side, five years ago the couple began Breaking Free Inc. at 2503 Breezy Hill Road in Davisboro, and started following the plans they felt God had for them to help others. In addition to not charging for the program, there is one Sandersville Scene. 15 Page 3: “We believe in a community-type approach… You have to recreate Page 4: other requirement to get into Breaking Free. “They have to want to be here first,” said Melanie. “By being free, we feel it’s very important that a young man wants to be here. The interview process is pretty intense. We have staff that lives with them. It is a 24-hour program.” She said the program aims at replacing what the young men are missing in their lives — the void that brought them to drug use in the first place. “We believe in a community-type approach. What’s missing is either family or they’ve lost connection with their family. For them to be whole again you have to create a family-type environment — which is why we max out at 14 guys. We felt that’s all we can work with. You have to recreate family. Working with them just eight hours a day is not reality,” she said. Mormon agrees. “[Our] roles are really mother and father.” But, he said the recovery program involves the real Sandersville Scene. 17 Page 5: A lot of focus is placed on teaching each participant to pay attention to his inner being, to ask God daily what He is trying to reveal… parents if there are any. “We have a whole family recovery program with this that is for the parents,” he said. “We can actually bring the parents on. They can spend the whole weekend with us. They have to participate in the family recovery classes.” He said getting parents involved is not a problem. In fact, two “hotels” are being built at Breaking Free that allow parents and other family members to stay and work with recovery alongside their loved ones. “They are usually crying out for resources,” said Mormon of the desperate desire of many parents to help their children. Breaking Free participants are not allowed to sit around all day; their bodies are kept just as busy as their minds. Mormon said in addition to the education classes, the Bible classes, and the quiet time each participant is expected to participate in, they also work. The facility operates a plant nursery, a lawn maintenance crew, a construction crew, a landscaping crew and a car wash. “We believe in hard work,” said Mormon. “We believe this is a very hard-working part of the country. We never ask for gifts. We have people who do give, but 80 percent of our funds come in through our plant nursery and lawn care. These things are how we pay our bills. Being debt-free, we keep it at a minimum. We’re so thankful for the gifts that do come in. If we need food someone calls and says we’ve got food. We’ve not done without ever, never paid a bill late.” The young men are selected for the crews they’ll participate in sometimes because they’re good in that particular area, but usually because they’re not. “If a guy is really gifted in one area, we’ll put them in an area where they’ll have to struggle and relate to peers and grow. We basically pick where they’re going to be,” he said, but sometimes work placement depends on the needs of the person. For instance, Rinker was placed in the kitchen to work alone beside Sof Alvarez, an inner healing teacher, who has been working with troubled youth for 12 years. In the kitchen, Alvarez is able to mentor Rinker one on one — something the teen has never experienced. A lot of focus is placed on teaching each participant to pay attention to his inner being, to ask God daily what He is trying to reveal and what they need to work on and change, and to listen 18.Sandersville Scene Page 6: to His answer. “While they do lunch they sit around and share what the Lord is showing them that day,” said Mormon. Melanie Mormon says the important thing is for the participants to realize “there is hope in recovery for those in bondage to extreme things.” Mormon says when people are hopeless or have hopelessness in their families because of addiction that is when they need hope the most, but it doesn’t come easy. “Hope requires something,” he said, adding hope can be built by positive action aimed at following God. When the young men are finished with the program they have the option of staying and working to help others. “We’ve got a two-year training program that is to raise up staff,” said Melanie. “We’ve had 13 stay with us. It’s not like we ever say ‘you’re finished.’ Most of these guys could go to college, they’ve got parents but they’ve chosen to stay here.” Gayle Boggs, who creates the Breaking Free newsletters, maintains the website and handles bookkeeping and other clerical jobs alongside the Mormon’s daughters, Danielle Hatcher and Hannah Mormon, was brought to Breaking Free because of her husband, who was at the time her boyfriend. “I grew up in a conservative Christian family, went to a Christian school, but I lived lukewarm for the Lord,” said Boggs, adding she started dating her husband, Ryan, and soon learned he had a drug addiction. “I was just devastated.” Boggs soon realized his addiction had her in bondage too. “I was just as sick as he was in the sense of trying to rescue him, bail him out of the co-dependencies. The Lord really opened up my eyes.” Boggs, a Florida native, was still living at home when Ryan began at Breaking Free. She too found help at the facility. “A lot of the time the family is left devastated and don’t know what to do once the addict goes to get help,” she said, adding his recovery process was hard on her as well. “Melanie meant the world to me just being able to relate to her and talk to her.” When Ryan finished the program the two married and went through the family recovery program. They decided they wanted to stay at Breaking Free and help others the way they had been helped. Since Gayle and Ryan Boggs went through the family recovery process they’re giving back too, according to Melanie. She knows the program is not easy, as it requires so much from the participants. One out of 10 guys who call, come; one out of the 10 who come, graduate,” she said. “It’s a very tough program, but if they do complete the program about 80 percent stay on or go into the ministry.” Sandersville Scene. 19 Page 7: