Peniel's Bible Therapy Heals
Victims of The 'Drug Wars'
By Verna Lawes

This is a story about one mother's struggle to save her son from cocaine. It's also a story about God's love, and the way He heals the victims of this country's drug wars.

Let's begin about fifteen years ago, when David was in his mid-twenties. By all appearances he was a young man who would have made any mother proud¼a loving and responsible husband and father who worked during the day and attended college at night. So imagine the shock when she learned that he had been arrested while attempting to rob a convenience store.

"It was like a terrible, nightmarish dream that I desperately wanted to wake up from, but I couldn’t. I couldn't fathom why he would do that; he had never been in any kind of trouble; he didn’t know anything about guns, he was working every day; and I thought he was going to school. That night, I found out that he was using cocaine and had dropped out of school. He had started selling cocaine to pay for his habit. When you use drugs, they rob you of every thing.”

For a parent, it is devastating, a heavy burden. “Immediately, I went to God and begged for help and directions.” As a parent, you have feelings of failures, wondering what led your child to this life. “I didn’t know what to do or where to turn.” As a parent you never feel good until you know your child's in a safe place. For David, the safe place was Peniel, a residential treatment program located in Johnstown, Pa.

The name Peniel is the Biblical word for "struggle. "Dr. Marion Spellman founded Peniel after her brother returned from Vietnam addicted to drugs. Dr. Spellman says. "When we found out, our family was lost¼we didn't know how to address the problem." Dr. Spellman realized that what people in her brother's situation needed most was "a place of restoration, a place of healing." “Today, that need is even more critical” Dr. Spellman says.

Set on seven peaceful acres in Johnstown, Pa., Peniel seeks to "rebuild broken lives” serving both and women 18 years and older. Since Peniel opened in 1980, Dr. Spellman says, "nearly 5,000 souls have come through our doors seeking and finding a new way of life." With its mix of counseling, religion, family therapy, and practical programs stressing life skills, the program can boast of a high percentile success rate. "Everything," Dr. Spellman says, "is run according to God's guidelines." That's what made the difference for David and hundreds of other Peniel graduates.

"Peniel saved David's life. Now, fifteen years later, he is still drug-free, has a good job and is back in school working toward a degree, and I am a grateful mother, grateful to God and Peniel. I believe, once David went down that road of drug abuse, he had to get to rock bottom in order to develop a deep faith that Christ is the only one who could bring him out," Mrs. Lawes says. "When you know that Christ is the one brought you out of the pits of hell and is keeping you now, you want to live by his teachings."

Do you know someone who is hurting and is in need of long term drug or alcohol treatment? For information about Peniel, call 814-536-2111, visit Peniel’s web site, www.penielministries.org, or write to Peniel at Box 250, Johnstown, PA 15907.