Expect Miracles! ... I Received Mine!
By: Ronald E. Brock
Of course, there was the sign over the front entrance door which reads “At Last There’s Hope.” It caught my attention but I still didn’t’ know how I really felt. I was pretty weak, even frail, already feeling the effects of acute mal-nutrition, a self-diagnosis which was later confirmed by doctors at the Cambria County Hospital in Johnstown, Pennsylvania where they saved my life. That is how I came into Peniel Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center.
My blood sugars, my heart and my entire body had been so abused due to drug addiction. I was barely able to function. In fact, my short-term memory had been devastated, almost non-existent. For example, I could not remember what city or even what State I was in a good part of the time. I could not remember names and to exacerbate things more, I could not even remember the Peniel daily schedule. In short I was a disaster.
After spending ten (10) days in the hospital my body began to level out and return to at least a facsimile of normalcy. Yes that’s right, after only a few days in treatment it was mandatory for me to receive medical care from the hospital. Too sick, too disoriented, too far gone. Death was hanging around me like a fog, and Satan did in fact seem to have my “number” this time around for sure.
However, at that very moment, Dr. Marion Spellman stepped in and the God who has always loved me, provided for me even in my times of disobedience, even while Satan was pre-meditating the murder of my life. Dr. Spellman, Founder and CEO of Peniel, stubbornly refused to let me go!
She told my family and the doctors, “give us a month with him and let’s see what happens.” At the time the unseen shadow over Dr. Spellman’s countenance was Almighty God who seconded her faith-inspired motion. Like Moses, she “endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” (Hebrews 11:27) The doctors and my family withdrew their proposal, and there I was broken and somewhat confused, yet headed straight back to Peniel, where a staff of nurses and counselors awaited by faith for me to return expecting another miracle for one of Peniel’s clients.
In just two (2) months, after eating a well balanced diet commensurate with comprehensive care and anointed teaching/preaching I got my first miracle – my memory returned instantly. Just like that!
When my memory did return, I became instantly eager to enter all the classes available to me as a brand new client/student at Peniel. Back to school at my age! That fact alone was exciting and very challenging to me. Wow!
The teaching staff at Peniel, has an international, cosmopolitan touch that ranges from the Bahamian born Angelique Bernard, who teaches the always popular “Journey to Me” class to former tough Marine William Henry’s indispensable class on “Healing for Damaged Emotions.” Besides his educational qualifications, Mr. Henry, a proud Peniel graduate, received a purple heart for his action in the Vietnam war and later served as part of an elite contingent of special agents assigned to protect the safety of the President of the United States as well as foreign dignitaries.
All in all, the veteran teaching staff at Peniel is an adept, skilled core of devout Christians and professionals working under the close tutelage of Drs. Harold and Marion Spellman. In fact, Pastor Harold Spellman’s two-hour class alone, every Tuesday entitled “Access To Spiritual Growth” is absolutely worth the cost of entering Peniel as a client/student. The first real principle that Pastor Spellman got across to me was something that I had lost in my life because of the collateral damage and devastating affects of my addiction. He awakened me to the fact that “God is more concerned about my character” than anything else.
Every class, to me, has been informative, interesting and educational. I will never forget the principles and precepts taught to me by the teachers and counselors at Peniel. Personalized counseling is a priority at Peniel occurring weekly and when necessary on a daily basis. It seemed to me that no sacrifice was too great to assist a client in recovering from the deadly affects of chemical dependency.
My counselor, Associate Pastor Henry Davis, was strict, yet poignant, in his difficult, almost Herculean task of first leading me back to God and then directing me out of the wilderness of addiction behavior.
Besides his powerful teaching acumen, I discovered to my great delight that Pastor Davis was also an internationally acclaimed music composer and concert pianist, once performing at Carnegie Hall in New York and subsequent performances in front of such world renowned personalities as Mother Theresa and the Queen of England. He was commissioned twice by the Smithsonian Institute, first to represent the history of Black Gospel Music and later to perform during their celebration of the 100 years development of the piano.
God used this kind man to help save my life and to restore a hope in me for my future. However, do not mistake kindness for courage when it comes to dealing with the cunning behavioral patterns of drug addicts and alcoholics. The Peniel program is indeed and in fact a “no nonsense” approach to dealing with all aspects of addiction.
Not only do I now have hope for my future, I have a happiness that can only come at the moment in your life when you “slay the Goliath of addiction” with the spiritual tools and Godly offensive weapons you can only receive from a place like Peniel (Genesis 30:32) which means the “I have seen God face to face and my life has been preserved.”
Many miracles have taken place in my life here at Peniel for the last thirteen months. Now in Aftercare, I continue to develop my character with the same wonderful people who were so mightily used of God in helping restore my life back to me once again. I am committed to taking back what the enemy has stolen from me.
Oh yes, that famous sign over the front door entrance of Peniel which says, “At Last There’s Hope,” well it is still there … and it is still true. Every day at Peniel, WE EXPECT MIRACLES!
