Peniel

My name is Lisa H. Davis. I graduated with the class of 2001. In the past five years since leaving Peniel, my life has truly changed. Not only have I learned to live sober but my most important accomplishment has been learning to know and live for Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.

I’d like to say since finding Jesus that Life has been easier to live, but that would be a lie. Satan works overtime when he knows he’s lost you. I’m human. I fail in many areas of my life, but I know I have a Savior who forgives and puts me “back on track.”

After graduation, I spent the first two to three years at home with my husband, son and daughter. After those years, I sensed the Holy Spirit leading me to find a part-time job for various reasons. The only field I had ever worked in was the medical field. However, my job in this area had only aided my previous addiction. I prayed and prayed. I had been leading several Bible studies at my church and asked those involved to pray for me as well. It wasn’t long after this that I received a phone call asking me if I’d be interested in helping to manage a thrift shop. I knew at once that this was God’s will - His plan, for this season of my life.

I had been praying for some type of Christian ministry where I could help others. I needed to return help to others, as I myself had been helped tremendously! It has been almost two years now, and God has truly blessed me. The people I work with are such an inspiration and the salary surpasses the salary I had made working as a medical assistant.

I am currently a manager of “Abundant Blessings Thrift Shop.” The shop operates solely to produce profits which are given directly to Mennonite Central Committee, a non-profit organization (ministry) that operates across the U.S., distributing money to various countries, helping those in need; victims of natural disaster, poverty stricken areas, etc. The profits are outstanding!

Most of what I know about God and His love for me came while I was a resident at Peniel. I developed a strong, true relationship with Jesus Christ and He is truly “keeping me.” This world is tough! But, thanks to Peniel, Pastor and Dr. Spellman, Ms. Larmond and the staff, I have found the tools to “fight back” when Satan attacks. Looking back, although this year was the most difficult, it was the best year of my life! I am honored to represent the class of 2001. I will always love and support Peniel! Thank you for giving so that other can live!

August 27, 2003

Dear Pastor & Dr. Spellman:

As Graduation Day quickly approaches, each day brings with it more excitement and all of the last minute hustle and bustle that come with such a grand event.

It would not be possible for me to allow this memorable occasion to pass and not express to both of you the sincere appreciation I have for all of the time and all the effort that you give on a daily basis to effect positive changes in the lives of all that walk through the doors of Peniel.

My life has been changed forever! I was not only led to the Lord (Salvation) but I was also taught how to develop my relationship with “Him” continually (Discipleship) to manage that relationship (Stewardship) and to fulfill “His” call on my life (Assignment/Purpose).

Every day I am “encouraged” to dig deeper both in my walk with God and in developing the skills with which “He” has gifted me. Every day I learn to continually walk in submission to those who are in authority over me. Every day I learn more and more the importance and necessity of being accountable for each decision I make.

I look forward to the future I now have. I am excited about what God has in store. And it is all because of this place called Peniel where I wrestled with my issues and I have won! To God be the glory!

Again, thank you both for your sacrifices that I might walk the stage of life Saved, Delivered and Healed.

Sincerely,
Brian

My name is Belinda I came to Peniel at the age of 26 after being in a life of sin for at least 10 years. I entered Peniel after a two-year addiction to opiates. My marriage was almost over, and I feared losing my son. While in the Peniel program, I was reunited with the Lord. The Lord found me and I did give my life to the Lord. My relationship with God grew consistently through the year through classes and Bible study.

After completing the program, I returned to my husband and son. My marriage and my relationship with my son has been restored. For now, I’m readjusting to being a wife and mother while remaining sober.

Belinda

My name is Brian, for the last 12 years I was a chronic daily user of crack cocaine. But for me, drugs were the side effect of a much deeper problem, which in my case was sexual addiction. This curse in my life, as I would privately call it, in my thoughts, caused such fear and confusion that unconsciously I looked for ways to mask my personality and cover the frightened, resentful boy I was. This caused me to be very receptive to the drug and alcohol culture of our society.

I had been raised by a wonderful Christian mother and father and attended regular Church of God services all through my youth. But, my “curse” was hidden. Only I knew about it, and I was too ashamed to ask for help. So, I continued a life that was a lie and yet it had begun so early in my childhood that I became an expert at hiding it. This miserable life continued and I eventually married and had two sons. Thinking everything was okay I awoke to reality one day that my entire life was a lie. My sexual addiction took complete control of my life because I had grown so tired of the fight.

My marriage ended after 11 years, and it was at this point in my life that crack cocaine use began. I was totally obsessed with this drug, to the point that I prostituted myself for money to purchase drugs. My life changed in ways I never dreamed imaginable.. I can’t describe to you the depths of degradation I submitted to in my addictions. I can only tell you I felt helpless and hopeless. But, God! But God! My family never lost faith in God that He would bring back their son and save him.

Thank You Peniel!
Brian

My name is Cassandra. I came to Peniel July 19, 1999. I was addicted to crack cocaine. I was hurting and full of pain and anger.

Through 13 months of counseling and treatment, I am now able to deal with life in a positive and constructive way. I thank God for Peniel and its staff for helping me to break the walls that had built up over the years of my addiction and for pointing me to the Lord, for all things are possible with God!

Prior to completing treatment, I realized I needed to make a dramatic change in my life if I wanted the ugly addiction cycle to end. Therefore, I relocated to to another city.

Since completing the program, I opened my own beauty salon and have been recognized by the NAACP as an outstanding business woman.

Cassandra

My name is Corey. I am a proud Peniel graduate from the class of 2000. I must give Glory and Honor to my Father and Savior Jesus Christ for His redeeming and resurrection power! Since leaving Peniel my life has not been the same. Why? Because I “really” have Jesus, and I am sober! I still can’t believe that I did a year at Peniel and that I am a new person. Yes, there is still a lot of maintenance that has to take place, but with the principles that were poured into me while at Peniel, I am able to apply them and remain saved and sober.

In a very practical way Peniel has helped to bring healing and strength into my family and the relationship between my wife and me. The peace that we now have we’ve never experienced before, not in the entire 20 years we were married before my entering Peniel! Drugs and promiscuity had me, but not any more! My life has been restored, and I am totally committed to Jesus and my family.

Thank you, Dr. Spellman and the staff at Peniel. We are forever grateful for how the Lord continues to use you to help restore lives!

Corey

My name is David. I grew up in a good Christian home where I learned about Jesus at a young age. I attended church regularly.

At about the age of 15 I felt God calling me to be set apart from worldly ways and focus on Him. While talking to my best friend, a son of atheists, I decided to willfully rebel and follow my own desires. From then on things went downhill. It wasn’t long before I became a blackout drunk. To make a long story short, for the next 20 years I led a promiscuous, pleasure- driven, all out party life style, all the while attending church on Sundays if I felt like it.

After facing the latest DUI charge at the age of 34, I was confronted with the fact that I was living as a 16-year-old, and I finally realized that I did need help. With guidance from family, I chose Peniel Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center.

While at Peniel, I learned that little decisions I make everyday, even the thoughts I allow myself to dwell on, make up my character. I have to take ownership of that and base my choices on the information I now have. With the Christian-based training I have received at Peniel, I now know that my past is behind me, and I have the power to live saved and sober while giving back to the world that I had only mistreated, abused and devoured for my self-gratification.

I thank God and Dr. Spellman for this opportunity to meet God face to face at Peniel where He changed my life forever.

David

I’m 25 years old, and for the past 11 years I was bound by the power of addiction. At the age of 13, I found myself lonely, heartbroken, and full of fear. So I started smoking marijuana in hopes of finding comfort and relief from the pain. I was soon smoking daily, and the buzz was no longer enough to satisfy me. Eventually my drug use escalated to Oxycontin, Ecstasy, LSD, and Heroin. As my tolerance level increased, I found it necessary to turn to the needle in order to “feel high.”

Although I was successful in secular society, I was slowly dying spiritually and emotionally. And soon I would lose everything that was significant in my life. My marriage fell apart, my daughter was tired of my lies and broken promises, and the business I owned was beginning to topple. The urge to use drugs had overcome my very instinct for survival.

My Christian mother had been praying for God to direct her to a Christian Program, and he answered her prayers. She received information about a Christian Program called Peniel – a place of hope and restoration.

After almost dying from an overdose, I entered Peniel in March of 2002. Since my arrival, I have experienced my own face to face encounter with God. He has healed my broken heart, restored my mind, and renewed my soul.

From the classes at Peniel, I have learned how to live my life free from drugs and the bondage of sin. I have recognized patterns of behavior that kept me using, and through individualized counseling, I have learned how to identify triggers of addiction. The relationship with my daughter and my parents has been restored. I now have a true personal relationship with God. And I thank Him for this Place of Hope called Peniel.

Dedra

My name is Doug. At the age of fifteen I started experimenting with alcohol, and as I grew older, I started trying different kind of drugs. All through the rest of my teen years, I drank and used cocaine. By the time I was twenty years old, I was really hooked on cocaine. And then I tried crack cocaine, and my life took a nosedive to disaster in the addict world.

For the next four years I was in and out of jail, and of course I was too stubborn to ask for help. But this whole time I failed to realize my legal problems kept piling up on me until I realized I was in too deep, when I was facing a three to five year prison sentence.

I cried out to God. And before I knew it I was on a plane to Johnstown, Pennsylvania to Peniel. I came into Peniel scared, confused, and angry and didn’t realize God had answered my prayers.

Even though I was raised in the Church of God, I never knew God. But at Peniel I really had an encounter with Him. Peniel has given me hope now, something I hadn’t had in years. They are teaching me how to live my life with integrity. Knowing now that there is hope, I’m learning how to love and care about others.

My family relationships are being restored from what Peniel is pouring into me. So through Peniel I have gotten my life back, and I don’t ever have to look back at the past.

Doug

My name is John and I am 40 years old. After being addicted to alcohol, pain killers, acid and crack cocaine for over thirty years of my life I realized I needed help.

During this time I lost my 16-year marriage, my 2 precious children and all trust from my 2 loving parents. I also was face to face with death. Through the prayers of my faithful mother and her dedicated Pastor I was introduced to Peniel. Thank God!

This is where I freely would learn a personal relationship with Jesus Christ my Savior. The teaching, character building, and drug awareness classes taught here have given me the tools to live drug free. After living saved and sober over 11 months now I truly see the love of God and the special people at Peniel who care so much to save my life.

Thank you Pastor and Dr. Spellman for giving me my life back, and for the care you have for people like myself. I now have my relationship back with my parents and my 2 precious children and I have a home church to start my new life.

I thank God and Peniel for my life!
John

While at Peniel I learned so many valuable things, but the most valuable thing that I learned was this, and it’s really simple.

God is my father and He loves me, as I am, with no string attached. Regardless of what I am going through, or feeling, or the present situation, whether good or bad, He is always with me and there for me. When I realized that He loved me, things fell into place.

Through the one-on-one counseling, and the love and care that the staff showed me, I became free of burdens that plagued me for years. I learned how to maintain and enjoy my sobriety through the many classes and learned how to live out what I had learned, through my experience living in the dorm.

I was shown through Peniel what the love of Jesus is, because during my stay at Peniel, that was what I saw through the staff and the program, God’s love. I could never repay all that Peniel has done for me.

I thank God for Peniel. It gave me back my life. I regained confidence, set goals, and learned to like myself again. The life I live now is just continuation of what I practiced and lived at Peniel. Right now I am very involved in my church, and I plan on starting college in the summer.

Joshua

My name is Lisa. I am a wife and mother of two children. I entered Peniel on November 7, 2000, after battling with an addiction to prescription drugs for almost 15 years. I was caught up in a life of sin and had reached the point where I thought I could no longer function without drugs.

While at Peniel, I found true meaning and purpose in my life through the church services, classes and counseling. Today, I walk in faith through Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. As Galatians 2:20 states, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”

Since graduating from Peniel, I returned home to my husband and two children. I am involved with the youth ministry in my area. I am eternally thankful to Pastor and Dr. Spellman for their commitment to restoring broken lives through Jesus Christ.

Lisa

I entered Peniel at the age of 26, broken and desperate for a way out. Here I was with the world ahead of me. I was a 1992 graduate of Lee University (then Lee College) with a degree in Sociology. I was managing group homes for the mentally challenged and juvenile offenders, but I had a very dark and ugly side to me-I was addicted to crack cocaine.

My addiction only lasted for five months, but this was enough for my life to become totally unmanageable. I ran from responsibilities; I destroyed relationships, and I lost what dignity I had left. Every one has boundaries they say they will never cross, but with an addiction to crack, I crossed those and many more.

I completed 18 months at Peniel. During this time I was taught through one-on-one counseling, classes, chapel services and vocational and recreational therapy how to face issues without hiding behind anything. During this time I accepted
Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.

Today I can honestly tell you I have a relationship with Jesus. Through my being saved and my Peniel experience, I am free from the emotional bondage that ran so deep that I was unable to function or carry on the life that God had for me. Peniel had made the difference.

Mary

As a married couple, we entered the Peniel Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Program on March 13, 1989, desperately seeking help for drug addiction that had all but completely destroyed our lives.

During a prayer service at Crossroads Tabernacle, Bronx, New York, my wife Elaine and I surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ, and only days later were informed about Peniel. The pastor and six dedicated friends embarked on a mission to assist us and made the contact, as well as financially providing for us to enter Peniel.

Peniel became our place of refuge and transformation. We both learned how valuable life is. Drug addiction had robbed us of any self-worth and dignity. Our marital relationship took on a new meaning as we applied Biblical principles, and we developed a strong level of commitment to God and to each other.

Since our graduation in April 1990, my wife and I have been truly blessed over and above our expectations. Our decision to remain in Pennsylvania proved to be a wise choice.

About two years ago the Lord began to instill in our hearts a desire to reach the lost. We have answered the call to Outreach Ministry, according to Mathew 25:36, visiting the sick and bringing the good news to those bound in prison.

Nick & Elaine

Hello, my name is Shane. I entered Peniel on March 28, 2002.

I was a complete wreck. My life was completely out of control. I did not know how to take responsibility for my actions, and the trouble my cocaine and alcohol addictions were getting me into.

I was at the end of the road and didn’t know what to do next, so a dear friend of mine told me about a place called Peniel. I didn’t want to go away for a year, but I wanted to get off drugs and learn how to live without them. Through Peniel I have learned just that.

Peniel has not only taught me how to take responsibility, but they have also taught me how to live as a man of God, and I know now that drugs were not the answer, that my help comes from my Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you, Peniel!
Shane

For the majority of my life I have been taken over by severe depression. It lasted over 20 years. In high school I stayed to myself with just a couple of friends. I was fearful of people. I thought that was normal. I met the man that would be my husband when I was 16. I thought my fear of people would go away then. But it didn’t. At 19
we got married and did a lot of traveling due to his being in the U.S. Navy.

Within a couple of months, the depression started. Over the years when we lived in Hawaii, it became so severe that I took many overdoses on pills and would physically hurt myself. I hated myself. My family grew to include two little boys. We were just surviving. Suicide attempts were happening frequently, and I was being hospitalized many times. We thought things were better.

We had 3 boys of our own and adopted a 3-½ year old girl from the Marshall Islands. We were a happy family for a while. In 1993 we left Hawaii and soon went to Connecticut. The depression and suicide attempts were so bad that many times I should have died. I was all but on my way to the Connecticut State Hospital when my husband picked up a magazine and found out about Peniel.

He saw it was for drugs and alcohol. I didn’t have those problems. He thought they couldn’t help me. But God told him to go to our associate Pastor and tell her. She told him to call Peniel. She believed they would take me.

He called and yes, God is changing my life in so many ways. Fear is gone. I am learning to stand up for things. I’m learning to face stuff that I could never face before. Thoughts of ending my life and hurting myself are gone. I am becoming emotionally stable, and my marriage of 22 years is being restored. I thank God for Peniel. For the first time in 20 years I want to live.

Tonya

Due to recent confidentiality laws, we are unable to provide identity or pictures of these testimonies. Be assured that all the testimonies are documented and true. This information is published by permission.