Teen Challenge tells tales of hope, recovery

by Kathleen Duff
Grand Island Dispatch, April 4, 2008

From left, Matt, a student at Hamburg High, former NFL player Tony Woods and 26-year-old Mark
Massey told their stories of drug abuse and personal recovering during Teen Challenge on March 27.

“No matter what … you’ve got to stay in their business. You’ve got to know what’s going on with them.”

Former NFL and CFL football player Tony Woods doesn’t give that advice to parents flippantly, as evidenced by a testimony of the “serious living hell” he survived as a long-time alcohol and drug abuser. The 42-year-old Woods, along with two other young men involved in a faith-based drug recovery program called Teen Challenge, related their stories of dissipation, hope and recovery to a group of about 35 parents and school and town officials at Grand Island High School on March 27.

The presentation was part of the “One Island, One Team, One Dream to be Drug-Free” drug initiative and an extension of Mrs. Biro’s high school health classes. Biro brings in Teen Challenge volunteer Denise Oursler to relate to students the story of her brother’s struggle with drug addiction and subsequent suicide. Oursler was on hand to introduce the evening’s program and informed the audience that drugs are “not just an inner city problem.” When she first visited Teen Challenge some five years ago, she “sat there with (her) mouth open.” Men and women from all walks of life, as well as teenagers, were the face of drug addiction in Western New York.

The threads common to the evening’s presentations from Tony Woods, 26-year-old Mark Massey and 19-year-old, Hamburg High School student Matt were promising youth wasted by drugs and alcohol, the ease of entrance into the drug lifestyle and the resulting havoc. Each man said it’s important to be honest with kids and find out what they are doing and with whom.

Hamburg High School student Matt emphasized how easily life got away from him. “I was focused on looking good,” he stated, “but I was destroying my relationships. I’d steal my dad’s tools, my mom’s jewelry” to fund an addiction that started with one beer from his grandmother’s house. An auto accident settlement in the amount of $50,000 lasted him only three months, and he then began sleeping at a local McDonald’s and stealing food from Tops. Matt’s enrollment in Teen Challenge of Buffalo was court ordered following an arrest. He is now four months free from drugs and is working on his GED.

Massey’s story echoed Matt’s in his criminal involvement. He was arrested nine times on a variety of charges all coming from a habit that just felt good to him. “Drugs feel good,” he said, but eventually “Guilt keeps you from stopping. ... I would have gone to any lengths to stop the pain.” Seven years of oxycotin, Mexican black tar heroin, marijuana and other drugs landed him at Teen Challenge. “When I came into the program, I hated myself … and I had a heart of concrete,” Massey said. “God slowly chipped away at it.”

And all three men credit God, specifically Jesus Christ, according to Tony Woods, and the spiritual and practical personal development at Teen Challenge as key to their recoveries. The eight-and-a-half month program, developed over many years since its founding in 1978 by David Wilkerson, is very structured with prayer, chapel time, Bible study and choir practice plugged into several slots throughout each day. Chores, academic studies and other pursuits are aimed at getting the men back into the community. After a few months at the Buffalo location, the students move on to the 350-acre Rehrersburg, Pa., Teen Challenge to complete their graduation requirements.

Woods said that work helps the men but that, right now, parents need to work to keep their children out of the addictive lifestyle. “They (kids) want that covering. It could be your child in drugs. It takes work to be involved in your children’s lives,” he said.