Fishers of Men

“And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’” (Matthew 4:19 ).

The Men’s Residence is a 32-week inpatient faith-based drug and alcohol program. The program consists of 26 weeks of classes all day and 6 weeks of volunteer service work. But we are not all work here!

One of biggest triggers for relapse is boredom. Being a recovering addict myself, I know boredom always led to relapse. The problem was I had no hobbies. All my life consisted of was getting high. All the things I ever did enjoy doing, I did while using drugs and alcohol. So, when I got sober, I was scared life was going to be so boring. When I started serving here at the Men’s Residence, I brought up the idea of doing activities to help these men know there is fun and freedom outside of drugs.

Recently our community helped sponsor a deep-sea fishing charter for our men here. On the boat were current residents and past graduates all coming together for a full day of fishing. Some of them had never even seen the ocean before. Typically, when you walk around a fishing boat like this you see men drinking and talking about things that are not safe for our ears.

But this trip was different. Everywhere you went on this boat you heard testimonies of what God was doing; you heard praising not cussing. Instead of fighting, you saw men loving one another in the name of Jesus. It was great to see the men laughing and enjoying life.

We caught about 500 fish that day, but the hearts that God had caught was what really mattered. Part of the recovery process is allowing these guys to come and taste the life Jesus died for us to have. That boat had over 50 men whose chains had been broken…who had gone from death to life…who had a taste of the abundant life Jesus so freely gives. Who ever said getting sober was boring?! And to make things even better that following Monday we had a delicious fish fry fellowship!!

If you would like to be a part of the fishers of men ministry, email Jamie@christiancarecenter.org to see how you can partner with us!