Dance Steps
a newsletter of recovery, restoration and renewal
Volume 2, Issue 11 December 11, 2007
More and more, they come. Men, women, couples. From our city, from middle Tennessee, from all over the country. Business leaders, pastors, couples in ministry, men just out of jail and some on their way there. We get phone calls from California, Colorado, and Cane Creek. People come for an hour a week or for several weeks at a time. They come broken, angry, hurt, confused, resigned. They talk about past abuses, present failures, and future fears.
Often I am not sure how they heard of us or why they came. Many times, neither are they. They read a book, went to a concert, saw an email, or were referred by a friend.
Some come with deep depression. Most come carrying a load of shame. There are addicts of all varieties. Men who have public ministries and secret sins. Woman who are successful on the outside and destroyed on the inside. But they come.
And one thing I have discovered they all have in common. They want to be restored. They want their marriage to be saved, their ministry to be rebuilt, their reputations to be renewed. They want their lives back. They want to be restored.
I have really bad news. They almost never are. If by restored they mean return to the status quo, going back to the way things used to be, it just doesn’t happen. They don’t usually just pick up the pieces and go on.
Now, I have really good news. That is not what God has in mind for us when it comes to restoration. David said, during his time of restoring, “Create in me a NEW heart.” (Ps. 51) What God (and we at Branches) want to do is not go back but move forward. God takes our messes and our mistakes, our hurts and our failures and makes something far, far better than what we had before. He gives us a new vision, a greater hope, a deeper joy. He makes us NEW creatures in Christ Jesus. His way of restoring is to remake us better than we have ever been before. Praise His Name!
FROM DORIS AND MIKE AND EVERYONE AT BRANCHES
During this wonderful holiday season it is not uncommon for us to think back over where the year has taken us. For Doris and me, it is a trip that has left us breathless. In March, a wonderful man offered us an incredible building. In May we opened the doors to something, what we didn’t know for sure. Since that time Branches Recovery Center has become a vibrant, viable paragon of healing, community, and restoration. We have seen hundreds of men and women walk through the doors broken and hopeless and walk out with a sense of purpose and a belief that God is not finished with them.
We now host 15 recovery meetings each week. We have weekly support groups, bible studies, step studies, and accountability meetings. We have three counselors that stay as busy as they can, offering affordable Christ-centered counseling to hurting people. We have a prayer couple that ministers healing prayer to the deep seated scars that many people carry. We have an incredible Licensed Professional Director of Counseling who is as talented as she is committed to Christ.
We also have a deep awareness that this is nothing that we have done. Branches Recovery Center is a miracle of God. It is ALL His doing. From the first vision to the last coat of paint. “What hath God wrought” could and should be our theme song.
We also know that He has used wonderful, loving, unbelievable people like you. Checks have come in the mail at just the right time to pay the electric bill, provide scholarships for counseling, and help with housing for couples who come from a long ways away. Men from the recovery groups have painted offices, built prayer walks, and vacuumed the floor. Even my mother has come day after day to be the secretary. (She’s driving me crazy.)
At this time of the year we just want to say thank you for all you (and HE) has done. Merry Christmas!
To read all of Dance Steps each month contact us at mike@mikecourtney.net
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