Testimonies

• Matt Cook
• John Harris
• Rudy Moreno (1943 - 2001)
• Dave Olson
• Brian Schroeder

Matt Cook's Testimonial

"At Teen Challenge, God showed me that a lot of what I believed to be right was actually wrong. I'd never had boundaries, or moral standards. He gave me a desire to live right. One morning in chapel about two weeks after entering the program, a staff member stopped in the middle of a song and said, "If there is anyone here who doesn't have a real hunger for God, He is here and wants to do a work in you. Ask Him to give you a hunger for Him." I asked God to do that in me. From that point on, things really started changing for me.

I had brought an ounce of pot with me when I came into the program. One morning in classroom, I was working on my personal studies, and it occurred to me that God was saying, "If you really are serious about Me, you need to get rid of that pot you're holding on to." That night, I got another student and confessed to him what I had and what I needed to do with it. I asked the student to witness me flushing it down the toilet. It took a couple of flushes to get it done but we did it!

Three months after coming into the program, I had to go to court on an old drug charge. I expected to be able to return to Teen Challenge but the judge sentenced me to 1-1/2 to 3 years and I immediately was taken to Nebraska State Prison. I knew I had to make a decision immediately to serve Christ, no matter what, or I would go back to my old attitudes and habits in prison. I realized I was in prison, not just because I had to pay a penalty for my crime. God wanted to do something in me through my time in prison. I read several Bible verses that clearly showed me that I was being disciplined because God loved me. He was using prison guards (even those who treated the inmates like dogs) to train me and teach me to have the right attitude, no matter what my circumstances. I had to learn not to hold bitterness in my heart toward those who mistreated me. He used my authorities to show me I HAD to be obedient in every little thing. More importantly, I had to WANT to be obedient. I can honestly say, I WANT TO!

Since completing Teen Challenge, Matt has graduated from Brownsville Revival School of Ministry in Pensacola, FL.

top

John Harris' Testimonial

My name is John and I am a witness today that the Lord Jesus is not in the grave but has risen and is at the right hand of our heavenly Father. In 1998, I was on drugs and my life was destroyed. I wanted to do good but it seemed so far from me. I was bound and in darkness, a slave to drugs. I really needed help bad! I can remember praying and asking God to help me and at the same time dragging out the dope pipe. I was powerless.

This lasted ten months. Then, I found myself responding to the old desire. It was creeping up again, like an old friend I hadn't seen for a long time. As I returned to my addiction, I saw more wickedness than anyone could imagine. I was like a bat -- I loved night more than day. Very bad things happen at night and I saw so much dirt that I began to cry to God again to help me out of this dark world I lived in.

I realized one thing when I returned to smoking drugs. The God Who had delivered me and set me free the first time was Who I needed to keep me off drugs for good. However, I continued to desire drugs and I didn't care how they came. I became angry inside like a mad man and I had no respect for myself or anyone else. That's when I began to be controlled by some demonic spirit. I argued with everybody and didn't want to understand what anybody had to say unless they were giving me drugs.

One day I got into an argument with a person I'd known for years. We had smoked doped together all day. Something was not right inside of me. This is not an excuse, but I really don't know how the following events happened. We yelled ugly words at each other. Then I became quiet and listened to him say ugly things to me. Of course, I felt ugly. During the heat of the argument, I saw a bat in the corner of the house. Ugly words went back and forth and when I couldn't take any more, I grabbed the bat and hit him. I was out of control. The man didn't deserve it regardless of what he had said to me.

I ended up in jail with no life and I hated myself. In jail, the Lord began to deal with me. My feelings returned and I looked at the damage I had done. I was facing a 35-year prison stay. I felt I had nothing. I was hopeless. My life was such a mess I really couldn't think at all. I knew if anything good could possibly happen for me, it would have to come from God. I asked Him to forgive me for all the ugly things I'd done. I explained to Him how my life didn't seem important to me anymore. I'd made people hate me. No one would miss me -- they'd be glad I was put away. I gave myself totally to God and asked Him to help me and save me. I asked Him to deliver me and I told Him I would serve Him forever.

God heard me! God told me if I would trust and believe in Him, I would not be put to shame. I received Him and believed in Him. God gave me new desires, healed by body, and gave me spiritual strength as well. Then He began to use me to help others in jail. Forty or more inmates gave their lives to God! He was teaching me by His Spirit and leading me.

My lawyer came to visit me and offered me 16 years in the penitentiary. He told me it was the best he could do based on the charges against me. I told him he was a wonderful lawyer and thanked him for his hard work but told him I planned on pleading guilty. The guys in jail laughed at me but I remembered God telling me that he who trusts in the Lord shall not be ashamed. I was not ashamed at all. God's Spirit spoke to me and enabled me to speak the truth with boldness in court. After the Spirit of God spoke through me, the prosecutor strongly suggested that I go to Teen Challenge. I knew God was in charge and He was actually calling the shots on what to do with me. After the prosecutor had heard the Spirit of God speak through me he knew there was a change in me. My lawyer was amazed at what was taking place and when he finally spoke, his voice was different. It was anointed, soft and agreeing with what had already been said.

God convinced the court to send me to Teen Challenge. When I went back to my cell, the guys who laughed at me were lined up asking me to pray for them and their cases. They had seen God work things out for me and they knew God was with me. God allowed me to stay in jail until there was a bed open for me at Teen Challenge. It was 29 days before I was released.

I've been walking with God since the day He asked me to trust Him. He never fails me, and he has restored my life. He talks with me and I know He loves me very much. God performs all things for me and I know He is no respecter of persons. God can save any person who wants to be saved from their sins. He can restore a broken life and He can fix marriages. God is able. He is dependable. He comes to the rescue of those who humble themselves before Him. God can give brand new desires. I am convinced there is nothing too hard for God! Give Him a chance to work out His plan for your life!

top

Teen Challenge Says Goodbye to Rudy Moreno (1943-2001)

On October 25th, 2001, Rudy Moreno, a Teen Challenge of the Midlands staff member for over five years, passed away. Throughout his time at Teen Challenge, he touched many lives with the love of Jesus Christ. Serving in many different capacities of ministry, Rudy always did above and beyond that which was required of him. He was a chaplain in the Polk County jail system, conducted Bible studies at the Newton Correctional Facility, worked for Good Samaritan ministries in the inner-city of Des Moines, and worked at homeless missions. Most recently, he and his wife, Doloris, lived at Teen Challenge’s Des Moines center. Teen Challenge will miss Rudy, but we know we will see him again one day. Rudy lived to give glory to God, and for this reason we want to share with you Rudy’s testimony of how God changed his life.

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, I was the last one in a family of 11 kids. My father left my mother about a month before I was born. One brother and four sisters were already married, so it was up to my other brother and sisters to care for me and my sister while my mother worked. It’s no surprise that I started stealing and smoking at a very early age. By the age of ten, I was smoking pot and inhaling lighter fluid, gasoline, glue, etc., to get high. On my 13th birthday I was given a birthday present—a shot of heroin. Ever since then, I’ve been in and out of jails, prisons, and treatment centers. That same year, I stopped going to school, was arrested and given probation. I kept using drugs and soon had a heroin habit.

For the next 35 years, prison and heroin was the only life I knew. It robbed me of my youth, my teens, and my twenties which are supposed to be the best years of your life. I never knew what it was like to have a family, to attend high school, or how to dance and date a decent girl. I never learned how to repair a car or anything that one does while growing up. All I knew was, “Do unto others before they do unto you.” If you wanted anything, or wanted to be anybody in this world you had to fight, rob, and steal to get it. My family, my friends, the whole neighborhood had the same way of thinking. I didn’t know anything about God. The only religious upbringing I had was at the movies. I saw all the Biblical movies at least four times. I had never read the Bible. The only time I had opened a Bible was in prison to rip out a page to roll a joint. The last time I got out of prison was in 1989, and immediately I went back to shooting heroin. Like Proverbs 26:11 says: “Like a dog returns to his vomit, so will a fool to his folly.” In the latter part of 1990, I entered a de-tox program. A month later I was physically healed and left for California. I started using drugs and drinking again. A couple of months later I was back in Minneapolis using heroin and drinking again.

One day a friend and I had just finished shooting up and were sitting in a park drinking beer. I was feeling real depressed and was telling my friend how sick and tired I was of the life I was living—getting up in the morning sick, throwing up, and feeling so miserable that if I had a pistol I would blow my brains out. As I was speaking, I felt someone standing next to me. A guy was standing there with a Bible in his hand and started telling me how much Jesus loves me. We listened to him and he prayed for us. He told me his name and gave me a card with his church’s address and invited me over. I said, “Yes, I’ll go,” but later threw his card away and forgot about him and about taking my life.

A few weeks later my friend who was with me in the park and who shared syringes with me four or five times a day, got sick and went to the hospital. I didn’t see him for two days. One evening I saw his girlfriend and she told me he was still in the hospital and was HIV positive. She also told me the health department was looking for another friend who had AIDS. I was shocked and my mind started racing on what to do. I thought, “Get a pistol, go for broke, make money,” because I was going to die anyway. Again this guy with the Bible walks up and starts telling me about Jesus. I told him the situation and we prayed. Before he left to go visit my friend in the hospital, he again invited me to his church.  Three weeks later, on a Sunday evening after shooting up, I was walking around trying to score some money. I met a friend who had stolen a doctor’s bag. He gave me a baggy with drugs. I put it in my pocket and kept walking until I passed a church with people singing. I went in and sat down in the last pew so I could listen. Soon I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see the same preacher from the park thanking me for coming to his church.

As they were singing, I closed my eyes feeling a strange knot in my throat and my eyes watering. When I opened my eyes, people were going to the altar.  I felt embarrassed and walked to the door. The pastor was standing there and started to tell me about a revival in the park across the street in three days. I said, “Yes, yes,” and pulled out the baggy with the drugs and asked him to throw them away. Then I left. Later, I was told that they had set up a tent and a few hours before service the Minneapolis Board of Parks and Recreation had called and told them they couldn’t have the revival there and to find another park. No reason or explanation was given. That evening another friend and I were at my place shooting up. When we came out of the building and looked down the street, we saw a big tent. We could hear music and thought it was a carnival or something. We walked over to check it out. That same pastor came over and welcomed us. They had moved the tent to the park there. We went in to listen to the music and agreed to leave when the preaching began. When the singing ended they had an altar call so we got up to leave. My friend turned to go out and like a magnet was pulling me, I turned and headed to the altar. That night I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior.

I started (with God’s help) successfully kicking my dope habit. I went to church that Sunday and my pastor friend introduced me to a guy he said could help me. It turned out that the Minnesota Teen Challenge office was on the second floor of my preacher friend’s church. In less than two weeks, I was a student in Teen Challenge of the Midlands in Colfax, Iowa. I had been on the methadone maintenance program for two years, in treatment seven times, six times in prison, and overdosed seven times. I had smoked cigarettes for 40 years. Nothing worked! In Luke 19:10 it says, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Luke 18:26-27 says, “The crowds asked, who then can be saved? And he (Jesus) said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” Nothing worked for me until I turned my life over to Jesus Christ to be the Lord and Master over it. I know that in my spiritual walk I am not where I should be or where I want to be, but PRAISE GOD I’M NOT WHERE I USED TO BE!!!

top

Dave Olson's Testimonial

It was around midnight. I was drunk, broke and alone, trying to figure out how I could get more alcohol. Spotting something by the curb, I stumbled over and picked it up. It was an empty can of beer someone had thrown away. Shaking it, I discovered one last swallow. I quickly chugged it down. At that moment, it was as if God placed a mirror in front of me; I was disgusted with what I saw. At 18 years old, I was nearing rock bottom.

I had been raised in a loving and supportive home. My dad was a Pastor and my mom was also very committed to the Lord. Jesus was integral to our family life. I surrendered my life to Jesus before I was school age and was baptized in the Spirit at the age of 12. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I often answered "a preacher." Life was good.

When I was in the eighth grade my Dad accepted the pastorate of a Church in southern Iowa. The Church was located within a consolidated school district notorious for its drug problems. I quickly found that acceptance at my new school came through fighting and drugs. I deeply resented having to leave my old school and friends. That bitterness fueled a conscious decision to do whatever was necessary to be part of the "in" crowd. This meant drugs.

Experimentation became daily use within a matter of months. Marijuana soon led to speed, acid and anything else I could get my hands on. My drug of choice however was alcohol. When I drank whiskey I felt I could do anything.

At 16, I was belligerent and rebellious, forcing my Dad to kick my out. For the next few years I bounced from one home to another, sleeping in cars and parks as the weather permitted. What began as freedom rapidly became bondage.

By 1983 alcohol had completely taken over my life. I had been through in-patient and outpatient rehab, prescribed mandatory anti-abuse pills, required to go to AA and NA, all to no affect. I had been told by the staff at a rehabilitation center that my liver was showing the beginnings of liver damage. I couldn't control my drinking. I was 17 years old.

Having been raised in Church I knew the only hope for me was Jesus. One night while lying in a borrowed bed, I began to talk to the Lord. I didn't intend to surrender; I simply thought I would open communication. As I said His name, the room flooded with His presence. I began to weep and then I began to laugh. I knew I was done with life without Him. I also knew I had to leave town; I was too weak to stand against the temptation that my town contained.

I called my dad the following day. Unknown to me, the previous week the Lord had spoken to my dad, telling Him that I would be going to Teen Challenge. He referred me to a youth pastor across town who had previously volunteered with Teen Challenge. When I contacted the Youth Minister, he said "what a coincidence, Teen Challenge is conducting a service for us this weekend." We both knew it was no coincidence. I enrolled in the program that weekend.

God changed my life at Teen Challenge. I found the structure, relevant instruction and loving relationships I needed to be healed and to gain a solid foundation upon which to build the rest of my life.

I would hate to think where I would be had Teen Challenge not been available for me. I thank God for the committed staff that, 20 years after being there for me, continue to provide a place of healing.

After graduating Teen Challenge, Dave entered Bible college. He then returned to Teen Challenge in Colfax, IA as a staff member where he served for nearly 14 years. Dave resigned as Program Director in Spring of 2002 to become senior pastor of Heartland Assembly of God in Ankeny, IA.

top

Brian Schroeder's Testimonial

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." - Proverbs 22:6

Though I was raised the son of a Pentecostal minister, my life has been one huge spiritual battle. Most of it was spent stiff-arming the powerful prodding of the Holy Spirit.

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how since childhood you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." (II Timothy 3:14, 15)

I began using marijuana daily at the age of 14. Throughout middle school and high school I began using more dangerous drugs such as LSD and cocaine.  My junior year in high school I began fighting at a local boxing club where I was introduced to synthetic steroids. After high school my life began spinning viciously out of control. I acquired an addiction to methamphetamine that plunged me into a life of violence and crime.

Because of my size and boxing abilities I began collecting money for drug dealers in order to support my addiction and lifestyle. However, night after night I was confronted with the seeds of truth that had been planted in me throughout my life. After a heavy binge, I would find myself crashing mentally and physically from weeks of hard use. Paranoia and fear would set in. I can faintly remember crying out to God from the deepest part of my soul for deliverance and freedom from this web of sin.

Unknowingly at the time, I began to see the answers to those many nights of prayer unfold before my very eyes. I began finding myself in and out of jail on a wide range of charges. It was during these short trips to jail that the Lord really began dealing with my heart. I would go for months without any communication with my family whatsoever, but during these times in jail I would call my father and he would pray for me. At one point, he mentioned hearing about the Teen Challenge program We asked the Lord together on the phone, if it was His will for my life to reveal it to me. In Des Moines, Iowa  there is a county jail shuffle because of the inmate population due to the growing meth crisis. An hour after my father and I prayed, I was shuffled to Monroe Co. Jail in Albia, Iowa.

Out of four inmates in my jail cell, the first one I spoke to was a student in the Teen Challenge program. He had been pulled out of the program to serve a 30-day jail sentence. I realized he was the answer to my prayers. Upon release from jail, I went to Teen Challenge to apply for admittance. While waiting for my required blood test, I received a phone call from a dealer who had a large sum of money to be collected. Caught off guard, I agreed to help him and plunged into another self-serving drug binge.

About 3 weeks later, we were dealing large amounts of meth and running an escort service out of a hotel. In the middle of all this, myself and one of the prostitutes left to run some stolen checks and credit cards through a Wal-Mart store to see if they were good for some money. The whole trip there I was in the biggest spiritual battle of my life. I was crying out inside once again for forgiveness and mercy for the sin in my life. God heard my cries and as I pulled into the store parking lot to park the car, the manifest presence of God was poured into that car like a glass of water being emptied from heaven. In awe over what was happening, I turned to look at this prostitute sitting next to me. The first thing that came out of her mouth was, “I gave my life to the Lord when I was 13 years old.” As she said this, the spirit of God began to come upon both of us. God ministered to each of our hearts for what seemed to be only 10 minutes, but turned out to be 4 hours. We never entered the store and upon leaving decided we would collect her belongings from the hotel room and return to our families.

When we entered the hotel room I was astonished to find no one there. Everything and everyone was gone. Federal agents had raided the room hours before. As I walked through the room and glanced into the empty garbage cans, I began receiving revelation of the grace and mercy of my heavenly father. My life was radically changed from that moment on. A few days later I entered the Teen Challenge discipleship program.

After years of rebellion and kicking against the goads of the Holy Spirit, my family's and my prayers had been answered and I was firmly planted in the relationship with God I had always yearned for deep in my heart. Through Teen Challenge, the power of God is being revealed to me daily by the Holy Spirit and brothers and sisters in Christ who give of their lives to disciple us. Foundations have been laid and disciplines developed in my life that are priceless, and would not have been formed had it not been for Teen Challenge.

After completing Teen Challenge, I began interning on staff in Colfax. As an intern, I had the opportunity to be a positive influence in the men’s dorm while receiving further training and mentoring from Teen Challenge staff. Teen Challenge paid for Bible College correspondence classes while I helped disciple our students. I am overjoyed and very hopeful for all that the Lord has planned for the rest of my life. Where he leads me, I will follow.

top