This modern day plague, “this feel-good monster,” this tool of the enemy that kills, steals and destroys, this equal opportunity destroyer, called addiction claims the lives of thousands every year in these United States alone. Addiction’s hideous vice-like grip can actually be broken. Research confirms Teen Challenge’s remarkable record of success. According to Time magazine, “studies have found that Teen Challenge has a 70 percent success rate for those who finish the program, far better than secular treatments.” A recent study at Northwestern University found that “ex-abusers seem to lead normal lives after Teen Challenge, holding down full-time jobs and apparently very rarely needing to return to treatment.”

 “Cami’s” Story
​
“Cami” began using drugs at the age of 12. After violent fights with her parents, she ran away from her small lowa town, and was eventually lured into prostitution.
 
Cami witnessed gang rapes, and held her best friend in her arms as the girl died from a drug overdose. At 19, despite having attended 22 drug-related funerals in six months, Cami began shooting IV drugs. Her sojourn at a drug treatment facility ended in failure. After her release, Cami hit bottom. In desperation, she made her way to Minneapolis and checked into Teen Challenge, a year-long residential drug treatment program.

Nine months later, Cami’s transformation seems almost miraculous. She is buoyant, self-possessed and full of hope. Recently, singing before a cheering college audience with the Teen Challenge choir, she peered from the stage with one wish: “I want to be sitting where they are.”
 
Teen Challenge has helped thousands of Camis across the country since 1960, when it was founded by David Wilkerson. It is the world’s largest drug and alcohol treatment program, with more than 200 locations worldwide. The program’s extraordinary success with society’s hard-core “losers” has caught the attention of news media from ABC News to Time magazine. Addicts come to Teen Challenge from hospitals, detox centers and jails; others are convinced by family or friends to get the help the need. Like Cami, many have tried a variety of treatment programs without success.
​
Teen Challenge serves both adolescents and adults. Teen residents — who generally pay a monthly fee — attend the program’s alternative school. Adult residents, who obtain vocational training, pay nothing. Both groups learn skills like money management; work at chores in the kitchen and laundry, and learn to minister to others through community service. All attend chapel and pray daily, learning “biblical principles” for virtuous living.

​Billy Graham wrote: “The Bible teaches that there is deliverance from the things that come upon the world ... not by chemicals, but by Christ, bringing the mind and heart into harmony with God through submission to His will and accepting His forgiveness. ... In Christ alone there is deliverance from man’s tortured thoughts and freedom from the sordid habits which are destroying so many people. Why does the Bible so clearly denounce drunkenness? Because it is an enemy of human life. Anything that is against a person’s welfare, God is against.”