Testimonials

“Our son just completed the therapeutic ranch program on 7/1/17. We can’t begin to express how grateful we are for Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch and how it has impacted not only our son’s life but ours as well. He began there as an addict who was defiant and angry. He left as a kind, thoughtful young man with a purpose of pursuing God. We knew that only with God’s help would he be able to turn his life around, so we searched for a Christ-centered treatment facility. The love for God and the focus that was placed on God at TCAR by the staff was far greater than what we could have imagined. We felt the genuineness of God’s love through each staff member. We give God the glory and pray for His blessings and protection on all of you.

We thank you and the entire staff at Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch for the difference you have made in our son’s life.”

Reid started doing drugs at age 13. It didn’t take long for things to start to fall apart in his life. By age 16, things were so bad with his family and day to day life, that his parents started looking into Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch. The first day Reid was supposed to be here, he locked himself in his grandparents’ home and refused to come out. Although several hours late, this family refused to give up and they finally reached Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch.

The first several months in the program went pretty smooth for Reid. He was sober, and he was learning a lot about the kind of life he wanted to live. When Reid took his two week break at Christmas, he ran away and got back into drugs. Because he was now considered an adult, there wasn’t a lot Reid’s parents could do to help him get back to the Christian boys home.

For two months, his bed at Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch was empty, but Reid’s parents loved him, and they refused to give up on their son. The day Reid returned to the program was amazing. His friends at Teen Challenge gathered around him and prayed for him. Reid says, “Everyone had the right to be mad and upset with me, but they just kept on loving me.” It was in that moment that his heart was transformed by LOVE!

Reid completed Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch in August of 2015. Before coming to the program, everything in his life was a complete wreck. God has restored it all back to Reid! He has a great relationship with his parents, and is serving Christ wholeheartedly. Reid joined YWAM (Youth With a Mission) in Kansas City after graduating. He is now overseas serving on a mission trip. After his time serving in this ministry, he plans to continue in training and become a missionary to the country of Greece.

“Okay, so a year ago on this day is when my life changed. The drugs, the partying, the turning up completely stopped when I was eating pizza with my sister and the next thing you know I am on my way to the middle of no where to this place called Arkansas. I arrived at Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch about two days later because it was a 24 hour+ drive. I got their with a hard mentality and I committed myself not to give into this whole Christianity thing because Teen Challenge was a Christian-based program. So, after a while of Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch, I started adapting to that place and saw the love that the staff had for the students and thought this Christianity thing was legit, so i gave it a chance and said Yes. That’s all that God needed for me to do before he came into my life and all the years of searching for this empty void in my heart was finally filled. He saved me. Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch saved my life and if I didn’t go there I don’t know where I would be today.

Thank the Lord I had a bold Mom and Step-dad who really wanted the best for me and cared about me so much to make this hard decision to send their kid out for 9 months-1 year hoping I would come back a changed man. Well not only did I come back a changed man, I will never go back to my old life, ever. I was lost without God and I thank Him so much for bringing me out of the darkness of the so called “freedom” and placing me in the LIGHT and true Freedom with Jesus Christ . I am going to serve God all my days and can’t wait to reach out to lost people like I was and be a light to this dark and lost world. This life is temporary. It’s a blink of an eye . Why throw your whole life away on temporary things, when you have a full life ahead of you to share the love that God has for you. Most of you people on my Facebook are Christians but our world isn’t and we need to do something about it. We need to step up and rise in this broken and blind generation. Because a year ago I was blind but now I see. Amazing Grace. Thank you Jesus, SHABBA. Sorry for preaching but without God what are we? who are we? what’s our purpose? I thought I was going to smoke weed my whole life because I felt on top of the world when I did, but all it did was numb the pain of my hurt inside, searching for something that I couldn’t find until I came to TC to know God, the Fulfiller, Redeemer, Father, Messiah, Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, Creator. So yeah, sorry for preaching. Just want to thank God and my parents for saving my life and giving me a new hope and motivation and being drug free for a whole year”.

“We needed help for our son. We tried everything we knew to do to no avail. The schools kicked him out, wanting nothing to do with him. The doctors wanted to hospitalize him, sedate him into compliance. His anger and aggression were dominating our home and our lives. We lived in fear of him and for him every moment of the day and night. We knew we couldn’t do it without God’s help – but things were getting worse. Our first call to Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch rekindled the hope we had that our son could overcome, that God had a plan. Turns out that plan was for us to bring our son to Arkansas – twelve hours away. The entire staff, through the Holy Spirit, ministered to our son over the next eleven months. The Reconnect Weekends helped restore our relationship with our son and helped us prepare to have him reunite with the rest of the family. We now have our son back, the son who was always there – just hidden beneath all the yuck that consumed his life (and ours). The programming works because of the willingness of these special people who allow themselves to be used by God to impact the lives of troubled boys and hurting families. It is a true blessing to have found Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch. They will always be a part of our lives.”

“My youngest son was involved in drugs quite heavily, beginning at the age of 14. Ultimately he ended up running away and was subsequently found and detained in Brazoria County, Texas, which is close to Corpus Christi, Texas. Please keep in mind that we lived in northeast Oklahoma at the time, so he made it quite a ways from home. At some point along this journey I decided that I could not give him the help he needed, and as hard as it was to admit to myself, I did not want him to come back home once I picked him up from the juvenile facility in Texas. I spent the better part of a week researching male adolescent facilities online and spent many many more hours making phone calls trying to decide where to place him. Obviously I chose Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch. Taking him there was what I considered to be the hardest thing I had ever done. That was until I started to receive his letters over the next 30 days. What I soon found out was that LEAVING him there would be the biggest challenge that I would ultimately end up having. I am thankful that God gave me the strength to do so!

He is not the same boy as 2 years ago and this is very hard for me and my entire family or anyone who knows him to imagine. I will not say that he is the same person he was before he started using drugs either, because he is so much more now. I used to say thank you profusely to all of the staff at Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch for helping him overcome everything, but he has been gone from TCAR for over a year now and he continues to grow personally as well as spiritually and the TCAR staff is no longer there. I have come to the conclusion that what TCAR staff did…saved my child from what was sure to be him being dead or in jail by his 18th Birthday. He turns 19 in exactly one week and I can hardly believe it…for many years I have heard the phrase “All things are possible through Christ”. Now when I hear this or say it myself, I actually believe it.

There will never be any words that can express my gratitude to each and every staff member at Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch for having the patience to slowly (and I’m sure at times, it was painful for them, because my boy is a very headstrong young man) lead my son back from the dark depths he found himself to be in. But somehow through their leadership and believing, they did!!!! For this, I thank God every day for leading me to Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch!!!”

Ellen Rose (child in photo) will never know the life her dad lived before. At age 16, Drew was an intravenous meth user and cook. He says that he had given his life to drugs—he would have done anything for them. His mind was full of confusion and chaos. He had been awake weeks at a time from his meth use. His mother cried nearly every night over the situation her son was in. She tried to get him help, but Drew explains that he manipulated her to get out of having to go anywhere. After running away to a city nearly 8 hours from home, his mom decided to place him at Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch.

Drew was out of control when he came to Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch. He rebelled against the staff and the rules and stayed in trouble most of the time. After several months at Teen Challenge, God broke down the wall to Drew’s heart, and brought him to a place of surrender. Drew refers to the story of the shepherd who left the 99 to find the one lost sheep. He will tell you that he was that lost sheep. When he tells his story, he says that he didn’t deserve it, but God still loved him.

After 12 months at Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch, Drew went from Teen Challenge to YWAM (Youth With A Mission) and completed a discipleship training where he met Sarah and they later married. A year later, Ellen Rose was born. Drew is currently a ministry leader at YWAM and has led several overseas mission trips. He is now a husband to Sarah, a father to Ellen Rose, and a son to one proud momma. All Ellen Rose will ever know is that her daddy loves Jesus. That mother who spent many nights crying over her son’s addiction knows that God has done a miracle in her son, and gets to see it in the eyes of her little granddaughter. Drew will tell you today that he was the one lost sheep that Jesus went after. When Drew tells his story, he says that he didn’t deserve it, but God still loved him. Today, he is drug free, saved, and loving Jesus. God has done a miracle in Drew’s life, and his mother who used to cry every night is now filled with pride and joy over her son.

Russell was 16 years old when he entered Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch. He had a serious temper, 2 felony charges, and was the third generation in his family to have serious drug problems.

Russell came to Teen Challenge ranch for troubled teens resistant and full of anger. His first weeks at Teen Challenge were very difficult, and he was frequently in trouble. As Russell explained it, he “grew a lot through failure.” But throughout even his worst days in the program, Russell was constantly being presented with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. Eventually, Russell committed his life to the Lord, and slowly but surely the incredible transformation began. The angry young man transformed into a kind and gentle man of God.

After graduating Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch, Russell became very active in missions. He attended a missions training program and has helped to spread the gospel in Honduras, Mexico, and India. He is also a graduate of the Mt. Zion School of Ministry and is now serving as a staff member at the very Teen Challenge where he first received Christ. He and his wife Bethany have two boys, Joseph and Jackson.

Chris did not get an easy start in life. He never knew his father, and his mother was a drug addict. He was in and out of foster homes throughout his young life. Eventually, his grandmother took custody of him. He said that at that time in his life, he was angry and getting into fights. He never felt like he fit in with others at school.

Chris eventually got into more serious trouble and was sent to Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch. At first, he thought that it would be like any other placement he had been in before. He soon found that things were different. The staff really cared for him and spent time investing in his life. One of the staff actually became like a father figure to him and was someone he was able to confide in and turn to for counsel.

Chris received Christ at a special youth event while at Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch, and it was here that Chris’ life took on a new direction. After graduating, Chris returned home and finished high school. He joined the Army National Guard in 2000 and has been on active duty since 2005. He spent two years in Iraq and carries the rank of sergeant. He is currently on active duty in the U.S. While stationed at home, Chris was able to attend college. He graduated with degrees in both criminal justice and psychology.

Paul was raised in a loving Christian home with good parents. Unfortunately, this did not stop him from seeking acceptance from peers, and Paul eventually became involved with drugs. His life and relationship with his family deteriorated to the point that the police had to be called to his home because he was out of control and had become physical with his father. Paul finally saw that he needed help. With the assistance of his family and friends, Paul found his way to Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch. It was there that he recommitted his life to Christ, and soon after, God called him into the ministry. He began sharing his testimony regularly with the Teen Challenge ministry team and even had an opportunity to preach at a youth service while still a student at Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch.

After graduation from Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch, Paul returned home and finished school. He went to college and then seminary. He has continued preaching and reaching out to others with the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

Josh was 7 years old when his parents divorced. He remembers this as the time that he started getting into trouble. He was filled with anger at his father after the divorce, and he did everything he could to get back at his father and to make his father angry. It was in middle school that Josh got into drugs and alcohol. He was known to everyone as the party kid. Things were out of control and not getting better. Even the times he spent in a Juvenile cell or on house arrest did not cause him to change his behavior. His parents finally made the decision to send him to Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch. Josh shared that when he found this out, he was mad. He had no intention of changing his life at Teen Challenge. He was determined to just get through the program and go back to his old life style.

When Josh entered Teen Challenge, he found a very powerful presence of God that he did not expect. It was at a special impromptu prayer service that Josh’s life was dramatically changed. The prayer service took place after one of our daily morning chapel services. It was optional for students to attend this extra event. He remembers feeling God tugging on his heart to go. He finally went and he said that he received prayer after prayer after prayer. It was there that he realized, “I need God in my life.” Josh committed his life to the Lord that morning. He shares that he felt a huge weight lift off of his shoulders. Since that time God has instilled a deep confidence into Josh’s life. Instead of being filled with hate and worry, he says he is now filled with love for others. He has a heart for helping other people and even feels a call into ministry. God has taken Josh from “troubled partier” to “future preacher.” What a difference the Lord has made in Josh’s life.

Joe was adopted at age two by loving parents who sought to raise him with Christian values, but that didn’t stop him from turning to drugs and delinquency. He was in the 7th grade when he started using drugs. It was at this point that his life started going downhill quickly. As his drug use continued, he grew more and more out of control and frequently ran away from home. Even a near death accident was not enough to cause him to change his life. His drug usage and running away continued.

Once while staying with his grandfather, Joe ran away to San Francisco. His grandfather later picked him up at the police station and took him back home. Upon their return, they began arguing and Joe threatened to kill his grandfather. The threat was taken seriously and Joe soon found himself standing before a judge facing charges. Joe’s parents asked that he be sent to Teen Challenge troubled teens ranch. The order was given and Joe was brought to Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch.

It took a while for Joe to embrace Teen Challenge’s help. In fact, he ran away his very first week in the program. Joe tells the story of sitting in the chapel about a week after he was returned to Teen Challenge. Conviction was heavy on his heart and he knew that something had to change. By the end of that chapel, he was pouring out his heart to God with tears coming down his cheeks.

Although Joe’s journey has been filled with difficulty and struggles, he openly shares that God is the only option worth choosing for his life. He knows that he no longer wants the destructive life of drugs that he once had. He wants to follow God with all of his heart. God has done a transforming work in Joe’s life. With God’s help he has learned greater patience and self-control. He has recently began playing the guitar and is already leading public worship and singing praises to God. After completing Teen Challenge, Joe re-entered public school and has joined the soccer team. He continues a drug-free and full life. This young man’s life has been forever changed by God’s incredible grace.

“Why does God want anything to do with me?” That was the question that Eric struggled with when he thought about all of the things he had done.

Eric began using pot and pills in middle school. He eventually progressed to the point that he was taking drugs intravenously. His parents placed him in various detox programs and psychiatric facilities in an effort to get him off of drugs. Even though Eric’s dad was a police officer, they were at a loss as far as what to do for their son. Eventually, they made the choice to place Eric at Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch.

Eric had a difficult beginning at Teen Challenge ranch for troubled teens. He says he was constantly in trouble and once even ran away from the facility. He struggled in this way for the first 3 months of the program. One day, while Eric was sitting in his room, he realized that he was sick of the way he was living. He was tired of hurting his family and of constantly getting into trouble. He reached for his Bible, opened it up, and just began reading. From that point on, he started going to the chapel services at Teen Challenge with a different attitude. He started listening to what the speakers were saying, and he began feeling God’s Spirit pulling on his heart. Finally on March 7, Eric turned his life over to the Lord. He was done doing things his way. He explains that his way “was stupid.”

As previously mentioned, Eric struggled with the question, “Why does God want anything to do with me?” He knew that he had sinned a lot and was ashamed of all he had done. One night, he talked with a staff about this struggle and the staff member gave him this verse: No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead (Phil. 3:13 NLT)

This verse helps Eric whenever he struggles with guilt or shame. He has memorized this verse and uses it to help him focus on moving forward with God and looking forward to each new level God has for him.

Eric says that he is now much less selfish. He is hungry to serve and really appreciated the opportunity to help the tornado victims in Joplin, MO. God has done a great work in Eric’s life. Eric says that if he hadn’t come to Teen Challenge and found the Lord that he would either be in prison or dead today. He is thankful for this new chance at life and especially for his new relationship with God.

“It was the best decision we have made in our entire life. Our son’s life was saved from destruction on this earth and for eternity. The education was the finest he could have gotten anywhere. He became a self-disciplined student with motivated study habits and finished with a 3.9 GPA. He now has the desire and compassion to serve in his community and church, as well as tutoring and mentoring younger kids.”

“We had tried everything we could think of for our troubled son — tough love, Christian counseling, traditional church activities, and homeschooling. But all were to no avail. The ranch for troubled teens taught John self-control, physical work and teamwork, leadership skills and integrity. John received love, discipline, forgiveness, and persistent mentoring from dedicated staff members. It was a God-send for our broken family…restoring our relationship with our son. It is a place of hope, a place of love, and a place of renewal.”

“I prayed by my bunk for the first time. I confessed my sins and gave my life to Jesus in that prayer. I regained the relationship I once had with my parents. I developed respect for authority, a work ethic, and learned how to love myself and others. Now I strive to make God proud of me.”

“God used you in a mighty way in my life. What this troubled teens ranch program did for me is something that I cannot put into simple words, but I can say that I met Jesus Christ.”

“If you want to change and don’t know how or where to begin I suggest you try the Teen Challenge troubled teens ranch. My life has never been better. I am a graduate and I could not have done it without my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I have never found more love anywhere, I was loved until I learned to love myself. I have learned so much about who the Lord has created me to be. I cannot praise Him enough.”

“Teen Challenge saved my son and my whole family in the process. I will praise God every day for your work.”