Testimonials: What do clients say about SAFE Ministries?

"I was raised in a very good home. I was brought up in church and was taught right from wrong. Through the years, I was trying to do what was right.
I eventually started abusing alcohol and drugs. Before I knew what was going on, I was a full-blown addict. I eventually lost everything I had worked for all my life. I finally reached a point in my life where I didn’t care if I was dead.

Praise God, I remembered a program in Portland, Oregon called SAFE. I made the call and was accepted into the program. Three days after I arrived in Portland, I gave my life to the Lord. My desire to do drugs was taken away.

Since giving my life to the Lord, I have been truly blessed. I graduated the SAFE program and served as Junior Director and House Director for three years. I now have a relationship with my family, and I got married in July 2002. I praise God for the work He has done in my life.
I now have a future and a hope.”

Sincerely,
Scott Cook (From Barnsdall, OK - Graduate, 10/1998 )
House Director 1999 – 2002 now lives in Vancouver, Washington

I came to the SAFE program in early 1998 with little more than a history of society’s priorities and a bitter, broken spirit. I brought a suitcase with clothes, but that couldn’t compare with all the other baggage that I brought to SAFE House with me. I felt that I had tried every way possible over the years to do things “right,” but to no avail. No more job, no more wife, no more family – not an unusual story around SAFE Ministries.

When I first walked through the door of the SAFE House, I sensed something different. There was a warmth; there was a caring and a fellowship among the other men in the program; there was hope. I remember thinking that maybe this God I had so recently accepted into my life actually could change my life. That would be a miracle.

God does work miracles. The more I learned about Him, the more I saw what He was doing in the lives of others. The more I recognized what He was doing in my own life, the more I learned to trust and love Him. It took time and a great deal of self-examination to come to the realization that He offered the peace, hope and stability I so desperately sought. I found wisdom, comfort and guidance from the Bible. I found answers through prayer. And, more than anything else, I found that a life in Christ was what I had been seeking for so many years.

The SAFE program provided me with the foundation I needed to construct a life that had once been pretty meaningless and destructive. Through faith, I can now address problems I confront with the knowledge that, with His help and guidance, I can make good and positive decisions. My actions impact others, positively or negatively. My ability to make those decisions that are positive is derived from the tools given to me in SAFE.

The Lord has truly blessed me. My ex-wife is once again my wife. My ex-family is once again my family. I have true friendships, and I have a church family. John 8:36 tells us “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

Indeed.

Sincerely,
Steve Chapin (From Battle Ground, Washington - Graduate, 3/1999) 
SAFE ministries Admin. Asst. 1999 – present

"Praise God, people, there is hope! There is abundant hope even for the most hopeless. That is exactly what SAFE Ministries offers the drug addicted and emotionally unstable. The most hopeless people in America today are the ones who cannot manage their lives due to addiction or emotional imbalance. However hopeless it may seem, there is a way out of the darkness and despair.

We at SAFE Ministries believe that drug addiction and alcoholism are merely symptoms of a deeper problem. There is a reason why people abuse drugs and allow their emotions to control their lives. It is a spiritual problem, an issue of the heart.

We have discovered that there is only one power strong enough to correct this destructive problem. Simply put, that power is Christ and His supernatural Word. The primary objective of SAFE Ministries is to develop the individual's personal relationship with Christ. This is what makes SAFE so effective and at working with America's worst problems. Jesus is the heart changer and soul saver. I know about this first hand because I once was one of the hopeless. Before I surrendered completely to Christ, I was a drug addict/alcoholic. That all changed when I enrolled in the SAFE program. It was while I was in SAFE that the grave clothes which had bound me so tightly (John 11: 38-44) began to loosen and fall away. I experienced true freedom for the first time in my life at the age of 29! I learned that God not only loved me, but He also thought about my future (Jeremiah 29:11). Today I am living out that future that God had in mind for me…I am pastor of Highlands Baptist Church, Longview, WA.

If God can do this in my life, He can do it in the lives of your friends and loved ones who are also bound in their grave clothes. There is still hope. Jesus is a God of reconciliation and freedom and this is exactly what He wants for you and the people you love.

"Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." John 8:36 (NKJV)

Sincerely,
Kraig Neet (From Myrtle Creek, OR – Graduate, 11/1995)
SAFE House Director, 1997-99
Senior Pastor Highlands Baptist Church, Longview WA., 2003 - present