Why I am involved in the issue of substance & drug abuse; My history & plan for Faith to make a difference.

I just finished the series of articles dealing with substance and drug abuse. It is appropriate to ask why the newspaper series and to ask why I believe that faith based organizations, individuals, churches, should unite with the encouragement of government and the medical community to provide the solution. Understanding my personal history with the issue is a great place to begin. After I accepted what we refer to as the “Call to Ministry” I continued my pursuit to be prepared through both formal education and training, in addition to learning from the application of scripture and faith from everyday life and ministry. In 1981 I considered my task would be preaching on Sunday and on Wednesday, and no where in my formal training was the issue of substance abuse or drug addiction ever covered. No college professor ever spoke about the issue and no seminary professor addressed the issue and there were no courses in the field of study. In high school I was exposed to drugs & alcohol. Alcohol was most common and I knew students who used “speed” and smoked marijuana. In churches, as you can well imagine, there was no shortage of messages dealing with alcohol. A matter of fact many protestant denominations and no doubt readers of this column can attest to the fear instilled about drinking and hell as the destiny because of involvement. I never remember hearing any minister growing up mention the word marijuana from the pulpit but plenty of conversation about “pot heads” from conversations overheard where adults might be describing youth they tagged as being “no good”. Addressing the issue of drugs by a church officially would have been or could be perceived to be acknowledging a problem inside their own membership. This of course was avoided because Christians, and certainly church members would never be involved in such issues. We know this was not correct then, and there are plenty of public arrest records to prove this not true today. The church has often been afraid, untrained and not sure what is an appropriate response. That truth has crippled the church into not having any involvement for most congregations and the church also has an issue with “what others churches will say”. 1992 was the year I addressed this issue for the first time as a minister in Corbin, Ky. I had no option as a member came crying saying my son is on drugs. I was of no help and clueless about resources available, and what my response as a pastor was suppose to be. Should I pray about this publicly? Do we put this concern on the published prayer? There was no guide but plenty of concerns about privacy and what’s appropriate. Given the circumstances I did not have a struggle with what my course of action should be, my struggle would be if I would have the courage to get involved. The course was clear because of the example of Jesus. I would begin to walk as a Christian and as a pastor with this particular individual and his family. For the next six years that list of individuals and families grew. I discovered limited resources at best and continued dead ends and walls for the most part. That frustration and experience took another step in 1998. Cathy Woolum, a family friend approached me about the issue of drugs faced by our community, in Bell County. Together we co-founded the Bell County Drug Coalition. It was the only community organization in Kentucky that uniquely addressed this issue collectively, involving all facets of the issue including prevention, intervention and treatment. It was unique because the coalition sought to bring together in unity all the various entities, organizations, government programs into a collective group addressing the issue, and it worked. The next effort was the establishment of the first law enforcement drug task force to deal specifically with and to combat the selling of drugs in Knox, Whitley and Bell Counties. David Jorjani, who was the Knox County Attorney, and myself established the Cumberland Valley Plateau Drug Task Force. Support from the cities of: Williamsburg; Corbin; Pineville; Barbourville; and Middlesboro; along the support of the Fiscal Courts from Knox; Whitley; and Bell County; each provided funding that we used to secure a matching 3-1 grant with cooperation of the Department of Justice. The law enforcement arm was now established. My involvement took another step when I received a call from the office of U.S. Congressman Harold Roger’s. The Lexington Herald Leader had just published an article “Prescription Pain” that described the problem of drugs in the 5th Congressional District and Congressman Roger’s asked for me to share the program I had written and the success of our citizens through the efforts of the Bell County Drug Coalition. The concept of citizen coalitions in coordination with our law enforcement grant became the Comprehensive Counter-Drug Initiative. That organization you know today as Operation UNITE. The next step I am proposing is long overdue. In involves a purposed plan to become mentors to those addicted to drugs and dealing with substance abuse. Faith based organizations, individuals, and church congregations must move from praying about the issue to action. As Christians we must step into the treatment process as community members working with the encouragement of government and cooperation of the medical community. The plan is simple. To establish a Re-Entry Task Force of committed individuals regaining our communities with one success at a time. This is an appropriate Christian response and Jesus sent his followers out two by two. One you be one of two? Together we are the solution.

The Road Not Taken - Choices & Decisions

The poet Robert Frost in his poem The Road Not Taken provides a picture of what we do every day, and often all throughout each day we live…making decisions. The process of making decisions is really never easy. In the legal system one can often hear the term “weighing in the balance” or if not used directly or spoken as such, we certainly use the process of putting things up against each other to determine a result or make a decision. In The Road Not Taken there are two roads that diverge and this occurrence is the one we walk upon in our daily lives as well. The task is figuring out which road to take. Problems are often so overwhelming that we can become frustrated and if not careful or maintaining a vigilance to our process we might just say “just take any road, let’s just do something”. My mind is flooding with experiences of having witnessed people and organizations just making a decision, any decision as long as it is a decision. The process of making a choice is difficult. It requires consideration of consequences. The process of making a choice should require us to have a conversation with trusted advisors, mentors, family members or folks that we have found to be trustworthy and one who shares honest advice not just what you or I may want to hear. The traveler in this poem stands still and looks not just one way but the other way too. This traveler considers several factors before rendering a decision or a plan of action. Considerations actually begin with the road itself. There is quite a description of the choices. Both roads look fair. Either one might turn out better than the other, there seems to be very little to answer that question at the beginning of this decision. The roads looked after a fair evaluation to be honestly the same. They appeared to be equal. You and I know that looks can be deceiving. First impressions are not always accurate. In life, you and I will find ourselves at this same spot if you have not already done so. Every young person, teenager reading this column should learn that their day of required decisions is coming. They will not be able to escape making a choice on so many different topics and choices. The best option for us as adults, parents, community volunteers and concerned citizens is to be involved in the lives of others, by sharing and helping others learn all about decisions. Because of the experience of the passing of time, adults should be able to clearly demonstrate that this skill must be learned or you will become stranded on a roadside unable to make decisions or in the worst case always making the wrong decision with each intersection that diverges upon them. Robert Frost wrote that “I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference”. What answer will you and I be able to write because of the choices and decisions we have made? What will we be telling throughout our life time about the road we have traveled? I love history, I enjoy so much hearing about the way things have developed over time. Listening to someone tell their story of experiences because of their actions is such a great learning tool. My observations include that I have witnessed some never sharing because they are trapped by fear. Fear of what others will say and even fear about how things will turn out. It is always easy to stay where you are and pray that things never change, or you can look down the other road and doubt if you will ever return, making this decision even more important and making sure you make the right decision because of history. Some have written in life that things are a chance. I will share that I do not hold this position at all. I don’t believe anything rest on the opportunity of chance. I view opportunity as one that is created because of your hard work and dedication or opportunity exists because you were prepared for any given moment of time. Being prepared is the single most important action and it also requires the biggest commitment and dedication. I discovered through faith in Jesus Christ that the saving part of His mercy and grace is all His doing. The growing part of this relationship building is all on me. He is ready to help at each of your crossroads in life. A decision to take the one less traveled by will make all the difference. Until then

Newspaper Column "Until then" written by Tim Hobart Mills: Conditions of Life - UNMANAGEABLE (Part 3) Drug ...

Newspaper Column "Until then" written by Tim Hobart Mills: Conditions of Life - UNMANAGEABLE (Part 3) Drug ...: If I were to name three conditions of life that put you in a hopeless state of mind, here they are: Finding yourself in a powerless conditi...

Conditions of Life - UNMANAGEABLE (Part 3) Drug Solutions & Answers

If I were to name three conditions of life that put you in a hopeless state of mind, here they are: Finding yourself in a powerless condition over life; being dependent on things; and the feeling that life is unmanageable. This is the final column in this series dealing with these “Conditions of Life”, drug addiction and those we know impacted by their choices. In this final part of the series allow me to address when life is unmanageable”. I have attempted to address the three most common conditions that most often those dealing with drugs and substance abuse find themselves in. Powerless, being dependent on things (that is: drugs & associated issues) and the feeling that life is unmanageable are three very strong issues that one cannot overcome on their own. This series of columns have been written to engage people of faith to become involved as a part of the solution for the drug epidemic that faces our communities. I have attempted to express a means by which “communities can regain their communities” by taking an active role and walking with, assisting through the process of treatment. Please remember this line. I applaud the individual who has just become clean from drugs. They are a champion and for some reason this accomplishment many individuals of faith, churches and organizations that should be applauding and supporting seem to have become skeptics. Sadly, for the most part, the attitude is that there is uncertainty about if this new change is for real, we doubt their success, their reasons for trying and when they relapse, or return to drugs there is self-applause for the wisdom in predicting their failure to remain clean and off-drugs. Those battling drugs have felt their life to be totally unmanageable. They understand the back breaking affect and they have been humbled to their very core as an individual. What I have discovered is that without an involvement of individuals of faith, churches, non-profit organizations who come alongside our family members, friends, and neighbors who are in the personal war against drugs their failure rate is almost guaranteed. I have been involved in this topic since 1992. That was the first year that as a minister I was challenged to do something other than say I will pray for you or even worse advice, as a pastor suggest that they just needed to pray themselves and ask God for help. Rest assured I have repented to God for ever suggesting that someone walk alone. Christians, individuals of faith, churches should be clear about one thing. If we allow someone to walk alone and we are not there to help them in their journey, what right do we have to ask them to join us after they have successfully recovered? Throughout scripture Jesus earned the right to be involved in the lives of people. Jesus was always reaching out to people or recognizing clearly when someone was reaching out to Him. If we want to see how successful we are in our communities do a little research and discover how many churches in your community have a meeting such as Alcoholics Anonymous; Al Anon; Celebrate Recovery; Pathfinders; Narcotics Anonymous; Then discover what your church is doing to support those programs in existence. There will be only a handful of you that will see any active involvement by your church leaders, membership or faith based organizations. Sadly this list is very small and in most communities nonexistent. This fact must change. The fact that we have been allowing those addicted to drugs and involved in substance abuse to walk by themselves in treatment and recovery should not be shocking to us when we see their lives unmanageable and out of control. The solution is an active involvement by individuals of faith. Would you be willing to get involved? If so, I look forward to hearing from you as we gather to organize a new cooperation and initiative between individuals of faith, faith based communities, the medical community, and government to retake our communities and help those who want to be free of substance abuse. Until then