Pubdate: Fri, 16 Jun 2006
Source: Daily News Journal  (TN)
Copyright: 2006 Mid-South Publishing Company
Contact:  http://dnj.midsouthnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1709
Author: Nancy De Gennaro
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women)

ESTHER PROJECT OFFERS HOPE

As a meth addict, Toni, the daughter of a Pentecostal minister, ended 
up in jail after a failed drug test. Shala, the wife of a minister, 
got thrown in jail for prescription-drug fraud. Gidget abused crack 
cocaine, among a variety of other pills and powders, and ended up in 
a drug overdose. Gwen basically lived on the streets most of her life 
and was introduced to drugs before she hit puberty.

"I was 9 when I was first in the streets. The first time I saw 
cocaine I was holding a belt around my grandmother's arm while she 
shot up," 24-year-old Gwen recalled.

But now all these women are on the road to recovery as participants 
of the Esther Project, a free, faith-based, drug-abuse recovery 
program sponsored by the Hope Center and Carpenter's House church.

"We are truly free. We are truly here to see people's lives be free 
(of drugs and alcohol). A lot of people can't get help because they 
can't afford it," Esther Project Director Angie Creasy said.

The Esther Project is a minimum 12-month live-in program that 
operates solely on donations, and it was opened for enrollment in 
April 2006. Women attend classes daily but live in a secure, off-site 
location. Classes cover topics such as spiritual development, 
social/character development, anger management, substance abuse and 
education. They do not work outside the program; instead, they do 
community service around the church. But the last three months, they 
eventually learn to transition back into society.

For Gwen, enrollment in the Esther Project has given her the 
stability and structure in life she's never had. For her, life has 
never been easy street.

"By the time I was 12, my sister and my brother and I were in the 
streets," Gwen said as she grabbed a tissue.

Her mother and grandmother were prostitutes, so Gwen often had to 
fend for herself and her siblings. Sometimes that meant stealing food 
to keep them from going hungry.

"By the time I was 15, I was in the street selling drugs. ... Then I 
got pregnant, and everybody turned their backs on me," Gwen recalled, 
tears welling up in her eyes.

Then she became involved with a drug dealer who beat her regularly. 
The hardest pain from that situation, however, was knowing her little 
boy was watching it all. But between the drugs, abuse and neglect 
she'd endured all her life, she couldn't seem to break the cycle.

Eventually she lost custody of her son, a devastating blow.

"I really lost all hope. I'd lost everything. I let the only person I 
had in life down," Gwen said as tears streamed down her face. "I was 
pretty much suicidal."

 From drug charges to arson, Gwen finally ended up in jail once 
again. But during her last time behind bars, "God really started 
working on me," she explained.

She attended church services that were brought in to the female inmates.

"These women that would come see me every other Sunday, they told me 
about the (Esther Project) program. I filled out the application. I 
waited a long time to come," Gwen said and smiled through her tears. 
"I knew I needed to change the inside, not the outside."

While the other women enrolled in the Esther Project didn't grow up 
in the streets, the road to recovery hasn't been easy for them, either.

Although Toni grew up in a religious household with a "good, solid 
foundation," crystal methamphetamine tore her life apart. But at an 
early age, she dabbled in drinking and other recreational products.

"I chose to rebel," Toni admitted. But those rebellious days mixed 
her with the wrong crowds and dangerous narcotics.

For Shala, health problems sent her scrambling for pain medication. 
After six surgeries in three years, she'd bounced around from one 
pain pill to another. She was hooked, too. She first sought help in a 
26-day rehabilitation, which still wasn't a solution, she said.

"Even though I was clean, I didn't have any joy," Shala explained as 
she recalled her childhood, filled with tales of an alcoholic father 
and an abusive stepfather. "I wasn't in my heart where I wanted to be."

Yet another surgery sent her back to the pain pills, although her 
husband "kept up with the medication" this time, she noted. She found 
a way to get her pain pills through prescription fraud, however. And 
eventually, Shala found her way to the Esther Project.

Gidget, whose mother died not long after giving birth to her, spent 
most of her childhood fending for herself. Before her teenage years 
were over, she'd had three children and a penchant for pills -- 
especially the anti-anxiety drug Xanax.

Then she was introduced to crack cocaine, which sent her world spiraling.

"It does talk to you. You shoplift, you steal, your family loses all 
hope in you," Gidget explained. Crack was just the beginning. "You 
name it, I've been on it."

But drugs sent Gidget into an overdose one night and she "woke up and 
realized what God was saying."

"I started looking for programs on my own. I knew it was the only 
thing that would save me was God," Gidget said.

For all these women, the Esther Project is "like a spiritual 
hospital," explained Creasy, program director.

The program provides the tools and support, but the women do the 
work, said Creasy.

"I believe God can set you free. I don't believe once an addict, 
always an addict," Creasy said.

The story of Esther

King Xerxes was in search of a new wife, so he took all the single 
virgins of the entire kingdom and sent them to be pampered for a year 
in preparation for him.

 From that group, Esther was chosen as queen. But she was a Jew, 
something she hid from the king.

Then Esther's cousin, Mordecai, who had raised her, refused to pray 
to the king's nobleman Haman. In retaliation, Haman got the king to 
agree to an edict that would kill all the Jews in the land.

As a Jew, Esther was scared that she, too, would be included. 
Mordecai encouraged her to beg the king not to kill the Jews, and he 
told her, "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and 
deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and 
your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have 
come to royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14)

The Esther Project derives its name from the premise of the story of 
Esther. Much like the women in King Xerxes' kingdom, the ladies in 
recovery are preparing for the kingdom of God for a year, Esther 
Project Director Angie Creasy said.

"They are here to spend a year for the Lord. What they get (from the 
program) they'll be able to take back (into the world)," Creasy 
explained. They will be taking the light (the word of God) into the 
dark places where they came from."

Maybe the reason why they have gone through such struggles in life is 
because they were eventually led to God's service, Creasy added.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman