Steven is gone this week, he’s a cabin leader at Saddleback Church’s Junior High Summer Camp, keep him in your prayers. I’m sure next week you will be reading on this blog about his week. In the mean time you will be hearing a lot of my voice this week.

 This week at Saddleback Church we are hosting a yearly conference for our Celebrate Recovery ministry. Celebrate Recovery is a program developed here at Saddleback by Pastor John Baker. Celebrate Recovery is a biblically based program for overcoming addictions, hurts and hang ups. It has a huge success rate. There are thousands of churches all over the world who use this program and we generally have about 3,500 people attend this conference. It gives me a chance to talk to people from all over the country who have come to Saddleback for this conference.

About two years ago Celebrate Recovery launched a recovery program that is designed for teenagers called, “The Landing”. If your church is not using this program I would encourage you to look into bringing it to your church. I’ve talked with students here at Saddleback who attend our program and most if not all of them have had success with this recovery program when they have failed with others. I think the reason for success in this program is simple; it’s biblically based and brings God into the healing equation.

Programs like The Landing are great for students because they see they are not alone, that there are caring people who have been through struggles of their own and they are there to help them. It also shows them that they are not the only one who struggles with an addiction, a hurt or a hang up of some kind. I think often times teens think no one else is going through or has gone through what they are dealing with.

This is also a great serve opportunity for adults looking to volunteer at their church. It’s your opportunity to use a hurt in your life and help a student avoid the same pit falls.