Addicted America – Herlindo, Lucia, and Rita

[00:00:00] and now here’s your host Kevin Conover bring your time

[00:00:06] welcome to educate for life I’m your host Kevin Conover my website is join that that’s Jo I and I educate for life

[00:00:13] dot o-r-g it’s 40 online classes defending the truth of the Bible today

[00:00:18] we’re talking about a subject that is very very necessary the Washington Post recently had an article titled deaths

[00:00:25] from drug overdoses soared in the first nine months of 2016 all the stats on drug use and drug

[00:00:33] overdose and deaths from drugs are coming out now as the research is being

[00:00:39] compiled from 2016 this is what the article says it says in June the New York Times predicted that the number of

[00:00:45] overdose deaths would exceed 60,000 in 2016 based on data it compiled from

[00:00:51] hundreds of state health department’s and County coroner’s and medical examiner’s if true that number would

[00:00:58] mark the sharpest annual increase ever recorded the increase has come despite more determined efforts by government

[00:01:04] and private authorities to intervene in the epidemic which claims an average of a hundred and forty-two deaths per day

[00:01:11] last month the President’s Commission on combating drug addiction and the opioid crisis urged the White House to declare

[00:01:18] a national emergency which they now have done as of last Thursday they declared a

[00:01:23] national emergency because of the drug crisis in America the CDC Food and Drug Administration and Congress have all

[00:01:30] taken steps to address the crisis as have physician groups and private insurance companies many communities

[00:01:36] have made the overdose antidote the drug antidote widely available and others are

[00:01:42] trying to provide more treatment for the estimated 2.6 million opioid addicts in

[00:01:47] the United States now while people are scrambling to try to find solutions to this a huge part of the solution is a

[00:01:57] ministry which I’ve been involved with for quite a while and known about for quite a while I have family members that

[00:02:02] have been involved in the ministry very heavily both because of drug addiction

[00:02:08] as well as just wanting to support the ministry because of the incredible alts that they have the ministry is Teen

[00:02:15] Challenge and in studio today I have Hera Lando Salinas who has been the

[00:02:21] director now for I believe more than 10 years just going on over 10 years Rita

[00:02:26] who has a team challenge alumni she actually graduated from Teen Challenge and has been changed through the

[00:02:32] ministry has been has recovered because of the ministry and because of Jesus Christ and Lucia who is also an MFT with

[00:02:39] 16 years in the field of addiction with the San Diego rescue mission so I just

[00:02:45] wanted to say thanks Hara Lindo for being on the show today and thank you very much Rita and thank you for Lucia

[00:02:51] for being here it’s a it’s a real pleasure to have you and I think you’re going to be an inspiration and encouragement to so many people I really

[00:02:58] want to share have Rita share her testimony with those of you listening and what she’s experienced through Teen

[00:03:05] Challenge but before we do that here Lindo could you give us just a brief breakdown of what Teen Challenge is a

[00:03:11] lot of people they hear Teen Challenge they immediately think okay this must be something for high school students but

[00:03:17] can you give us a little bit of background on how you got involved and then what the Ministry of Teen Challenge is and where it came from

[00:03:23] yes teen Shawn started way back in 1958 in the streets of New York City by David

[00:03:29] Wilson at first Teen Challenge who the name of it was teen evangelism and so a

[00:03:37] short time later changed over to Teen Challenge and the first Teen Challenge

[00:03:43] Center was established in New York City in nineteen in 1958 I came into the

[00:03:48] program in 1990 as strung out on heroin and cocaine had been homeless for a

[00:03:55] number of a number of months and came into the program and I was able to

[00:04:01] complete the one-year program and then I went on to do a four month apprenticeship and then went on to a

[00:04:07] one-year ministry Institute that we have in Los Angeles and came our staff here

[00:04:13] in San Diego in 1993 and I’ve been with the ministry ever since that’s fantastic

[00:04:19] and we had you on I believe last year and we went into more details about your

[00:04:25] testimony how long were you addicted to drugs I was a heroin addict for over 16 years and because of the crimes that I

[00:04:32] committed to give the drugs I spent a little over seven years in prison Wow so

[00:04:38] if you’re listening out there and you’re you’re in a situation where you know somebody who’s addicted to drugs or you

[00:04:43] yourself are addicted to drugs I think the main thing we want you to get out of the show today is hope that nobody is

[00:04:50] beyond help or beyond the reach of Jesus Christ and a ministry like this that he

[00:04:55] works through and we have I was saying Rita on the air today who is a graduate

[00:05:00] of Teen Challenge also who’s been kind enough and brave enough to come on the air here and share with us her testimony

[00:05:08] and how Teen Challenge has ministered to her so Rita thanks for being here well thanks for having me Kevin Dean

[00:05:16] challenge it has been a great help in my life you know because I started out in

[00:05:23] about 20 plus years of addiction before I got to Teen Challenge now how did that

[00:05:29] start take us back to the beginning did you grow up here in Southern California I did I grew up here in San Diego went

[00:05:37] to San Diego High School and shortly after that just went on my own kind of

[00:05:46] thought I’ll just live the carefree life I’ll just do whatever this and that

[00:05:51] brings me you know yeah yeah you have brothers and sisters I did I’ve got a

[00:05:56] quite a big family but we were not closely related or in in the same area

[00:06:04] actually okay I still had some brothers who were in the service I had his

[00:06:14] sisters still in the Philippines when I was about 13 15 years old okay so when

[00:06:21] you were going to high school were you already being exposed to drugs and these

[00:06:26] sorts of things or how did that process get started yes it started just trying

[00:06:32] to hang out with the in-crowd trying to be cool you know I was a pretty quiet or shy type and I

[00:06:42] wanted to try to do something besides hang out in the library you know yeah so

[00:06:48] I was easily gravitated to whoever wanted to do something aside from what

[00:06:56] was normal yeah you’re going to school you want to study you want to learn that was the normal thing so outside of that

[00:07:02] was having fun going to parties and

[00:07:07] getting introduced to first marijuana you know and then high soul year and you

[00:07:14] first got introduced to marijuana I was

[00:07:19] 15 okay and then by the time I was 17 18

[00:07:25] I think cocaine entered and then a

[00:07:31] little jump forward it was after my 21st

[00:07:37] birthday then of course you know everybody gets the idea to say okay now

[00:07:43] you can be legally you can legally drink Yeah right so now it’s alcohol yeah and

[00:07:50] and today in California it’s now it’s you can legally do marijuana isn’t that

[00:07:55] awful yeah I think yeah you know because for me my experience was that was the

[00:08:00] gateway for me that was a gateway to okay I will try this I will try the next

[00:08:07] thing I will try you know yeah what what else was out there I will I will try so

[00:08:14] my life kept going in that direction to where I thought I was doing okay you

[00:08:22] know quickly time forward I started realizing that meth came into my life I

[00:08:30] saw methamphetamine and that with drinking and other opiates or I’ve even

[00:08:43] tried acid yeah so all that in my 20s you know came

[00:08:51] into my life and I was I had work I was

[00:08:56] functioning I was doing great so I thought but it quickly also turned into

[00:09:04] 10 years later I’m still doing all these same things and now my life and my

[00:09:10] outlook was changing as to well college has gone way far away from my mind any

[00:09:19] kind of schooling any kind of career oriented thinking or placement you know

[00:09:30] was like I can do that later I can do that later yeah you know so I didn’t

[00:09:37] realize that my priority my priorities

[00:09:42] were turning to just partying and seeing how many friends I can make called

[00:09:49] unquote yeah on who had what what kind

[00:09:54] of drug you had or what kind of whatever to get high on yeah so you hadn’t

[00:10:01] recognized yet that this was becoming more and more controlling in your life yes yeah I did not so I my guests today

[00:10:10] are here Linda Rita and Lucia were up on a break here so when we come back we’re

[00:10:15] gonna allow Rita to continue to share what happened and how she became addicted to drugs and then how she

[00:10:22] became freed from that addiction we’ll be right back hi this is Jason hall president of team

[00:10:29] home loans a branch of synergy one lending I just want to take this opportunity to thank Kevin Kahn over for

[00:10:34] the profound impact he’s had on mine and my wife’s spiritual life as well as being an incredible teacher while our

[00:10:40] kids were his students his knowledge and passion have taught us all how important it is to be defenders of our faith it’s

[00:10:46] our honor and privilege to support Kevin and his show is our sincere hope and prayer that you will continue to learn

[00:10:51] to be defenders of your faith through Kevin’s radio show and through his educate for life teachings thank you

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[00:12:38] thanks for listening today this is educate for life I’m your host Kevin Conover my website is join Jo I and

[00:12:45] educate for life 0rg and if you like this show you can pick up a recording of it on YouTube you can watch it on

[00:12:51] YouTube see our smiling faces in here everybody smile at the camera wave to the camera there we are or you can also

[00:12:58] podcast the program if you want to get a recording of it or you want to share it with a friend it’s we’re here to

[00:13:04] encourage people who are stuck in addiction or know people who are stuck in addiction and I can’t recommend

[00:13:10] highly enough Teen Challenge that’s Teen Challenge o RG /s D TC if

[00:13:17] you want to get help here in San Diego but they are worldwide now right here’ll Indo their just correct yes so a

[00:13:24] worldwide ministry one of the most successful ministries in the world

[00:13:29] reaching and helping drug addicts and what’s really amazing is that all their services are a hundred percent free what

[00:13:36] yes you heard that right a hundred percent free just like Jesus Christ and eternal life so you know I cannot

[00:13:44] encourage you enough please go and get help from them these are loving people who want to see

[00:13:49] you rescued from addiction and so Rita you were telling us your story about how

[00:13:55] you got to a point where you began to realize that the drugs were taking a bigger and bigger hold on your life and

[00:14:00] you were kind of losing control of your life is that is that what you were saying yes yes so that was that type of

[00:14:08] living rolled in too easily into my 30s as well just go to work go to party go

[00:14:15] to works they party go to work yeah and still not realizing you know which way I

[00:14:26] was headed I thought I was just doing fine still yeah you know so so as you’re

[00:14:32] your going through life are you thinking to yourself I don’t have the power to

[00:14:37] stop this or are you at this point thinking hey this is I am in control here I do have the power to stop this

[00:14:42] one I want yes the truth is I still thought I had the power – stop yeah I was you know just just a

[00:14:53] young girl that just knew that I could do anything if I put my head to it but

[00:14:59] you know the only problem is my head was only into doing drugs I did not expand

[00:15:05] into the more important things in life was you know life is two people that

[00:15:11] realize education is good discipline is good you know a quality of life comes

[00:15:18] from setting your day right and starting

[00:15:26] out with prayer as I learned a lot from Teen Challenge now did you grow up in a Christian family was was Christianity or

[00:15:33] religion did it have any role in your life up to this point yes religion was there yeah distant God

[00:15:40] you know far away I thought that well

[00:15:45] he’s not gonna look at me because he was that far away yeah it was a mother who

[00:15:54] believed in God but also taught us that God is everywhere so we didn’t really

[00:16:01] have to go to church and my father who’s

[00:16:07] passed away now but he always had in his heart for us

[00:16:15] his children to go to church go to church and then if we wanted to he would

[00:16:22] tell us about some of the parables in the Bible but at that time I was still

[00:16:31] still in my young teenage days it was mostly in one ear and out the other

[00:16:38] couldn’t wait to just get up from the table and do something else

[00:16:43] go have fun yes never fun was it wasn’t fair at the table that time but um so in

[00:16:53] my 30s that was my background anyway so to let you know you know I did not have any kind of constructive

[00:17:04] foundation so it was just a lot of religion and I had a Bible but it was

[00:17:11] one of those Bibles that stayed somewhere where I couldn’t reach it because maybe subconsciously it was

[00:17:19] because I couldn’t reach God that’s what I thought so we week until I continued to party I

[00:17:29] continued to experiment with drugs and

[00:17:34] what started getting hold of me was meth you know I had some friends that did

[00:17:39] heroin as well but they made me promise not to do that I’m like right fine

[00:17:46] you know I’m fine with meth and alcohol and the other things that that that was

[00:17:54] just whatever was available for the night and so meth became more prevalent

[00:18:01] however it just went oh it’s what I started looking for you know it wasn’t

[00:18:06] whatever kind of drug anymore it was like no I don’t want that I started getting picky if I can say that anyways

[00:18:15] I didn’t still realize how much into the addiction I was in it wasn’t until late

[00:18:25] 30s early 40s that I started getting

[00:18:30] seriously tired of what I was doing is this is this it and I started reflecting

[00:18:36] oh god what have I done with my life you know and then I started realizing oh

[00:18:44] no I don’t have control over this it has me I couldn’t wake up without a thought

[00:18:53] of where’s my next score gonna be where’s my next meth baggie gonna come

[00:19:02] from or it was whatever I did for that day I wake up okay that’s what I’m going

[00:19:09] to do some work for so I will get some of some drugs to do

[00:19:14] after work yeah or during work you know and that Bible talks about this too it says that

[00:19:20] we become slaves to sin we are slaves to sin because that pretty soon the sin

[00:19:26] begins to control you instead of you controlling it and he even in the very beginning the Bible it strike it reminds

[00:19:32] me of the scripture where God is talking to Cain and he says decane sin is crouching at your door desires to have

[00:19:38] you but you must master it yes and we can’t do that without the help of Christ ultimately ultimately that is true

[00:19:45] without a good foundation or you know upbringing I’d say I’m one of those just

[00:19:53] that got into just the average childhood

[00:19:58] where everyone’s dysfunctional you know even at school my friends at school and

[00:20:04] so there was still not normal to me you know that we were just dysfunctional

[00:20:10] type of people yeah that I was with so when I started

[00:20:17] realizing I started just having this awful taste in my mouth for it I was you

[00:20:26] know just regretting that oh my gosh is

[00:20:32] it time to go back to school you know you’re in your 40s and you’re thinking

[00:20:37] this way now Rita I mean what you know

[00:20:43] so with that I was saddened I was

[00:20:48] depressed I didn’t really know how to stop now I tried a few let’s see some

[00:20:56] help getting some help out you know two weeks here or counseling there but it

[00:21:04] was always nothing that could hold me clean that I wanted to be clean so I

[00:21:11] have a break and then you’d come back to it yes very short breaks but it was all

[00:21:18] all just searching for something that could help me stay clean

[00:21:24] clean yeah and it was it was a breaking

[00:21:30] point in my life too when I realized that I couldn’t do it I couldn’t do it

[00:21:36] by myself I didn’t want this life anymore I wanted to give it up so one of

[00:21:46] my brothers had a place Oh at this point too by the way I was pretty much living off my car already okay I had we’re

[00:21:54] coming up on a break here Rita’s already cut you off here but that’s a good that’s kind of a good tease for our

[00:21:59] listeners there if you’re listening she’s right at the point here she’s just living in our car and we’re gonna pick

[00:22:05] up and finish her story and our goal here is to give you hope so if you’re out there you know somebody who’s

[00:22:10] struggling with drug addiction it’s becoming more and more prevalent in our culture the problem is not decreasing it’s increasing and so this is important

[00:22:19] for you to be able to offer hope to others if you’re out there listening Teen Challenge is the ministry that we

[00:22:25] want to support here that’s doing an amazing job and offering all this help at no charge it’s incredible Teen

[00:22:31] Challenge o RG if you’re in San Diego it’s /s DTC and we’ll be right back and

[00:22:39] Rita will finish your story I will bring my

[00:22:46] hi this is Kevin Conover will you please donate to educate for life so we can share the truth of God’s

[00:22:53] Word with kids in public schools you can donate online at donate to EFL 0rg

[00:22:58] the Bible used to be read in public schools on a regular basis prior to the 1960s but today most kids are completely

[00:23:05] clueless when it comes to the content and the historical and scientific accuracy of the Bible please help us by

[00:23:11] donating online at donate to EFL RG hi this is Jason hall president of team

[00:23:18] home loans a branch of synergy one lending I just want to take this opportunity to thank Kevin Conover for

[00:23:23] the profound impact he’s had on mine and my wife’s spiritual life as well as being an incredible teacher while our

[00:23:29] kids were his students his knowledge and passion have taught us all how important it is to be defenders of our faith it’s

[00:23:35] our honor and privilege to support Kevin and his show is our sincere hope and prayer that you will continue to learn

[00:23:40] to be defenders of your faith through Kevin’s radio show and through his educate for life teachings thank you

[00:23:46] Kevin from the hall family and team Home Loans hi I’m Marissa Conover and I would

[00:23:52] love to help you buy or sell your home I’ve worked as a realtor for more than 13 years and as a San Diego native my

[00:24:00] passion and experience will help make your move as peaceful as can be call me

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[00:24:25] biblical and effective way we would like to teach you through the proclamation of the gospel whether you’re the skeptic

[00:24:31] you said that he has made himself known to you so that you are one-on-one

[00:24:36] evangelism how do you think you can get to heaven never really thought about it but I’ve always thought about doing good

[00:24:41] more information go through just calm like us on Facebook or visit us at YouTube and throughout all ages thanks

[00:24:52] for tuning in to educate for life I’m your host Kevin Conover my website is join that’s Jo I and I educate for life

[00:24:59] no RG educ a te fo r li fe o RG you can

[00:25:05] pick up recordings of the shows you can check out a lot of the events that are going on I actually am involved in a

[00:25:11] debate at San Diego State University I’m the moderator of the debate and Dan Barker is going to be debating he’s an

[00:25:17] atheist very famous a atheist president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation he’s going to be debating dr. Andy

[00:25:23] McIntosh from England who was an expert in thermodynamics and the debate is going to be over whether atheism makes

[00:25:29] sense of reality or not should be fantastic I hope you can make it out at September 26th over at San Diego State

[00:25:36] University that’s a Tuesday evening my guest today though is Harrell endo

[00:25:42] Salinas of Teen Challenge he’s been the director for almost 10 years now actually for more than 10 years now and as well as Rita who is a Teen Challenge

[00:25:50] alumni who graduated from their program and Lucia who is an MFT with 16 years in

[00:25:56] the field of addiction with the San Diego rescue mission and Rita let’s just

[00:26:01] pick up where we left off you you just said that you’re living in your in your car and you’re you’re looking for help

[00:26:07] from somebody you can’t get off these drugs you keep maybe having breaks from them but that you just keep coming back

[00:26:13] yes Kevin so I was living in my car

[00:26:19] staying in couches you know and working for that meth fix and and that was the

[00:26:28] extent of my creativeness if you will you know where my hope was going or gone

[00:26:35] – yeah yes and at this point in my life actually

[00:26:40] hope was not there anymore because I kept trying to look around the corner where I heard from my youth that

[00:26:48] you know there’s light around the corner and I kept trying to look around the corner and it was nothing but more

[00:26:54] darkness more death if I could say

[00:27:00] because I didn’t know you know that that light would could be gone could be

[00:27:07] stolen my testimony my testimony says in

[00:27:13] John 10:10 that the thief has come to steal to destroy and kill steal and

[00:27:24] destroy kill steal and destroy yeah yes so that’s that’s what started

[00:27:31] my hope was gone I didn’t know the Bible yet then but as I learned it through

[00:27:39] Teen Challenge and the days after the Lord did a wonderful thing in my life

[00:27:46] and saved me from my addiction I started

[00:27:51] learning that my stories in my life was already written in the book and God’s

[00:27:57] Word and I was learning the truth of what happened in my life you know as I

[00:28:05] kept going forward so I stayed in my brother’s place he was gone for a week

[00:28:14] working and it was then that I reached

[00:28:20] the end of myself where I said oh god I can’t do this anymore

[00:28:25] I didn’t know I was being heard by a mighty God I thought it was just me

[00:28:31] expressing you know in the best way that I knew how that I said I can’t do this

[00:28:40] anymore I was in his place and I determined not to leave the house unless

[00:28:46] there was something else besides meth on my thoughts on my heart and my brain

[00:28:53] and during that time I just I was

[00:29:01] crashing I was getting off drugs I was hurting you know and I just said oh god

[00:29:10] help me

[00:29:16] so that was my prayer God showed me that he heard me

[00:29:34] so he he heard me as I got up another

[00:29:39] day just in pain and still no hope but

[00:29:45] for some reason I was thinking at least I’m not going out there you know I set the cat out just because

[00:29:53] here I’m not going to just store to get cat food you go get your own you know I wasn’t going to the grocery store for

[00:30:01] myself it was just like whatever’s in the cupboards that’s that’s what I’m gonna have and I cried and I said god

[00:30:13] I’m sorry I don’t know what I did with my life but it’s gone and I meant by that that I

[00:30:21] was going to throw in the towel I was gonna die somehow probably slowly from

[00:30:31] hunger you know but that was that was all I could do and then the phone rings

[00:30:43] it’s my brother calling and telling me that he’s on his way back to town and he

[00:30:51] realized he recognized that my voice was not up to par not my chair was cheerful

[00:31:00] self yeah so he goes Rita what’s wrong I got oh nothing I’m just sick still

[00:31:07] covering up and he goes oh I’m glad I’m

[00:31:13] glad I’m on my way home I’ll pick you up something you know I said okay a little

[00:31:20] background my brother he was saved before I was I’d say about three years

[00:31:27] before and he was inviting me to come to church with him and invited me over and

[00:31:34] over again right and I just said okay I’ll go this one time just to make peace

[00:31:42] yes sorry Leo lost so he would leave me alone and well I was there I didn’t

[00:31:51] understand what was going on either I had to get up out of the service step outside because I had this

[00:31:58] overwhelming feeling of wanting to Quentin to cry and I’m like when it’s

[00:32:05] wrong it’s good music lots of people and I’m out here and I want to cry so I just

[00:32:12] wanted to compose myself before I went back in so I went back in and service

[00:32:19] was over and I heard my brother right out I said come on let’s go something

[00:32:24] was making me cry in there I didn’t understand so we left and I didn’t

[00:32:34] realize either that my brother and his friends were praying for me so when he

[00:32:42] came home through with food and I was gonna tell him I was gonna make this big

[00:32:47] confession that I’m sick because I’m coming off of drugs I thought that he

[00:32:55] was gonna be very angry with me that some kind of hurricane was gonna happen and he was gonna be very disappointed

[00:33:05] well to my surprise he said well glad you told me now I know how I could

[00:33:10] support your help you so I was taken aback because like I said earlier we

[00:33:17] were not really a close close-knit family but then I didn’t understand my

[00:33:23] brother was saved I didn’t understand that so he was um he took care he was

[00:33:32] taking care of me and then he says and then he gate told me you know he told me

[00:33:39] something about sin it was really expressive okay when we come back Rita’s

[00:33:45] gonna share with us what her brother told her about sin an amazing testimony

[00:33:50] so stay with us we’re gonna be right back and you get to hear the the final rescue here

[00:33:55] for Rita as God is reaching out to her through her brother and through Teen Challenge we’ll be right back hi this is

[00:34:05] Jason hall president of team home loans a branch of synergy one lending I just want to take this opportunity to thank

[00:34:11] Kevin Kahn over for the profound impact he’s had on mine and my wife’s spiritual life as well as being an incredible

[00:34:17] teacher while our kids were his students his knowledge and passion have taught us all how important it is to be defenders

[00:34:23] of our faith it’s our honor and privilege to support Kevin and his show is our sincere hope and prayer that you will continue to

[00:34:29] learn to be defenders of your faith through Kevin’s radio show and through his educate for life teachings thank you

[00:34:35] Kevin from the hall family and team Home Loans this is throughout all ages

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[00:36:06] calm welcome to educate for life I’m

[00:36:14] your host Kevin Conover please check us out on YouTube you can look look us up on our podcast educate for life and you can also follow

[00:36:22] us on Facebook if you want to follow up with the upcoming events and these sorts of things that are happening Teen

[00:36:27] Challenge is actually having a a walk to

[00:36:32] raise money September is national recovery month and they’re hosting a 5k walk for recovery to raise support and

[00:36:39] awareness about their free resources again it’s completely free people who go through the program a year-long program

[00:36:45] actually are completely funded through the ministry and the goal is to reach

[00:36:51] anybody who wants help and not have to turn anybody away the walk is on Saturday September 30th and check-in

[00:36:58] time is 8:00 a.m. start times 9 a.m. it’s going to be at NTC Park Liberty

[00:37:04] Station in Point Loma 24:55 Cushing Road down there if you want more information you go to you can

[00:37:10] go to TC walks dot-com registration is $25 per person or $100 per family and

[00:37:16] it’s just an awesome opportunity to get out there and really make a difference tangibly in the lives of people that are

[00:37:23] desperate for help and one of those people we actually have on the air today who was rescued by people who were

[00:37:29] willing to contribute and to donate of their time and money and that’s Rita

[00:37:34] she’s been sharing her testimony if you didn’t get to hear what she shared so far I encourage you to go back and and

[00:37:40] get the whole interview my guests today are the director of Teen Challenge hair Linda Salinas who himself has an amazing

[00:37:47] testimony which you can hear which he actually got to share his whole testimony the last time he was on and it’s just an amazing testimony and we

[00:37:54] also have Lucia who is an MFT who was very familiar with addiction and we’d like to get some of her input on on what

[00:38:02] what we can do to help our loved ones who are struggling with addiction but Rita share with us now hear what happens

[00:38:09] your brother’s been praying for you he himself is now saved knows the Lord and and he’s been praying for you and now is

[00:38:16] being able to be you your you’ve been able to be honest with him and share with him what’s going on in your life yes at this point like I said I was just

[00:38:25] totally amazed that there was no hurricane no no big disappointment you

[00:38:33] know like I did not do good like I was supposed to any kind of reprimand you

[00:38:39] know was not there so my brother just shared with me about sin it’s it’s

[00:38:47] innate crouches it you put it aside for a while and he was explaining why the

[00:38:53] other efforts that I was trying to quit before did not work

[00:38:58] because ultimately let’s just call addiction what it is from he said that

[00:39:04] it was sin in my life and so the point

[00:39:10] he was making was this is what happens

[00:39:16] you know to addiction where it’ll sit for awhile and then I’ll grab back a

[00:39:23] hold of you sit again he’ll grab back a hold of you and I said you know what wait why don’t you take me to the church

[00:39:30] it took me again to before I want to go again you know and he was all elated and

[00:39:38] he said okay let’s go this Sunday after work and we went and we went to this one

[00:39:48] church they were closed because they had their church meeting somewhere else and

[00:39:53] he was bummed again he was just like Oh what did I do I did not check this schedule and then I said you had

[00:40:00] somebody else down the road not too far from here let’s go there and he goes yes

[00:40:07] again he’s elated he wants to take me there with all his heart and I’m like looking at him okay let’s just let’s

[00:40:16] just go well my my thoughts and my heart was to tell God I’m sorry I wanted I

[00:40:23] wanted that chance to tell him so he took me down there and I could not

[00:40:31] stop from crying when we got there we sat in the back and my hair was quite

[00:40:36] long then you know and I just had to sit back push myself away hide hide in my

[00:40:44] hair because the tears just would not stop there was deluge of tears just coming out and coming out and the pastor

[00:40:51] had said towards the end if anyone if you want prayer you know and if anyone

[00:40:58] of you just want to tell god you’re sorry and my hand raised up really fast and I could not put it down I said I’m

[00:41:09] sorry I’m sorry God you know and then again he invited as they do invited you

[00:41:16] to come up for prayer so I went up for prayer and I received the blessing of

[00:41:23] the Holy Spirit right then and there any pain I had was gone any uncleanness of

[00:41:31] this drug within me was gone all the tears and deluge of mucus it’s a sorry

[00:41:40] world is gone yeah it was a breath of

[00:41:47] fresh air the pastor’s wife was praying for me and I just lifted my head up

[00:41:54] taking a big gasp of fresh air and I felt clean and went wow and I was

[00:42:00] shaking her hand because she was praying all heartedly for me yeah something

[00:42:06] happened I said something happened and so she explained to me yes that the Holy

[00:42:13] Spirit’s power has come upon me and I had a grin from ear to ear I looked at

[00:42:19] my brother and I’m still like what’s going on but I could not stop from smiling yeah I was something had

[00:42:26] happened yeah there was a miracle of God an instant miracle of God there was hope

[00:42:32] there was a bright newness all around me and the quest was what are you gonna do

[00:42:41] with this hope that now you have no I I gotta tell people I gotta say something

[00:42:50] to somebody I got the Bible I read it this time I had a hunger and a thirst

[00:42:55] for it I was I she started me out reading from Romans and gosh what a

[00:43:04] great book that is in our Bible you know because it tells you you do two things you don’t want you do two things that

[00:43:11] you don’t want to do yeah and it started just instantly explaining and making

[00:43:18] sense of all this past life that I was just going through up to this point and

[00:43:25] so my brother says okay you’re still

[00:43:30] going to need guidance you want discipleship you know so I started

[00:43:36] calling around and I found a place called Teen Challenge right and I said

[00:43:41] oh maybe it’s not for me because it’s teens teen is in the name but the truth

[00:43:51] is they accepted me they said no it’s not just for teens I go are you sure because I’m really way past my teenage

[00:43:58] years they said yes come on down and so I went to San Diego Teen Challenge and

[00:44:08] they enrolled me to go to the women’s facility and I had a choice of LA or

[00:44:15] Bakersfield so I took Bakersfield now sis started my walk with God that’s why

[00:44:21] I started in Bakersfield where I didn’t know anybody Yeah right and I just

[00:44:26] wanted to bear down in the word and just be amazed at how many sisters in Christ

[00:44:33] I had all of a sudden everybody wanted to pray everybody was I had so much hope

[00:44:38] Kevin it was just amazing that is amazing and I wanna I wanna we’re coming up on our break here we have one more

[00:44:44] segment after this but I wanted to ask you Rita you know some people might say well you know once you had the holy s–t

[00:44:50] and you had that you accepted Christ and everything was that enough could you could you just hey you know I don’t I

[00:44:55] don’t need to go to Teen Challenge but I want to ask you know what how did that make such a dramatic difference in your

[00:45:00] life and and was that something you needed to go through so when we come back Rita’s gonna answer that question

[00:45:06] we’ll be right back for 36 years Fastlane kayaking has helped people like

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[00:45:39] across from SeaWorld six one nine two two two zero seven sixty-six hi this is Jason hall president of team

[00:45:47] home loans a branch of synergy one lending I just want to take this opportunity to thank Kevin Conover for

[00:45:52] the profound impact he’s had on mine and my wife’s spiritual life as well as being an incredible teacher while our

[00:45:58] kids were his students his knowledge and passion have taught us all how important it is to be defenders of our feet it’s

[00:46:03] our honor and privilege to support Kevin and his show is our sincere hope and prayer that you will continue to learn

[00:46:09] to be defenders of your faith through Kevin’s radio show and through his educate for life teachings thank you

[00:46:15] Kevin from the hall family and team home loans hi I’m Marisa Conover and I would love

[00:46:21] to help you buy or sell your home I’ve worked as a realtor for more than 13

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[00:46:46] [Music] hi this is Kevin Conover will you please donate to educate for life so we can

[00:46:52] share the truth of God’s Word with kids in public schools you can donate online at donate to EFL

[00:46:58] 0rg the Bible used to be read in public schools on a regular basis prior to the

[00:47:03] 1960s but today most kids are completely clueless when it comes to the content and the historical and scientific

[00:47:09] accuracy of the Bible please help us by donating online at donate to EFL RG

[00:47:20] welcome to educate for life I’m your host Kevin Conover my web sites educate for life 0rg and if you want to sign up

[00:47:27] for my Bible classes I have an online bible curriculum it’s 40 online classes you can take it all online you can take

[00:47:34] it on your phone your tablet your computer whatever you like it’s great for homeschooling great for Bible studies great for church groups even

[00:47:41] great for a teacher who’s teaching at maybe a Christian high school or something like that so please check it out that’s a educate for life 0 RG today

[00:47:49] we’re talking with Teen Challenge specifically her Linda Salinas Rita who recently who graduated from teen

[00:47:56] challenge and also Lucia who is an MFT with 16 years in the field of addiction and you know Rita you were talking about

[00:48:04] how you met Christ and then you decided to join Team Challenge and you were around all these women who were praying

[00:48:10] with you and building community in the body of Christ yes would do you feel

[00:48:16] that the the result of you know what Christ did you know after you feel like Teen Challenge really took you in a

[00:48:23] different direction than you might have gone otherwise absolutely absolutely and this is how they they took me to a

[00:48:30] better place in my life today I was discipled I was taught that there

[00:48:37] are many other people that believe in other religions and other gods and it

[00:48:44] was important for me to know which God I served who he was who Jesus Christ is so

[00:48:51] that when the false prophets come or the religious people come about I know that

[00:49:00] I believe in Jesus Christ and I can stand on his word and his truth and that’s what Teen Challenge taught me

[00:49:08] through all their courses through life skills as well the discipline the making

[00:49:14] the right choices throughout my day getting up in the morning just having a

[00:49:20] beautiful schedule now don’t get me wrong it was hard it was hard at first

[00:49:25] and I prayed God let me let me stay and know and know what I need to learn from

[00:49:31] here yeah and to this day I still apply all those basic life skills you know how you get

[00:49:39] up you pray how you get up and just love as the Bible teaches you to love that’s

[00:49:45] fantastic and I stay in touch with arlindo and Teen Challenge just the

[00:49:52] community of Teen Challenge just helps me stay again in that love of Christ

[00:49:59] yeah where you know if you had an umbrella that kept you from getting wet

[00:50:05] in the rain I felt God’s umbrella over me a Teen Challenge that kept me from

[00:50:12] hearing other people talking about other religions without knowing you know where

[00:50:20] I stood yeah I might have gone that way but Teen Challenge showed me and taught

[00:50:26] me the love of Christ that’s fantastic and Lucia you’ve been involved so long with the San Diego rescue mission and

[00:50:32] you were talking about when we were off air you were talking about how it’s important to understand God’s grace even

[00:50:38] in you know even after we’re saved can you expand on that a little bit more

[00:50:43] well I mean I loved Margaret’s testimony and praise God that she had that

[00:50:51] experience where it seemed like the addiction was gone enrollment yes yes into Christ I’ve seen

[00:51:01] a lot of people that have had a struggle afterwards and so I think people can

[00:51:08] have a lot of guilt feelings like now I feel the Lord or I’m not good enough I

[00:51:13] can’t come back to God and just to realize that it’s it’s his grace that

[00:51:18] convicts us in the beginning to get saved it’s also His grace that causes us

[00:51:24] to grow in him and continues to convict us so it’s a walk yes it’s a process

[00:51:31] it’s not just the end result yeah and even the process of struggling in the

[00:51:38] addiction is what can produce the very character of Christ within us

[00:51:44] so taking steps backward that’s okay you just keep coming back to Jesus yeah

[00:51:51] that’s such a powerful message I love to it what marguerite said that it started

[00:51:56] with her prayer and I believe that’s what makes all the difference when you

[00:52:02] call out to Jesus you mean it yeah he starts working that’s right yeah and you

[00:52:09] know I I think that’s such a powerful message you’re saying because a lot of times you know it’s two steps forward one step back two steps forward or maybe

[00:52:15] it’s maybe it’s two steps forward three steps back right but but regardless the point is is that Christ my mercies are

[00:52:22] new every morning right and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ so there’s never a point where you go

[00:52:28] you know what I’m just not good enough I can’t make it I couldn’t do it or I failed or whatever right there’s never a

[00:52:35] point of no return as far as God is concerned and working in our lives as we go forward and has that been your

[00:52:44] experience also herre Linda what the guys are working with in Teen Challenge that is correct you know they come in in

[00:52:49] this surrender their lives to the Lord and and they they realize how much God

[00:52:55] loves them but also as they go through the daily activities and the discipleship in the classes memorize the

[00:53:01] scriptures you know there’s times when they do make a mistake and we’re able to

[00:53:07] address the mistake and then also they were able to learn for the mistake that they make and then move on forward and

[00:53:14] it’s only because of the mercy and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we can continue to just go forward you know

[00:53:19] you heard Rita’s testimony and that’s just one of hundreds of thousands yeah of miracles that have taken place with

[00:53:26] the Ministry of Teen Challenge and other programs but I really want to encourage if you’re able to come out to the 5k

[00:53:33] walk on the September the 30th come out and support the ministry and once again

[00:53:40] it’s because of people that support the ministry that allows us to continue to

[00:53:45] keep our doors open we want to help every person that walks through our doors we don’t ever want to turn anybody away so we want to continue to keep our

[00:53:52] doors open we want to thank everybody the supports to the ministry yeah fantastic and you allow people to come

[00:53:58] out and tour your facilities too and yes and you know getting is it get as involved as they want to in helping out

[00:54:04] and it’s just absolutely amazing so again the website is Team Challenge o RG

[00:54:10] and that’s /s d TC here in San Diego and do you still have the donate online

[00:54:16] website give TC comm is that huh okay and so please get involved September

[00:54:24] thirtieth they’re doing the 5k walk starting down there eight o’clock they’ll you know you can register 9:00

[00:54:31] a.m. they get to start walking and just a great opportunity to make a difference a real-world difference in the lives of

[00:54:36] people down there very tangible difference you can meet meet the people that are involved in the program too if you want to and just all kinds of

[00:54:43] opportunities so thank you so much for listening today this Saturday hare Lindo Rita Lucia

[00:54:48] thank you so much for being on Kevin yeah a huge pleasure and a lot of hope thank you for sharing that testimony

[00:54:55] that’s absolutely amazing and praise God so for those of you listening have a fantastic Saturday we’ll be with you

[00:55:01] again next week please join me on September 26 if you can as San Diego State University with

[00:55:07] the debate between a Dan Barker and dr. Andy McIntosh does atheism make sense of

[00:55:13] reality I’ll be moderating that debate we’d love to have you out there and if you want more information you can find

[00:55:18] that on my website educate for life dot o-r-g god bless you have a fantastic saturday bye bye did you miss part of

[00:55:25] today’s program don’t worry we’re con mitad to helping you get the info you need okay that was dumb but for real visit

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[00:55:39] leave us your comments compliments questions or concerns at 800 243