Celebrate Freedom: 2017 year in review.
I have been blessed to be set free from my alcohol
and drug addiction since 2015 due to my faith in Jesus Christ and my
participation in the Celebrate Freedom Recovery Program at Rock Solid Church .
Since completing the program in June 2015, I have become active in the
ministry by teaching on a regular basis. As 2017 began I was honored to take on
the added responsibility of leading the men’s discussion group for our Thursday
Night meetings.
In response to the Opioid Epidemic that has had such
an impact on our community this year and because of Celebrate Freedom’s desire
to help more people leave their hurts, habits, and hang ups behind, the
leadership team of Celebrate Freedom (CF) decided to expand the vision of
Celebrate Freedom to go beyond our stated goals of recovery and discipleship to
included community outreach.
Previously we had relied on announcements at Rock Solid
Church and word of mouth
to let people know about our recovery program.
This year it was our desire to more proactively promote our group to the
community at large and to support other recovery groups, organizations, and
county agencies that were fighting the Opiod Epidemic and other problems that
affect the community.
I took on the responsibility to act as a liaison to
the community and to promote Celebrate Freedom as a recovery option for the Columbia County community in whatever capacity I
could think of.
Our first course of action was to support and to
become a member of Columbia Pathways to Recovery. Columbia Pathways to Recovery ((http://columbiapathwaystorecovery.org/)
is a Community Recovery Organization and advocacy group whose goal is “to
educate the community about the substance abuse issues that occur in our
community”
They have partnered with Chatham Cares 4
U to create a help line for those in Columbia
County who seek recovery:
877-HOPE-365 (877-467-3365)
9am to 9pm / 7 days a week
Information, resources and referrals
Chatham Cares 4 U (https://www.facebook.com/chathamcares4u/)
is the Chatham Police Department’s progressive community program that seeks to
save and change lives of those with substance abuse problems.
There is great work being done through Columbia Pathways to Recovery and
Chatham Cares 4 U to battle the Opioid Epidemic that plagues our community and
Celebrate Freedom fully supports their efforts.
Since June I have attended
CPR’s monthly community meetings, Project Safe Point’s Narcan Trainings, and
various Substance Abuse Community Panel Discussions throughout Columbia County
to educate myself and to represent and promote Celebrate Freedom as a recovery
option for Columbia
County residents. Celebrate Freedom
designed a T-shirt and informational fliers to raise awareness of our recovery
group and I tried to don a shirt and distribute our fliers at each event I
attended.
In an effort to promote our program to the community at
large I also represented Celebrate Freedom by wearing a shirt at various community
walking events in and outside Columbia
County , such as, CPR’s Recovery Walk, The Walk to End Alzheimer’s, The Out of the
Darkness Suicide Prevention Walk, and Ferncliff Forrest’s Turkey Trot.
Celebrate Freedom was also represented by tabling at
Taconic Retreat Centers’ Fall Festival and Hudson ’s
Winter Walk Event (at Rock
Solid Church ).
Celebrate Freedom also
tabled at CPR’s hosted Marc Mero Speaking Event at Hudson High School
where our team distributed various information and 100 Bibles to the
community.
Members of Rock
Solid Church
and Celebrate Freedom also represented the Hope of a Life in Christ by
Collecting for The Salvation Army.
I would like to thank the leadership team,
participants, and the many volunteers of Celebrate Freedom that gave their time
and hearts to share the hope that they know is possible through faith in
Christ.
We have been faithful in our efforts to promote our
program and the hope that is found in a life that is transformed by faith in
Jesus Christ. It has been a great year
and I look forward to serving Celebrate Freedom and the community at large in
2018.
If you have any questions or ideas of how we can
serve the community and promote our group in the New Year, please contact me at mt4christ@yahoo.com.