City of Refuge Calhoun offering Warrior Program aimed to help at-risk youth

Weekend, March 19, 2022

City of Refuge Calhoun has started a new program to help mentor students who are considered at-risk. The Warrior Program is a 90-day mentoring resource for youth in grades six - 12, who are getting in trouble at school, being put into alternative school or experiencing behavioral or substance abuse issues.

Anthony Ortiz, the City of Refuge’s Director of Warrior Program and a longtime community volunteer with youth sports, saw the need in the community and had a calling to do something to address the issue.

“In talking with Tim (Langston, pastor of City of Refuge Calhoun) and discussing a way to address this need in the community, we came up with the Warrior Program,” said Ortiz. “We prayed about it for a while and decided to start something through the church. I’m so passionate about this issue.”

“A lot of these kids, where they are living, it is absolute chaos,” said Langston. “There’s no order. And this is where we try to help.”

Ortiz served for five years as the youth minister at COR Calhoun for five years, and also volunteered at the local Boys and Girls Club for several years, and also served on their Board of Directors.

Ortiz understands where these kids come from: his dad died while serving a sting in prison, and his mom left him in the custody of relatives when he was just two months old.

The group has met with local schools and other organizations to let them know about the program, in case parents need additional help for their children. While the school systems do not refer students to the program, the information is there for to know that there is this new resource in the community.

“It’s a 90 day program that operates in three phases,” said Ortiz. “We begin with an introductory meeting, and then begin the first 30 days of the program.”

The first 30 days centers on goals; discussing what goals are, how to set goals then actually setting goals for the youth, both short and long term.

“We ask, ‘what do you want out of this program and what do you want out of life?’ Then we develop a plan to help them get to where they need to be to succeed in reaching their goals,” said Ortiz.

Ortiz said goal-setting is important because about half of the youth he has worked with do not understand goals and how to plan for the future.

“I have one right now that wants to be in the NBA and one that wants to be in the NFL. That’s great. So then I ask them after they tell me that, ‘What’s your plan B?’ That’s where they realize they don’t know what plan B is. So I explain to them that the big sports stars have other endeavors that make them money, like side businesses and endorsements. Yes they get paid to play sports but they make their money from their plan B so that when they retire from sports, they have something else to do. So I explain to the youth the importance of having that plan B.”

After setting the goals, the discussion turns to making sure the youth know what they want out of the program.

“The biggest word that I use in the program is ‘mindset;’ changing their mindset,” said Ortiz. “We discuss the importance of setting goals and staying focused on those goals.”

The second 30 days is centered on fitting into society.

“We begin with a review of the first 30 days; I’ve had them journal everything over that time period and we discuss where we are with our goals,” said Ortiz. “By this time, we are looking at how they are doing in the program, seeing where they can improve and reviewing the scripture they send me every day with an explanation of what that scripture means to them. We tie that scripture back to where they’ve been and where they are at the end of 30 days. Then we head into how they fit into society. We talk about the percentages in society of who wants to be this person or that person, but the fact is that we are unique. God created us unique and there’s only one you, or one Anthony or one Tim, and we discuss what that uniqueness from God looks like.”

At the end of the second phase, the youth will move into the third 30 days, which centers on self-worth.

“A lot of kids struggle with self-worth,” said Ortiz. “I ask them to think about this question: ‘Am I worthy enough to be here? After all of the mistakes I’ve made, why is God still looking at me like I’m worthy?’ We discuss what they’ve been through in their life and where they’ve been. One has not only struggled with substance abuse but also child abuse and does not have a supportive home life. So for that student, we address his question of ‘Why am I not worthy enough for my parents?’

“I was kind of raised in the streets,” said Ortiz. “I’m 46 years old and still sometimes struggle with the question, ‘Why did that happen to me?’ I worked through it and there was never any closure for me, so that’s the other part of self-worth that these kids may struggle with: not getting the closure that you need. And we discuss how to deal with that. The kids don’t understand why they don’t get the closure and we work through that. We tell them that God has a plan for everybody; we may not know what it is at the present time but He does. I then use myself as an example and go through my life story with them. The goal is to get them to open up and discuss how they are feeling; they don’t have anybody to talk to and when they hold those feelings in, that’s when the anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts start creeping in and we need to get to them before it gets to that point.”

Ortiz said that the self-worth aspect of the program is important in breaking generational cycles and patterns.

“Some of these kids come to us from homes of addiction and abuse, and the kids don’t want to be that way but don’t know any other way to break the cycle,” said Ortiz. “By discovering their self-worth, we are hopeful they will learn how to break the cycle and not fall into the same patterns they have witnessed in their life.”

Ortiz knows that the ability to save all in trouble is virtually impossible but he wants to be able to help as many of the community’s youth as possible.

“As long as I reach one, I’ve done my job,” said Ortiz.

The church is offering both individual and group sessions for those in the Warrior Program. At this time they are accepting five students at a time. There is a need for program volunteers, especially for girls.

“We know a few girls who are in need, county-wide, but we can only do so much with what we have,” said Langston. “I think there are people in our community who will want to step up and help with this program.”

Toward the end of the program, Ortiz plans to have community leaders to come in to speak to the youth in the program and offer words of encouragement and praise.

Ortiz said that when the program is finished, the kids will receive a certificate of completion, and be given a celebration at the church. Ortiz said that those youth will always be checked on after the program is completed.

“I’m not just going to let them go,” said Ortiz. “I want them to be successful in life.”

Future plans for the program is teaching the kids helpful skill sets.

“We have a good men’s group here at the church. When they go out to do work, we can take the kids to help,” said Ortiz. “They can learn a skill and if they like it, they can follow it up with additional training after graduation. It’s not just to help them get through their issue at this time, it’s to help with the plan B and to help them on the path to success.”

For more information, visit the City of Refuge Calhoun’s website at https://www.cityofrefugecalhoun.org/ or visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/corcalhoun/

How a proposed transitional housing project can help with local fostering needs

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Kacie Tullis has seen a lot in her more than four years with Gordon County Department of Family and Children Services. As part of the Caregiver Recruitment and Retention Unit, her focus is on recruiting foster and adoptive homes for children in DFCS care, and to make sure the homes stay compliant through their time as foster homes.

But with just 30 to 35 foster homes in Gordon County for an average of 180 to 200 children in foster care at any given time, there’s a strain on the system.

The sad part is, a lot of the influx of children into DFCS care can be remedied with additional services such as the transitional housing project for women and children currently being planned by City of Refuge Calhoun.

According to Tullis, her best estimate is that about 98 percent of the children in local foster care are there due to cases related to substance abuse in the home.

City of Refuge Calhoun, pictured above, is a non-denominational ministry serving the community in various capacities. They are in the planning stages of a transitional housing project for women and children, which can also be beneficial for local foster children. (BRANDI OWCZARZ/Staff)

“It could be the parent is using drugs and the children do not have adequate supervision or are not having their needs met, so there’s neglect,” said Tullis. “Or it could be that the parents are abusing substances and our children are being physically hurt because the parents are not thinking clearly (due to drug use). Ninety-eight percent of our case load being related to substance abuse is a huge percentage.”

The goal of DFCS is always reunification of biological parents and their children. Foster parents work with biological parents, forming a team to make sure the biological parent is still involved in some way with their children while the foster parent cares for the children during the time a case is being worked. The problem in the local community is a need for additional resources for treatment for these biological parents.

“Unfortunately, Gordon County has a lack of resources for these families,” said Tullis. “While we do have some alcohol and drug treatment programs, the problem is we don’t have enough for the amount of people who are suffering from substance abuse; there are not enough options or people available to help. A lot of times, the biological parents have to go outside of Gordon County to get the help, especially in-patient help because we have no in-patient treatment available in Gordon County. So it’s harder for the parents to get to see their children when they have to get treatment outside of Gordon County; it’s harder for them to attend the visits and they can’t participate in the parenting. And that’s our goal, to have a partnership between our foster families and the birth families. Going outside of the county for treatment makes that harder to accomplish.”

Some parents are even resistant to receiving treatment due to the separation from their children.

“We’ve even seen cases where parents are hesitant to seek the rehabilitation they needed because they did not want to miss the visitation with their children and did not want to be that far away from their children,” said Tullis. “And the farther away the parent is, the harder it is to get them to visit with their children.”

This is where the transitional housing project through City of Refuge Calhoun can help.

City of Refuge Calhoun is more than just church; it’s a faith-based environment that helps individuals and families transition out of crisis through the various ministries they offer; a non-denominational ministry aiming to serve the community by spreading the hope of Jesus. Under the direction of pastor and executive director Tim Langston and his wife, Sharon, along with a corps of volunteers who are committed to seeing lives transformed, City of Refuge Calhoun seeks to begin a campus in Calhoun that would offer transitional housing for women and children.

“Something we do not have in our area is a place for women and children who need a place to stay,” said Sharon Langston. “There is a place for men, but there is nowhere for a mother and her child to go should there be a crisis.”

“The only beds for women and children are the ones we create,” said Tim Langston, “and we’re doing that on a weekly basis.”

Right now, City of Refuge Calhoun is looking for a property that is conveniently located to healthcare, shopping and schools to place the transitional housing they are planning.

“If we can get some transitional housing going following the City of Refuge Atlanta model in our community, once it’s established, we would move onto vocational training and a healthcare/mental health offering,” said City of Refuge volunteer Dennis Gass, the CFO, education director and Men’s Ministry Leader for Celebrate Recover at City of Refuge Calhoun. “The mission is not to house somebody for a night, but to get them out of poverty.”

City of Refuge uses a model that addresses four key areas that are needed to enter the middle class in the United States, discovered after a 10-year study by the Brookings Institution. By addressing those four areas - job training, housing, health and wellness, and youth development - there is a 93 percent chance that individuals will be middle class.

And part of the health and wellness training includes Celebrate Recovery, a non-denominational ministry that is a Christ-centered 12-step program designed to facilitate recovery from a wide variety of troubling behavior patterns including addiction issues and family problems. City of Refuge-Calhoun has an official Celebrate Recovery program that would be part of the transitional housing project.

The transitional housing proposed by COR-Calhoun would be beneficial for the local DFCS.

“With the transitional housing we’re trying to bring to Gordon County, it would allow the women to keep their children with them while they are seeking the services and support they need and provide their children with a stable childhood,” said Tullis. “Ultimately, in some cases, it would keep the children from going into foster care and allow them to not have that experience. Foster care is a traumatic experience itself. It would allow those children from experiencing that and keep the families intact, while providing the services and help these women need. So when you look at the children we have in care, where a majority of the children are there due to some type of substance abuse issue, versus to the amount of foster homes we have, this is a promising opportunity.”

Tullis feels that beyond the benefits for DFCS, the transitional housing will be beneficial for the community, too.

“Whenever you are looking at a community, every member has a purpose,” said Tullis. “So in our community, if we’re having this heavy impact of drug and alcohol abuse, it is going to (negatively) affect our community. These children are going to school and they are not being able to focus on their education or make the grades they want to make; they’re not being able to participate in extracurricular activities and all the things children love to do that helps them to have the safe and nurturing childhood every child deserves. This substance abuse is preventing so many children from having that nurturing childhood. If we can get to a place where the parents are thriving and get them the help they need, this will trickle down to the children. They won’t be worrying ‘What is going to happen next; is my family going to be okay or am I going to have to go into foster care?’ These children will be able to get some sleep and rest and focus on school. Parents will be able to help their children with their homework and be functional parents. You look at this huge employee shortage that we have; if we can get these adults healthy, then they can become productive, working citizens of the community.”

Another issue Tullis feels the transitional housing will help with is the cycle they see with foster care.

“We see it so much,” said Tullis. “It’s so disheartening because these parents don’t want to be in this situation. They remember the trauma they went through (as children) and they don’t want that for their children, but they don’t know how to break the cycle. They don’t have the skills or the support. With the transitional housing, you have somebody to support you and you have somebody to cheer you on and be there for you. If there is nobody to believe in you or hold you accountable, it’s hard to reach any goal, especially a goal like sobriety.”

Tullis said she feels like the community will be in support of this project.

“I think that the people of Calhoun-Gordon County are always ready to help,” said Tullis. “They want to be out there and help each other, and they have the willingness to help. That’s something our community is doing right”

Another positive light in the community is the small army of foster parents who are working to make life brighter for the children who go into foster care.

“We have some amazing foster parents,” said Tullis. “Foster parents who will come alongside the biological parents and, while they are getting treatment, are sending pictures of their children or Facetime with the parents and offering encouragement. We realize that not everyone can be a foster parent, but we would like for our community to understand the needs that we have; to be understanding and show compassion and grace to these biological parents. I don’t know one person who does not know somebody who has been impacted by drug or alcohol abuse.”

Tullis stressed that there is always a need for foster homes in Gordon County and encourages anyone who might be considering becoming a foster home to reach out and get more information.

“A lot of times people feel like they’d be disqualified from fostering or they feel like they’re not prepared for fostering,” said Tullis. “Some of the answers to questions I receive are: you don’t have to be married to foster or adopt; we have single foster moms and foster dads and single adoptive moms and adoptive dads. A foster child doesn’t have to have their own bedroom; they can share a bedroom with another child as long as they have their own bed. There’s no magic number for income to become a foster parent. I really encourage people to get more information. And if you’re not comfortable talking with someone from DFCS, there are plenty of foster parents to talk to who live it every single day.”

For more information on fostering, visit 1-877-210-KIDS (5437).
For more information on City of Refuge-Calhoun, visit https://www.cityofrefugecalhoun.org/.

CELEBRATE RECOVERY CELEBRATES FREEDOM

City of Refuge Calhoun offers Celebrate Recovery, a ministry program
to help anyone overcome a variety of hurt, habits and hang-ups

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

There’s a ministry in Calhoun that serves to help people overcome a variety of hurts, habits and hang-ups; a host of issues a person might suffer from in the unstable world we live in.

Celebrate Recovery has a misleading name; one that insinuates it’s for those suffering from addiction issues….but it’s so much more. Hosted by and housed in City of Refuge Calhoun, located at 100 Peters Street in Suite 80 (known locally as the old Piggly Wiggly), Celebrate Recovery is a non-denominational ministry. It’s a Christ-centered 12-step program designed to facilitate recovery from a wide variety of troubling behavior patterns including but not exclusive to anxiety, emotional or sexual abuse, depression, job loss, faith doubts, family problems, perfectionism, co-dependency, compulsive behaviors, various addictions, financial dysfunction and eating disorders.

The ministry began 30 years ago at Saddleback Church in California. Today, there are more 35,000 churches around the world that are Celebrate Recovery churches, offering the program that helps people celebrate the freedom they receive by overcoming the variety of issues that plague them. In addition to churches, Celebrate Recovery is offered in recovery houses, rescue missions, universities and prisons around the world.

Here in Gordon County, City of Refuge’s Maia White, who heads the Celebrate Recovery (CR) program and Dennis Gass, who heads one of the men’s CR groups, are committed to leading a ministry of helping others and demonstrating how the love of Jesus can change lives.

White grew up in Gordon County, saying that besides some visits with her grandmother, she never attended church. She traveled down a scary road in her early adulthood, dealing with drug addiction and mental illness. She overcame that years-long addiction to drugs in January 2013 and began attending Celebrate Recovery at another church, completing her first 12-Step program in April 2018. It helped her so much that she wanted to introduce others to the program.

“We were going to start a Celebrate Recovery at another church I attended in Calhoun, so I went through the 12-step part of the program there,” explained White. “That church decided not to go through with the program; a lot of the women that were attending there were disappointed because we all wanted to help people (through Celebrate Recovery.) I was told there was someone who wanted to start a Celebrate Recovery in Calhoun, so I was introduced to that person, and it went from there.”

Maia White, left, and Pam Clark at a drive-thru Chip Ceremony for Celebrate Recovery Calhoun, held during the COVID shutdown. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

“My biggest victory from Celebrate Recovery has been with my mental health,” said White. “I was on medication for bipolar and anxiety disorder from the time I was 16 until I was 36. I’ve been off all medication and drugs for 8 years and 8 months.”

White helped plan and implement the Celebrate Recovery program at City of Refuge (CoR) Calhoun and was tasked with leading the women’s CR program at the church.

“The first day of Celebrate Recovery at City of Refuge Calhoun was January 1, 2019,” said White. “We started at the Boys & Girls Club because you need multiple rooms to meet in for the small group portion of the program. Once City of Refuge Calhoun was able to move into the building they’re in now, we moved Celebrate Recovery to the larger building.”

Gass, a successful businessman, had a different type of upbringing than White. He grew up in Tennessee, earning a Bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering from the University of Tennessee. He worked in the nuclear energy industry early in his career. He transitioned into IT and for 20 years was the Chief Information Officer for a couple of publicly traded companies in Atlanta. Semi-retired now, he owns Georgia Solar Energy, planning to grow the business as utilities policies shift in the next few years, making solar power a stronger investment. Moving to the Sugar Valley area in 2013, Gass began attending City of Refuge Calhoun in 2018, and wanted to volunteer at the church by helping in the Celebrate Recovery ministry when it began in 2019. Gass found Celebrate Recovery helped him deal with issues he had with perfectionism and being a workaholic.

“I initially just visited church here (at City of Refuge Calhoun),” said Gass. “I had never heard of Celebrate Recovery. From the very first visit, I knew this church was special and it really hit home with me. It was a different message from what I had grown up with and with other churches I attended as an adult. I had gone through a divorce. I loved to help people and knew I

wanted to help them. While working through the divorce, I learned that I need to be helping people in a structured environment like Celebrate Recover. So, I went to visit Celebrate Recovery. I walked in the very first day and said ‘I don’t need anything; I’m good. I’m the CEO of a company and I’ve been working with a counselor and I’m healed. I’m just looking to volunteer.’ I was told by the class leader, ‘There’s something for everybody here; everybody needs Celebrate Recovery.’”

“Listening to the testimonies over the next several months (attending Celebrate Recovery), there would be someone who’d go up and talk about perfectionism or co-dependency, and it struck a chord with me,” said Gass.

According to Gass, only 1/3 of the people who attend Celebrate Recover battle drug or alcohol addiction; the other 2/3’s of people who attend Celebrate Recovery deal with hurts or hang-ups.

“I fall into that two-thirds group,” said Gass.

The Celebrate Recovery Program
“There’s three parts to Celebrate Recovery: large group, small group and 12-Step,” explained Gass. “On Tuesday nights, we have large group and small group. Large group is a worship service that is high-energy with worship music. Each week rotates; the first week is a time of testimony, and it rotates the next week to a lesson. We have the large group for an hour. This is when we will have a Chip Ceremony, celebrating people getting clean from addiction to alcohol or drugs, or overcoming financial hang-ups, co-dependency…whatever they are attending Celebrate Recovery for. So that first hour is large group – high energy, great music and great messages.”

“When I invite people to come to Celebrate Recovery, I try to explain it to them what it’s like by words, but I can’t; words do not do it justice,” said Gass. “People need to come and feel the energy.”

“The second hour is small group, and we divide into four groups: Men with addiction, Women with addiction, Men with hurts, habits and hang-ups, and Women with hurts, habits and hang-ups,” said Gass.

“Our addiction group is for addiction, not just chemical dependency,” said White. “So if you had a gambling addiction or pornography addiction, you would be in that group.”

“Also on Tuesday, we have Celebration Place and The Landing,” said White. “Celebration Place is for the elementary-aged children. They have their own program and curriculum while the adults are meeting. The curriculum covers emotions and teaches them how to deal with their emotions so they start learning at an early age. A lot of people are not taught how to deal with their emotions as they grow up. The Landing is for middle school and high school-aged students, and they have their own curriculum so that they can learn how to deal with their emotions and how to face the problems they have.”

“The third part is 12-Step, and that’s where you really get the healing,” said Gass. “It’s held on Wednesday night. There is one men’s group and two women’s group for 12-Step.”

Celebrate Recovery at City of Refuge Calhoun is currently seeing around 80 individuals per week in the current post COVID shutdown era; before the pandemic, as many as 180 people were attending the Celebrate Recovery program each week.

Offering hope and healing to the community
There is so much to offer someone through Celebrate Recovery, and both White and Gass hope it’s a stepping stone for healing.

“It’s a lot like the City of Refuge model; we want to be the resource for the whole community. It’s not like we’re a church and Celebrate Recovery is just for the people who attend church here. Celebrate Recovery is for everyone in the community,” said Gass. “That’s why we want to get the word out to other churches in the community: if they have members who have gone through a divorce, lost a spouse, suffering from loneliness, has addiction of any type- suffers from any of the hurts, habits and hang-ups that we talk about in Celebrate Recovery- we want them here. We’d love that church to be a partner with us. There’s multiple ways to help: send us the people who need help; come be a volunteer – our leadership team is made up from members of several different churches in the area; or help provide a meal each week. We want to provide a meal again. We stopped the meals because of COVID. Prior to COVID, we had people bring in home-cooked meals each week and we would like to return to some sort of meal, even if it’s not home-cooked.”

“We have folks who come to Celebrate Recovery straight from work and they have children and need to feed them,” explained White. “So it was an important part of the ministry.”

“And in the kids program, if there are children who are here because their parents are attending due to battling addiction or something else, the kids may come in and have not been fed or properly cared for. So if a volunteer notices a child who needs to be fed, we do have the food available. We have donations come in and we can make sure a child will not be hungry,” said Gass.

“We’re looking for people to participate in Celebrate Recovery, people to volunteer and monetary donations are welcomed because it does cost a little bit to do it; and we’ll be ramping the food back up,” said Gass. “We’ve talked to some churches and groups who have said they’ll provide a meal every two months or every three months. We’d like to get 12 or 13 of those groups each quarter.”

“My hope is for people to come in and see there is more freedom for you, for everybody,” said White. “The Lord always has so much more for us than we can even imagine. I want people to know that whatever you think the Lord has for you, He has so much more; so much more possible. I never thought my life would be different; I always thought I would be crazy and that I would be on drugs. Now, I’ve finished school and I’m a ministry leader. If you’d told me nine years ago this is what my life is going to be like, I wouldn’t have believed it. I’m hoping people will come here and see there is a possibility. If they’ll just get a mustard seed of ‘is it a possibility’ that can really grow, just give it a chance. People don’t have to be suffering like they are.”

“Celebrate Recovery helped me realize I was afraid to step out and walk in the calling the Lord had for me,” said White. “It also gave me the opportunity to walk in the calling by serving as a ministry leader. It helped me to step out in faith over my fear of failure and go back to school in 2018. I’ve now graduated with an associate degree in Business Management. And I’ve been able to utilize things I’ve learned in school in the management of this ministry.”

“And on the other extreme, with me, I thought I had everything together,” said Gass. “And I didn’t realize how much better everything can get. There is something for everybody from any denomination to gain from Celebrate Recovery.”

“I like Celebrate Recovery because, to me, it is a good example of the Body of Christ coming together and working; the different churches and different denominations working together to help people like we should,” said White.

“When we kick the meeting off each week, we have announcements and we always say ‘We don’t care where you’re going to church, just make sure you’re going somewhere. If you don’t have a church, you’re invited here,” said Gass.

The future sees Celebrate Recovery at City of Refuge Calhoun expanding into other areas as well.

“Celebrate Recovery will be a part of the message for the transitional housing project for women and children that we’re working on at City of Refuge Calhoun,” said Gass.

CoR Calhoun has their sights set on helping even more through a ministry for women and children in the community. The group now seeks to begin a campus in Calhoun that would offer transitional housing for women and children.

Transitional housing is needed in Gordon County, especially when it comes to children. A two-year average for students in transitional housing is 257 students in Gordon County Schools (defined as students and their families either living with other relatives or in local hotels and motels); the two year average for Calhoun City Schools homeless children and youth is 223. These numbers are grim added to the already severe housing shortage being experienced at this time which includes a rental property shortage as well: all of the income-based apartment housing in Gordon County has at least a one-year wait list at this time; some up to three years.
At this time, City of Refuge Calhoun is looking for a property that is conveniently located to healthcare, shopping and schools to place the transitional housing they are planning.

“If we can get some transitional housing going following the City of Refuge Atlanta model in our community, once it’s established, we would move onto vocational training and a healthcare/mental health offering,” said Gass, who also serves as the CFO and education director at City of Refuge Calhoun. “The mission is not to house somebody for a night, but to get them out of poverty.”

And Celebrate Recovery would be part of that mission.

“One of our guys here says that ‘if you’re still breathing, you need Celebrate Recovery.’ And I agree with him. Everybody has something they can improve on and you might not realize it until you attend,” said Gass.

“Another thing that is good about Celebrate Recovery is that it’s not only for the addicts that do come; it’s good for the people who have to deal with the addicts, like their family and friends,” said White. “There’s probably not a person here in Gordon County that’s not touched by addiction. And sometimes the people who are outside the addiction dealing with the addicts need to learn to correct their behavior to help the person that’s in addiction, because they may be enabling their loved one who is suffering from addiction. It’s not their fault the people are using drugs or alcohol, but there are things they can learn that might help their loved one get out of addiction.”

Another facet of Celebrate Recovery at City of Refuge Calhoun is a program used called BLESS, to help demonstrate the love of Christ to those who attend.

“There’s a program I follow called BLESS,” explained Gass. “It’s Begin with prayer. Listen to somebody, which is so important. It’s received by the person being listened to as being loved. So just lending an ear and listening to them. Eat with them. The first S is to Serve them. The last S is to Share your story. So we’re doing all those things here in Celebrate Recovery and that gives you a higher likelihood of leading somebody to Christ.”
Since early 2019, when the Celebrate Recovery program began at CoR Calhoun, there have been a multitude of success stories.

“You see miracles happen all the time; that’s the coolest part of Celebrate Recovery,” said Gass. “You hear people say, ‘You see miracles in the Bible but you don’t see them anymore.’ We see them every week with the change that happens in people through Celebrate Recovery. We have people going up for their Chips for Celebration- that’s 30, 60 or 90 days, 6 months, 9 months, a year, 18 months, 2 years and every year after clean. To see someone go up after a year clean, whether it’s from addiction, grief or loneliness or from whatever was controlling their life, we have somebody getting a chip very regularly.”

“I’m about to get my 2-year chip for my son,” said White. “I hurt my son a lot with my addiction. When I got better, I thought he should see that I’m better. I had been clean for 5 or 6 years and he still didn’t want much of a relationship with me. So, I let it go; I let him go. I sent him cards occasionally but I learned through Celebrate Recovery that I can’t control his response to me and I don’t have to take that as rejection, because he is also a different person. I was able to let him go and tell him that I love him, but not expect anything back from him. Now, our relationship has healed a lot through Celebrate Recovery. He will call me and tell me about things going on in his life, and it’s because I was able to step back and not control it. I learned through Celebrate Recovery that I was trying to control the situation.”

“We have one person that comes to Celebrate Recovery that has been clean a little over a year now and participates with the Worship Team,” said Sharon Langston, wife of City of Refuge pastor and executive director Tim Langston. “He talked to Tim a few weeks ago and told Tim that he felt like the Lord was calling him to minister. To go from being a 10-year IV drug addict and drug dealer, to being a hope dealer, that’s a huge leap.”

“We have someone who comes to learn how to deal with their daughter’s addiction, and ended up learning about their own co-dependency issues and they’re got a lot of freedom from learning that,” said White. “And although the addiction circumstance has not changed for her daughter, the mom doesn’t have the same torment they did before. And we have stories about people who’ve been clean for years and people who have become functional adults in society. That’s a big deal to be able to become functional after addiction.”

“We have another lady who has been in church all of her life and says she’s been in multiple Bible studies. She went through a divorce about 15 years ago and said that this is the first place she’s ever visited to get healing after her divorce,” said White. “Even though she was going to church and to Bible studies, she didn’t get the healing she needed until she started the Celebrate Recovery program.”

White is also proud of a CR participant who began attending the 12-Step program in Calhoun, the first 12-Step offered in early 2019. The woman, bound in addiction and a co-dependent, toxic relationship, has now been sober for several years learning her worth in Jesus Christ through attending the program.

“We’re seeing generational change, too,” said Gass. “It’ll break your heart when people talk about how they got started doing drugs. ‘My dad introduced meth to me when I was 14.’ ‘My dad introduced pot to me when I was 12.’ And they’ll go through Celebrate Recovery and say, ‘This won’t happen to my kid. It stops with me.’”

White and Gass are both appreciative of the Celebrate Recovery Calhoun leadership and team, a diverse group from different churches and denominations in the community who are all committed to the plight of Celebrate Recovery.

Celebrate Recovery is held at City of Refuge Calhoun; large and small group is held each Tuesday night at 7 p.m. Anybody is welcomed to attend Tuesday night’s service at any time. The 12-Step part of the ministry is held on a yearly commitment. Check out Celebrate Recovery’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/celebraterecoverycalhoun for information on the next 12-Step registration.

City of Refuge Calhoun – far from ‘church as usual’

Wednesday, September 1, 2021

Calhoun-Gordon County has a ministry in Calhoun that’s far from church as usual; a place where all are welcomed to experience light, hope and transformation.

City of Refuge Calhoun is more than just church; it’s a faith-based environment that helps individuals and families transition out of crisis through the various ministries they offer; a non-denominational ministry aiming to serve the community by spreading the hope of Jesus. Under the direction of pastor and executive director Tim Langston and his wife, Sharon, along with a corps of volunteers who are committed to seeing lives transformed, City of Refuge Calhoun began after the Langstons attended City of Refuge Calhoun’s parent ministry City of Refuge Atlanta for almost two decades.

City of Refuge Calhoun is more than just church; it’s a faith-based environment that helps individuals and families transition out of crisis through the various ministries they offer; a non-denominational ministry aiming to serve the community by spreading the hope of Jesus. Under the direction of pastor and executive director Tim Langston and his wife, Sharon (pictured), along with a corps of volunteers who are committed to seeing lives transformed, City of Refuge Calhoun began after the Langstons attended City of Refuge Calhoun’s parent ministry City of Refuge Atlanta for almost two decades.

“In 1998, I was in the construction business, and I was asked to go on a mission trip to Managua, Nicaragua to build an orphanage. I attended a local church in Calhoun at the time,” said Tim, a lifelong resident of Gordon County. “While on the mission trip, I met Jeff Deel, the brother of City of Refuge Atlanta founder Bruce Deel, and Jeff told me what was happening

on 14th Street in Atlanta at Midtown Mission. I got home and told Sharon about it. We knew there was ministry outside the four walls of the church and had been looking (for an opportunity) to go out and do ministry like Jesus did, ministry with the unchurched. So we drove 72 miles one way to visit this church in Atlanta; we drove 72 miles one way each Sunday for 18 years with our children.”

City of Refuge Atlanta began as a way to address communities in crisis in west Atlanta. Crisis is defined as a time of intense trouble, difficulty or danger, and there were entire communities in the Atlanta area experiencing a time of crisis. In these communities, there were higher rates of crime, drug abuse and homelessness.

Due to decades of neglect, the people in these communities lacked hope or direction for a better future. The traditional efforts used to help these people, the temporary efforts, were unsustainable. City of Refuge has successfully addressed these needs, finding a better way to serve those in crisis and bringing hope to communities in need.

The approach utilizes a safe and secure campus, where City of Refuge Atlanta is able to invite people who are in crisis; the campus has everything needed to address both immediate and long term needs. Immediate needs are met through on-site programs based around food, shelter and healthcare. Long term needs are met through programs centered on education, job training and financial literacy. All of this is done with partnerships throughout the business and education community.

With all needs met under one roof, individuals and families are able to start a journey toward transformation until they are equipped to live independently and whole. Once a person is living an independent and healthy life, they are able to impact their community in positive ways.

The Langston’s experienced these transformations firsthand by serving in the Atlanta ministry for many years.

“We were there during the growth of City of Refuge Atlanta and watched it; as a matter of fact, my dad, my brothers and I built the first walls inside the donated property in Atlanta (for the campus),” said Tim. “We were involved there as much as we could be being 72 miles away. I would travel with Bruce on trips and he knew my heart was for ministry. We went on all kinds of mission trips; we’ve been to Jamaica, to Nicaragua multiple times, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic – through that, we started a school in Santo Domingo that has 250 students in that City of Refuge project.”

After all of those years serving CoR Atlanta, Tim was approached to branch City of Refuge’s mission to another community.

“In 2015, Bruce came to me and said, ‘I really feel like it’s time to plant a church in Calhoun.’ I told him I thought it was a great idea and that he should find someone to do it…but he just kept staring at me,” laughed Tim. “I was not a pastor, but he saw something in me that I didn’t see. He told me to find a building; we found a building, he came up to look at it and said, ‘let’s do it.’ We had our first service on January 6, 2016; the next Sunday was the first Sunday I had ever preached. I had spoken in church prior, but this was my first time preaching. Out of obedience, we were doing what God told us to do, and it’s grown into what it is now.”

What it is now is the location at the Old Piggly Wiggly in Gordon Hills Shopping Center. Located off of South Wall Street at 100 Peters Street in Suite 80 since December 2019, City of Refuge Calhoun began in a much smaller building off of Hwy. 41 South in January 2016.

Both Tim, who owns a trucking company, and Sharon, who works as a nurse in Dalton, serves City of Refuge Calhoun on a strictly voluntary basis.

Since opening the doors in Calhoun, the ministry has helped hundreds of people yearly, either through feeding, helping with transportation, by finding shelter or temporary housing, through monthly outreach events or through the various ministries they offer on their campus.

we’re doing that on a weekly basis. Right now, we’ve got a member of the church that has an apartment at their house. We discovered there was a lady living in an outbuilding behind a residence in the community; she was homeless, it was over 100 degrees in the building with no electricity. She had previously served a prison sentence, and it’s hard for felons to get housing. Our church member’s apartment is a temporary solution; this lady has a job and she’s living in this apartment until she can save up enough money to put a deposit down on a place to rent or an apartment that’s in a decent location.”

“To rent a decent place to live in Calhoun is at least $1,000 a month. We’ve got to find some middle ground for these folks and give them the opportunity to do better (for themselves),” said Sharon. “The lady we helped with the temporary housing, yes, she made mistakes in her life but she paid her dues to society. Can we give her a chance to prove that she can do something different? Right now, if you’re a convicted felon, you cannot rent a place.”

Transitional housing is a grim issue right now for Gordon County, especially when it comes to children. A two-year average for students in transitional housing is 257 students in Gordon County Schools

“We get a phone call at least weekly, if not more, of someone who needs help with a place to live or needs food; somebody who is broken down on the side of the road and needs a ride. We meet as many of those needs as we financially can,” said Sharon Langston.

City of Refuge Calhoun meets so many needs now that other organizations in the area will reach out for help when they have someone in crisis that needs help.

“There’s a huge blind spot where our community is concerned as far as what the needs in this community are,” said Sharon. “We have a huge need in this community that is overlooked; people are comfortable coming to us at this point with those needs because of (ministries like) Celebrate Recovery and because word of mouth has gotten out that we do want to help. We’re not going to judge a person who needs help; we are honest with them and do what we can to be the hands and feet of Jesus.”

Now the ministry has their sights set on helping even more through a ministry for women and children in the community. The group now seeks to begin a campus in Calhoun that would offer transitional housing for women and children.

“Something we do not have in our area is a place for women and children who need a place to stay,” said Sharon. “There is a place for men, but there is nowhere for a mother and her child to go should there be a crisis.”

“The only beds for women and children are the ones we create,” said Tim, “and

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(defined as students and their families either living with other relatives or in local hotels and motels); the two year average for Calhoun City Schools homeless children and youth is 223. These numbers are grim added to the already severe housing shortage being experienced at this time which includes a rental property shortage as well: all of the income-based apartment housing in Gordon County has at least a one-year wait list at this time; some up to three years.

Right now, City of Refuge Calhoun is looking for a property that is conveniently located to healthcare, shopping and schools to place the transitional housing they are planning.

“At this time, we’re casting the vision and we’re developing the Change Champion network,” said Gass.

The Change Champion Network will be comprised of people who want to be partners in the vision of the project and strengthen the community.

“We want to do the transitional housing, do it really well and see what opportunities and doors God opens from that,” said Tim. “We have all the resources of City of Refuge Atlanta at our fingertips; while they are not located in this community, people can be served there. We have addiction recovery services if addiction is a problem.”

City of Refuge Calhoun is also looking for more ways to collaborate with other churches and organizations to help more people in crisis.

“We want to be able to collaborate with anyone, or any local church or organization,” said Sharon. “If there are other churches that have someone in crisis and needs us to help, we don’t mind helping at all. What I would like to see is for more resources to meet these needs. We see a lot of people in crisis. But we get a front row seat for the blessing from the resolution to that crisis. I am so blessed that I get to see this happen. I’m just trying to be what Jesus told me to be.”

“They’ve blessed me,” said Maia White, who was integral to establishing the Celebrate Recovery program at CoR Calhoun in early 2019. White, who overcame a years-long addiction to drugs in January 2013, began attending Celebrate Recovery at another church, completing the program in April 2018. It helped her so much, she helped plan and implement the Celebrate Recovery program at COR Calhoun and was tasked with leading that program for women.

“I’m a convicted felon. And (City of Refuge) has entrusted me to be a ministry leader,” said White. “A lot of people would look at my past and call me trash, but the Langston’s didn’t; they gave me a chance and I’ve been able to thrive through the opportunity that they gave me and I’m very grateful for that.”

“Maia blesses us on a regular basis,” said Sharon. “There are a lot of days that just her smile and personality makes my day better. By her being her, it blesses me. It is really cool how God works it all out if you just let Him.”

White’s testimony is just one of many success stories from City of Refuge Calhoun.

“It fills a need in our community, and that’s our goal…to fill gaps that others are not filling,” said Tim. “We want to bring light, hope and transformation to the people of Gordon County. We are doing the things that a lot others either don’t have the capacity to handle or don’t have the experience to handle.”

City of Refuge Calhoun offers Sunday School on Sunday mornings at 9:45 a.m.; Sunday worship service is held at 10:45 a.m. There is a Wednesday night Youth Group service at 6 p.m., and many of the youth that attend are members of other local churches. Celebrate Recovery, a Christ-centered 12-step program designed to facilitate recovery from a wide variety of troubling behavior patterns including but not exclusive to anxiety, emotional or sexual abuse, depression, job loss, faith doubts, family problems, perfectionism, co-dependency, compulsive behaviors, various addictions, financial dysfunction and eating disorders, is held every Tuesday night at 7 p.m.. Ladies ministries are held the first Saturday of the month; Men’s ministries are held the third Saturday of the month. Most months see a special community outreach event; the next one will be held Saturday, Sept. 11 at BB&T Park in downtown Calhoun immediately following that morning’s Patriot Day Parade. ‘Together We Stand’ will offer music, food, fun and fellowship to the public and free of charge. City of Refuge Calhoun also offers a nursing home ministry, counseling and community service.

Everything accomplished by CoR-Calhoun is due to the dedication of the volunteers at the church. Anyone in the community is invited to join in on any of the services, ministries or events offered.

“God has given us an incredible team of volunteers,” said Sharon. “Although we’re a small team and it’s all volunteer-based, we accomplish a lot.”

Don’t miss next week’s feature on City of Refuge Calhoun’s Celebrate Recovery ministry.