I went to my first AA meeting in 1978.  

I was 12 years old.  I was rebellious, angry and felt so alone.  Why?  I longed for love, real love.  My family was torn apart by tragic loss and I had no father.  I was physically and sexually abused.  As a teenager, the bridge to recovery was out for years to come.  In trouble with the law, I was sent to a reform school for juvenile delinquents, yet somehow managed to be voted "Most likely to succeed" by my graduating class of 1984.   I went to Bradley University, started a professional modeling career, was Pledge Class President of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity and became the lead-singer for the heavy metal band Midnite Angel.  Many thought I was so successful in my early twenties.  But, it was all smoke & mirrors.  Actually, I was running from God, who I blamed for very painful childhood memories.  Drugs and alcohol became a solution to heal my pain.  But, there was never enough!

 

I chased the high life, buying businesses and rental properties and partying everyday like a Rockstar.  That lifestyle was short-lived and only resulted in a full-blown cocaine addiction that led to  becoming a notorious drug smuggler spending years in the Federal Penitentiary.  Families were destroyed!  I've done hard time in 9 states.  I've spent months in solitary confinement.  Finally sober in prison in 1990, I carried a message of hope to any that would hear.  For years to come, my motto became,

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"If God can do this for me, He can do it for anyone!" 

 

I was released from prison in 1994, and God fully restored my life and family.  Now free, I began to carry that same message of hope anywhere & everywhere I could.  Along with my lifelong friend and fellow addict Steve, God used us to begin a weekly meeting that quickly grew to become a global addictions outreach program.  Over the next few years, together we traveled, started meetings and watched as lives were changed.  Treatment centers and sober living houses were put in place.  As the years passed, God blessed me to help many, many others to be drug & alcohol free.  Although, Steve has since passed and I no longer am involved, that message of hope in Reformers Unanimous is still carried weekly all over the world.

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Some would say I had the dream life - until I didn't.  A simple, innocent thought that after all these years, I could have just one - slowly eroded the moral fabric of my existence.  It started with just one drink at dinner.  Soon - I lost everything.  After 24 years of marriage, with three wonderful children and plans of retirement playing with grand-kids, once again my world fell apart.  Full of fear and pain in 2017, I was desperately strangled by the grips of addiction and suicide seemed the only solution.  I tried and failed and ended up in a psychiatric hospital.  But when I got out, the pain only increased and so I tried everyday to consume as much drugs and alcohol as possible with the hope to never wake up.  I wrote suicide letters.  I planned my funeral.  I was sick.  I was very sick and wanted to die.  Months passed but death never came.  With the help of friends & family, I was admitted to detox, released to residential treatment and then welcomed to my new home at Clubhouse Sober Living.  Once again, sober & free!!  That's been a little more than a year ago.  What I thought had destroyed my life, has once again proved to be the loving hand of God reaching out to give me hope and a vision to passionately help many others in recovery today!

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If you or someone you know needs sober living, 

 

Please reach out today. 

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What God has given me, I wish everyone could have.  My passion in life is very simple:  honor God & help others.  That does not make me perfect, nor my life.  There's so much more that I pray for and trust God for daily.  But, it certainly does mean that I'm on the right path and I'm making progress.  Today, I have peace knowing I'm where I'm supposed to be.  That's what I wish for others, more than anything.  It's peace!  I pray you find it today.  If I can help you or someone you know, just reach out today.  God bless, Tim