Absolute Ministries is a re-entry alternative providing post-graduation transitional housing for your TC students.
After entering Seattle Metro Teen Challenge in 2003 for a cocaine and alcohol addiction, I completed my 13 month program with new life in JESUS CHRIST. God truly met me at Teen Challenge. I’ll be forever grateful. I go back and visit often. After my completion, I became an intern for a year. Then following that, I was a staff member for two years with some school and a church internship peppered throughout. I began to see a pattern with men that I had become close to and cared about in the program. They came into Teen Challenge and did AMAZING. They completed and walked out the door of the program with the very best of intentions, planning to “conquer their world”. Sometimes only to discover that they’re not meant to do it alone. Sometimes they called back months if not weeks later to describe how they did not know what had happened.
They had all their “ducks in a row” prior to completion. They were lined up with a job and were planning on just spending just a few short weeks on moms couch before getting an apartment and living the good life. Then the phone call came in some time later. Tears, heartfelt…slobbering… tears… “I really wanted to do this right. I know I’m not destined for failure but I feel like it right now. What should I do?”
At the end of my two year commitment as a staff member I had recently gotten married. My wife and I were getting ready to move into our newly acquired house. The LORD moved in my heart to begin housing & mentoring those men that would otherwise fall through the “cracks” after their completion. My wife and I garnered the support of a well-crafted board of directors and filed for non-profit status in 2009. We moved into a local apartment and began putting guys in our nearby house. My wife worked full time at a local doctor’s office and I picked up part time work while getting ABSOLUTE up and running. We didn’t receive any compensation from ABSOLUTE until January of 2013. We were ALL IN.
Inside the walls of any inpatient program there is a massive amount of structure put on an individual. It is a good and necessary thing. But if an individual doesn’t internalize any of that structure and create some “self-structure” or “self-discipline”, among other things, then they are destined to struggle upon completion. They have lived in a structured bubble, gotten clean, enacted some work ethic, and learned some of the WORD. Now they need to live life. The gap between inpatient and successful Godly living is a massive one. We aim to bridge this gap.
We have had dozens and dozens of individuals through our program. At ABSOLUTE, our team does life alongside guys (soon to be a women’s campus also) that have COMPLETED any inpatient program and want to follow Jesus. We are pretty relaxed. We provide housing, one on one mentoring, job placement, resume assistance, a very practical discipleship course, vehicle use with gas & insurance, UGLY Honesty (accountability), classes with curriculum, church placement help, financial framework with guidance, internet & computer access, utilities & HD TV with Xbox on a 96” screen plus much more. This is all included with affordable monthly tuition.
We see ourselves as an investment, just like college. You don’t go to college and expect to find your career on campus. You go there to implement what you learned in high-school and further educate yourself, securing your future. Thus setting you up for success in the big picture of life. People shouldn’t complete inpatient and think they’ve arrived at a destination. They’ve only just begun the incredible journey. We are a place where people can do life as a JESUS follower, while at the same time having that limited guidance, support, and necessary community that we ALL need.
Click here for a printable ABSOLUTE program overview
We are proud and honored to be partnered with Teen Challenge USA and are extremely thankful for their endorsement as well as the united collaboration with the Pacific Northwest Adult & Teen Challenge programs and administration. We may meet and serve people at different points in their life but our goal is the same: To see men and women free from addiction while living a full, satisfied, and purposeful life through JESUS CHRIST.
I look forward to hearing from you.
GOD BLESS YOU TODAY,
Cameron Birk
President & Founder
ABSOLUTE Ministries
877.306.5799
www.absoluteministries.org
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