Rebuilding Life After Addiction

You did the hardest thing already. You got clean. Then comes the part that rarely gets talked about: the debt, the wrecked credit, the bills you can't look at. I sat down with my friend Jacob Dobscha, a business insurance agent with LD&B Insurance in Harrisonburg, Virginia, to lay out exactly how you dig out. Not theory. A plan you can start the week you get home. We cover the whole thing...

Relapse almost never starts with the drug. It starts long before that, in the warning signs most people miss. I've known Nathaniel Gray since 2008. Back then he was coming out of an active heroin addiction with a stack of charges, and he couldn't read. A man in his cell wrote his letter into the program for him. A pastor he'd never met stood up in court and said God sent him there f...

We set up to sell furniture and ended up recording one of the most honest conversations we've had in a while. No studio, no stage, just three of us on the floor of an empty garage at The Table 61 in Harrisonburg, Virginia. It started with one question. What if the crushing is the blessing? From there we got into the olive press, the wine that has to age, and why Jesus wasn't in a hurry t...

Three and a half years sober. Gone in 30 days. Everybody assumes relapse starts with the drug. A trigger. A craving. A bad day you couldn't beat. It didn't. In this clip, Rocco says it straight. He stopped staying plugged in. The church family, the brothers, the community God built around him. He let it drift. Work got busy. Bible study got skipped. The relapse was already happening mont...

Ashley and I sat down during a rainy work day at the center to talk honestly about where things stand with the ministry, the building, and this next season.  Support the 6043 Broad project: https://svtc.info/6043-broad  For the first time in ministry, I don't have a clean five-year plan. We thought we were coming back to restart the residential program. That didn't happen the way we expe...

In February 2025, historic flooding tore through McDowell County, West Virginia. Sandy's basement filled with five feet of water. Her daughter lost everything. The food pantry she had been running for nearly a decade was destroyed. And while her own home was still under water, Sandy helped coordinate over 50,000 hot meals for her neighbors. That sentence alone tells you most of what you need...

He watched God work what felt like miracle after miracle in the NICU. And then, the moment he crossed back home, everything unraveled. Jeremy puts words to a moment many people recognize but rarely admit: the split second where faith feels distant and the old escape routes feel close again. We talk with Jeremy about the grief of losing his infant daughter, the slow drift from trying to cope into p...

Yes, his name is Bill Gates. No, not that one. This Bill is from Boston originally, lives in Port Saint Lucie, Florida now, and spent twenty years of his life absolutely convinced there was no God. Then life fell apart. A divorce he didn't want. A rebound relationship that broke his heart. Friends who kept inviting him to church week after week, and his answer was always the same. Whatever th...

Jeff Arp serves as Vice President of US Operations and Training for Living Free. He gave his life to Jesus at four years old. He went through Bible college and seminary. He pastored for twenty years. And for most of that time, he looked at addiction the same way a lot of church people still do. If you have a problem, just stop. Just say no. Then he started working with Living Free, and the whole f...

In McDowell County, WV, a little girl hides her food kits under the porch so her mom won't find them when she's sober. That's the world Pastor George works in. Bail bondsman, biker church pastor, and missionary to the communities everyone else forgot.  This week on Rebuilding Life After Addiction, I sit down with Pastor George. He pastors Home Church in Dayton, VA, a church built fo...

Sometimes momentum matters more than order. I'm at the 6043 Broad Street chapel working on the renovation, and I wanted to talk about why visible progress, even small and out of sequence, keeps you from stalling out. The sober living home page has been up for three days and we've already gotten calls. Monday the painter arrives. And today, I mulched the flower beds before the building ev...

We recorded this from the empty chapel at Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge. No students, no program, just an honest conversation about what's next. The ministry isn't closing. We're relaying the foundation and building something that serves the community differently. Full show notes and transcript: https://svtc.info /podcast/were-not-closing-were-relaying-the-foundation/ 🎙️ Host: Ju...

How do you honor the past without getting stuck in it? Sitting in an empty ministry building after sixteen years, Justin wrestles with gratitude, nostalgia, and the fear that the best days are behind him. Full show notes and transcript: https://svtc.info /podcast/what-i-m-learning-about-letting-go-and-what-you-might-need-to-hear 🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen...

What if the story you tell about yourself is the very thing holding you back? We sit down with Aaron Gordon—raised in DC during its most violent years, humbled at West Point, and now a leader, speaker, and unexpected children’s author—to unpack how identity gets built, broken, and rebuilt on a truer foundation. Aaron shares candid moments from pickup games on concrete to a chlorine-stung locker ro...

We share why we’re selling our long-time building and returning to a community-based model to reach more people with sustainable recovery. The mission stays the same—help a few people rebuild their lives with Christ-centered hope—while the methods shift to meet real needs. Full show notes and transcript: https://svtc.info/podcast/going-back-to-where-we-started-the-future-of-svtc-in-2026 🎙️ Host: J...

What if the first year after quitting isn’t about grit, but grace? We sit down with Matt to unpack the overlooked stretch between an altar moment and a polished testimony, and what actually turns survival into freedom. Full show notes and transcript: https://justinfranich.com/podcast/why-sobriety-didn-t-save-me-but-jesus-did 🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Chal...

A single moment can open a door you never meant to walk through. For one of us, it started at age seven with a neighbor’s video and grew into years of replayed images, false hope, and a mind trained to spiral. The story we share isn’t neat or sanitized; it’s a ground-level tour of addiction’s mechanics and the way faith, fasting, and Scripture can turn the tide. We dig into the spiritual side of l...

Ever notice how “peace” feels great until life gets loud? We go straight at the counterfeit calm that fades with circumstances and unpack the kind of peace that guards your heart and mind when the storm won’t quit. Full show notes and transcript: https://justinfranich.com/podcast/why-sobriety-isn-t-the-same-as-peace 🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge 🌐...

Most men don’t fall back because they’re weak; they fall back because stepping into a new identity feels risky. Full show notes and transcript: https://justinfranich.com/podcast/the-real-reason-men-self-sabotage-in-sobriety 🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge 🌐 Full episodes + resources: https://svtc.info/podcast 📖 Faith-based recovery guides: https://s...

If you’ve ever stared at the mess of your life and wondered whether anything good could grow from it, Justin’s story will meet you there. Full show notes and transcript: https://justinfranich.com/podcast/im-finally-sharing-my-story-20-years-after-meth-addiction 🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge 🌐 Full episodes + resources: https://svtc.info/podcast 📖...

Boundaries don’t have to feel like a trap. They can be a bridge back to trust, dignity, and peace when a loved one returns home from a recovery program. We get honest about how to welcome someone back without sliding into control, enabling, or constant conflict—and we offer a practical framework you can put on paper tonight. 🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Chal...

We share how early recovery can hurt more than addiction and why that pain signals healing instead of failure. We move from seeing rehab as punishment to recognizing God’s rescue, and we offer three truths that kept us from quitting. • early sobriety feeling harder than addiction • grief over losing old friends and routines • inner surgery on shame, lies and unforgiveness • shifting from punishmen...

What if the real battle in the Prodigal story isn’t the wild run away from home, but the quiet resentment that grows in the one who stayed? Full show notes and transcript: https://justinfranich.com/podcast/the-secret-pain-of-the-good-christian 🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge 🌐 Full episodes + resources: https://svtc.info/podcast 📖 Faith-based recove...

Your kids don’t need a perfect dad. They need a present one. 🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge 🌐 Full episodes + resources: https://svtc.info/podcast 📖 Faith-based recovery guides: https://svtc.info 🙏 Support this ministry: https://svtc.info/donate 📞 Need help? Call us: 540-213-0571

Exhaustion isn’t a virtue meter; it’s a warning light. When recovery starts to feel like spiritual probation—constant meetings, perfect prayers, spotless days—you might be trapped in a quiet negotiation to pay God back. Full show notes and transcript: https://justinfranich.com/podcast/how-to-feel-forgiven-when-you-dont-feel-forgiven 🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley T...