Center gives addicts a new beginning

BASKETS OF HOPE- Members of the Women's Ministry of St. Paul Lutheran Church show off gift baskets they created for women who seek help from New Beginnings Recovery Home. The home offers help and support to those who have had problems with drugs or alcohol. "What woman doesn't like a pretty package filled with new stuff?" That's what Judy Bader, family life ministry director for St Paul Lutheran Church, thought when she organized the latest women's ministry event on June 22, making care packages for New Beginnings Recovery Homes, a nonprofit organization for women and men providing a sober living environment.

It looked like the holidays had arrived early when the women finished wrapping the packages that held donations of toiletries, linens, towels, make-up and kitchenware, wrapped up beautifully and topped with a bow. Now the women of New Beginnings had some basic necessities to make their new beginnings.

Parishioner Justine Ayers brought New Beginnings to the attention of St. Paul church members. At New Beginnings, those who display dysfunctional behaviors such as substance abuse, domestic violence and criminality are allowed entry to their residential facility when they are ready to get their lives together.

Started in 2000 by Robert and Bryan Romero, New Beginnings has been helping men and women, housed in separate facilities, through residential living with other recovering addicts and those trying to work back into the mainstream.

To enter the facility, participants must have been clean for at least 10 days as verified through testing and be ready to change. There are rules to follow, curfews to be met, and meetings to attend. Participants must be willing to do something for themselves such as hold a job or go to school.

As Ayers said after taking members on an outing, "It's about showing people other ways of using their time."

Sara, one of the New Beginnings residents, joined the women at the women's ministry event, along with her stepmother, and told her story.

Sara, 31, first drank until she blacked out at 15. She left alcohol alone until her junior year when her mother got cancer. That, mixed with the anxiety of hitting the senior year of high school, Sara started feeling nervous and self-conscious. She also started taking diet pills on the recommendation of a friend.

The diet pills made her paranoid and more self-conscious, so she added dieting and Herbalife to her weight loss regime. Her boyfriend of the time wanted her only for her thin body. Needing to step up the weight loss, she turned to speed.

She found speed an "ugly high," but she did it on and off for a few weeks until she tried to commit suicide, only stopped by the thoughts of her little stepsister and "what if I leave her." These suicidal thoughts put her in the hospital behavioral unit.

Sara began putting on weight. She also shared information of being molested when she was younger and her mother telling her if she didn't retract what she said, she could never come home. Since she refused to take back her statements, she went to live with her father and then later with a friend's family who helped her through her senior year.

After graduation, Sara briefly attended college, tried to hold a job, but couldn't find anything she "loved enough." She fell apart, moved in with her dad again, and really started using drugs. This was to be the pattern for the next 10 years.

Living with a friend who wanted to help, Sara was on three years probation for possession of drugs with felony charges. One day she got scared, "I came to a point that I knew was dead." She had been through many programs before but was always resisting.

She had even tried New Beginnings once for a month, but she wasn't ready. She tried again but she drank a few mini-bottles at the market on the way there and was turned away at the Home.

One day her friend dropped her off again at New Beginnings and when she thought about turning back, he dumped her belongings off in front of the building and drove away. Sara was stuck and had to deal with it. It was time for change.

Sara has now been sober since April 2. She still thinks about using, but she doesn't. She knows she is the one in control now, with help from the caring staff at New Beginnings.

New Beginnings is at 6513 Winnetka Ave., Winnetka, (562) 896-3469.

St. Paul Lutheran Church is at 30600 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Agoura Hills. For information, call (818) 889-1620 or visit the website at www.stpaulagoura.com.