Celebrate Recovery helps heal hurts, habits, hang-ups

Celebrate Recovery is a Biblically-based support program for anyone who is hurting. It is for those fighting any type of addiction (drugs, alcohol, gambling, porn, etc.), but it’s also for people who are struggling with the addictions of others close to them. It is for people who have eating disorders, have been sexually abused, or experience depression.

The group’s mantra is: “Freedom from your hurts, habits and hang-ups.”

Celebrate Recovery meets every Thursday evening for about two hours, starting at 6:30, in the Youth Center at the Mt. Olive First Pentecostal Holiness Church at 130 Ed Edmundson Road. The program is free and childcare if provided.

“We’re here to support people and help people,” says Tony Sasser, who, with his wife, Sandy, facilitates the program. “Sometimes we laugh with people, we cry with people, we hug people, but we just really want to show them the love of God.

“People have a tendency to put on a happy face for other people,” he continues. “And at the same time, we could be hurting deep down inside, so we want people to know that we love them and we’re here to help you the best we can.”

Celebrate Recovery is a 12-step program based on Biblical teachings. A complete list of the 12 steps can be found at www.celebraterecovery.com. Generally, the steps involve recognizing and admitting one’s “shortcomings,” “defects of character” and the “wrongs” one has committed, and the need for a reliance on God to effectively combat these issues.

Further, the program is structured around eight principals that are based on the Beatitudes, from the book of Matthew, Chapter 5.

Despite being a Biblically-based program, Tony Sasser emphasizes that you do not have to be a Christian to participate. “We welcome all people, everyone, Christian and non-Christian. We do not discriminate against anyone. It doesn’t matter, they’re more than welcome to walk through the doors anytime they want to.”

He notes that some people attend because they’ve been ordered by a court to do so, saying, “We’re here for them, too.”

The program is structured such that it alternates Thursdays between “lesson nights” and “testimony nights.”

The group follows a 25-lesson plan, which, because lessons are taught every other week, takes a year to complete.

Following a session in which a lesson is presented, men and women then meet separately, where they have an opportunity to talk amongst themselves. “People just kind of talk about some issues that are going on in their life if they would like to,” says Tony Sasser. He stresses that no one is forced to speak up if they’d rather not. “We do have people come that may come three or four times and not say a word. Then, eventually, when they find out that everybody goes through stuff and we all may have the same similar things that happen to us in life, then they’ll kind of start.”

He points out that anonymity is emphasized. “Who you see here, what you hear in this place, stays here, because we don’t have no right to tell someone else’s story. That’s up to them to tell their own story.”

On “testimony nights,” someone who has already been through the Celebrate Recovery program is invited to speak. One recent Thursday, Jeff Mobley of Beulaville, shared his testimony, recalling his own struggle with alcohol and drugs. “It’s only by His grace that I’m still alive” he insists. “On June 28, 1998, I met the Lord. Joy and peace filled me.”

At the age of 35, Mobley learned that he had been adopted when he was 18 months old. Despite being raised in a loving home, he still battled the feeling of rejection that came with being given up by his birth mother. Celebrate Recovery, which he’s been involved with for 15 years, helped him cope with this feeling. He admits, though, that the work is never done. “There are still things in my life I need to line up…I’m still striving. I try to read the Word every day. I listen to worship music. I try to stay focused on what I perceive to be good.”

Another person in attendance the evening Mobley gave his testimony was Angie Baumann, whose own testimony shows up in the work she does every Thursday night at Celebrate Recovery, running the sound/video board. “I’m 11 years clean and sober because of this program.”

No one claims the program is easy. Tony Sasser notes that people sometimes want to give up on themselves because of their past. But, he reminds those at the meeting, “You’re more good than you are bad.

And, he insists, “This program will help you if you want to help yourself…We’ve seen some dramatic changes in people’s lives.”

For more information about Celebrate Recovery, call the Mount Olive First Pentecostal Holiness Church at 919-658-5122.