From Drug Dealer to Ministry Leader | Jordan Wilson

What happens when a young man from a Christian family becomes addicted to pain pills, starts manufacturing synthetic drugs, gets arrested, loses everything, and ends up sitting in jail with no hope?

In this episode of Never Alone Live, Jordan Wilson shares his incredible journey from addiction, methamphetamine use, drug dealing, incarceration, and repeated relapses to faith, recovery, purpose, and ministry.

Jordan opens up about how a sports injury led to opioid addiction, the progression into methamphetamine use, selling synthetic drugs, and the police raid that changed the trajectory of his life. He also shares the powerful story of his mother's prayers and fasting, the moment he surrendered his life to Christ on Easter Sunday, and how everything changed from there.

Today, Jordan serves as Executive Director of Friends of Sinners, a Christ-centered residential recovery program helping men and women find freedom from addiction. He is also the author of Jesus Is Greater Than Drugs and How To Save A Drug Addict, founder of FaithFluence, and a social media creator reaching millions with messages of faith and recovery.

No matter how far gone you think you are, recovery is possible and hope is real.

#JordanWilson #FaithFluence #FriendsOfSinners #NeverAloneRecovery #NeverAloneLive #AddictionRecovery #RecoveryPodcast #FaithBasedRecovery #JesusIsGreaterThanDrugs #RecoveryJourney #Sobriety #MethRecovery #OpioidRecovery #ChristianTestimony #RedemptionStory #RecoveryCommunity #MentalHealth #HopeAfterAddiction #FaithAndRecovery #ChristianInfluencer #Christianpodcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Welcome, welcome, welcome, everyone to Never Alone Live. Oh, that was a cool sound for my for that. Never alone live. I sounded like we were uh starting a wrestling uh match. Uh I am Johnny, and as always, we have Krista the sober Barbie, and today we are very excited, very excited. We are starting a new month, June 2026. We are gonna be talking all about faith and recovery. Um, which is uh a couple months ago we talked all about Matt, which is medically assisted treatment. And you know, we talk about we talk about all things recovery around here, but you know, uh we have a very special guest, uh Jordan Wilson, our friend Jordan Wilson. Jordan, uh, how are you doing today, my brother?

SPEAKER_03 0:56

Man, I'm blessed. I'm I'm sitting in sunny California, and I can't complain.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

You can't complain at all. Uh well I met you at uh Faith Fluence, which is an event that you put on, and it is uh it was what a month, a month and a half ago, and I drove uh four and a half hours. And my friend Brandy, who probably will be in here, she uh she said, Johnny, you gotta come down to this. And I just got in the car and went down. God uh God said, Johnny, you're going. Um, so uh, you know, I got to meet you and uh and your wife. Your wife is uh so awesome. And let's uh but let's learn about Jordan. Who is Jordan? What should we know?

SPEAKER_03 1:38

Yeah, so um 38 years old, uh living in Owensboro, Kentucky, as the executive director of Friends of Centers, which is a uh uh Christ-centered residential substance abuse recovery program. Uh, I believe in the work that we do. We're um we're not like other programs. We uh we're totally self-sustained, we're privately ran. Uh, we don't bill insurance. Um we our goal is to introduce our clients to Jesus, and we believe that sobriety is a byproduct of that. Uh, but I've published two books. My first book is Jesus is greater than drugs. That's my story. Uh as real and as raw as it gets. Um and then I published the second book called Uh How to Save a Drug Addict. And that's more in the lines of um, I mean, it's I I want it to be you know entertaining, but it's a it's a self-help book kind of. It's really for you know, moms and dads and brothers and sisters and wives and husbands who love someone and have no clue how to help them. So from what I've been through and what from what I've learned over the last 10 years, uh it's just to help it's just to help the reader understand an addict and how to help them effectively. Uh, father, husband, I've got two young kids. Uh, I do a ton of speaking engagements uh where I travel and share my story. My wife and I founded a ministry called Jesus Ministries, it's a nonprofit that enables me to travel and speak. And uh, we've also been sending my book, my first book, to prisons all around the globe. So, short little bio.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

So let's uh let's get into let's get into the recovery aspect for a minute, if we can. Uh, how long have you been sober? Over 10 years now. Over 10 years now. What date? What date? What's your sobriety date? March 27, 2016 is my sobriety date. March 27th, 2016. So you just celebrated 10 years, guys, because Krista has 10 years and she'll be 11 years in a few months here. That's awesome. So let's uh let's learn about, you know, let's go back to you know how was your childhood? How were you brought up? Where were you brought up?

SPEAKER_03 3:49

Where are you from? I'm from Madisonville, Kentucky, right? So about an hour outside of Owensboro. Um, and I was raised in a good Christian household, man. I uh I cannot blame my addiction and my choices on my family or my upbringing whatsoever. My parents were married up until I was, you know, in high school. Um, and they had me and my older brother in church and sports. And, you know, I had a, you know, a great, a great upbringing, you know, uh, and had the world in front of me, man. I uh had a full ride to college and I didn't start doing drugs until um, I mean, I dabbled when I was a teenager, you know, with alcohol and marijuana and partying, but uh I got addicted to painkillers uh when I was about 21 years old, 22 years old. And it really kind of started with a knee injury. Uh I've always lifted weights and I tore my ACL at the gym, right? And um the doctor prescribed me Laura tabs, and I'd already been dabbling with LauraTabs, you know, like I would take two or three and feel excellent at work, and I had energy at work. And then when the doctor wrote me my own prescription, you know, it was game over. I started doing three at a time and then four at a time. And not only would they take the pain from my knee away, it gave me all this energy and I was in a good mood. And then when my script wouldn't run out, I already had connections and could get more and was doing them daily for about six months until uh the script ran out and I hadn't had any, and I experienced opiate withdrawal for the first time. And it was a feeling that I never wanted to experience again. So I was like, hey, I'm I'm gonna avoid this at all costs. And uh started doing painkillers uh around the clock. Uh and you know, that escalated to to where I was taking 20 loritabs a day, and then I was advancing to percocets and then uh going to patches and just any kind of opiate that I could get. Um and then it led to methamphetamine, right? Because that was always a drug that I thought, man, I would never do that drug, right? Like I'll smoke weed, I'll I'll do anabolic steroids, I'll drink, I'll uh I'll trip acid, I'll do all this stuff, but I'm not touching meth, you know. And then, you know, as you just lower the standard in life. And uh the first time I tried meth, that was it, man. That was like my new thing, and I started doing that all the time, and that's that's what got me started.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Excuse me, that's wild, you know. Um, you know, the progressiveness of the disease, right? We talk about this all the time and how we lie to ourselves and we make rules for ourselves. As long as I'm not doing this, I'm fine, you know, as long as these rules, they just get they just go, you know, by the wayside as we go along. As the progression goes down, so do our morals and our ethics and our our personal philosophies and how we're supposed to live life, you know. Uh, Krista, well, you know about this. You know about this. You you never made any rules for yourself to break them.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Um, I feel like they call it they call it reservations, really, right? Like you you're gonna just uh you're gonna well you're trying to control it, and it when you try to control something, it's already got control over you, you know. When I heard that, that changed a lot.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

That's a big one. When I can try say that again, when I try to control something, it's already got control over me.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

I try to control alcohol, and it already controlled me.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

And I'm gonna jump over into the comments real quick. Our friend Brandy, Dandy, Dandy, Brandy. I told you she was gonna be here. Brandy is our friend from Owensboro. She is a uh preacher at a church there, and she's the one who invited me down to Faith Fluence, where and and she ran me up to you, and she says, she said, Johnny, you gotta meet Jordan. That was that that might be a perfect uh impersonation, by the way. Uh uh okay, so so you're you're you started on pills and that progressed to neth and dude, that's happening all over the place now. And I know that you are you're in the trenches, and with uh there's so many fake pills out nowadays. Kids who are taking Adderall thinking that they're just gonna be, you know, taking Adderall so they can study longer, are getting, you know, hooked on fentanyl. They don't even know it because these fake pills that are out there. But I digress. I want to get back into the Jordan story. Um, all right, so you got hooked on on you went from pills to meth. And where did that take you? Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

So um I was um I couldn't keep a job because of my addiction, right? And so I uh I started full-time drug dealing. I uh manufactured uh relatively new drug at the time called Spice. Uh we would make 10 pounds every two weeks at my house, and uh that was my life. I sold spot, I made and sold spice. Uh and I saw a girl who sold meth, right? Like we were seeing each other, and um, I mean, I was just staying up for days on end, not eating, right? And of course, I graduated from Suboxing from um painkillers to suboxing, right? Like, so in between the meth, you know, I got on Suboxing and I thought I was getting my life back and I felt good about it, and then I got bored, right? And and started doing the meth, you know, and so my life is just unmanageable. And uh I'm just miserable at this point in my life. Like, you know, I I do my Suboxing every day. I'm selling drugs all day, um, starting to shoot up meth. And stuff's, you know, when you do that, it's stuff's getting weird, right? Like I don't know exactly what's going on in my life. I don't know these people that are coming into my house, and I don't I'm just confused all the time. I feel lost all the time, I feel depressed, and um and it all kind of came to a halt when uh police squad busted down my door and uh raided my house. That's uh that was the starting point to my road to recovery.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Okay, so I'm gonna jump over to the comments because Tracy says, What is spice?

SPEAKER_03 10:14

Yeah, well, spice is also known as K2. Um, but it was created, I don't know, maybe 20 years ago, um, to be a synthetic cannabis, right? Like people could smoke it, you could buy it at the sex shops and at the hemp stores or whatever you call it. And uh it was supposed to give you a marijuana bust, and you could pass a drug test. So everybody was into it. Um, and then over time it got banned, and then it got stronger. And so it's chemicals, it's it's absolute chemicals, there's nothing natural about it. Um, and uh it's it's a chemical that you don't even know um what is doing long term, but uh it there's a euphoria to it, there's a mental high to it, and uh it got stronger to it to where it was like uh an addictive acid, is is really kind of what it became.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Wow, okay, so an addictive acid.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

We did the podcast yesterday, and the gentleman that was what he his thing was, Mr. Nice Guy, wasn't that what it was called?

SPEAKER_01 11:17

No more Mr. Nice Guy.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

It's wild.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Okay, so thank you, Tracy. Thank you for the question. Um, and okay, so now you're you're started with pills, you're on meth, you're trying to get off meth with Suboxing, then you go back, and then you're on spice, you're doing all this stuff. I gotta ask you, and coming from a Christian family, you know, where was your family in all this?

SPEAKER_03 11:46

They, you know, they were just praying from from the sidelines, they had no clue how to help me. I was the only person in the family who dealt with this. You know, my family, I come from a working class, man. My mom sold houses. My dad was a coal miner who um who got hurt in the mines and then went to back to school and became a physical therapist. Uh, my brother was a coal miner, you know, like everybody in my family, they worked and they went to church and they had no clue how to help me, right? Um, and so my mom she brought bought a uh celebrate recovery Bible and started attending a celebrate recovery, and I didn't even know it because she wanted to understand what made me tick, right? Like, what's his problem? How come he can't stop? Um, and so they they just again they just didn't know how to help. And you know, uh, I'd never been to rehab uh before I got busted. You know, I didn't even know how to how to get into rehab, like where is a rehab? What is a rehab? Um, and so yeah, they were just kind of praying on the sidelines.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Okay, so so you're so the place got busted, and you got a raid. And what happened then? Did you spend time in jail?

SPEAKER_03 12:51

Yeah, I was in jail for three months. Uh my charges were trafficking and synthetic drugs and possession of anabolic steroids because even though I was I was doing all the drugs, I was still working out. Try I was working out and trying to build muscle while I was losing all this weight. It was miserable. But anyway, they found some steroids in my house. And so thankfully, back then, this was 2000 and I guess 14. Um, though those were both class A misdemeanors. I think the charges are a little bit higher now of trafficking uh and synthetics. But uh, so I had to serve three months in jail, and then I was um when I got out, I was released to Friends of Sinners in Owensboro, Kentucky, where I'm now the executive director from.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Okay, so so another you got you got so very in jail.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

Yeah, which was terrible, right? Like that was uh the worst place in the world to detox, right? You're miserable, you want to look tough, you can't look tough, you stay in the shower, it's just so bad.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Yeah, there's a you know, and I I mean I like we when we ask these questions, you know, it's always we never we're always uh in in you know we we don't compare, right? You know, but if for your story, it's uh it's very much like Krista and I, who we both got sober in jail too. Our friend Brandy, she saw she found Jesus in jail. And uh Chris, Krista, go tell Jordan about yours. He's gonna be well.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Your your story is just so already so relatable because I come from a family just like that. They didn't know how to help me. Um, and I didn't know anybody sober, I didn't know about AA, I didn't know how to get into any kind of recovery. And I ended up in jail facing 20 years, and that was like my only option to like get out of that charge. And Google wasn't really a good helpful tool back then in 2015, and that was zero illicit fentanyl was taking the streets, and my mom just didn't know what to do. And I I I wish we all knew about celebrate recovery back then because my mom would have jumped headfirst in that. And I work a faith centered 12-step program now, and there's a lot of mamas who like they're not addicts themselves, but they have kids who are struggling that are in this program and getting healing from the hurts and the hangups and all that. So um that's powerful. That like she was going the right direction to try to help you, you know. And um it's just it's already so relatable.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

Yeah, I think my mom's prayer is what saved my life. Um, you know, I uh after I got out of jail and went to rehab, I didn't want to change, right? And so I I didn't make it through the Friends and Centers program. Uh I was in there for four months, it's a 12-month program, and uh relapsed, they kicked me out and went back to jail, and that process continued for like a couple years. Um and uh my mom, that the turning point, can I tell you the turning point? Of course, we ready for that? So yeah, uh, I was strung out, I was back on meth and a number of things, and uh I'd lost my home, right? While I was incarcerated and while I was uh in and out of rehab, I'd lost my house, I'd lost everything, you know. Um, and uh my mom said that she felt that God wanted her to fast for me. And so if you don't know what fasting is, it's biblical, it's where people stop eating food and they ask God to do something miraculous, right? To move in a mighty way. And so she stopped eating food and was pleading with God to get me clean. Uh, because I've been I've been in and out of rehab, you know, I've been in and out of jail 10 times. And uh just it seemed like I was broken, like everybody else can get sober. I can't get sober, right? Like I'm definitely gonna die this way. Um, and so she didn't know what to do, so she stopped eating food and asked God to set me free. And on the 10th day, 10th or 12th day of her not eating a single bite of food, uh, I knocked on her door and said, Hey, I need some help. And uh and uh two days later, I got saved at a church in Madisonville, and I'd never used drugs since that day or drink. Oh my word, yeah. So I believe in fasting, right? Uh, I believe in prayer, I believe in mama's prayers. Man, just hit the throne of God. I truly believe that.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Yeah, yes, that's so that's uh incredible. That's incredible. Um, you know, and you know, and then this is the great part about what we do here, right? We get to we've Krista and I have been doing this for like a year, and we hear so many stories, and stories where there's a bunch of trauma and a bunch of kind of rational thoughts about why I drank, why I use drugs, you know, and then there's you know, hey, I had an up good upbringing and everything was good. I just kind of like drugs, yeah, you know, and but then the the fact that you know we all have different roads to recovery. That's why we're so we're so stoked about this month and faith-based recovery, you know, because we get a lot of people to go to treatment, you know. I never went to treatment, I did uh I did three-day detox in a in a jail cell and went to AA, you know. Uh, and there's a lot of people that go to church. And I had a pastor friend of mine who went to seminary and he had a drinking problem. He went to seminary, he became a preacher, and that was it. He never drank again. But uh, you know, everybody's story is so different. Yeah, you're yet yet we can we as long as we relate instead of compare, we're good. Um, okay. So you went how let's uh I want to hear about this two days. I want to hear that about the two days between going to mom and getting saved. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:47

So I um I went to mom's house, I knocked on her door, and she could tell that I was strung out, you know. Uh, and I was like, look, I just need a place to crash. That that was all I was looking for, really. Um the lady that I was staying with just kicked me out. I was out of drugs, out of money, I had nothing. And uh, she's like, Look, you can stay here for a few days, but you got to go to rehab again. And I was like, okay, you know, like I need a place to stay, so I'll try it again. And um, this was actually Good Friday, which is the day we celebrate in America Jesus laying down his life for the world. And I didn't realize that at the time. Um, but uh I was at her house and uh I was so sick. Uh and my mom told me, she said, uh, you know, I've been praying and fasting for you. I was like, wow, okay. And um, my parents aren't married. My dad called me and said, Hey, I heard you're at your mom's house. Come to church with me Sunday for Easter. Uh and I was like, No, you know, like I'm sick now. I'm gonna be sick on Sunday. I can't do it. And he said, Well, this Sunday is my birthday. And uh he was like, Will you go to church with me for my birthday? And I was 27 years old, I didn't have a present for my dad. And so I was like, dang, okay, I'll go. Um, and the whole reason that I would I say that that Sunday is my sobriety date was because I found a piece of a Suboxan in my pocket uh when I was at my mom's house and I used that, right? And it didn't help very much. I was still very, very sick. Um, but uh that Sunday, um, and I was just at her house sick, you know, in the shower a lot, you know, and just not doing much. Uh, but I went to church that Sunday, just sick, man, sweating, depressed, scared, you know, like just feeling horrible. And it was a big church. It was uh probably 500 people there at Victory Church in Madisonville. And uh, man, I don't want nobody to talk to me. I don't want nobody to look at me, like just leave me alone. I'm just here for my dad. But the preacher at the end of the service, you know, obviously he's talking about the resurrection of Christ because it is Easter Sunday, but he said this at the end of service, and it was like the one sentence in the human language that could get me to get out of my seat. He said, is that if there's anybody in this room who's been living without purpose and you need some purpose in your life, come to this altar, give your life to Jesus, and you'll have purpose. And man, it was like this most euphoric, clear-cut message. It was like somebody lit a light in my dark, dark world. And I thought, oh my gosh, that's the peace. That's the peace I've been missing. Because this whole time that I've been in addiction, I was just not down for the Jesus thing, right? I was raised in it. I didn't want Jesus to be Lord of my life. I didn't want to have to read my Bible, I didn't want to have to, I wanted to sleep around, I wanted to drink, I wanted a drug, I wanted to be Lord of my life, right? And so I said, maybe this is it. If if that man is telling the truth, and if I give my life to Jesus and I have purpose, I'll do it forever. Because even before addiction took over my life, man, uh college and personal goals and houses and relationships and money was not satisfying me. I was still very depressed. I felt like, why am I Not happy. I'm seeing other people work the same job I got with a bigger uh the same size house as me with the same size bank accounts as me and they seem happy. Why am I not happy? And the only time that I was happy was when I was chemically right enhanced, and that feeling betrayed me every day. So I kept chasing that feeling to feel happy. And so I was like, I'll do this. So um it was almost like an out-of-body experience. Uh I ran to the altar in front of all those people, didn't want nobody to see me. I ended up running down to the front and I gave my life to Christ. And I said, I'm gonna follow you until the day that I die, and I'm in. I'm in. I'm gonna follow you. And so I made a commitment to read my Bible every single day until I read it all, and I was gonna believe it and I was gonna apply it to my life, and I was gonna tell other people about it. And so uh that was it, man. I was a changed man. Now God's still sovereign, right? Like I said the prayer, I cried, I knew I was new, I knew that I wasn't going back, but I still went back to my mom's house and detoxed like a mug, right? Like I still was sick and crying and in the shower and all that stuff. And um, about five days later, we found the Isaiah house in central Kentucky, a place in the middle of nowhere.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Um, and that's what changed started everything. All right, let me I gotta ask a question. So, so then and then and thank you for that. You know, I was very the two days, I love that, you know. Um, what was your life before that as far as faith? What was your life with with Christ and with religion and with anything before that? When you were running on self-will, because that's what we call when we were running on self-will, what was your faith process in the bad days?

SPEAKER_03 23:49

So I could never ever deny on my worst day in the deepest part of my addiction. I could not deny that there was a God. I knew for a fact that there was a God, and uh, but I chose to not pursue that relationship in my teenage at about 19. At 19 was like when I was like, you know what, I'm done. I'm I'm I'm not going to identify as a Christian. Um, I'm not going to follow Jesus. I'm just gonna do my own thing. So on my worst day, I still knew there was a God. And uh, but I just I just had no relationship with him, right? I had said, I'm sure, a hundred foxhole prayers. Uh, and on bad days, I would maybe open my Bible uh and read it, but man, there was no relationship, and you would never know that I was a Christian, and I probably wouldn't even have identified as one.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

So I'm I'm I asked this because so the with the progressive disease that we've been talking about, even those with faith that they the as the disease takes over, their faith gets less and less, right? You know, the more the more will I take back myself, the less God's will I'm allowing into my life. And you know, it's just it's just a natural progression. And then as you described your day, the day that you found God again, you know, the we're big, we talk about the gift, the gift of desperation, right? That gift of desperation has a way of opening our mind to new things, new abilities. And your story, my friend, is just so profound in that fact. The fact that the gift of desperation was there. Hated everything about who I'd become. Here I am at church. Did don't know how or why I'm here, but here I am. And the right words were said in an open mind that led you to this calling. And and dude, it's so amazing, man. And I I hope, I hope that anybody who's listening hears that and knows that that it can happen to anybody, right?

SPEAKER_03 26:01

Oh, yeah, it doesn't discriminate, that's for sure. And that was part of my problem. Uh, when I was messing with the pills, and you know, I would do Xanax and I would do painkillers and I would smoke spice and I would, you know, do whatever before it took over my life because I thought that I was 10 foot tall and bulletproof. I did. Nobody ever schooled me on addiction. I I wasn't surrounded by it. People did nobody said, hey, this is the science behind it, right? I didn't know that the little chemicals and those little pills would react to my brain chemistry in a certain way that in a short amount of daily use I would become physically, mentally, and emotionally addicted to these substances. I didn't know. I thought I was 21 years old. I was really muscular on steroids. I had tons of friends, I had plenty of money. People, my family was good, you know. I felt like I'm I got this, right? Like I could never, I could never, I will never, you know. That's for the weak. That's for big cities, that's not for people like me, right? I'm from a small town, you know. I'm Jordan Wilson. That, you know, uh, and so it was taking over my life, and I didn't even know.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

That's that's dude. I'm telling you, Krista, what do you think about this? What do you think about this? Uh, about Jordan's story so far.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

It's like crazy how I just it's like my life, and I haven't been able to put it to words, and you're putting it to words like I was raised in the church. I always knew God was there. I just didn't know I had to do put a relationship. I didn't know I had to connect with him. I thought he's there, that's all I'm getting. That's it. That's it, you know. But when I I was introduced to AA rehab, and I opened the doors to me get growing a relationship with God. And when I saw God in that book, I was like, okay, I got this part, I could do this part. And um, it still took years and years uh in recovery for me to finally be desperate enough when I thought I was gonna lose my husband to addiction, and his sober day was the day I was saved. And um, we both worked uh 12-step program in a faith-centered, and um it changed our marriage, our life. It it it changed everything. I want to tell the whole wide world about it, but I always knew God was there, I just didn't know I had to actually like apply things to it, and you know, yeah, yeah. And I didn't know I didn't know I thought I was invincible too. I you know, and I'm from a resort island, like I'm from an island and it's not here, and I'm I'm normal and I don't have a problem. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

I love I love what you were talking about with uh, you know, I'm city, I'm a I'm a country guy, you know, those are city problems, you know. That's that's real deal. That people think it is, you know, and uh you know, so okay, so back to the we're on the timeline, and you're you went into treatment in the middle of Kentucky. Uh, what was the name of this one? Isaiah House? It was called the Isaiah House, yeah. Isaiah House, yeah, and and Krista says I'm an old man and that I've got a horrible memory. This is me proving it wrong right now.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

He already said it though. He already said it.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Yeah, so so Isaiah House, you go to Isaiah House, what was that like?

SPEAKER_03 29:23

It was great, it was a tough program, honestly. Um, they had all the bells and whistles, right? They uh build insurance, they had uh a detox type situation where I did 30 days there um and got counseling, and and they were faith-based. And so I got church, I got counseling, I had all of it. They did celebrate recovery. Um, but the change for me was in my heart, right? That's what made the program effective. I I think I could have gone anywhere by this point and and found uh a life of sobriety because my heart had changed and my mind had changed. I had changed because of this encounter with Christ. But uh, I mean, this program, I mean, we're doing laps around the building at 6 30 in the morning, right? Like your bed is made military style. You're cleaning your dorms, then you're going to class, and then you're doing work for free. And so it was it was tough, man. And it was uh it was a year-long program. But uh my experience there was fantastic, and but it was because I changed. I was no longer trying to be the cool guy or the tough guy or the drug dealer. I wasn't glorifying anything about my past. I was just there to focus on my relationship with Christ and change my life. And so um that turned into a job, right? To where they made me an intern where I was still a client, but I had staff responsibilities and they paid me. And um, I graduated their program and uh and started work and they sent me back to school, and then I started working in public relations for them, and that's kind of where I found my niche, right? Like my career started really popping in public relations. I had no, I didn't even know what public relations was. Um, and they put me in it and I started learning everything about marketing and fundraising and event planning, and uh I just started my whole life over in central Kentucky where I knew stepping into it, I knew no one. And then um I was there for four years, uh, graduated their program, lived in sober living, uh, met my wife, got married, moved into our own place, and eventually uh become the public relations manager. And I worked directly for the CEO. And uh like my life is is happening, right? And uh and it wasn't until I was there for like four years that I felt called to another ministry, which was Friends of Sinners.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

And let's uh let's let's dive into so I left uh what is Friends of Sinners?

SPEAKER_03 31:52

So Friends of Sinners similar to the Isaiah House. We are a residential recovery program. Um, but the difference is uh we don't build insurance, right? So we don't have all that red tape to go through. We can take clients from anywhere at any time. Uh we we basically get to make our own rules. So our clients will live with us for up to 12 months. We're a four-phase program before going transitional. Uh, and our clients, every one of them are adults who suffer from substance use disorder. Uh, we treat both male and female at separate locations in Owensboro, Kentucky. And again, we take clients from all over. Um, but we allow our clients to work after the first four weeks of programming. And uh there's basically a $110 weekly client fee that they have to pay. Uh, but we are very involved in celebrate recovery. Uh, our clients get professional counseling and no charge to them, and uh, and then of course, other life skills and Bible studies they'll be involved with. But again, our goal is not just long-term sobriety, our goal is to introduce our clients to Jesus, and through that relationship, they find lasting sobriety with the tools that we add, you know, that they learn learn along the way.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

We put the uh we put the link for friends of sinner in the in the comments. So anybody who's watching, anybody who that's looking for more information on that, please feel free to look up. This program sounds tremendous. How many people do you uh can you guys help at one time?

SPEAKER_03 33:24

So currently we can treat 21 men and uh 12 women, uh, but we are in a renovation process of our men's facility. So uh when we complete this renovation, we'll move up to 40 men. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

Yeah, wow, and 40 men and it's 40 men, and it's no insurance, it's no costs to to get in there. That's true, that's tremendous. So you operate off of grants and things like that.

SPEAKER_03 33:57

Yeah, well, we do it, we do ask our clients to pay an initial $500 intake fee, which most of the time people don't have that. And so instead of $110 per week client fee, it'll be $130 per week. But again, they're working and they can work essentially wherever they please, as long as it's not going to be dangerous for their sobriety. So if they've got a construction background or they're a plumber or electrician or prefer factory, we will help them get the job that they want that they feel most comfortable in. So, and we've got clients making better money than me, and I'm the executive director, right? So um, so that $110, yeah. So that $110, we also see that as a life skill, right? Like, yeah, absolutely. I mean, if we were to build their insurance, right, we'd be getting a lot more than that. But we we don't want to bend on the Christ-centered aspect. Uh, we don't want to have to offer narcotics to our clients. We want church to be mandatory, and so we're not going the insurance route, uh, so that we can continue. So, but to answer your question, Johnny, yes, uh, we rely pretty much solely on the generosity of our community uh to meet our financial needs.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

That is amazing. So our Brandy just put in the comments that our friend Daniel went there, and Daniel, who is uh a preacher and Brandy's husband, uh, he went to Friends of Center, and and we know Daniel very well. He's been on here before, and uh and he's a he is a big friend of Never Alone Live and Krista and me personally. Um, so that that right there is a shining example of what you guys are doing because uh he is he is changing the world. Um so how let me uh let me ask you, I want to I want to kind of dive into your books. Um, you know, everything everything we've got you get a calling for everything. What what was the calling for writing these books that you've written?

SPEAKER_03 35:59

Yeah, so um when I was I just graduated the Isaiah House, so I was one year into my recovery, and uh I was single, right? No wife, no kids. So on a random night of the week, there was a revival happening 20 minutes out, and so me and a buddy went to this revival in the middle of nowhere in Kentucky, and uh just young dudes hungry for Jesus, right? And there was probably 200 people there, and the the preacher, the evangelist, whoever he was, they flew him in for this revival to speak, and uh he they flew him in from Oregon. So this dude never heard of me, didn't know anything about me. I didn't know anything about him. He calls me out of the crowd and he's like, Hey, you come here, and I'm like, Me? Like, I didn't, I was like, What, what? And so uh I come forward, like, oh boy, what is he gonna say to me, you know? And he goes, Hey, God wants you to write a book. He said, It's your story and it's gonna help people. And I had never even considered writing a book, right? Um, but looking back back in school, man, I was so good at writing, right? And I liked doing it. Short stories and essays, it was just no problem. And so after that word, I was like, man, I'm gonna do that, right? Like, I believe that was from God because he didn't know me, he didn't know that I had a gnarly story. And so um I sat on it and sat on it until 2020. Uh, I started bringing my laptop home from work. And um, when the wife and kids would go to bed, I just opened up a Word document, having no clue what I was doing. And I was just like, man, I'm just gonna put my thoughts on on this document. And uh within a year, the book was finished and we self-published on Amazon. And uh the book took off, man, right? Like uh I just wanted to be obedient in writing the book. Uh, and I never planned on doing anything with it. Like it was just, hey, I did it, you told me to do it, so I did it. Maybe it'll be a resource for somebody on Amazon looking for a book to help them, to encourage them. Um, and then about a year later, after that, in my prayer time, I felt like God wanted me to donate that book to every prison in the country. And uh it was a God-sized dream because my little mind would have thought my state was big enough, right? Like, you know, who am I? I'm not rich, I'm not famous, I can't, I don't know what to do. Um, but God was very clear. And so we uh we did our research, we crunched the numbers, we learned that there were 5,051 facilities in the United States between federal, state, jail, county, uh juvenile, you name it. There's 5,051 facilities. It was gonna take $50,000. And uh, and I thought it I had a five-year plan to do it. Well, we posted about it on social media, it went bananas. People from all over the country were sending checks to my house, and we finished the job in five months.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 39:03

Yep, yep. So uh five months from conception, uh one copy of my book is in every single jail and prison in the United States.

SPEAKER_01 39:15

That's cool. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

I couldn't imagine like that.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

We are gonna put the links. We're gonna put the links to your books in the comments as well. We want people to be able to find you and find your books and find everything that you're uh that we're talking about today. And that dude, that's so awesome. That wow, God God works, God works.

SPEAKER_03 39:46

Yeah, that's it, and it's all it's all him, man, because I was like, dude, I work at a nonprofit, right? Like, I can't afford fifty thousand dollars. I don't know how I'm gonna do this, but God is so good, man. He brought people from all over to support it and and fast, right? And uh, it's not me, it's not my book, it's not that I'm such a good writer, it's just the power of God. God is using it as a tool uh to reach people. And man, I've had inmates write me letters to Friends of Sinners saying, dude, I was on suicide watch. Uh I wanted to die. I read your book. Now I want to live. I gave my life to Christ. As a matter of fact, a man read my book at a prison in Indiana and wrote a letter to Friends of Sinners staff. We got him out of prison in Indiana. He graduated our program, he's now two years sober, and he's one of my best friends.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

Oh my gosh, that is tremendous.

SPEAKER_03 40:43

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 40:44

Oh my gosh. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 40:45

His name is Adrian Rodriguez. Uh, he's now um just awesome, reconnected with his whole family, uh, living for Jesus. He he uh disciples clients at FOS. He he's guys' mentor. I is he's just an absolute uh joy to know this dude.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

That's so great. So, you know what? Before before we go on, I've got to talk about my friend Crystal Riddle is in the comments right now. She owns a company called Recover Out Loud, and right now they are on the West Coast, and um they are trying to raise money for intake for six people right now. And uh, Crystal, if you could put the link into the comments, um, you know, it's a it's a tremendous cause. And you know, I'd we just want to get the word out there for you. Um uh but Jordan, dude, this is is blowing my mind with all this good stuff, you know. Yeah, and and Adrian Rodriguez, if you're listening to this, uh you know, uh congratulations on your two years, and uh you got uh you got a special friend with Jordan. I love it. So I want to watch this, no doubt. Oh, good, good, good, good. And uh then I won't say anything about what Krista was saying about him before the show. That's before this started, so it doesn't even matter anymore, Arian. Uh um let's I want to talk about your social media. I want to talk about the social media and the presence that you have in social media, and you know, I I really I I've been following you now since we met at Faith Fluence, and um, you know, your your Faith Fluence is all about influencers in the faith community, and you know, I want to talk about how you got started on the influencer stuff and how you got Faith Fluence going.

SPEAKER_03 42:50

Yeah, so um, you know, ever since I was like six months or a year sober, I had a Facebook, just like any normal person. I had a Facebook and I would post just regular stuff, right? Um, and then me and a buddy, when when we started working in public relations, he was my best friend in rehab, we started making funny videos about sobriety, you know, and like they started popping off, man, and people started liking them, and we had fun making the videos, and so that's kind of what started, you know, my whole influencing thing. Um, and then I learned about TikTok, and I'd never heard of it until about COVID. And when I started co when I started on TikTok, man, my platform just blew up, and uh I decided to open an Instagram, and that blew up. And so I got to about 800,000 followers on TikTok of uh back in 2022, and then they banned me, they permanently banned me from TikTok, they labeled me a violent extremist for my Christian conservative content, and so um I decided to run with it. So I made a t shirt that said uh extremist, and I sold the heck out of it. Um, and then uh and then I Decided to go ahead and start a new account. And so now I'm up to like a million followers, almost a million followers on TikTok, a lot on Facebook, a lot on Instagram. But my goal is to, yeah, I still post funny videos. I want to be myself. I want to post silly videos. But mainly I want to talk about Jesus and about recovery and just the things that I believe in, right? And so have had wild success with it. And that's really why Faith Fluence got started. I um I started working for companies who paid me to post about certain topics, you know, that align with me. And this company invited me to uh an influencers event in Atlanta, Georgia a couple years ago. Um, is it cool if I go ahead and start talking about that? Yeah. Okay. Um, and so I knew that this was a secular event, right? There, like, might be some stuff going on there that I'm not down with, right? Like there might not be any Christians there. But I felt like God was on it, right? Like God was going to bring me to the right people. And so we go to this mansion in Georgia, in Atlanta, and uh, man, it's like a bunch of people that are just not my type of people, man. They're like, they're in their own circles, they're, you know, they think they're famous, they think they're rich. And so I'm like, man, this is whack. I don't like this. But then God brought me to Nala Ray and her husband, who may have been the only Christians there. And whoever doesn't know who Nala Ray is, she was a top performer on OnlyFans and was bringing in well over seven figures uh doing that line of work, you know, uh for OnlyFans. And uh she met her husband, who was a follower of Jesus, and he led her to Christ as friends. He led her to Christ, and she decided to leave that million-dollar job to follow Jesus, and she eventually married her husband, and now they use their platforms, millions of followers, they use their platforms to share the gospel and to help get other girls out of that line of work and to encourage other people. And so God led me to them and we became friends. And on the drive back, uh, I told my buddy, I said, What if we created a space just like that? It felt like a party, good music, a lot of social activities going on, had stuff going on, but it was Christ-centered and it was to connect kingdom people, right? It was to connect, you know, people who post on social media. Like if you do podcasts, I want you to meet the other 10 podcasters that I got here. Or if you do music, I want you to meet the other musicians. Or if you're just, you know, an influencer and you want to learn about influencing and you want to learn how to monetize and you want to learn how to create good content. So Faith Fluence was born, man. Uh, faith and influence. So we came up with Faith Fluence, and that was my goal, man, to have a sick venue, to have good music, and uh for to have a gospel presentation for people to get saved, and then for other kingdom people to meet other kingdom people, and that's what it was.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

And and that's exactly what it was, and it was so I'm telling you, being there, being in person at this phenomenal venue, hearing the music, feeling feeling the presence of God in there with uh with some of the people that you had talking, meeting Nala, meeting Jordan, and you know, I I I had a great conversation with Jordan afterwards. And what I mean, just an extraordinary person, and you know, and and you brought together all these influencers, and just it's it's so it was so cool. I was and uh and and now I'm really making Krista jealous because Krista was gonna be there too, but she couldn't make it. And uh uh uh Krista, what do you think about it? Because Krista, Krista is an influencer. Krista is uh is so big on all the social, she's created a community of people around her that's so beautiful. Krista, what do you think about all this that Jordan is building?

SPEAKER_00 48:08

Um I love it. Um, because my faith journey started a little over two years ago, and God told me, start talking about me. You know, because it was all recovery stuff. It was, I'm an alcoholic. My name's Krista, and I'm an alcoholic. And those would go viral, super viral, because um TikTok and these apps love sad and they love depressing stuff. So, like that stuff was taking off. But I through my journey, I'm not an alcoholic anymore. I'm a new creation. And um he said, talk about me, and I did, and my my account started getting bigger and bigger, and I'm still in the process of like figuring out that balance of I'm in a transition because it was a lot of secular recovery stuff, but now I'm on my faith journey, and so it's kind of vibing that way, and I love that you've created that because that's where I would, if I was to go to an event like that, I would want to to migrate towards the Jesus people, you know, and just be like that. And I had the honor of meeting Holy Beards because um he's a national ambassador for recovery alive, where I am too. That's the program I work, and I met him a few years ago. So I've been watching him a lot too through the last few years as well. And he was a speaker at your event, and I was very jealous I didn't get to go, but I definitely want to go to the next one. But I love it, and and you're hearing how you are obedient and you're listening to him and doing it, and it's just it's really cool, and things are like happening because of it, and it's proof, you know. It's cool.

SPEAKER_01 49:53

Yeah, I'm here for it. Yeah, and you have another Faith Fluence event coming up in a few months, right?

SPEAKER_03 50:02

Yeah, on uh September 12th. Yeah, so my friend Amy, she's big time on social media too. She goes by Ailey or Amy Elohim. Uh, but she helped me MC the event. She was very big in putting the helping me put the event on here in uh in Owensboro. And um she said at the end of it, she was like, that was so awesome. She said, I want to do it again. And uh she said, I've got a venue in Pennsylvania that would be perfect for this. So I said, let's let's ride, let's do it. And so we landed on September 12th. Um, we're calling it Faye Fluence 2.0. Uh, we've got many of the same speakers, we've got two of the same musicians, and uh, I just booked another uh musician who goes on social media by nameless servant. This dude is fire, his music is fire. I I don't even know what genre it would be, it's something different, and but it punches me right in the chest when I listen to it. And I just got off a half an hour phone call with him. We just booked him. Um, and we've got Recovery Mike coming to speak. If you don't know him, you definitely need to follow Recovery Mike. Uh, but we got many of the same people that are that were involved with it last time. I wanted all of them, but of course, you know how it is, you know, not all of them can make it, but uh, it's gonna be hopefully just like the last Faye Fluence, and uh, you know, creating kingdom, you know, uh connections, you know, putting influencers in a space to learn, glorifying God, having fun. Like we're gonna just do it again, September 12th.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

We gotta go, Johnny. We gotta go. And we know Recovery Mike. He's been here.

SPEAKER_01 51:49

Recovery Mike is Recovery Mike has been here a few times with us. We uh recovery Mike is a friend of ours, and uh we uh we actually had an event in Charleston. Um, that I'm telling you, you want to talk about God working. Uh, one day woke up and said, because it was after we, you know, this TikTok community had really started thriving. And I was like, we need it, we need to get this group together. And next thing you know, we got Freedom Fest, and we wound up with a couple hundred people in Charleston in January of this past year. And I was like, where did that come from? Oh God, and you know, so so it's uh we see exactly what you're doing, and when when God gives you a calling and you you take that call, it's uh you never know what's gonna happen. So, you know, uh before you know, we're gonna we're gonna get ready and close up here in a few minutes, but I want to know what's the future look like, Jordan? What do you what do you want out of Faith Fluence? What do you want for your social medias? Do you got any other books on the horizon? Let's uh what do you got uh what do you got in the next few years?

SPEAKER_03 52:58

Yeah, so uh man, my dream would be to do Faith Fluence full-time, right? Like, I don't know how uh I'm putting it in God's hands, uh, but that's a orchestrating that thing is a it could be a full-time job. Uh, and so to to host a couple of Faith Fluences every year, um, and for it to be uh a big deal, right? For it to be like as big as the other stuff that you see going on. You know, I would love for that to be the case. I don't know. Um, I'm still, you know, obviously very involved with Friends of Sinners as their executive director, and I'm gonna stay with them until God calls me on to the next one. I'm gonna serve that ministry to the best of my ability. Uh, but you know, my heart is with evangelism, right? My heart is to speak, uh, share my story or share the gospel presentation and to see people get saved. That's where my heart is. So I don't know, man. To answer your question, I don't know. Uh I'm taking it one day at a time, right? I'm uh letting the Lord lead me. I know he's gonna be in it. Um, and I do feel as if there will be more books. I've had a word spoken over me that I I need to continue writing. Uh, I'm just letting God lead me to what exactly that book is, what the next book is. Um, but I've met with uh different producers who want to turn my first book into a feature film uh because it's you know it's wild enough to be one. Um, you know, the the the stuff that God delivered me from and the lifestyle I was living is uh would definitely be worth a watch. So um we'll see about that happening in the future too.

SPEAKER_01 54:36

Jordan, that's amazing. Krista, how excited are you that we started this month off with Jordan?

SPEAKER_00 54:42

So good, so good. And I know so many people can can relate. If I can, I just can only think about and then the the amount of people who are in jail in prison reading that book. Like I read a lot in jail, and if I found a book like that, it my journey would have started a lot sooner. But I am where I am for a reason, but it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 55:05

Well, Jordan, I want to thank I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for coming on here today and talking with us and sharing vulnerably about your life, and you know, we uh we if anything we can do to help you and getting your message out, please uh feel free. Uh, you know, we are fortunate that we've made friends with lots of influencers over the last year, and we're uh we we love what you're doing and we want to be a part of it. And uh and and just uh again, thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_03 55:41

Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks for uh thanks for inviting me. Thanks for what you guys do, and I hope to see y'all on September 12th.

SPEAKER_01 55:49

You never can't tell. Kristen might be writing a book. You never can't tell. Now you've you might have motivated her. She's gonna write a book called How to Make Fun of Bald Guys and she's so good at it. There you go. Horrible. Oh thank you, Jordan. Thank you, Jordan. Thank you, and thank you, everybody, for watching tuning in. Everybody make sure they go follow Jordan, follow Faith Fluence, follow the stuff that he's doing. Because not only is your stuff uh extremely educational, you're funny out there. And I uh I it's I really enjoy uh following all the stuff that you got going on. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And we'll see everybody next week. And next week is Holy Beards, I believe, right, Krista? Yeah, so next week well, we're gonna have Holy Beards on here, and we're gonna continue this faith based recovery conversation for the entire month of June. So uh thank you, thank you, thank you, and we'll see you next week.