#3 - Dr. Chadd Hatfield - A Calling to Inner City Mission Work

Dr. Chad Hatfield shares the story of how God changed his life, prepared him for ministry, and ultimately led him to the Huntington City Mission.

He is honest about what many people learn the hard way. Ministry rarely looks like what you expect. Sometimes the suit comes off and you find yourself in work that requires you to get your hands dirty. Along the way, things you never thought would matter, like martial arts training, suddenly become useful. Add in years of counseling and 12-step work, and you begin to see how God was preparing the path all along.

This is a story about calling, obedience, and showing up even when you do not fully understand where it is leading. God is in the work. If He calls you, step into it. It may not be what you imagined, but it will be the ride of your life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

I want to welcome everyone today to the Huntington City Missions Hopecast. And we have a special guest with us today, the uh fellow who has been the head chaplain at the Huntington City Mission for over 17 years, and uh Chad Hatfield. And we're I'm anxious for you to hear from him. Uh Chad, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much. It's an honor. So once I came to the mission in 2015 as the uh director, uh Chad was one of the first people I met, and I began then to find out how unique it is doing ministry among folks who are experiencing homelessness and and living in a homeless shelter. Certainly there are things that are are just like you would at your church on Sunday morning, but there are a lot of other things, and we'll find out about some of those today, that you experience when you do this kind of work. So channel only start, give us a little bit about your background and maybe even tell us how you came to Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Well, before the foundation of the world no. Well, I grew up in uh a home that was Christ-centered, but uh my grandmother and my mom they reared me, and dad was not in the picture, and so you know, I old regular Baptist church, Sunday morning, three-hour drive, and always for the gospel. But by the time um college hit, you know, self and flesh went sideways, and that mindset, though embedded there, was not something. And after doing undergrad at a high university, I did my own thing. Self hyper obsession upon what I thought was real, relevant, and purposeful, but nothing ever felt right. There was always this emptiness there. And I had a love for law and politics, and I thought that was going to be my focus. But in September um 2003, North Canova Road, South Point, Ohio, um, God called me unto himself. I accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. And in that moment, there was this transformation. God shattered any ideas of what I used to think was relevant. And all those remembrance of the gospel and all those stories I was told became reality. Christ called me into himself, and I became a born-again Christian. At that point, my heart, my mind, my soul transformed, and I had a love for God. Um, He saved me. And at that point, uh my mind was focused on now what do I do?

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Yeah. Well, let's talk about that. I'd like to know. I'm interested when in talking with uh different ministers, you know, about how they were felt a calling to preach or to ministry. And uh why don't you share that with us about yourself?

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Well, after coming to Christ, it wasn't immediate. The first thing I did is, the very first thing was uh I was in the middle of a a major situation, and I called an individual who had recently caused damage in my life, and I called them up and just excitingly said, Hey, I recently came to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. I just want to tell you I forgive you. And their comments were, all right, whatever. But I didn't care. My mind was completely changed, my philosophical thinking, it all changed. Um, so you ask about a calling to the ministry. At that point, that wasn't the case. I was going to a local church in South Point where I eventually, South Point uh first Baptist, I started going there, and it was wonderful. Um, but sort of doing a wanas, helping out, but no calling other than I had a craving for scripture with the same love that I had for politics and philosophy. Now was the word of God. And I dug into it uh a whole year of just advanced study, reading, studying, researching, um, everything from biblical theology to biblical archaeology. I was just geeking out, but no direct calling in the sense of what to do yet. God was moving me. I was talking to kids, I was sharing the gospel. Uh, we moved. We moved out of South Point to Huntington, and I started a job in communications. Uh, and it did not do, it did not do what I thought it was going to do. It wasn't the the communications job that I thought it was in one evening. And here's your answer to your question. It was probably nine o'clock at night. And I had all these questions in my head, and I asked the question at the door, God, what do you want me to do? Because I knew that I wasn't using my undergraduate degree to the way I wanted to. My past dreams weren't there any longer because I've come to Christ. And like I'm talking to you here in my heart, he said, You will preach for me. Now I have, you know, when I hear that, not a big lightning from the sky like Luther, but God put in my heart, You're gonna preach for me. And I'm like, I don't know what that means. So here's the cool thing to show you, just as a little tidbit for those listening. If God's calling you in the ministry, you don't have to do much but listen. Because that Saturday, uh, we moved to another church at this time, 20th Street Baptist, which used to be at the Marshall Rex Center, and then they merged with uh Beverly Hills, and then they are a different church today. But um, I was I got a call from the pastor of that church on a Saturday morning, um, said, Hey, I'm gonna I go to the nursing homes and preach. I can't make it. Can you fill in for me? Now he's never heard me preach a sermon, teach anything necessarily, but I'm like, Yes. And I remember the exact thing I taught on. It was the book of Job. And I thought, why am I teaching the book of Job to a nursing home? Uh, but my Redeemer lives was the the thing.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Yeah, yeah. So that's that's the calling. He just he said, You will preach for me. And then from there, anytime the pastor was out of town, they let me fill in and soon after ordained, and uh just knew that's what I was supposed to do. Didn't have my own church at the time, but at that point it was getting closer and closer um to Huntington City mission.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

And that's so.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

Well, the uh one of the things that I hear in your story there is especially at the end there, when you got a random call to go and fill in at a nursing home, uh, there's something that I found out about ministry, and that is one of the big qualifications, not qualifications, but one of the the things that you need to be successful is availability. And it's not always standing behind the pulpit on a Sunday morning. It's not always those more traditional things. Uh I know myself I've preached on hillsides, and I've preached in uh gyms, and I've preached from in a skate ranks and uh all of that, and just making yourself available is quite necessary, I think.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

Absolutely. Yeah. And I was, I was available when that that's all I could do. And so I showed up, I preached. I always make a joke that it's very clear that you know that you're gonna mess up if your first job of preaching, and I say job loosely, uh, the first time I got to preach in front of the church was that church. There was a Sunday morning Easter sunrise service, and I always made the joke because I was young. And I said, if I screw up in front of these elderly folks, game over. Because who shows up at 6 30 for a Sunday? Well, well, they do, and and had Lois Merit. Um, she was a great mind and taught Latin at Covenant at one time, but she knew I was preaching that morning, and she pulled me in the back and said, Okay, I'm praying for you, praying over you, and I'm like, I'm accepting it. So she prayed over me, and I preached sunrise service, and I'll just tell you that this is when I knew this ministry had nothing to do with me and everything to do with him, because good is what you teach on uh resurrection Sunday. The resurrection, right? So I had this sermon prepared. Sunday morning. This is my first time I'm preaching in front of a congregation, and I'm ready. I go out there, and God just changes the whole thing to uh doubting Thomas on Resurrection Sunday. And whole thing was don't have a doubting Thomas faith, have a true faith on the celebration Sunday. And so, yeah. So that's that's the there's your beginning stages, if you will.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Yeah. Have you noticed uh you mentioned Lois Merritt, who I don't think I ever met, but I've heard you speak of her many times. Isn't it interesting how God has certain people at certain times in our life, they're almost like mile markers to uh help us and encourage us and uh point us in the right direction.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Absolutely, absolutely. Uh my mother, my grandmother and Lois married reminds me of Paul speaking to Timothy about your mother and your grandmother, Lois, this idea that um he knew for he knew early on, he was raised on the scriptures, and uh I was too. The the God knows those him or his, and he called me out of the junk I was leading myself into, and I didn't have no idea of the trajectory that was going to go into.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

So you started out in a more what's we'll call it more traditional ministries. Did you uh get any education towards that end?

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Yeah, funny story with that. So at this point, I was I worked at Presley Ridge, actually.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Tell her tell us about what Presley Ridge is.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

I was a teacher counselor out there and a master teacher counselor for the youth. And basically it's a behavioral program, juvenile facility. And it was wonderful. But by that time, of course, I'd born again Christian, already preached. Um, I was, you know, doing that, and I met an individual there named Carrie, uh, a gentleman there who was a uh a therapist, a licensed certified therapist for the he actually specialized in sex offenders and very complex issues. And he inspired me, and I started finding a love for counseling. Christian counseling was my main focus, and I just was like, you know what? This is something I want to do. Because by this time I had a bachelor's in science, and I thought, you know, I want to go to seminary, um, but I have children. I have wonderful children. And with a family and kids and working, uh, the concept of going into seminary and leaving that was difficult. So I had to find something that was online, accessible, that I could do some field work in. And Kentucky Christian University was one of my first options. I got approved. Uh I had to speak to Dr. Knight. And so, Dr. Knight, and this is a funny story, I called him and I said, Hey, I got I got your approval letter and I just got to pay this fee. And I start the program and the Christian counseling said, I got a problem though. I can't sign your paper because it says I have to say I'm not going to go to movie theaters. He laughed and he said, Well, the only reason we have that is because on-campus students, uh, I said, Well, here's the deal. I said, if Star Wars comes out, boys, we're going to go see it. So he laughed and said, We fully understand. At that point, I was like, Well, uh, I'm not sure I want to get into secular counseling. I've already studied, I was a, as you may know, I'm a you know, as you know, I'm kind of an intense researcher and studier independently. And but Christian counseling is what I wanted to do. So I found the United Association of Christian Counselors and Chaplains International. Um, and they are an independent ministry that had a grad school and a accreditation, a theological accreditation, and I got a certified biblical counseling from them, and I started a master's in Christian counseling with them and did field work and sessions through them, and and uh that's where I started the my career there. I actually got acknowledged as uh with a master's in Christian counseling, got to stand up in front of the church, and they, you know, acknowledged that. It was a blessing at the church that I was attending at the time. But that's where I started out education-wise. And yeah, that that was the process there.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

So if you uh think about, if I just think about your what you've shared so far, you mentioned in a home where uh the father was not not around. Uh you mentioned uh getting an opportunity to speak in places that may not be traditional places that you go and preach. And then I find that I know you've I know your love for theology, and I do believe you have training in that regard, but it it's interesting to me that God steered you towards Christian counseling. It was almost like he had something in mind for you that he was preparing you for.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

Absolutely. So I mentioned, I didn't mention this early on, but I have an affinity towards, like you said, uh physics, biblical theology, systematic theology, I eat it up. Love it, uh, immerse myself in it. But man, for some reason, um, Christian counseling seemed to be a focus, the psychology of the mind, behavioral issues, um, anxiety issues, how that plays a role. And uh, I kept thinking if we're followers of Christ and we have a we have the mind of Christ, and there's a transformation. I always have a statement, behavioral modification without spiritual change leads to nothing. And that kept hitting me in the head. And so as time went on, uh there was a position open at the Huntington City Mission. And at the time, I had no idea what that looked like. It said chaplain. And I remember the decision because I had a full-time job. At the time, they had a full-time job. All right. And I remember at the time going into my breakfast nook and praying about it and saying, Do I quit my full-time job to get two part-time jobs so that I could take this chaplaincy position at the mission? And the answer was a clear yes. And so, okay, so I'm working this midnight shift, and then I left Pressy Ridge for the communication physician, and I quit that job so that I could do chaplaincy. And I wore a suit every day at the Huntington City Mission, not having a clue what to expect other than I get to preach Christ and maybe help some individuals out. And oh, was that a door opening that changed my perspective on ministry?

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Well, let's let's talk about that. So you you know, especially has it been that long ago that if you were going to quote unquote do ministry, then you wore a suit or at the very least a tie. So to the the person just listening and not understanding, why is that more of a detriment here than it is a uh positive?

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Well, let me uh well the first few years was uh doing a discipleship program. And, you know, I would meet with clients, I would meet with families, I would pray for families, I would teach classes, but something hit my eye very clear, and then hit my feet and then my body, which was it's not just saying, How are you doing? I hope everything's fine, I'll keep you in prayer. It's led to stopping individuals from screaming and cussing at each other, to preventing an individual from attacking another person, to helping someone off the ground who fell down and you're gonna get muddy, you're gonna get dirty. It came to the point that looks like real life and the walk of Christ is more boots to ground than it is feet to pulpit. Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Yeah, that's good. I I've come up and I know I've shared it with you before, but I've come to the conclusion that it's not real ministry if you don't get some dirt under your fingernails.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

And what a joy it is to do that. It took me time to realize it is joyful. My first experience with this was I was walking down the alley, and and I vividly remember my very first experience when I knew this was going to be more than suit, pulpit, preach. It was gonna be really preach the gospel of Christ to the people, but not just in the normal format. I love, and don't get me wrong, I love preaching and teaching in the traditional sense to my parishioners. It's an honor. I love them dearly. But in the midst of the chaplaincy, I remember walking down the alley and I hear chaos from inside the the time, the department, and the men's department, and uh it's two guys just welling on each other. I had choice. I could just uh pray for them silently and hope it works out. So I did, and I prayed with them, but not silently. I immediately jumped in between these guys, swinging at each other, held one off, tried to talk to the other, and by the grace of God I didn't get knocked out. And I was able to calm them down again by the grace of God in prayer, and I was able to work the situation out and and share the Lord. Um, but I noticed at that point the suit and tie were not helpful. Nothing wrong with a suit and tie, mind you, but I have a phrase I use now. I'd rather have a person come into church with sleeve tattoos and a mohawk on fire for Jesus than a guy in a three-piece suit that's superficial. But at that moment I realized the attire must change uh for the occasion. And then at that point I realized, okay, it's time to get dirty. It's time to get messy. And in the literal sense, too, there was an obvious indication, and I'm sure you'll get to that later, but there was an obvious indication that to preach the gospel of Christ looks a whole lot more than just reading verses. It's living it, walking it, and engaging people. You know, I think you've actually taught me this is just a kind word, yeah, being available. But I'll tell you this is that some individuals need to know that you're listening to them, and uh that they know that you love Christ. I remember my one conversation amongst the many here. We'll get to some of the intense issues later, but some of the most basic was an individual was dealing with issues and they didn't trust pastors. They actually had a disdain and resentment towards God because of the lifestyle they were living. And I had a choice. I could go preach to them and tell them everything that they're sinning in, uh, which by the way, I did point to the sin, but really what I did was give them a hug, told them I love them, prayed with them, and they act like uh that was the first time they've ever experienced that.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

May have been.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

And uh that's when I started to realize that the ministry looks a whole lot different than um well I perceived it to be.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

You know, I uh hear one of our oldest board members, Dave Duffield, talk about being here at the mission back in the days when Reverend Funderburg were here, and he talked about walking down an alley with him, and Dr. Funderburke reaching down to this man who was in bad and bad shape, you know, probably at that time probably drunk and and laying in the in the alley, and Dr. Funderburg reached down to him and uh told him that he loved him, and that man spit in his face. And uh he said, Dr. Funderburke went and hugged him again. And when it was over with, Dave, or it may have been one of our other board members, said to Dr. Funderburg, How in the world did you do that? And he said, My face might be the only face of Jesus that that man sees today.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

And you told me that story years ago, and I had used that phrase to every student, and even my parishioners, you may be the only face that's the one sees the price. And so how do you live it? There's a statement I use in scripture a lot that applies to this. Paul says we're walking epistles in Christ. That means we're letters to Jesus, letters in Jesus. If we are letters for Christ, how do people read you?

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

And they can read you all if you preach a good sermon and you are a good Christian, you talk about Jesus and you post a bunch of stuff, but you don't walk it out of Walmart, it's not real. And so here at the mission, I have found I call it battle, I call it the wild, wild west and battlefield earth.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Well, along that line, the one of the trainings that you had that's probably been extremely important, didn't come from a seminary, but but came from learning martial arts. And uh I've I have seen you uh take weapons away from people and and that sort of thing. Talk to us just a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Uh my background in martial arts is 20 years. Uh third-degree black belt and karate, but mainly the self-defense has been super helpful. One of the things is not only from self-defense and the CPR training and first aid training, but martial art defense has been helpful. I've had many instances where I would have a guy, we had, well, you recall the guy that had the sword. He carries the sword and honey to. And I don't I don't want I'm not telling anyone to please do not engage somebody with a sword. Call the police, call 911. But let me just tell you this. If you're a staff member, and I just want to say this, yes, as a warday minister and a servant of the Lord and chaplain, but everybody here at the mission is uh in the ministry.

unknown 21:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

But I'll tell you this is that our clients are number one. Uh we need to care for them. And so this guy had a weapon, and I knew, okay, I got a choice. I can avoid this or engage it. And I was able to prevent the sword from being implemented. And I've had knife, knife attack, I've had to take a knife away from an individual. Um, I've had to break up physical fist fights where I had to remove the person from another person. We've had instances where I've had to one of our employees here said their first experience of me was in the low barrier shelter that was in the chapel for five years, and our class was in the back. And ironically, I was teaching on 1 Corinthians, and it was beautiful, and it was dealing with love. And compassion and the love of Christ. And it was awesome. And then we hear a ruckus out in the other room. And it's two individuals smashing each other's face down. And my concern is the other plants. And the staff member said their first experience of me was jumping over two people over a the platform and doing a wrist lock and getting the individual off the other person. Afterwards, telling them, Jesus loves you, calm down, don't fight, and then going back to class. And that it's all it's all by the grace of God. Like that's just it's just one of those things where I praise the Lord that He's given me these skill sets, if you will, uh and the humility to realize I ain't bigger than that, to implement ministry is not simply the words you speak, it's the actions you do. Um don't be hearers of the word, but also be doers. And I would think that Paul uh didn't just go around preaching sermons. He was a tent maker. He made it very apparent that I'll help you do what you need to do. He was a scholar, spoke about six languages, trained as a Pharisee, uh also a Roman citizens, uh but he also got his hands dirty. And yeah, so that from so breaking up fights and weapons, sharing Jesus has a pulpit to a pulpit to the pavement is uh sort of the idea.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

I hadn't been here at the mission very long, and I realized that I didn't know anything about recovery, I don't don't know much about it now, but I know a lot more than I did when I came here. And what I realized was is that there were a lot of recovery programs of folks at Recovery Point, for instance, doing a great job over there. But here we are claiming to have the answers to the problems of life, and we didn't have a biblical approach to recovery for those people who were looking for that. And uh so I know I talked to you about it, and uh we had a uh fellow employee by the name of John Hampton at that time, and we sort of sat down and and brainstormed this. Uh, but then you went and wrote a program that took our Transformers program, which was a discipleship program and still is, but dedicated towards people in addiction. What uh and that's been gosh, yeah. Ten years, yeah. Why don't you just tell us a little bit about how Transformers has evolved and maybe some of the stories from see dealing with the those in addiction for the last 10 years?

SPEAKER_02 24:30

Absolutely. I remember that meeting, and uh first thought was to your point, we're preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, that burial, resurrection, through him as eternal life, Son of God, God in the flesh, this is the solutions of life, a way of the truth. And yet, we're dealing with an ep an epidemic, an opioid epidemic at the time was expanding exponentially, and we needed to address that. And much prayer. And that weekend, I remember saying, I have this discipleship program that I've written many things for biblical theology and practical life application. And now it's time to look at the addictive realm. See, drugs are a symptom, addictive behavior is the problem. And we also noticed that there's also a substance use disorder, it's a mental cognitive issue, it could deal with trauma, it could deal with all types of variables that lead into that lifestyle. Um, and so I wrote this program, and as I wrote it, I took from everything relevant that was good. We looked at all types of programs. I looked at all types of programs, got the United States, how the 12 steps originated as the Oxford group in the 1950s and how it applied to scripture, and every verse from the 12 steps was a verse of scripture, and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is profound. And I I found this great workbook. I just want to tell you this real quick, if I can, I'll make it quick. Long before the recovery program, there were these books upstairs in the library and the mission. Talked walking the 12 steps of Jesus. And I kept them over the years, and I didn't know why until I realized you asked the question, what is our curriculum going to be other than the Bible and the AA book? And I thought, the big book, and I said, Well, I got one. So we've been implementing the 12 steps of Jesus, but when we first started this, we have no clue. Only that addiction is real. It is a spiritual issue, it's a spiritual malady, and it ranges from every struggle and trauma that has ever taken place that could lead into the band-aid solutions that lead to addiction. It could be something as simple as back pain given in prescriptions that lead to it, or or harm and trauma from a child that led to seeking solutions. Uh, could we be dealing with cognitive and even chemical imbalances that lead to these things? And we knew that Christ is the solution for eternal life, is also solution for day-to-day struggle. So we implemented that. And the Transformers program dealt with the 12 steps, behavioral modification with spiritual change. And we started our first uh client in the program.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

When you talk about the 12 steps, I can almost hear uh some of our folks who might listen to that and they've had such a negative uh idea of what the 12 steps are, uh, because and let's face it, there are some who uh you know who take less much less in a biblical approach to that. But but learning what about the 12 steps uh I I think is terrific. Why don't you uh for those of our listeners who maybe have only had the negative side of a 12-step program, uh tell them why we don't need to be worried about that?

SPEAKER_02 27:29

Well, the biggest reasons is that Jesus taught. I mean, could you imagine telling somebody that I'm gonna give you about three chapters of information about a great sermon and you know it's gonna take some time. And you're like, well, that doesn't seem important. Just give me Jesus. Well, it's called the Yeah, it's called the Sermon on the Mount. Um, so the 12-step program has bad connotation because throughout the years, it progressively have, because of secular society or in, you know, not trying to push certain things or whatever it may be, whatever the reasons are socio-politically, the fact of the matter is people just get nervous uh when they hear secular things mix them with things that are pertaining to um solutions. And so my biggest issue in the very beginning was people saying, You're using 12 steps, just tell them about the Bible. And I thought, let me tell you something. So I told them this. I said, You know what? When you've come to the saving grace of Christ, isn't it beautiful that you admit you're wrong? They're like, Yeah. Isn't it great that you know that God alone can give you sanity? Absolutely. Isn't it beautiful that you can come to know Jesus and know that He is the answer? Of course. Isn't it beautiful to look at your past wrongs and let them go and acknowledge your faults and let go of your resentments? Absolutely. Hey, isn't it great to confess to God? Yeah. Isn't it good to say, Lord, let me get rid of my wrongs and my problems? Yeah. And I'm taking them through this. What they don't know is I'm giving them the 12 steps. I'm on step six right now, going through it with you. And then isn't it cool to humbly ask God to forgive you and get rid of all these wrongs and defects? Heck yeah, it is. Anyways, you get through all the steps. Yeah, it's the Christian walk.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Twelve steps should be done by every human being on the planet. So that's how we got over it. One of the things is it's all biblical, um, it's all from Scripture. And we had individuals come to us that were had a background in faith. Some were atheist, some had different views. And I didn't care. I was gonna present Christ Jesus and help them with their issue. I was gonna help them where they're at. That's what I learned in the street ministry in the mission here is you meet people where they're at. And I've had some phenomenal students come through. You may you mention this, but uh our past chap past chaplain uh Jenny Mae, she's a Hebrew scholar, and um I love original language as well, Greek particularly, and as we've had students learn Greek. Jenny May was able to teach some of them Hebrew and they excelled. So they would have you look at the average person at church, some of our transformers, the biblical information they would get with theology and original language, they would be more knowledgeable than some church folks that have gone for many years.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

So here you have people who are not only experiencing homelessness, but people who are are openly in and admitting to be in addiction, uh, and yet they're learning theology and they're learning uh some of the original languages as well. Can you uh give us an idea about how many in the last 10 years have come through the um Transformers program?

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Just kind of give us some statistics, some updates on the Um Any Recovery Program, you always have the probability of the about 80-some percent recidivism rate is, I think, the nationwide standing, maybe more now. Um we've had many try the program. The process of the program is you have to um go two weeks of showing consistency with our classes. We have about three classes a day plus service work.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

Aaron Powell Let me interrupt there because uh in some of the miscommunication I hear out in the public, for whatever reason, some people think that we are we don't teach the Bible anymore here. So say again what you just said about and tell them what the three classes look like.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

Well, the first class well, first of all, it's a morning devotion. What a morning devotion means is that I do expository teaching through a book in the Bible. A transformer, on average, if they stay the whole year, will get through three to four entire books of the Bible and in a year. They won't just get a read-through, they will get a systematic approach, a biblical approach, application, the theology, and how it implements in them a recovery, as well as their Christian walk. As an example, they will come in the program and we will give them the basics of um the 12 steps. We will illustrate it's a recovery program. Then we go right into this is a Christ-centered recovery program where our whole focus and solution is being changed from death to life. Romans 12, 1 and 2 is our key verses. Basically, you be transformed, the renewing of your mind. That is the foundation, metamorphoi, to be transformed and made new. Dead spirit to a living spirit. So the foundation is Christ, the flow is biblical, um, the essence is grace, and the solution is recovery. Um, but they get all that.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

And they get service work, discipleship, and Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

So so tell us um, you know, roughly how many people have you had come through and That's a hard question because we've had about a hundred try. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

You think in ten years you'd have a myriad, but that's not the case because at the Huntington City Mission, you have to have individuals A that are clients. And before, discipleship program was open to anyone. When we specialized it to the realm of recovery, by the way, before the chapel was a low barrier shelter for five years, any human being could come to the chapel. We had Marshall professors come to the chapel to listen to our Transformers Bible classes. We had Liberty University send two of their interns here to go through our Transformers classes to accept it. Our Transformers program was accepted at two schools to be part of their internship. Um, but in short, we've had probably around a hundred people try. And that would mean they started that didn't like the fact that you had to come to a morning devotion, biblical study. The two o'clock is solely focused on the 12 steps and a biblical application, the big book, how it applies to your Christian walk. We deal with trauma, things that you've repressed and didn't let go of that you need to release. Um but around we've got 37 official graduates that I have docked. Um, and these and these are those who finished the 12 months or that range, nine to twelve months of completion, that have done it. Many of them have gone on to complete college, go into recovery programs, uh, and and some did not make it. That is the reality, that is the hardship of filling it. But we have some great graduates, and we have, and this is something I want to mention too, is that we had some that started the program, um, got to taste the word of God, didn't finish the program, but because of the early stages we got to be part of it with them, um they've gone on to do some great things too.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

Yeah, that's right. That's right. And we just praise the Lord for all of that. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Um Do you have maybe a maybe maybe pick one story of a transformer uh graduate. Is there one particular story that sticks out to you over these last ten years?

SPEAKER_02 34:23

There are many, but you know when we have individuals that come through with violent pasts, I've had individuals that have violent pasts. And I've seen individuals that we had an individual in the program that was very aggressive and angry and negative, and uh through the progression of their walk, they went from wanting to fight and scream and yell to being the person to apologize for their behaviors to the group. Now the reason I just give a general one there is because there's so many. Um that I have seen individuals that um have gone through the program that made a statement to me that um I've been through many recovery programs and none of them seem to click because I continue to just want the heroin, wanted the use. This is the only one that told me that the solution is Christ. The means take effort, and am I willing to be broken to be rebuilt? And and they did that. And so there's been many of those stories uh that are particular. We've had more situations where they come out and help me. I tell you one that connects with external, with our clients here and a transformer. You know, we do a lot of uh Narcam and and dealing with that, and I had one individual that was black and blue. They yelled for me to come outside because he was uh basically dead. Uh he OD'd. And I run out there, they get me, and the transformers ran out the door too. And they help get help, make the call, call 911, making sure that they make the person has all the water they need, the help that they need. I was able to give CPR, implement Narcam, and halfway through I just started telling everybody, pray in Jesus' name. So as Narcam is being done, as CPR is being done, and and prayer is being done, this person comes out of it alive. So the transformers played a major role in implementing calling 911, getting water, getting help and praying. Nice. It's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

They were soldiers in Christ.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

Um Chad, with Chad's uh giftedness to to teach, you know, we came to a point here a few years ago where we realized that we needed for our just in general staff, we needed some some form of continuing education. And there were there were just a lot of things that we needed. We looked at hiring people to come in and train us, and it was, you know, on nearly everyone was just quite expensive. Um and then we realized, well, hey, we have this fellow who is gifted to teach. Let's let's talk to him. So, Chad, why don't you tell us about some of the training that you do with the uh the Honey Seed Emission staff?

SPEAKER_02 37:10

Sure. So not only uh I got certified as a heart saver through EMS Cabble Huntington, which is uh CPR training as an instructor, first aid. Um also my time at Presley Ridge and another agency, I've had uh conflict management. I've had issues with argument and advocacy, dealing with uh controlled issues and situations in crisis management, crisis intervention. Um my PhD is in biblical counseling, and part of that dealt with a lot of uh dealing with aggressive situations, of how to deal with aggressive circumstances, uh conflict analysis. And so basically we put it into a functional process: CPR, first aid, argument and advocacy, conflict management, crisis intervention. These are all things from just years of trainings that I've had, schooling I've had. And one of the things is if you're a a staff member here, you can get into a situation where someone will scream at you, yell at you, engage you, and that will that makes you mad. And so you need to learn how to space, calm, pause, pray, proceed, step back, question, observe, uh, learn how to calm yourself down, learn a proximity, key key focuses on who's in safety, who needs to be put in a safe situation, how to communicate. One of the things about communication is you don't want to instigate the aggressor. A lot of times we're very apt to want to argue back. And so part of the training is crisis intervention, um, advocacy and conflict, conflict management, CPR first aid. And another one I do, which is basically balancing your emotions. Um, this is one in which it's dealing with looking at your values. And a lot of staff here, we get burned out. It's stressful. But on a daily basis, dealing with all kinds of struggles and issues, you can get burnt out. So I have a whole training focused on let's balance our let's balance our values and give focus back on what matters in life and be centered not only on our faith, our family, and by doing so, we can better help our clients.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

Well, Chad, it's been real good to have you talking with us today. Um so you've been, is it is it 18 years yet?

SPEAKER_02 39:28

Yeah, so close to 18 years. The old joke is I have two higher dates, June and February. One is part-time, one is full-time. Yes, about 18 years, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

So here's what I would like to do, and we do this sometimes in some of our staff meetings when we recognize uh people's you know, anniversary dates of working here. If if the Chad of today could go back to that young man eighteen years ago uh and share one thing about what it was that he was getting ready to face these eighteen years, what do you think he would say to yourself?

SPEAKER_02 40:01

You're not being chased by Romans like the early church was, but I need to read Acts again. And what I would have told my old self is, Chad, I love that you want to preach and I love that you love God's word, but you gotta start by loving people as much as Christ loves you.

SPEAKER_00 40:19

Well, brother, what have I not asked you about that I need to ask you about?

SPEAKER_02 40:25

Well, you could geek out and ask me about what area of theology I love the most so I could talk for another 30 minutes if we won't. No, you will I think you gotta say something for the next one. Amen. No, I think I think my journey here has been an honor to serve Christ, to serve the least of these, and to see lives changed. I am so proud of I'm humbled to be able to serve as a chaplain here because this type of ministry, I love being a pastor at my church, I love being a scholar at the organization that I'm with to write with, but there's no greater joy than preaching Christ on the front line. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 41:00

The brother, it's a privilege to know you, and it's been a privilege to serve with you all these years. And uh thank you, thank you for all of you that have held on and listened to us today. We appreciate that. Look for us again as we do more of these hope cast from the Huntington City mission. Until then, God bless you, and we'll see you again.