Flux 2008

the well

The science of suspension
Psychic numbing
Reinventing Ed's Coed
Bass driven
One year, one pair, zero washes
Running from crocodiles
The big idea
I am Duck
Unfinished battles
Learning to lose

multimedia

Faith in recovery

Faith in recovery

story & photos Benjamin Brayfield

Patrick Brazington dropped out of school in the sixth grade. He grew up around biker gangs and tried marijuana and cocaine at age twelve. Twenty-eight drug-related crimes remain on his record. “I’ve overdosed four times. You’re completely aware; you know you’re going to die,” says Brazington. “You hope that someone will come and save you.”

Brazington shares a similar story with his forty “brothers” enrolled in Teen Challenge. During the first phase of the yearlong faith-based drug rehabilitation program, Brazington bonded with fellow student Nathan Miller. “The more you fight the harder it gets,” says Miller, a twenty-five-year-old from Portland who used to make fake transfers at the bank where he worked. “Somehow I never got caught. There were a lot  of times I got away with stuff — a lot of times that I should have died. I have no idea why I’m alive today.”

Students come to Teen Challenge by free will to correct abusive behavior, rebuild family trust, circumvent jail, or all three. Though the program is called Teen Challenge, the in-patient students are adults. “People generally get into drugs and alcohol at a young age,” says program director Ron Winning. “When we get them they have the coping skills of a teenager.”

Sheep farms and open grassland surround Teen Challenge’s pale stucco façade. Inside the concrete hallways and tiled walls — deterrents to impulsive punches — the rehab program uses the Bible as a foundation for behavioral change. Each day starts at 6 a.m. and lights go out at 10:30 p.m. Students work six days a week and go to church on Sundays. “Many of these people never had structure in their lives,” says Winning. “We are teaching them how to be successful in the working world.”

Brazington and Miller came to Teen Challenge in October 2007. Both have tried secular rehab without success, disheartened by the “once an addict, always an addict” attitude. Once they accepted Christ, the two friends say, they began doing what he wants them to do. “Pat would never come to Teen Challenge,” says Brazington, referring to himself in the third person as his fellow students do — a reflection of their submission to Christ and the relinquishment of abusive pasts. “I’m tired of doing meth. My kids don’t want to see me when I’m using,” he says. “I used to steal from my own momma to support my habit.”

Miller never knew his biological father, but the man he calls “Dad” made questionable parenting decisions. “I went hunting in first grade and [my dad] didn’t bring any milk for my cereal,” he says. “‘Don’t worry, son,’ my dad assured me. ‘There is plenty of beer.’” Miller’s mother sent him to live with his grandmother, Marcella Kennedy, to get him away from drugs and alcohol. While Kennedy took him traveling and bought him nice things, Miller’s drug habit continued. “I’ve seen thirty-nine states and thirteen countries, but I threw it all away to drugs,” he says.

More recently, Kennedy took her grandson to the Oregon Coast on a day pass from Teen Challenge, reminding Miller why he’s in the program. “Addicts are selfish people,” he says, “but now I’m learning how to think about other people.”

The coming months will test the determination of Brazington and Miller. Both men say they shun substance abuse and try to focus on each day as it comes. Brazington wants to rebuild his relationship with his wife and children and take them to Hawaii. Miller aims to attend Portland State University or a Bible college with the intention of counseling youths who’ve had similar experiences. “I don’t want him to be Mr. Famous,” says Miller’s mother, “but I’d really like him to take this experience and help other kids.” Now, each man has faith in his ability to do so — faith in his recovery.