
My family has a history with substance use disorder (SUD). One of our three sons was addicted to heroin. I’ve been sharing our family’s story with students and their families since 2012. I’ve been involved with several local groups that have been trying to fight the current drug abuse epidemic. One of these groups is the Mason–Dixon Ministerium which is comprised of about a dozen local churches. Members of our Ministerium started attending the GOAL training sessions to see what our faith-based communities could/should be doing to help folks.
Through the training, our Ministerium has identified two main goals that we hope to achieve: 1. to make our congregations aware of the drug problems and solutions; 2. to help our congregations become warm, welcoming places for anyone who is suffering from or in recovery from a SUD, and all of the loved ones in families impacted by SUD. We’ve come a long way as a ministry group, and still have much to do.
– Bob H, Mason-Dixon Ministerium (Image does not reflect persons in the story)