Jerry with TC Austrailian Leaders

God is moving in amazing ways across Teen Challenge Australia.  Just Listen:

• Vivian Wilson in Alice Springs has an effective prevention outreach to the aboriginals. She has such a rich history in caring for hurting people.  (See article below) 
• Neil Meyer from Victoria has had some wonderful opportunities come to them
  in the way of properties for expanding the programs. They are truly seeing God provide opportunities for reaching more students for Christ. 
• Joanne Hobbs the new Executive Director of TC Queensland just this week opened a new woman's home. 
• Graham Ross has just completed renovating a new facility that will allow substantial growth for TC in Adelaide. 
• Malcolm Smith has done an excellent job in developing TC in Western Australia. They now have a day program, church and their state offices in Perth.
• They have a beautiful new office complex.
• I visited the Men's and Women's home in Esperance 15 years ago and I was amazed at the improvements that have been made over the years. A new dining hall, beautiful chapel, gym, student housing and classroom, office complex are just a few of the new buildings. What a wonderful example of hard work and good leadership over time. 

Mark Hill, the Executive Director from the Sydney area was unable to attend the meeting. Malcolm reported that Mark was doing a great job and that the ministry was flourishing under Mark's leadership.

The Tasmania leaders, Bob Engwicht, Executive Director and David Barnes, program manager joined us for the meeting. Recently they had a miracle come as a direct result of a tragedy.  The tragedy was one of their buildings, which had an asbestos roof, burned down. When the fire department finished its inspections they reported to TC that they would need specialists to clean up the remains of the fire, due to the asbestos.

The clean up bids came in at $180,000 and higher. The 195 acres of land and buildings had been leased to TC Tasmania at the price of $1 dollar a year.  When the owners were told about the fire and clean up cost, they decided to just donate the property to TC so they could borrow money against the land to pay for clean up. The appraisal of the property came to $1.2 million dollars.

"Ride to Freedom Riders" along with Malcolm Smith Executive Director of TC Western Australia

Donors and a small loan got everything cleaned up and now they are the proud owners of a beautiful home for their men's center. It is amazing how tragedy can turn into a Miracle.

On a sad note, TC western Australia was very close to completing their 1000k Ride for Freedom event when  Kari Rummukainen, one of their bike riders, passed away suddenly. He was a TC foundation board member, key sponsor and a dear friend.  The TC family will deeply miss Kari, as he was such an inspiration to both staff and students.

Keep the ministries and leaders of TC in your prayers as they continue to reach addicts across Australia.

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Teen Challenge Centralia is a Christian based outreach program that has been operating in Central Australia since 2004. Our main programs focus around Indigenous young people.  We have been running an adapted 12 Step Plus program (a visual presentation relating to life controlling issues and substance abuse) since 2004 at Yirara College a Lutheran Boarding school for young Indigenous youth from the remote communities of Central Australia.

Shine self esteem program

We have run a very successful "Shine" self esteem program every term for the girls at Yirara since 2007 until end of 2010. The Shine program was also presented in an Aboriginal Community an hour away at Santa Teresa for young mothers of children who attend their Women's Centre.        

In 2010 we ran an adventure base program for 12 youth in the Police Youth Diversion Unit which included a 4 hour hike.  We also joined together for a very rewarding and challenging girl's camp along with the Aboriginal Kids Club "Light Force" in Alice Springs for 12 indigenous girls ranging from 7-13 years with the assistance of Rangers from Townsville and a church from the Sunshine Coast.

In 2011 we completed  a combined Adventure Based program and bike camp for 12 young men on the Police Youth Diversion Unit program, including a 4 hour bike ride, and then with the Aboriginal Kids Club "Light

Lightforce extension

Force" for up to 26 Aboriginal kids.

We have also been working with the Police Youth Diversion Unit at Jay Creek running an adapted 12 Step program since 2008 on traditional land with the permission of the elders.  We are in the process of setting up a fully functioning horse therapy program at Jay Creek where the youth from the Police Youth Diversion Unit will have the brumbies broken in for riding and caring for.  Already some structures are partially in place where we had Mobile Missions Maintenance assist us building a bush kitchen and local volunteers assisted with the corral, water tank, and the stockyard, along with one resident horse.   

Teen Challenge Centralia has been part of the Christian Community Centre of Alice Springs and we visit the jail on a 6-7 week basis and have assisted in running a Shine program in the women's prison.         

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The mission of Global Teen Challenge is to assist in the development and implementation of Teen Challenge programs around the world.  Today there are more than 1100 Teen Challenge programs in 91 countries of the world. It is our desire to provide the best and latest tools available in helping individuals with life controlling addictions.  According to the United Nations, more than 200 million people worldwide struggle with drug abuse. Drug users are getting younger and their use is becoming more frequent. Alcohol and drug addictions are plaguing our nations, our cities and invading our homes. We are committed to doing everything we can to reach people around the globe with life controlling problems. For more information on Global Teen Challenge, visit our website at www.GlobalTC.org