Sponsors fill most tables at Teen Challenge banquet at Show Me Center

Music, testimonies and prayers were the main events at the Teen Challenge International of Mid-America Banquet held Saturday night at the Show Me Center.

Executive director James Bolin said the banquet is the main event Teen Challenge hosts.

"It is a night that we hear testimony from students and alumni graduates of the success of the Teen Challenge ministry," he said.

Teen Challenge is a nationwide drug rehabilitation program. The Cape Girardeau location has 145 male students, all at least 16 years of age or older, participating in a 10-month program.

Heather Seabaugh, executive assistant at Teen Challenge, said attendees of the banquet were primarily donors, including churches, businesses and individuals from the Cape Girardeau area. She said out of 80 tables, 76 were sponsored at $195 per table.

The Rev. Phil Roop of Bethel Assembly of God is an avid supporter and donor. Roop said donations are crucial due to the costs of the program. He said each student costs an average of $45 a day in the program.

All students, he said, attend local churches, including Bethel Assembly of God, to help develop a healthy attitude toward the church and better understand its workings.

"We really believe in the mission ministry of Teen Challenge, which is to help men overcome life-controlling problems through the word of God," he said.

Ryan Kahler, a 2010 alumnus of the program and current drug counselor with Teen Challenge, said the past three years with the organization have been the best years of his life.

"Teen Challenge was the vehicle the Lord used to drive me out of the situations and mess I was in," he said.

Kahler said his drug addiction first began at 14 with the use of marijuana and by 17, he was taking methamphetamines through an IV.

"My life spiraled downward from there at a very fast rate," he said.

In January 2008, Kahler was caught with 419 grams of cocaine and arrested for drug trafficking in Springfield, Mo. He said his public defender gave him an application for Teen Challenge; he entered the program in December 2008.

After completing the program, Kahler entered staff training for one year to help others who are struggling with drug addiction.

"The ones that have been through it are able to connect and have relationships with these guys having experienced the same pain they're going through," he said.

Bolin said 76 to 85 percent of Teen Challenge students are still drug- and alcohol-free after one year.

"Teen Challenge's success is because of one man -- and that is the Lord Jesus Christ," he said.

rrolwing@semissourian.com

388-3654

Pertinent address:

1333 N. Sprigg St., Cape Girardeau MO