TEEN CHALLENGE ALUMNI CELEBRATE CHANGED LIVES, BRIGHT FUTURES

For Eric "Cool Breeze" Sledge, Thanksgiving was a day to be truly thankful that his life had turned around.

The 33-year-old Sledge admits he was once a bum, living on alcohol and drugs in the streets of Chattanooga, Tenn.

Sledge's life centered on drugs, dating back to high school. He regularly used drugs from ages 14 to 28. He was in and out of jail.

At 21, he started using crack. Four years later, he was living on the streets By age 28, he hit rock bottom."I was totally lost. I was a straight-up bum," he recalled.

Sledge said he turned to God and was "saved" in October 1994. He entered a Teen Challenge program in Hot Springs, Ark., and then spent about 10 months at the Teen Challenge International of Mid-America Center near Cape Girardeau in 1995 and early 1996.

Sledge was one of the alumni who returned to the Cape Girardeau County center Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving. "It means a lot," said Sledge, who wore a rope cross around his neck.

Sledge said God "reached down and picked me up." Today, he is a junior staff member with the Teen Challenge center in Hot Springs.

Thanksgiving marked the start of a three-day homecoming at the Cape Girardeau Teen Challenge Center. It is scheduled to conclude Saturday with the annual graduation ceremony at the First Assembly of God Church at 750 Mount Auburn Road.

The graduation ceremony is for alumni who have completed the 10-month program and are free of drug and alcohol addictions. As many as 50 people may graduate.

On Thursday, about 260 students, staff and alumni feasted on a Thanksgiving dinner, complete with all the trimmings.

About 100 men attended a Thanksgiving Day chapel service at Teen Challenge. The Rev. Jack Smart, who directs the center, urged the men to be thankful to God for what they have. The Cape Girardeau center is one of about 280 such Christian centers worldwide devoted to helping people overcome drug and alcohol addictions.

The local center has been in operation for 29 years. The Cape Girardeau center has nearly 100 students at any one time. The students, who typically range in age from 18 to over 40, live at the center.

Some voluntarily enroll at the center. Thirty to 40 percent are placed at the center by the courts as a condition of probation.

Smart said the students have had troubled lives, suffering from alcohol and drug abuse. Many were abused as children, he said."They have to learn how to look at life differently," he said.

David Offord, 40, of Charleston, has a new outlook on life.

Once an alcohol and drug addict, Offord went through the Teen Challenge program in 1987. Today, he has a job with Gates Rubber Co. is an associate minister with a church in Charleston.

Offord, who grew up in Chicago, said he found God while reading a religious tract one January night in an abandoned building in St. Louis. "After the Lord came into my heart, I left that abandoned building."He called his mother in Charleston and proceeded to get help for his addiction. Offord said Teen Challenge gave him the stability he needed to get off drugs and alcohol.

Offord said Thanksgiving is more than just a meal. "It goes a whole lot deeper."Said Offord, "I'm richer today because of what I have on the inside."Sherman Draper, 31, grew up in Chicago. He too suffered from drug and alcohol abuse. "I was involved in gangs," recalled Draper, one of the alumni who celebrated Thanksgiving at the Teen Challenge Center.

He was in and out of jails. He stole drugs and money.

Draper finally got help. He went through the treatment program at the Cape Girardeau center, completing it last February.

Today, he works for the Teen Challenge Center in Dallas, Texas. "God has given me so much," he said following the morning church service.

Draper said Teen Challenge saved his life. Without it, he said, he probably would be dead or in jail.

Former drug addict Tim Coman, 32, of Houston, Texas, also celebrated Thanksgiving at the Teen Challenge Center. He was a student at the center from May 1989 to June 1990.

Today, he operates Teen Hope, an organization in Houston that helps troubled teens.

Coman said he has always wanted to return to the center to go through the graduation ceremony , but never had the finances to do so until this year.

Teen Challenge students can't go through the graduation ceremony until after they have completed the program and lived for a time on their own for a time.

Frederick Atwood, 36, of Elgin, Ill., spent last Thanksgiving in a Chicago area jail after he assaulted his wife. They have since divorced.

Atwood currently is a student at the Cape Girardeau center. He has been at the center since late August.

Atwood said he was addicted to drugs and alcohol, which led to his being fired from construction jobs.

But while in jail last year, a friend shared the Bible with him. He credits God with helping him rescue his life.

For Atwood and others at the center, this Thanksgiving wasn't just another holiday. It was truly a time to give thanks.