TEEN CHALLENGE RESCUES TROUBLED YOUNG MEN

Mid-America Teen Challenge has been located in the hills off Oriole Road (County Road 621) north of Cape Girardeau for almost 25 years. However, many area residents don't know what the center has done for the hundreds of men who have passed through the doors.

Most folks have heard Teen Challenge's choirs performing in area churches, tasted the strawberries and blueberries grown on the farm or had lawns mowed and raked by students from the center.

But even the executive director, Jack Smart, says that the program offered at Mid-America Teen Challenge remains an enigma for many area residents.

Teen Challenge's Cape Girardeau County location was a donation from a local farmer in the mid-1960s. The center was established in 1970, housing about 30 men.

Teen Challenge's mission was (and still is) to help "troubled young men." Many of the students are drug addicts, alcoholics or troubled in other ways.

The students' stay at any of the Teen Challenge facilities is totally free. And Teen Challenge solely relies on donations from supporters.

Of the hundreds of Teen Challenges around the country, several have programs for women, but Mid-American Teen Challenge in Cape Girardeau County offers a program exclusively for men over the age of 16.

"They are usually to the end of their rope when they get here," Smart said of his students. "They may have tried other programs or have run out of the money, but this is usually their last hope."

And as addictions have become more popular in the United States, so has Mid-America Teen Challenge. More than 100 men are participating in the program at the Cape Girardeau County facility.

The men get up about 6:15 a.m. and participate in morning chapel services, and then they are off to classes that last until lunch.

Chapel services and classes are geared for interdenominational acceptance. Although Teen Challenge is affiliated with the Assemblies of God Church, students have other religious backgrounds including upbringings that were non-Christian.

"We deal with the spiritual here," Smart said. "That separates us from other programs."

Smart said students must foster their relationship with God through Jesus Christ in order to succeed in the Teen Challenge program. He said students who decide Teen Challenge is "too religious" are free to leave.

"We'll be more than happy to give them a ride into town or to the bus station," he said. "We want them to stay, but if they are really fed up, it might be best for them to go."

Smart said after lunch students are expected to exhibit their relationship with Christ through work experience. He said students participate in strawberry and blueberry picking, mow and rake lawns, build toys in the wood shop or perform other tasks at the 300-acre farm off Oriole Road or at Teen Challenge's 600-acre cattle farm in Bollinger County.

Students say the work they do while attending Teen Challenge's standard 14-month program isn't easy. But many of the students agree that the work helps their recovery.

"This program has its ups and downs," said Michael Dorsey, 31, of Chicago. "I've been through four or five other programs, but I'm going to make it this time."

Dorsey, like many of the other students, was addicted to cocaine. And when he says "I'm going to make it," Dorsey has a better chance of achieving his goal of staying away from cocaine by participating in the Teen Challenge 14-month program.

Many area judges and probation officers are supportive of Teen Challenge. They believe the program is successful because of the 14-month duration and the counseling that is available. Many other drug addiction programs are 30, 60 or 90 days.

"It's an excellent program," said Circuit Judge William Syler. "I have been an admirer for some time. And I know it's not for everyone."

Syler said the courts routinely allow men to go to Teen Challenge as an alternative to prison. He said the intensive program is successful because of its hard-hitting religious message.

"And many people need to be hit hard with something," he said.

Syler said, although no statistics were available to him, he believed Teen Challenge had very few repeat students.

Kurt Gilbert, 26, of Buras, La., is participating at the Teen Challenge in Cape Girardeau County for the second time, an unusual occurrence. He first completed the program in 1993.

"I went back home and met up with some old friends," Gilbert said. "I just fell away from God and started with my problems again."

Gilbert said returning to Teen Challenge a second time was a humbling experience. He said this experience has been much harder for him. He wants to stay focused after completion this time, he said.

Many people might have the preconceived notion that students participating in the Teen Challenge program were jobless or had no direction before entering the program. That might be true for some students, but Teen Challenge also has seen successful businessmen and executives enter the program.

"We had one man here who was 56," Smart said.

Marty Provenzano, 28, of New Orleans is entering his eighth month in the program. He was employed by NASA before entering the Teen Challenge induction center in Hot Springs, Ark.

All of the students first enter an induction center, and Provenzano said that is when he had his doubts about staying with the program.

"But I had heard a lot of good things about this program and I wanted to stick with it," he said.

All of the students who attend Teen Challenge want to be there ultimately.

"They have to want to change their lives," Smart said. "And that's what happens if they're successful."