Article - Where's Andy - Denver Rescue Mission

Andy was only thirteen when a friend’s mother offered him drugs.

Wanting approval from his peers, he gave in. A twenty-three year battle with drugs and alcohol ensued, and as he fell deeper and deeper into depression, his family feared they had lost Andy forever.

But there is hope for Andy, and hope for others who began using drugs as children. Today, Andy is drug- and alcohol-free, and has found the freedom and stability of community through the New Life Program at Harvest Farm.

At Harvest Farm, A. J. has found strength and meaning in relationships. He and his friend Dan work out and pray regularly in the Farm’s gym, challenging each other physically and spiritually.

It’s not difficult to keep track of a man as tall as Andrew John. As he waits for a bowl of beef stew in the lunch line at Harvest Farm, he towers above other residents and volunteers. Later, as he walks through alfalfa fields, his figure looms against the backdrop of blue mountains. How could so tall a man ever hide himself away?

It was only a year ago that A. J.’s family and friends believed they had lost him permanently to drug abuse. His father used to ask him, “Where is Andy? Where is my son?”

“I’m here, Dad! I’m right here,” A. J. would say. But his father knew that his son was slowly slipping away from him.

Now, a year later, A. J. reflects on his transformation since that time. He remembers, “I had always thought I was close to my dad. Really, I was so far away from him. I was talking to Dad daily, but even through his cancer, through everything, I was in my own world.”

A. J. was born into a loving family in Northern California. But after floods destroyed their home, his parents’ relationship began to crumble, and eventually they divorced. Seeking to regain something of what he had lost, A. J. reached out to drugs and friends for fulfillment. When he was thirteen years old, a friend’s mother sold him methamphetamines. This triggered a twenty-year-long battle with drugs.

Ten years later, A. J. was twenty-three years old and still using hard drugs. Trying to help his son escape the drug culture, A. J.’s dad suggested they move to Colorado in the hope that once A. J.’s troubles subsided, he and his son could own a hardwood flooring business together. But in Colorado, A. J.’s drug habit only persisted. Soon, A. J. was incarcerated for trafficking.

Three years later, when he left prison, A. J. felt more worthless and alone than ever. “Like pond scum,” he says. Yet an even bigger blow was yet to come. He discovered that his dad had been diagnosed with a rare, terminal cancer. The news left A. J. reeling. He says of that time, “I didn’t care to live anymore. I just got high . . .
any way possible. I was faced with homelessness for the first time.”

But one morning, something changed. A. J. woke up after a night of drugs and partying, and he knew what he had to do. “My brain lit up,” he says. He made up his mind to go to detox.

Because his dad was far too sick to move, his stepmother drove him. A.J. remembers arriving at the detox center with two big suitcases and a duffel bag. People stared at him, saying, “Who’s moving in?” A.J. replied, “I’m not moving in. I’m going somewhere!”

That somewhere was Harvest Farm. At the detox center, he learned about the New Life Program. On September 19th, 2006, A. J. began as a “pipeliner”—a new resident at the farm.

At first, life on the farm was very difficult. A. J. worried constantly about losing his father. Only two weeks into the program, A. J.’s father suffered a particularly bad attack. Weary from fighting and worry, A. J. surrendered all his problems to God, saying, “Take everything. I’m done.” Today, as he tells of this experience, his face softens. “And from then on, His love and grace completely changed my life.”

How exactly has this “love and grace” changed A. J.? Most importantly, A.J. now enjoys relationships, speaking excitedly of spending time with his nephews, swimming, camping and watching them playing hockey. In the evenings on the farm, he enjoys giving his testimony at campfires for farm volunteers. Also, he values his relationships with incoming residents, for whom he served as a dorm representative: “sitting around, talking to the guys, listening to them, being there for them, and helping them out.”

“This is a family. I am going to continue to have these friends for the rest of my life,” A. J. (pictured in his Colorado Eagles jersey) says of the small group he joined at a local church in Ft. Collins.

In November, A. J. joined a small group at Mountain View Community Church in Fort Collins, where he feels very close to the other members. “I got baptized at the church and gave my testimony, and they were all there. They really know me. This is a family. I am going to continue to have these friends for the rest of my life.” A. J. is confident that this support system will give him long-term stability when he graduates from the farm. He says, “The farm is not just a place where we come to get training on drugs and alcohol. This program brought me to the realization that it’s about other people—it’s about helping, loving and giving. It’s about life. It’s about creating a new life.”

Tragically, A. J.’s father passed away in March. A. J. still deeply feels the loss of his beloved dad. In fact, he believes that his dad held on as long as he did for the reassurance that his son would be safe. In the last six months of his father’s life, A. J. was able to spend a lot of time with him, and was even able to push his dad in his wheelchair around the corn maze.

A. J. is thankful that his father lived to witness his son’s transformation through the New Life Program.

When asked about how his dad responded to the changes in A. J.’s life, A. J. grins, and says, “He loved it. My dad loved it. He was just the happiest thing, and he had the biggest smile. I mean, he was just so proud of me. He really, really was. He’s still proud of me.

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