Friday April 26 had a large group of supporters gather for dinner to fundraise towards making a recovery centre for women with addictions happen in Fernie.

Spearheaded by local resident Linda Johnson and her team with support from Pastor Dennis Williamson and the Trinity Pentecostal Church and under the auspices of the successful Wing’s as Eagles Ministry Recovery Centre in Cranbrook the idea has been percolating for some time and has now taken hold.

The evening began with a welcome by Pastor Dennis with John Dumas from Cranbrook acting as MC. The program included several musical interludes and testimonials including one from Linda Johnson.

John introduced Pastor Ron Short, the creator of the Wing’s as Eagles Ministry noting that they had been working closely together for years and recalling how there were times when Ron and his wife would pick up a couple of packages of Kraft dinner from the food bank so that they could have something to eat. “Revolutionaries have a passion for Christ, many aren’t in church but many are. We have to give people chances, we need to forgive as Christ said seven times seven, wherever I go, people I meet have hearts that belong to Jesus,” John said as he asked his friend Pastor Ron to come up.

A visibly emotional Pastor Short said “I am overwhelmed at what the Lord has done in Cranbrook and now in Fernie”.

Pastor Short went on to say how he was an alcoholic who had reached rock bottom; miraculously he was able to change his life around and was sent a vision to start a recovery center for men in Cranbrook. “The vision He gave me has come to fruition, five years, 125 men helped. All money raised in Fernie stays here for the women’s recovery centre, when individuals are battling addictions they have to go away for treatment, instead with a centre here they can stay so once finished they have a support system to fall back on.”

Linda concurred, she said women can stay up to two years in the recovery centre, most that go to the coast for treatment go through a 16 week program but once finished sometimes they find themselves homeless or they return to the same situation so if the program addressed only their woundedness without dealing with other problems they revert back to the old ways of dealing with their situation. With a recovery centre in Fernie women will be able to stay longer and get more support.

Twyla, a beautiful young woman gave an impassioned testimonial of how she had descended into drugs and alcohol, had her child taken away from her, tried to get clean on her own and had not been successful. However, she is now clean and sober and reunited with her daughter. Her personal story of addiction was very moving but more so was her obvious determination to now devote her life to helping other women.

Another testimonial from a young Cranbrook woman told of how she was shunted from one foster home to another, how her mother had all of her children taken away and eventually died from cirrhosis of the liver. She said she herself spiraled out of control, quit her job although it was the only area of life she’d experienced success in and then “ dug a deep hole and threw herself in it, I was in complete darkness, I faced life or death, I decided to crawl out of that hole I had placed myself in and told my boss what was going. The boss replied that if I cleaned myself up I would get my job back. It has been an amazing journey, Jesus is my new addiction.”

The evening had a delicious roast beef dinner catered by CP Catering and a silent auction to raise funds. Many local businesses donated items and gift certificates to support this endeavour.

It was touched on by Pastor Short that when he first began there was some “not in my back yard” attitude at finding a venue for the recovery center.

I believe Fernie is open-minded and compassionate enough that there won’t be any such response.

Most of us are fortunate not to find ourselves in the quagmire of addiction. Many people who seem to lead lives that are productive hide their addiction from the world. But the saying that “Most people lead lives of quiet desperation” seems very true when one hears testimonials from those who have suffered through addictions but have overcome them.

For more information or to donate to this very worthy cause contact Linda Johnson at 250 423 6603.