‘Not just about getting sober’: Addiction ministry helps men find healing

By Anjali Patel

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    MACON COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — An addiction ministry in the Franklin area of Macon County is taking a faith-based approach to recovery.

About 50 men have graduated from the Adult and Teen Challenge of the Smokies Men’s Center since it began accepting students in August 2016.

The sprawling 15-acre property on the Cullasaja River used to be home to a camp.

“It took us about a year to get it fixed up to where we could use it, took about 300 volunteers,” said executive director Michael Barres, a pastor who had been counseling men struggling with addiction for years prior to starting this program in Macon County.

Barres said the camp-like setup proved fitting for the property’s new purpose of helping men recover.

“The perfect setup. All the different buildings, the different uses of the different buildings, it’s perfect for the program,” Barres said.

The 12-month residential recovery program houses up to 20 men at a time, offering them counseling, coping classes, vocational training including woodwork and mechanic work, wilderness therapy through hikes and outdoor activities, and more. The activities are all rooted in faith.

“So these men have had serious addiction problems. We’re talking about multiple overdoses, we’re talking about coming to us from jail, we’re talking about being homeless,” Barres said.

Barres said the volunteering and vocational training are vital to the men’s recovery journeys in multiple ways.

“They’re not only the learning the skills, but learning how to work under authority, learning how to work together when people have differences of opinion,” Barres said. “The work experience is not only the skills, but learning to work together, learning to work under a boss so they can keep their job when they get a job after they leave.”

Barres said the program is dedicated to setting men up for success long after they leave the bucolic recovery retreat. For example, they offer transitional housing on the property to men who graduate the program.

“Housing is just a terrible problem right now so we allow them to stay down there and stay in one of the cabins. Including their rent, utilities, that includes wi-fi and the laundry building, we charge them 200 dollars a month,” Barres said.

Barres added, they’ve been blessed with lots of support from the community, which provides essential donations to their programs, and even helped them pay off their mortgage on the property within just 3 years.

“The kind people in this area, from businesses to individuals to churches, support us. We have a fee schedule but over two-thirds of our men are not able to pay anything but we scholarship them and let them come anyway. The generous support of this area enables us to do what we’re doing,” Barres said.

Barres said the issue of addiction has skyrocketed in Macon County, as it has nationwide in recent years. While they are always looking for ways to do more and serve more men, he believes it’s the intimacy of the program that makes it so effective.

“Having 20 men, this is a very relational and very personal program and we believe that really helps it to be successful,” Barres said.

He added, another aspect of the program that makes a big difference is that it’s a peer-support-based program, meaning that all of the staff have been through addiction recovery programs, too — like Kyle Adams.

Now a work detail supervisor there, Adams was once a student at the Adult and Teen Challenge of the Smokies Men’s Center from July 2019 to July 2020.

“I have 20 years of drug addiction in my past. I’ve tried every drug out there there is. But cocaine leading to crack would be what they would call a DOC, drug of choice,” Adams said. “Cocaine was something that for some reason, I liked a lot. As a young kid, I was 15, probably first time I tried it and you don’t even see it when the addiction comes in. First, you’re having fun.”

Adams said after graduating high school, his plan was to go into the military, but he couldn’t pass a drug test. Instead, he took up a job in construction, all while his addiction to cocaine raged on.

“I fed a lie to myself. I said I was a functioning addict. I could go to work every day, I could somewhat live my daily life, I could pay some bills, but that was absolutely nothing but a lie right there. There was nothing functioning about it,” Adams said.

He said he tried multiple rehabs in Florida, where he’s from, but nothing worked for him. It took ruining his relationship with his family and waking up one day in a hospital after a binge for him to decide to make a change for good. A friend recommended the Adult and Teen Challenge of the Smokies Men’s Center to him — a place that would soon change the course of his life.

“This recovery place is not just about getting sober; we already know we kind of need to do that. This is about changing our way to becoming different men,” Adams said.

Adams said the hiking and beauty of the mountains played an integral role in his recovery, as well as all of the coping classes.

“I always tell people I had to get sober to realize how much wrong was in me at the time, my attitude, selfishness, how I talked,” Adams said.

Adams said he’s now on his way to celebrating 4 years without substances — a milestone he never imagined reaching.

“This place, it’s been the biggest blessing to me. It’s changed who I am,” Adams said.

Now, he’s mended his relationship with his family, and even recently got married.

Though he graduated from the Adult and Teen Challenge of the Smokies Men’s Center years ago, he still finds comfort there, now as an employee.

“These guys, these students in here help me just as much as I hope I help them,” Adams said.

If you are interested in this recovery program, visit this website to apply: form.jotform.com/220375143408046

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