An “aha moment” as Oprah has so called it….that’s what I had. A couple months ago I attended Sunday evening chapel at America’s Keswick in Whiting, NJ. This place is something that I have taken for granted. The mission of this place in the middle of nowhere on a lake, to the outsider a summer camp, is to reach men who are struggling with addiction. While they do hold conferences and miscellaneous Christian events, the heart of America’s Keswick is for these men who are stuck in their substance addiction. 

Their chapel is actually more in the middle of nowhere than their main campus is…Jon and I got lost. Once we found it though, we found a tiny white church with one room, a dirt parking lot, wooden pews, hymnals, and the friendliest people I’ve been around in awhile. The people that filled the pews seemed to be a mix of regular congregants, men going through the addiction program, their families and friends, and staff members. We were all gathered there for different reasons, yet still acknowledging each other as brothers and sisters of the same faith. The pastor stood up, asked us to grab our hymnals and directed us to a page number.

Continue reading →