I was saved at 9 years old and raised in a Christian family.  I’m the youngest of ten children.  As soon as I graduated from high school I married my high school sweetheart, Judy.  I spent four years in the Navy.  During that time I turned away from God and began to drink and party.  My life was in a tailspin.  As Judy and I were coming home from Maine she told me that if I continued to do the things that I had been doing she could no longer put up with it.  I was tired of the life I was living, I committed to make changes in my life.  We moved to Sundown, TX and went to work for Mobil Pipeline Co.  On the day we were moving in some men came to visit us from First Baptist Church.  We decided to go to the church and after the service the same men came back and helped us finish unloading the rest of our furniture.  I made a fresh commitment to Jesus Christ.  He began to mold me into a Christian man.  That was in November of 1970.  In 1973 I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  God blessed us with three wonderful children.  My life has had many trials and situations but God has strengthened and directed me through them all.  In 1975 we moved to Midland, TX.  I became aware of Teen Challenge of the Permian Basin and started being a supporter.  Then, in 1998, I became a board member.  I retired from Exxon Mobil Pipeline in January 2004.  As of August, 2012, I have resigned my position on the board and accepted the Executive Director position.  I am excited about the challenge and the opportunity of seeing men and women’s lives change.  

           In 1997, broken and confused, I sought help by entering a Teen/ Life Challenge of Dallas.  This is where I began to learn about God and the mercy and grace He offers those who follow Him.  Restoration of many broken relationships began during this time of life.  I came on staff and stayed with the ministry for three years until I decided to pursue worldly achievements. I went into the world and forgot the things that God had taught me.  I was away from the Lord for ten years until I found myself in prison crying out for help once again. In 2006, after getting out of prison, I again found myself in need of help. 

          After entering Teen / Life Challenge a second time, I really began to seek God’s will for my life.  I made a conscious decision to surrender all I am to the Lord.  He began to use me in a leadership capacity in the ministry and to reveal His calling for me to help those with the same affliction I had.  I felt a strong desire to show hope to those who seemed hopeless. I still find myself in this same spot. I have the awesome privilege to serve as Program Director for Teen Challenge of the Permian Basin in Midland, TX. I am extremely Thankful that God never gave up on me and continues to do miracles in the lives of those he sends to us. Thank you for your support of this life changing ministry.  

My name is Robert Ricks. I am from Washington, DC and I am a 1991 Muskegon Teen Challenge graduate. My life had become unmanageable and hopeless because of my choices and addiction. Today, however, I am proud to say that I'm a man after God's own heart, and seek to do His will.

      I come from a strong Christian home. I was always in church and I found a relationship with God at an early age. Through my teenage years, I began to rebel and soon found myself in a lifestyle of drugs, alcohol, and meaningless relationships. I knew that God had a calling on my life, but I was not willing to submit to Him and give Him control of my entire life. Finally, I came to a breaking point and found myself faced with time in prison. I cried out to God and told Him that I could not live my way any longer. I was so miserable and felt so alone. I came to Teen Challenge and turned my everything over to God. God reached down and pulled me out of the pit, and I came to realize that He never forgot about me, He never gave up on me, and His plan for my life never changed. The changes in my life have been incredible and I couldn't imagine going back to my old life.

 

      My name is Ben Kuznicki and I oversee the Education Department. I am a 2003 graduate of a Teen Challenge in Lansing, Michigan. Before going through the Teen Challenge program, my life was on a one-way course to jail and death. I was court-ordered to Teen Challenge and that's where Christ showed me I not only had problems, but that He was the only way to true freedom. Since graduating, I have been blessed with a wife and six children and a great opportunity working here at the center. I praise God for the grace and mercy God has shown me in my walk so far.

      My story is much like everyone else’s - looking for significance, looking for hope, looking for love, looking for a Savior… with an endless road of hurts, disappointments, heartbreaks, strongholds, and destructions rooted out of rejection, abandonment, divorce, abuse, worthlessness, conditional love and hopelessness.  Always searching for more than what I had known, what I had experienced and lived.  I was saved when I was 16 but still didn’t know Christ; didn’t understand what an intimate relationship with Christ meant. 

       Then at age 26 after 5 attempted suicides, going to countless hospitals, countless counselors, medication after medication, divorce, being an unhealthy, wounded single mom, Jesus met me right where I was and set me free and delivered me from the pit of my depression and despair and darkness. 

       I’m 43 now and, not one day since, have I had to take a medication to make me better, nor have I felt depressed or even thought of suicide.  God brought light, joy, hope, and love I’ve never known.  I now am a single mom of 2 beautiful kids, got my college degree and obtained my LCDC.  I’m serving God in my church by helping others and working in this ministry helping those who are still in that pit to get out.  To God be all the glory, honor and praise!!!!  I’m only here today because of Him and I hope to walk in righteousness, honor and faithfulness to God all the rest of my days serving Him and His people.