recovery in a box

How and why it started

2007-05-30T01:20:00.000+02:00

Chris and Trisha Creighton started “Recovery in a box” to help alcoholics and drug addicts around the world to break the bondage of addiction, and to guide them down a pathway that allows Jesus to work through their lives in a powerful way.

2007-03-11T07:55:00.000+01:00

New Generation
A football tournament took place as part of an annual Christian Conference involving youth from whole Serbia held at the end of September. Twelve teams from various churches and organizations took part, including a team from Raskrsce Teen Challenge Serbia made up from young men who had completed of the rehabilitation program. Matches were very tight and competition very strong. The Raskrsce Teen Challenge Serbia team went through to the final undefeated. Their rivals in the final were a team from the Evangelical Church in Novi Sad. This was a closely fought match on the field and after a penalty shoot out the Evangelical Church team came out winners. However, Raskrsce Teen Challenge Serbia was very satisfied with their well deserved runners up prize.Despite the final defeat it was fantastic to see young people at the end of the rehabilitation program, who just a few years ago were completely destroyed, both physically and psychologically, compete full of enthusiasm and motivation. It was a strong testimony of how our God is capable of renewing and changing human lives.

http://www.raskrsce.org.yu/english/news.htm

I was a junky
My name is Branislava, and I am 33 years old. I thank God because my once insignificant life has gained meaning and purpose. I was a drug addict for twelve years and I tried to find my worth and identity in that. This way of life led me in the wrong direction, into oblivion, despair and suffering. At first glance my changed state of mind was giving me a false sense of fulfillment and identity. In the end, my only motivation was heroin… and my entire life lost its purpose. I tried to come off heroin in hospitals, with friend’s, at private psychiatrists; I was in Russia, but everything was in vain… Without heroin the emptiness and despair were destroying me from the inside. Alone and desperate I decided to do something. I heard about Raskrsce Teen Challenge Serbia and was able to enter the rehabilitation program. I met God and He started to change me and to renew me. I began to motivate myself, I started to read the Bible and I realized that there was a way out of the drug addict life that I was living before program. Through prayer and reading the Bible, my character was changed, as was my view on life, and my values. There is no emptiness and despair, now in their place live love and faith in God. At last I am content in who I really am. I was a drug addict… and now I am free, I have a new life, a new chance and a new beginning, which only Jesus could give me.

2007-01-23T10:45:00.000+01:00

To my Roma Family
Greetings to you. This is Chris. How is the weather in Sarejevo? In California it is cold and windy. It is January 2007. In March it will be 7 years since I drank or used any drugs. How did I do it? I stayed close to other people who did not drink, and I asked God every day for help.

Over the past year I wrote to you and told you the steps of recovery, and what they did in my life. When I reached the end of the steps, it was not the end of my work...it was the beginning. Every day I do things to help others. Not because I am someone nice or special, but because if I don't do Gods work, and if I don't try to act as Jesus acted, I am afraid of what I will become. I will probably become the person that I was when I was drinking and using drugs. I was a liar, I was a cheater, I was a thief. Now I am a new creation in Christ.
Today I tried to do as God would have me do. That is how I continue to do the steps in my life every day. If I make a mistake I ask for forgiveness. This life I have with the Lord is far better than any life I ever had before!

Many things are happening here in my town. My kids are getting older, my wife is filled with the Holy Spirit, she is working with girls here that are hurting. Some of these girls are getting healed by God, they are giving up addictions like cutting themselves.

Our pastor of our church is leaving to become a missionary. He will train leaders all over the world.

Suzy and Corah visited. We had pizza. Reinhold was not with them so I ate his pizza.

They sell a coffee here called Cafe Roma, I order it and I think of you.

Love Chris

2006-10-31T20:22:00.000+01:00

DEPEND

For so long while I lived in my addiction I depended on drugs and alcohol to fix me, make me feel better from life's hurts. Then it overtook my life and left me alone and scared. It no longer made me feel better it only caused more pain.

After I got sober I began to depend on Jesus. For me to fully understand how to do that I had to study the Bible to discover more about Him. Once my mind understood who He was and what He wanted to do for me in my life I began to BELIEVE the truth of His word. Abraham believed God, he left his home, he waited patiently for a son, and God NEVER FAILED HIM. God has never failed me! Jesus is the only one in my life that has NEVER LET ME DOWN. I study the Bible to learn more of God's promises so I can claim them in my life today. The only way to know God's promises is to study them, the only way to study them is to read His holy and perfect word found in the Bible.

I will leave you with this scripture:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11: 28-30

Do you need rest?
Are you burdened?
Who are you depending on?

God bless you my brothers and sisters.
Trisha

2006-10-10T21:33:00.000+02:00

Dear Friends and Family
How are all of you? I am doing good. My children are well. My oldest son plays soccer all the time, he is very good. I do not spend much time on the Internet lately.

I would like to share with you how I asked for forgiveness from those people that I hurt when I was drinking alcohol and using drugs.There was a lot of people that I lied to, and I stole from, and I used them to get what I wanted. When I found recovery GOD FORGAVE ME FOR EVERYTHING, but I still had to live with the consequences of what I had been doing. The steps in recovery offer help to deal with our new life.

I had a list of people I hurt from the steps I had already done. I took this list and studied it to see how to ask for forgiveness. I was not to just ask for forgiveness, but I was to tell the person that I was working not to act this way again. I went to many people that I had stolen from and gave them their money back, I also went to my parents and my Friends parents and said I was sorry for not being honest. The only rule was that if my apology was going to hurt someone I was not to do it. My apology was to humble me, and to offer healing, IT WAS NOT TO BE DONE IF IT WOULD CAUSE PROBLEMS IN OTHER PEOPLES LIVES...

Also my apology was to not blame anyone but myself, even if the other person was wrong also. God can take care of the other persons part.

WHY WOULD I DO THIS?

It freed me. I now had freedom to walk in my neighborhood without hiding. It was a hard thing to do, but it was the best thing I ever did in recovery.

I love you all - Chris

2006-09-05T23:01:00.000+02:00

Hello to my Roma Family
A lot has been happening in my life. I am a father to 3 children. I am trying to raise them and teach them about their Heavenly Father. I tell them that I love them because they are my children, but my love is human love and I am not perfect. I make mistakes all the time. Sometimes I am not patient. Sometimes I am selfish. Sometimes I do not listen. But our Heavenly Father is perfect! He never makes a mistake. He has a plan for our lives that is better than we can imagine! Our heavenly father is always patient with us. he waits for us through all of our mistakes. he is never ashamed of us. Our Heavenly Father is never selfish. He looks at us as His prize. I can see how God sees the Roma because even as I write to you my heart is filled with Love. I hear from Bosnia that some of you are not well. Some of you are drunk and on drugs. Some of you look really bad. I used to look really bad, God saw through me, God had a different plan for me. God took me away from my old life and to a new life that he had planned for me. I put my eyes were on Him and not my problems. I put my eyes on His grace and not my guilt. I am not guilty because of Jesus Christ. When I hear that my Roma family is hurting, I hurt. I know that you can recover, I know that you can be healed. I know that you have support from leaders around you. God sees through you, God has a different plan for you.
I was going to write more about the steps today, but I wanted to share my heart. My heart is that I love you, and if you have accepted Jesus as your savior than we will spend eternity together with Him. But while here on earth God has a plan for us that is healing and helping others. he wants us to bring more people to His kingdom.
The spirit of God feels your pains and your joys with you.

I would like to hear from you.
I think of all of you by name, too many names to write.
I would like you to write to me and tell me how you are. tell me your joys and pains.
Love Chris

2006-08-13T10:25:00.000+02:00

Greetings to my Roma Family

I have written to you a few letters about recovery since camp. What I have written to you has been about the first steps we take in recovery. We ADMIT that we have a problem, then we BELIEVE that god can heal us, we ASK Him to fill us with His power because we cannot do this on our own.

After we ask Him to fill us with His power, we find someone that we trust to talk to. I met with someone every week, for months and talked with Him. It was important that since I was a man, that I met with a man not a woman. This man that I met with had experience with recovery. If you do not know anyone with recovery, it would be fine to meet with a leader that walks with Jesus every day. When I met with this man I prayed and told him my feelings. I was honest with him about my sins. I wrote down all the people that I was angry at and all the people who hurt me. I wrote down all of my feelings. It was important that I was honest. I did not leave anything out. I shared everything with this person. He shared with me. After he shared, I realized that I was not different than him, also that there is many others like me.

After I shared, I looked at what I wrote down, and I looked at the places where I was wrong, the places where I sinned against others. I wrote these sins down and prayed that God would give me the STRENGTH to ask these people for forgiveness.

The next steps I will share with you later. These first steps took me time. When I met with people at meetings, and met with this man, I did not drink. Every day I did these things, I had one more day without a drink or drug. IT WORKS.

I hope that my letters are reaching you. My E-mail is trishacreighton@sbcglobal.net

God Bless you, Chris

2006-07-06T18:30:00.000+02:00

Greetings to our Roma Family, may God bless you and protect you on your road to RECOVERY.

After we admit that we have a problem (or for me, many problems), we must believe that Jesus Christ can remove these addictions, or give us the power to recover from our hurts. This truth works in all areas of life. Every day I must release everything to God, anything that I hold on to for myself usually brings me pain or frustration.

JESUS DOES EXIST. He is who He said He was. He did die for my sins, and He raised Himself from the dead and waits patiently for me (and you). I would not share all of this with you if it was not true. I have seen His power relieve me from drugs and alcohol, I have seen the same for my wife, I have seen Him relieve people from addictions to pornography, from gambling, from cutting themselves, I have seen Jesus work in peoples life's to free them from anger and pain, from being abused and beaten, I have seen people leave homosexually lifestyles that were hurting them emotionally and physically, I have seen people get power from Jesus to deal with relatives that are on drugs and alcohol.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO ASK JESUS POWER FOR?

He can work in your life. Faith is the key. it is not easy walk through pain in our lives, but it is rewarding. There is no reward in pretending that we have no pain, if we pretend, our pain grows and slowly destroys our lives, but if we receive power from God, He rewards us.

ANYONE WHO COMES TO GOD MUST BELIEVE THAT HE EXISTS AND THAT HE REWARDS THOSE WHO EARNESTLY SEEK HIM.
HEBREWS 11:6

2006-06-06T21:53:00.000+02:00

EATING DISORDER
I have had an eating disorder since I was really young. I grew up in an abusive household - drug addiction, alcoholism, verbal, physical, mental, sexual. I learned I had to find ways to stay away from home as much as possible. I started with playing a clarinet in band in the 3rd grade. The practices kept me busy for awhile. Then I got into running - Track & Field & Cross Country in the 6th grade. Training & practicing for all the meets really kept me busy. I continued to play the clarinet also. This is how I stayed away from the house as much as I could.

Well being how I was abused, I managed to pick up many different disorders in my 17yrs of living @ home. I have been diagnosed as Anorexic, Exercise, laxative abuse Bulemic, PTSD, OCD, & Chronic depression. I had also developed the nasty habit of cutting & burning myself. I have no idea why I developed this, but I think I just wanted to die and get away from the pain. My running, laxative abuse & diet pills were no longer cutting it. But with many years of ongoing therapy, Celebrate Recovery, inpatient treatment I came to realize that I was only hurting myself even more & hurting God. I didn't feel any pain while doing these things to myself but I felt the repercussions. No matter how much I cut or burned or hurt myself in whatever way I chose @ that time, it didn't seem to make things better. It only took the pain away for maybe a minute or so but in the end it made things much worse. Since I have come to know the Lord I have been in RECOVERY. No it hasn't been perfect nor do I think it will be. I do know that all I have is today. Yesterday is gone & I don't know if tomorrow will come so I had better make today matter. I confess my sins, slips, mistakes, heartaches, etc., etc. all to God & I ask for forgiveness & I go on about my day. I have 3yrs of recovery and am proud of it. This recovery has been a gigantic milestone for me as I tried many times before & always relapsed around 1yr. I contribute that to not having God in my life nor a sponsor or mentor. Now I not only have AWESOME God in my life but I also have an AWESOME mentor too.

Nebojsha - "Nobody but Him"

2006-06-05T21:37:00.000+02:00

I was without my father throughout my childhood, he left my mother, brother and when I was 3 months old. I felt a lack of authority in my life, became rebellious and I reached out for many bad things. As a result I had a very bad image about myself and about real life. When I was fifteen, I decided that the only way forward was to escape from reality. The doors to that escape were bad company, drugs and entertainment… When drugs entered my life, those who had been part of my life lost confidence in me, and, in the end, I had no friends. I carried an even bigger burden, the things I would do just to have enough drugs. I was stealing, lying, selling things from my house… I thought my life could never change, it was just impossible. I thought that I would spend the rest of my life as a junkie, rejected by everyone… That hurt me very much, I wanted my life in drugs to end, and I cried out for new chance.

After five years of taking drugs, I heard about Raskrsce Teen Challenge. I entered the programme a few weeks later and I was finally convinced that all the stories I had heard in the Coffee House, were nothing but the truth. God was really able to change my life! I have finished the programme, and today I live free. God gave me back my dignity, peace within my family, ministry, a job, and the most important - I have freedom which nobody can take away from me. I have life full of qualities, joy and love… I am changed, thanks to Jesus, and His Word. Through reading it, I realized the depths of the life I had before, and nobody could change me, but Him!

http://www.raskrsce.org.yu/english/news.htm

Hello to my Roma Family (and other friends in RECOVERY)

2006-06-05T08:47:00.000+02:00

I send greetings and love from myself and my wife. I am so encouraged to see the web-site for recovery.

Before we begin with recovery, we must first admit that we have a problem, maybe some of you, like me, have more than one problem. Problems can be addictions, hurts, habits, abuse, neglect, sin, suffering, hopelessness. All these things and many more can be recovered from. Jesus knows exactly how we feel. Jesus knows that we need Him and each other for support.

ARE YOU SUPPORTING EACH OTHER?
In Jeremiah 6:14 God tells us to admit our problems and our hurts. If you and I do not talk about these things we are keeping this hurt inside where it grows and hurts us more. We also act out from the inside and hurt people around us. We feel different and alone, we feel far from God. These pains that we keep inside will not just go away. If we support each other and listen to others we can work through problems together, if we keep everything inside, we just make the hurting last longer.

WHAT ARE YOU KEEPING INSIDE?
I do not write this to you because I want to make your life worse. I write this to you because I know, and I have seen that when we help each other, and share with each other, when we do not condemn each other, that our life gets better. I have seen this. Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save it John 3:17. He says Love your neighbor.

ARE YOU CONDEMNING YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS, OR LOVING THEM?

I send all of our love through this computer. I pray that you the Roma, the Beautiful Precious Roma, will allow God to work through you.
Chris and Trisha

TRISHA

2006-06-04T12:29:00.000+02:00

At the age of sixteen I became pregnant from my boyfriend, and at age 18 I was the mother of a baby boy named Andrew. I worked with a modeling agency in Los Angeles. That required me to live in the city because of the many castings I attended daily. My son Andrew stayed with my mom while I pursued a career. I quickly fell in to drugs and a bad relationship. I ended up back home in a recovery home and found recovery from drugs for 2 months.

Days later I turned to alcohol and that quickly led me back to drugs and complete destruction at age 22. My son was living with me and one morning I remember looking in the mirror and thinking, “Oh my God I can’t stop”. I hated what I saw staring back at me. I had the desire to kill myself, I wanted out of the pain. My son was asleep in the other room. Right when the moment arrived for me to end it all, my mom came flying in the door. Screaming, “what is wrong, I know something is wrong with you!” I fell down crying, and I needed some type of relief for my unbearable pain that consumed me.

I ended up in a hospital broken, bruised form head to toe from falling down drunk. I got on my knees and said “God if you are there if you exist I need you now!” At that moment a peace came over me that I had searched for my entire life. I wept and curled up in my bed so thankful there was a God of forgiveness and of total and absolute love. My whole body felt swaddled by his grace and abundant love. I knew I was home, finally. The Lord gave me a vision that night. He showed me two times in my life where I settled for mediocrity, which brought about my consequences, and He showed me this glorious path that was designed for no other then me if I would follow Him! God protected Andrew during this time in my life.

By divine appointment, I believe my uncle Joe was down visiting (he began the legacy of Christ in our family.) I shared with him my experience and he sat me down and equipped me with some very important scriptures to get me started. I took of running on my race toward God. I dove into scripture and found the love I searched for my entire life on every page as God nurtured me through his words. The bible says that Jesus is the only one who could love me with out fail. He would never let me down and all others would. While I dove into scripture I found a psalm that is my song, my love letter to the Lord. It is Psalm 116, it is too long to include but one line I love and describes my purpose in life:

“How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. "

Psalm 116, 12-14

The Lord delivered me that night of my addiction instantly! My daily prayer is for the Lord to give me the eyes to see his people in need, to be a servant, to depend on him and, to share this incredible gift of salvation that brings new life.

Trisha Creighton

2006-06-04T12:21:00.000+02:00

By the time I was 22 I was drinking every day, and using drugs as much as possible. It was still working for me, even though I had a couple of problems with the police. When I was 23 I got married and had a daughter. I did less drugs after my daughter was born, but I began to drink more and more alcohol. My wife would try to get me to stop but I would just hide the drugs and alcohol from her. She finally got tired of my drug and alcohol abuse and divorced me when I was 26. She took me to court to take my daughter out of my custody. I knew that I would lose my daughter if I didn’t stop.

This is when I began attending meetings with alcoholics and drug addicts just like myself. They understood my problem, they had all done the same type of things that I had. Many of them had not used drugs or alcohol for a long time, some had 1 day, or 1 week off drugs and alcohol, and some even had 30, 40, and 50 years. They did it by meeting together all the time, and working through the steps of recovery, and by getting power from God not from themselves.

I tried on my own power to not drink or use drugs, but I could only make it for a short time, then I would start drinking. I did this off and on until I was 28. I was becoming more depressed and miserable and I wanted to stop, so I went back to the meetings, and they accepted me and loved me unconditionally. I worked through the steps, started my own meetings. At age 28 I gave my life over to Jesus, I released all my problems to Him, and my faith in Him got me through the hard times without drugs or alcohol.

Today my life is good, I am re-married, I have 3 great children, and I know the power of Jesus. I also know the power of drugs and alcohol. If I think that I can stay away from drugs and alcohol on my own power I am wrong.

Chris Chreighton

2006-06-03T22:27:00.000+02:00

My name is Bojan, and this is my story. As a child, I had everything that I could wish for, until the moment war started in our country. My father was a soldier, and we lived in Zagreb . We were getting anonymous calls, and I was watching my mother crying every day. Rage and hate were building up inside me. My family moved from Zagreb to Belgrade . We lost everything during those war years. As refugees we were discriminated and rejected from society, and that hurt me very much. I couldn't stand the hate in me any longer… I was searching for peace, for fun and relief but I did that in wrong places. Then I met some “partners in crime”, who turned to alcohol and various drugs to relieve their boredom. I started to search for an exit from the hell that was inside of me in the same way. My everyday routine became fights and drugs. And than, one day heroin became part of my life. I didn't hate people around me any more… I didn't feel anything. I became a hard-core drug addict and my life became agony. In those moments I could hate only myself. The result was problems with police, family and environment. Everybody avoided me. I realised that I needed help. Physically I was so weak that after almost every time I took drugs I ended in overdose. I heard about Raskrsce Teen Challenge on TV and it took my attention. I knew that this was my last chance. I entered the program and there I saw people healthy and happy. That gave me the strength within me to be healed. For the first time in my life I heard that Jesus died for my sins, and that God is the only one that can help me. I was full of fear, rage and anger but during the rehabilitation program I was totally transformed. I started to feel joy and happiness in small things; I was waking up without the desire for drugs. Jesus took away all my rage. Hate and agony disappeared. I started to love life. Today, the program is behind me, and as time passes I feel only better and better. I have found a job, and I plan to finish school and to continue to live this life and to enjoy it. I know that life is a marathon race and that I can't run it by myself. But God is always beside me and He will show me the way.

http://www.raskrsce.org.yu/english/news.htm

Trisha’s LIFE STORY

2006-05-29T22:57:00.000+02:00

My parents were my world; they brought joy, laughter and strength. One evening, at the age of 7 I woke up to find my mom crying and my dad with suitcase in hand never to return. I remember crying and begging him to stay. After that my parents divorced and my family separated. I stayed with my mom and my brother stayed with my dad. My brother and I went to separate schools, we led separate lives. I watched my brother slowly loose hope and I eventually followed. My parents both began lives with others and we felt we didn’t belong with these new people.

At the age of sixteen I became pregnant from my boyfriend....

...YOU MIGHT LIKE TO KNOW THE ENTIRE STORY - PLEASE SEND A MESSAGE...

Chris’ talking about his Life Story

2006-05-29T22:53:00.000+02:00

I grew up in a normal home in California. I was involved with sports, church, and had a good family life. At the age 14 my family moved from Southern California to Northern California, and my life started to change. Everything that I was started to change. I began smoking, drinking, and using drugs. They made me feel good about where I was. Some drugs took away the pain of my broken heart, and some made me escape completely from reality. The drugs, like cocaine and speed, which caused me to stay up for many days, made me paranoid, and sometimes very sick, but that was not reason enough for me to stop. Drugs and alcohol were part of my life, and I did not plan on changing...

...SEND A MESSAGE IF YOU ARE INTERESTED TO GET TO KNOW THE ENTIRE STORY...

MEETING

2006-05-29T22:45:00.000+02:00

...time to meet...

2006-05-29T22:36:00.000+02:00

8 STEPS TO RECOVERY

We admit that we are powerless over drugs/alcohol and that we cannot manage our lives. (Job: 38) (Romans 7:18)
We believed that Jesus Christ can remove our addiction and asked Him to do so. (Romans 12:1)
We looked at our life with absolute honesty and wrote down or recorded all of our angers, hurts, and fears about people, places and organizations, without leaving anything out. (Laminations 3:40)
We told all of this to a trusted person. (1 John 1:9) (James 5:16)
We asked Jesus for the power to finish these steps. (James 4:10)
We made a list of all the people that we have hurt and made amends to them directly, unless to do so would hurt them or others. (Luke 6:31) (Mathew 5:23-24)
We have a daily quite time in prayer with Jesus, asking him to continue to work these steps in our life. (Colossians 3:16)
We carried these steps to other alcoholics/addicts, and when they were willing, showed them how these steps worked in our lives. (Galatians 6:1)