Huntsville Baptist churches sponsor addiction recovery programs

Darlene Rogers of Athens never went to prison, but she could have.
   
Shortly after she turned 13, Rogers became a prescription drug addict. She eventually started drinking and experimenting with marijuana. As an adult, she nearly lost her family as a result of her substance abuse.
   
Rogers became sober through Alcoholics Anonymous and is now involved in the Alcoholics for Christ (AC) ministries at Lindsay Lane Baptist Church in Athens.
   
“I developed a spinal chord problem [scoliosis] about the time I turned 13 so I started getting high on NyQuil to relieve my physical pain,’’ said Rogers, 37. “But I also liked the effect it produced.’’
Because of her physical problems, she could virtually go into any doctor’s office and get any kind of pain prescription she wanted.
   
“Today, only through my mentor and through Christ am I able to get through each day,” she said.
   
She has had six spinal surgeries, including two in the last eight months, and has to use a bone stimulator to create new bone cells in the spinal chord.
   
She is often confined to a wheelchair. Doctors at Vanderbilt University Hospital and HealthSouth Hospital in Birmingham have told her there is little more they can do to alleviate her spinal problems.
   
In addition to her own health problems, Rogers’ youngest child, Morgan, 11, has colitis, a chronic illness, and is now completely homebound because of it.
   
Morgan was recently named Youth Ambassador for the Crohn’s [disease] and Colitis Foundation of America.
   
Rogers and her husband, John Rogers, a professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and a deacon at their church, set up an altar in their closet and constantly pray for their youngest child’s health.
   
Darlene Rogers’ life today is 180 degrees from where it was a decade ago.
   
“I did everything in my power to destroy my marriage, but God saved it,’’ she said.
   
After she became sober, her husband came to her one night and got on his knees while she was in bed reading her AA “bible.’’ He told her that since she was so much better, he, too, had realized he needed help.
   
The Rogers family purchased a house in the same neighborhood as the pastor of Lindsay Lane, Dusty McLemore, a former gambling addict. He invited them to church, an invitation Darlene turned down at first.
   
But the seed was planted, and Rogers was saved Easter 1999. The Rogerses and their children, Shelton and Morgan, became active members.
   
“AA helped me get sober, and it was my ‘church’ at first,’’ said Darlene Rogers. “But I believe I had to go through Jesus to get to God. We just put a name to the God we worship in AC.’’
   
When McLemore approached Darlene about helping with the AC ministry, she again balked initially at his invitation.
   
However, Rogers began to see the numbers of people suffering from substance abuse or who had family members with addictive behaviors. They needed her help.
   
Today, Rogers not only devotes much of her time to the AC ministry, but has her sights set on developing a Christian recovery center for substance abusers. She was recently named regional director for Alcoholics for Christ.
   
McLemore said the AC program at his church is reaching people “who wouldn’t ordinarily come to church. … Its primary purpose is to lead people to Christ. AA will throw you a life vest to keep you from drowning, but Jesus will get you in the boat.”
   
On any given Sunday, according to McLemore, at least half the members of any congregation are affected directly or indirectly by some kind of substance abuse or addiction problem.
   
“It runs a broad gamut,’’ he said. “Whether you are the victim or the addict, it affects you equally.’’
   
AC meetings, therefore, are not just for alcoholics. They’re for anyone suffering from some kind of substance abuse or other addictive behavior, for family members of abusers and for adult children of alcoholics.
   
AC is based on the same 12-step program as that used by Alcoholics Anonymous. It is primarily supported by individual donations and by money collected from those attending meetings or by sponsoring churches.
   
The organization encourages all members to join a Bible-believing congregation. There are a number of AC meetings held at different locations in the Huntsville area. One of the newest chapters meets at Farley Community Church in southeast Huntsville. Rogers sponsored the group leader and assisted her in getting this newly formed chapter up and running.
   
AC is the brainchild of two recovering alcoholics, Bill and Jim, who attended AA retreats in Detroit in 1976.
   
“As a born-again Christian, you can’t talk about Jesus in AA, and you couldn’t talk about recovery in church. Actually, you need both,” said Bill, one of the AC co-founders, in a telephone interview from his home in Arkansas.