The Given's Story
On a Father’s Day a few years ago, our 22 year-old daughter informed us that she was addicted to cocaine!
While we knew something had been going on, we were nevertheless devastated of course….not “our” daughter, not after she had finished college and was “all grown up”, not after “all we had done” for her. We later found out there were other issues and other drugs/alcohol involved. But at that point we did not know what to do, where to turn and had never heard of Prodigal Child Ministries or other similar ministries….but we soon did! And PCM was a life saver for us as well as our daughter.
But initially, we felt alone with our child in a world that was totally contrary to all that we had dreamed of; we felt no one could ever understand what we were experiencing. But within a few weeks from that day, by the grace of God, a friend introduced us to a friend who said, “I know what you’re going through, because I’ve been there myself”. Words cannot express the encouragement and safety we found in finding another who could relate to us and encourage us. That person was Fair Brocard, and although we had never met, she immediately began answering our countless questions, sharing resources with us, scriptures and books at first, then names of places to turn for counseling and treatment for our daughter. And when our daughter finally agreed to go to treatment, Fair and John were there to help us get her into a wilderness treatment program within 72 hours of her agreeing to go! We had still not even met them at that point!
Then it was our turn to get help. Fair invited us to be a part of a “Surviving a Prodigal” group…a group designed to help hurting parents of prodigals…and we fit that description! We began meeting weekly with several other couples who were just like us; hurting, nervous, and anxious and we found out there are many walking in our footsteps and we WILL get through this together. John and Fair were so helpful in putting all of us at ease as to what we were going through and in the weeks ahead, the weekly meetings were one of the constant, solid places we knew we could count on. We learned about addictions, prodigals, guilt, tough love, and our roles as parents from a Biblical perspective, sharing with one another and leaning on each other. Through Prodigal Child Ministries, we became confident that we would get through this time, that The Lord was protecting and healing our beautiful daughter, and we learned to smile and laugh again. And to this day we are so grateful that Prodigal Child Ministries was there and it has become a vital part of our lives.
Today, our daughter has been healed, has moved on to minister to others in need and tells her story to others to provide encouragement and hope. And we too, share our experiences, especially our time in our Prodigal Child Ministries support group and all the healing it has brought to us too. We have led a group ourselves and share our testimony as well as to how we “survived” our prodigal. What a blessing John and Fair Brocard and Prodigal Child Ministries have been to us and they can be to any who are hurting and willing to seek their help.