Three generations being set free from addiction

While alcoholism and addiction ran in a couple's history, Adult and Teen Challenge helped stop the vicious cycle, breaking the chains and setting multiple generations free.

Tara Murray and her husband Aaron grew up in different countries, both of them had alcoholic fathers. This lead to brokenness which each tried to fix through more addiction. 

"In 2013 I found myself kicked out of my mom's house and overdosed at a gas station. Police woke me up and called an ambulance," says Murray, the Program Director at the Women's Adult and Teen Challenge centre in Brandon, Man. 

"I went to the hospital. My heart was beating four beats per minute so they had to resuscitate me. The doctor actually told me that God must have a purpose for my life because I should have been dead."

Escaping death at that time, Murray didn't learn her lesson. 

"I left the hospital, went and got more drugs and ended up wandering around for about a month," she says.

Meeting with her parents individually, Murray's mother and father encouraged her to seek help. 

Tara Murray when she was struggling with addictions. (Supplied)

"That all happened in Mississippi where I'm from and then I went to Teen Challenge in Pensacola, Florida," she says. 

Murray was transformed by the program and shares that after just two weeks into the one-year program, she knew that this is what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. 

She went on to a ministry school for Teen Challenge in Jesup, Georgia. That's where Murray met her husband, Aaron, who is from Binscarth, Man. He had graduated from the one-year program in Winnipeg.  

"We met at that school where both of us were trained to work for Teen Challenge. We got married and started working in Thunder Bay to help open the Thrift Store there and then moved to Brandon to come work for the ministry here." 

The couple has been in Brandon for three years and in that time they welcomed a daughter. 

"I used to be an addict but now that I have a child, I can say I'm not an addict and I can say she's not going to be an addict, in Jesus' name."

After receiving the help they needed in the program, generations are being changed.

"When Aaron came to Teen Challenge his dad actually also got clean. So both of us are in recovery but walking with Jesus with freedom as parents who can teach our children the freedom that is in Christ."

Multiple generations are being set free across the U.S. and Canada, with stories just like Tara and Aaron Murray. Be part of these stories by donating to Adult and Teen Challeng. Just call 1-204-777-0671 or click here.