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By James Diehl
Bob Carey will never forget 1993. It
was a year filled with unspeakable horrors, a 12-month period
that saw the former child of privilege officially hit rock
bottom, sleeping in the streets of Baltimore with nothing but a
few bottles of cheap wine as his only friends.
Just 36 years old, his life had spiraled downward in a horrific
series of events that eventually found him homeless and
penniless, with nothing but a single duffle bag to hold his
worldly belongings.
He had no home, no job, no friends and no dignity. He also had no
hope to ever turn things around, and wasn’t sure he even wanted
to.
The former private school student and DuPont lab technician tried
every day to drink the pain away, even turning to cocaine and
heroin at one point – there were many days he wanted to die,
anything to stop the hurting.
He was sleeping behind a liquor store on the tough streets of
Charm City, a forgotten and troubled soul – or so he thought
.“I was on the edge of giving up on life. It wasn’t until I lost my
self respect and my dignity that I really started to see the
destructive path that I was on,” says Carey today, two years
removed from starting the Delmarva Teen Challenge program in
Seaford. “I was finally in a position of total helplessness and
hopelessness.”
At 6-foot-2-inches tall and a mere 138 pounds, Carey was a true
skeleton of a man. The alcohol and drugs had taken a terrible
toll. He was, in his words, “totally bankrupt, spiritually,
physically and mentally.”
Finally, someone came along who cared, someone who took the broken young
alcoholic in and provided a way out – the light at the end of
the proverbial tunnel was the Teen Challenge program.
Carey was sent to Detroit because administrators of the program
felt the only way for him to succeed was to have a |
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HEROES
Series
If you know of someone who has dedicated his or her life
to service to others, suggest their names for this
series. Contact James Diehi at 392-222-2685 or email
Bryant Richardson,
brichardson@mspublications.com
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complete change of scenery. It worked,
and a new career, a
new mission in life, was born.
“It was there that God got a hold of me, and I’ve never looked
back,” says Carey, who today oversees two dozen young men
recovering from problems similar to the ones he once dealt with.
“I haven’t looked back, I’ve never relapsed and I’ve never gone
back to my old way of life. God has just given me an insatiable
appetite to study his word and given me a burden to help other
people.”
Carey transformed the old Mission of Hope in Seaford into what is
today, Delmarva Teen Challenge, an affiliate ministry of Teen
Challenge International. It is a 12-month residential treatment
program for men from 18 to 65 years of age who have decided to
make positive changes in their lives, and have asked for help in
doing so.
In the little more than two years since Carey started the ministry
in Seaford, 75 men have graduated from the program, four drug
havens have been closed down in the neighborhood where he ’s
taken up shop and the organization has even opened up a new
thrift store in the old Edgehill Pharmacy building on Middleford
Road, just this past November.
He makes no excuses about his past
and does not try to hide it from the men he attempts to help
today – in fact, he uses his experiences to get across his
message of hope, resilience and faith-based alternatives.
Sometimes, it takes hitting rock bottom to make a life-altering
change. “I was absolutely sickened and appalled by
where I was at and by what I was doing,” |
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Delmarva Teen Challenge
Executive Director Bob Carey has enjoyed a tremendous
amount of success since returning to his home state of
Delaware two years ago. His escape from alcoholism, drug
use and homelessness has proved an inspiration to many
men who today depend on him for a second chance in their
own lives. |
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says Carey, a graduate of Newark High School and current
resident of Bridgeville. “I was trying to drink away all
of the physical and the emotional pain. I was as yellow
as a dandelion from the jaundice, my teeth were all
knocked out from fights in the streets, I hadn’t even
taken a shower in four months. It was just awful.”
It was a remarkable fall for a man who grew up on the 16th fairway of the
Newark Country Club, went to a private school and once
worked for one of America’s top chemical companies.
For the 24 men in program, his is a message he tells openly - it's
one they simply need to hear.
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Once I’ve brought these men in, I befriend them and tell them that
I’m here to help them,” says the program director and
ordained minister. “I tell them what I did to get the
victory in my life, and I offer that to them. It’s up to
them whether to accept that or reject it.”
For a man to be accepted into the Teen Challenge program, he must
be willing to make a major change in his life. In
return, Carey and his staff offer a safe environment
where people can get off the street and experience a new
direction, a new hope, in their lives.
Continued to page
nine
MORNING STAR 8 12, 2011
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