Life as a teen is already difficult without the added pressures of drugs, divorce and the negative influences of life in the inner-city. For Zack, these difficulties began at a young age and resulted in confusion and anger over the circumstances of his life. The frustrations morphed into uncontrolled behavior and Zack’s emotions were taking him down a destructive path.

Realizing that his environment was detrimental to Zack’s future, his mom began searching for options. She learned about our Boys Home 40-Day Summer Challenge Program located away from the city on 145 wooded acres and signed him up. That summer, Zack received Christ as his Savior and his life began to change.

After the summer program, his mother enrolled him in our Boys Home residential Academy for his first year of high school. Zack has always been highly intelligent and he performed well in his studies, but he still struggled with old habits of poor behavior, breaking rules and use of bad language.

As he stayed the course with us and progressed through his high school years, Zack began to mature emotionally and in his walk with the Lord. Outbursts of anger became shorter and he learned to apologize. Zack was able to complete a discipleship program at church and even got to spend subsequent summers working as op-staff during the 40-Day Challenge.

Through Christ, Zack became a different person than the freshman that first started in our program. The 4-year investment of our staff, their church and our program equipped Zack to live according to God’s Word and to have hope for a better future.