THE CHALLENGE OF BEATING BOOZE AND DRUGS

It's an unusual situation for a community to welcome a drug rehabilitation
house into its neighbourhood, but that's what seems to be happening in Yarrow.

"There were doubts when they were coming in," Eileen Waslen, a member of
the Yarrow Ratepayers Association, said. "People considered the prices of
their houses going down."

But all that changed once the community got to know the people working at
B.C. Teen Challenge and the students enrolled there since January.

"They're quite a nice bunch of kids and they're more than willing to give a
hand," said Waslen, who added that a group of the young men from the house
showed up at 6:30 a.m. to help out with Yarrow Days recently.

"The community here has embraced them," confirmed David Chow, summer pastor
at Yarrow Mennonite Brethren Church, where Teen Challenge students work out
in the gym Friday afternoons and send a work crew to help out on Wednesdays.

Having the support of the community is essential to B.C. Teen Challenge's
very existence. They are an autonomous, non-profit organization that
depends entirely on donations for survival.

The name is a bit of a misnomer. B.C. Teen Challenge is affiliated with
Teen Challenge, an international organization that boasts the world's most
successful drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation based on Christian
values.

The students at the Yarrow site are all men aged 18 to 45, said program
director and pastor Barry Berger.

But inside the approximately 5,000 square-foot house set on two acres on
Eckert Street, Berger is dad and the students are family.

"We have teenagers from the age of 18 to 45," Berger said.

Once inside students commit to one year in the house and agree to abide by
the rules. Short hair and no piercings allowed. Phone calls restricted.
Don't leave without permission or alone. When on outings in the community
or to attend church, go as a group. Days are spent working and studying the
Teen Challenge curriculum. Students ask for priveleges. Discipline or D's
are handed out for infractions and may include no dessert or work out time.
Bedtime is 10 p.m. in adorm of four or six beds. Lights out at 10:30. Oh
yeah and no girls.

"The last thing a single guy needs is to be hit on by a gorgeous babe,"
Berger said. "Most of them have had dysfunctional relationships with women
because of their addiction. We teach them how to have a functional
relationship before they get into one.

"They're shown a different way. When you take something away, you have to
replace it with something. Our courses say what you have done doesn't work.
You have to find a better way of dealing with life and the Bible is the
instruction manual."

Teen Challenge is a mission into the drug world. Most people think of
missions as sending representatives out to Africa or the Philippines, but
this is a mission here at home where it's badly needed, according to Berger.

"B.C. is one of the worst," he said. "There are not too many places in the
world you can see them literally shooting up on street corners."

Everyone's invited to the open house on Saturday, June 30 from 11 a.m. to 4
p.m. at 4166 Eckert Street.