Susan Boerckel

I came to Crossville Mission in April, 2019. To me, at the time, the mission seemed like yet another rehab facility, only this one was “long-term” and free. I came to the mission with no belief that anything in my life would be different. I was, I thought, living proof of the phrase “once an addict, always an addict.” But what I found at the mission was a radically different footing for my life – Jesus. He met me exactly where He tells us in His Word that He will – in my brokeness, in my weakness, in my pain. In Him and through His Redemption I found what I

had been searching for my whole life. I was delivered from an almost 35 year addiction to drugs and alcohol. I cannot express to you how amazing that will always be to me.

Jesus gave me a new life and “the joy of my salvation.”

The last three years, since I graduated the program and stayed as staff, are difficult to summarize. I was reborn in 2019, but the process of revival, learning to live again as a disciple has been ongoing. Exodus is such a powerful book because the metaphor of the long journey to cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land resonates, I think, with all believers. My “wilderness” periods have been difficult, probably the hardest times of my life, but vital. I have had to become willing to let Jesus remove the walls that blocked me from “life more abundant” – walls of hurt, rejection, pride- all the bondage of self that I thought protected me, but actually enslaved me just as much as drugs and alcohol. It’s not been about being on a road to self-improvement, but the freedom to walk as

a disciple.

The greatest gift of being able to share a testimony is being able to say “Jesus

delivered me from the bondage of addiction and years of emotional and physical abuse, If He did it for me, I know He can and will do it for you.”