Addiction to Advocacy: Adult & Teen Challenge Northeastern Wisconsin is Changing Lives and Restoring Relationships

Statistics regarding addiction in Green Bay, Wisconsin, are grim. Brown County declared fentanyl a community health crisis, and in 2022 the Wisconsin Department of Health Services stated that in Wisconsin every age group binge drinks more than the U.S. median average. In the past seven years through 2022, the Wisconsin Department of Human Services recorded that over 5,500 people died in Northeast Wisconsin from the abuse of alcohol or other substances.

Into this bleak despair Adult & Teen Challenge Northeastern Wisconsin (ATCNEW) opened on January 29, 2024. Fourteen men are already in residence at the center, dedicating themselves fully to breaking free from addiction. Each one has also dedicated his life to Jesus and been water baptized. Staff have fielded well over 100 calls from others seeking hope.

Adult & Teen Challenge, U.S.A., is a ministry of AG U.S. Missions.

Executive director Vaushawn Johnson, 43, has himself experienced the profound cleansing of Christ from addiction and all its trappings. He leads the new ministry with zeal and courage.

VAUSHAWN'S STORY

With his two younger brothers, Johnson was raised by a mother and stepfather who were slaves to their addictions. They experienced housing displacement and every kind of instability, witnessing things of which he states, “no child should witness.”

When he was around 12 years old, Johnson’s mother was saved and radically delivered while staying in a Christian-run homeless shelter in Atlanta, Georgia.

“But her relationship with my stepdad was still toxic,” Johnson says. “We were being taken to church but the homelife was disruptive and destructive. There was a disconnect between homelife and church life.”

His mother eventually migrated to Minneapolis, where by age 19, Johnson had his first two children. Having witnessed addiction ravage his family, he deeply desired a different life. Yet when his marriage to the mother of his second child ended, Johnson began using alcohol to medicate the pain. Within 18 months, his substance abuse grew to include marijuana and cocaine.

Then in 2003, Johnson’s mother died.

“She was my world,” he says. “I was already in my own addiction at that time, and my life just spiraled down. I was in and out of jail and was granted probation when accused of my first major drug crime. But in 2008, I was caught with 13 grams of cocaine and $1,000 in cash in a small town about two hours north of Minneapolis. They wanted to make an example of me, and I was facing 120 months in prison.”

This horrendous set of circumstances became what Johnson describes as “the perfect storm.” He began attending a Bible study in jail, taught weekly by a faithful pastor. One week the man told him, “Fess up and own up for what you’re in here for and trust God with your future. If that means He sends you to prison, then continue to trust Him.”

Johnson was furious. The strong words stood in stark contrast to the churches he had frequented in past years, where he had learned religion rather than relationship.

“I realized I’d been holding God hostage to my conditional surrender to serve him only if he got me out of trouble,” Johnson says. That night, he wept alone in his cell and gave his life to Jesus. The next morning, he says he woke up “freer than I’ve ever been.”

His change was radical.

Johnson applied and was accepted into ATC and petitioned the court to assign him there rather than prison. Yet his public defender gave him little reason to hope.

At his hearing in December 2008, Johnson took the stand against himself, pouring out his heart before the judge and confessing every one of his actions.

Johnson says, “I will never forget my attorney’s face. He turned so beet red! But the Lord did a miracle in my life. The judge said, ‘It goes against my better judgement, but I am going to sentence you to ATC today, instead of to prison.’”

FREEDOM AND SERVICE

Johnson arrived at an ATC center in Brainerd, Minnesota, with literal handcuff shackles on his hands and ankles. One year later, he walked out as a graduate, free in body and soul. Throughout that year the Lord also began restoring Johnson’s relationship with his two children, Aviva and Shawndarius (now 24 and 23).

He then attended an ATC ministry center in Minneapolis for two years, and upon graduation began service within ATC, working his way to management and eventually overseeing a 60-bed men’s center for about seven years.

In another perfect storm, it became clear that it was time for Johnson, his wife Christi, whom he married in 2013, and their children to relocate to Wisconsin to pioneer ATCNEW. They moved by faith, leaving behind a life they could depend on.

They arrived in Wisconsin in October 2020 to begin building ATCNEW from the ground up. Though 80 percent of incarcerations in Green Bay are directly related to substance abuse, there were virtually no long-term treatment centers of any kind available.

“There were only four board members and myself on our staff,” Johnson says. “All we knew was that we’d heard from God, so we spent a lot of time crying out in prayer to Him for direction. There were many spiritual attacks. Yet one miracle at a time, God has built this. We have a 20-bed men’s facility, with 1.8 acres in the back. We have opened a woodshop for work therapy and micro-enterprise and have an ATC choir. We are now largely debt-free, running on a quarter-by-quarter budget for operations.”

Steps are also currently being taken to put a transitional facility on the second floor of the building, where graduates can safely stay as they seek employment and prepare to transition healthily back into society.

RESTORING THE FAMILY

ATCNEW, the stated purpose of which is to see ‘lives transformed, families restored, and communities strengthened,’ has a special focus on teaching program residents to step properly into their roles as fathers, a topic dear to Johnson’s heart.

He says, “The father’s presence is always important. Many men substitute provision for presence. I know the need for presence, and I know the devil is after fathers, who are the spiritual leaders of the home.”

They have begun a tradition of hosting an annual Father’s Day brunch, the first of which was described as a “heartwarming opportunity for families to come together, share fellowship, and express gratitude for the positive changes God is bringing into these men’s lives.”

They have weekly family time visits, do monthly movie nights for fathers and their children, and are raising funds to build a playground onsite. This autumn they will hold a pumpkin painting event, led by Christi, who is gifted creatively.

She says, “Addiction has a ripple effect that causes a lot of pain and confusion for children, who often can’t comprehend the bigger picture. They just know that dad is not around, emotionally and sometimes physically as well. Our heart at ATCNEW is to not only bring our men to salvation, but also to heal the hearts of their children who have often endured an unstable home life due to addiction.”

They are also planning a Christmas make-a-bear project, when a ladies’ sewing ministry will come to the center to assist the men in making custom teddy bears to give their children.

“Everything done here is family-oriented,” Johnson says. “God is pouring out His Spirit and it is beautiful to see.”

One student says, “My daughter needs her dad in her life, and she deserves a sober, present father. My focus is on my family, and I will not stop striving to be the person they need me to be.”

Kristel Zelaya

Kristel Zelaya is a freelance writer and editor with global experience. She served as marketing manager for Assemblies of God U.S. Missions and as a writer and editor for Assemblies of God World Missions. These experiences have led her to numerous countries and cultures — far from beaten paths — on behalf of many who did not know how deeply their stories matter. Zelaya is also a licensed Assemblies of God minister. She and her husband Rudy share one daughter.