Encounter Quarterly: Winter 2005
The Way to Recovery
Counseling ministry at the El Batán
Church in Quito, Ecuador offers hope of healing to
addicts, victims of abuse and their families.
Rosa’s life was a nightmare. Wife to
an alcoholic husband, mother to an alcoholic son,
she endured the pain for years in silence. As time
went by she became increasingly hardened. She was
angry with her family. Angry with others. Angry with
God. Her demeanor conveyed her rage. She was cold,
unsmiling and bitter.
To meet her today, one would be
shocked by such a description. The anger has been
replaced with peace. The frown is a warm smile.
Instead of bitterness, her eyes convey joy – joy
discovered in knowing Jesus Christ. Her problems
have not disappeared, but the Spirit of God is
working through a powerful ministry at the El Batán
Church to bring about healing and restoration to her
soul.
In Search of Hope
Rosa’s story is one shared by a
number of people at the El Batán Church in Quito,
Ecuador. As the first Encounter with God Church in
Quito, El Batán has grown significantly since it
first began implementing the Encounter Strategy
nearly 20 years ago. In addition to growing from 240
to more than 1,600 people, El Batán has planted 3
daughter churches in the past ten years that have a
combined attendance of more than 1,800 people.
As the church grew and reached out
further in proclaiming the gospel, El Batán
discovered increasing numbers of people in need of
more than just pastoral counseling. Like Rosa, many
were women caught in marriages to alcoholic or drug
addicted husbands. Recognizing this need, church
leaders approached Marcia Chiriboga, asking her to
join the church staff as the director of El Batán’s
counseling ministry.
Marcia was more than just an
experienced counselor. She personally understood the
pain faced by many of these women. The daughter of
an alcoholic, her own life was one filled with
physical, psychological and emotional abuse. Even
so, as she considered how to minister to the
counseling needs in the church, she realized that
she was insufficiently equipped to conduct such a
ministry.
Searching for Solutions
“I knew,” says Marcia, “that I faced
many limitations that made it impossible for me to
give those ladies the help they needed for their
problems. Recognizing this, I approached a lady that
was part of an Al Anon group [a support group
program for relatives of addicts]. I thought her
experience could help me with my work.”
From that initial contact, Marcia
began investigating similar programs such as
Alcoholics Anonymous and Alateen – a sister program
of Al Anon designed for children of addicts. She
quickly saw the benefit of group therapy where
people could share common struggles and experiences
in an open and safe environment. Immediately, Marcia
began work on adapting these programs for a
Christian context.
Around the same time she learned of
a program called Celebrate Recovery developed by the
Saddleback Church in California. In August 2002,
Marcia and others from El Batán attended
Saddleback’s annual Celebrate Recovery conference.
The things they learned proved valuable to their
efforts. Like the El Batán program, Celebrate
Recovery emphasized the use of group therapy. With
the help of these new resources, Marcia began
preparing a core leadership team for the program.
The Road to Healing
Leading others on the road to
healing requires guides who have traveled that road
already. As such, group leaders must have personal
experience in the area they will be counseling in.
Likewise, before guiding others, leaders must first
complete the 12 steps and 8 principles that form the
foundation of the program.
“Leaders need to know forgiveness in
their life,” says Marcia, “because during the
program there are many times when they will need to
testify about how Jesus Christ has changed their
lives. When they share their testimonies it changes
the lives of the people in the program.”
With leadership and program in
place, El Batán formally launched its new ministry
in January 2003 under the title of “The Way of
Recovery.” Thirty people joined the initial groups.
Within months the number of participants had nearly
tripled and a diverse number of groups had formed
each addressing specific counseling needs.
Distinct from secular counterparts,
“The Way of Recovery” is a Christ-focused ministry.
“Our program not only seeks to help
people address their addictions, but also tries to
help the participants to discover the way to
holiness because the most important thing is that it
be Christ-centered,” remarks Marcia. “We believe
that the gospel is fundamental. There are two very
important words to our ministry: love and mercy.”
The Difficult Journey
Esther’s* story illustrates these
twin core values of the ministry. The mother of two
daughters, Esther was an alcoholic living in a
co-dependent relationship with an alcoholic
boyfriend. One day she came to the El Batán Church
seeking help. Marcia and others began to work with
her. After two weeks she decided that she wanted a
change in her life. The decision was a difficult
one. Not only would she have to give up alcohol and
cigarettes, but she would also have to leave the man
with whom she was living.
With great courage she informed her
boyfriend of her decision. Her boyfriend flew into a
rage. Grabbing a gun, he raised it and shot Esther
six times at close range.
Miraculously her life was spared by
the Lord. Even so, her injuries were severe.
Hospital doctors were forced to remove a kidney and
several feet of her intestines. A bullet would
remain permanently lodged in her colon. Her
situation was so fragile that doctors predicted that
she would need to be hospitalized for seven months.
Extremely poor, Esther’s situation
seemed hopeless. But in love and mercy the El Batán
Church stepped in and covered her hospital bill.
In another miracle of healing, God
enabled Esther to leave the hospital after just 2
1/2 months! She moved into her mother’s home near
the El Batán Church and began attending the church
with her mother and two young daughters. Given their
past, they all face a difficult road to physical,
emotional and psychological healing.
Yet like Rosa and many others,
Esther has discovered hope and has begun her journey
to recovery. It is not an easy road, but with the
help of new friends, the El Batán Church and most
importantly the Holy Spirit, she is navigating the
way to healing.
“It is very hard work that we are
doing,” says Marcia. “We could not do it without the
help of the Holy Spirit. As a result, we are seeing
many miracles of mental health.”
Miracles indeed.
EQ Winter 2005
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