Lifechangers

About as close to a religious cult as you can get. I am a former student of life changers. They tell you when to go to the bathroom and do not let you talk with your family unless you are on speakerphone. There is no healthcare facility here and getting to the doctor is next to impossible. They believe that Jesus will heal you and that you simply lack faith if you need medicine. Even if you have a prescription from the doctor for antibiotics, they reserve the right to pick and choose what you can and cannot take. Even taking a Tylenol or Ibuprofen is sometimes banned. They are not government funded and therefore do not need approval to treat you anyway they see fit.
Beware of free programs. You will earn your keep by traveling up to 12 hours away to fundraise for 2 12 hour days. They make you stand in sub temperatures, lighting storms, and pouring rain - healthy or not. You sometimes get back to the facility at 3am and have to get up at 6am to start the day and will not rest until 9:30pm.

Yeah, some stuff is sketchy. They do bible study all day Monday-Wednesday, Thursday- saturday they go to different stores and sell t shirts and jewelry. Even if they get back at 3 am, they have to be back up at 6 am for church on virtually no sleep. I get it though. Rules are rules- no special privileges for everyone, you know what to expect. I think some people need this structure.

However, I have a family member that I haven't spoken to in a week (normally speak to her 2x a week). Finally spoke to her last night and I hear that they have a covid outbreak with AT LEAST 3 ladies testing positive/with symptoms, inc my family member, but they still got sent out fundraising.(this comment in being left in September 2021) I know they have to work to earn their room and board, but these ladies bring in tens of thousands of dollars. You can't take a weekend off if they have covid? I contacted the new director (as the 2 previous directors just quit 2 or so weeks ago) and when I raised my concerns she basically said "we literally don't have the ability to quarantine anyone, can YOU?" Very rude, basically implying "you take her into your home if you don't like the way we are doing things here."

I'm not there. I don't know the whole story. However, the way I see it is - it doesn't matter either way. If someone has covid symptoms, ESPECIALLY WHEN OTHER GIRLS IN THE HOUSE HAVE TESTED POSITIVE, or HAS BEEN EXPOSED TO SOMEONE POSITIVE, with or without symptoms, don't send them out fundraising, where they literally have to try to talk to everybody who walks by them to sell their wares, for 14 hours a day in the middle of a pandemic. Take the weekend off, make sure everyone is well, and pick it back up next weekend- no big deal. I guess I shouldn't be surprised though.

My boyfriend is in this place they call "rehab". It is NOT a rehab, it is a CULT. Its sickening they force them to go all over the state to panhandle and get donations to put into their pockets, he has been in there for almost three months and they will not let him communicate with me or his two baby boys, they will not let him call his lawyer either, he needs to contact his lawyer about his case, they are trying to get his court post poned just like they did with a couple other guys, they say they will "take care of it", but dont, a guy got a failure to appear because they didnt let him go to court. They didnt give him any of the letters or pictures i sent him, they threw them all away when i dropped him off i was told i could write him immideatley. He is not allowed to talk about his drug addiction, he gets "wrote up" if he says anything about drugs, all they are doing is shoving god down his throat. He WANTS to get help, he WANTS to transfer to a REAL REHAB with a twelve step program or AA classes. This place is nothing but a sick joke.

Made an online one time donation to this ministry - BIG MISTAKE - they began billing me for the amount of the one time donation every two weeks - called them everyday for two weeks and couldn't get anyone on the phone to help - emailed over an over and they replied "unfortunately there is nothing we can do - which one christian would never hear from another christian - finally had to stop they many charges through my bank and incur about $200 in fees from my bank just to get the charges to stop - mind you - I've called and emailed - they only thing they would ever tell me is "I was the only one who could cancel the recurring charges" but they would NOT give instructions on how to accomplish this apparent government secret. Finally had to change bank accounts to avoid the charges and 3 months later they start calling and emailing as their debits are returning unpaid which is costing them money so they'd now like to help me stop the recurring payments - and now won't stop calling or emailing me. Now please keep in mind this one time donation was to send me a tape series and a prayer shawl - which I paid for 10 times over - and I never received their promised products either.

If you are a Christian - pray about this of course - but - to avoid evil - NEVER - I repeat - Never make a donation to Gregory $#*!ow Ministries and NEVER attempt to speak with Darlene Brooks an employee of Life Changers who only says "unfortunately, there is nothing I can do" and then blocks your emails and won't take your calls.

They are charletons (sp?)

I was a student in the Wasilla AK location for about 6 months. The "leadership" was Kat Kirby, Erica and Andrew Downs and Ronnie and Tracy Vance. All had long since had their brains burned out on meth and all had a damn God-complex. The biggest psycho was Tracy who would claim that she never slept because God was busy "downloading everything about us (the students) into her head." Yeah, right. God doesn't operate that way. He's not manipulative like that. Most likely she never slept because she was high. Then there was Kat Kirby who clearly failed to pray the gay away as she was fired from the ministry then promptly became a lesbian again (no joke, chk out her FB profile). It also became apparent that she was sexually preying on at least one if not two of the younger ladies in the program. I could go on and on with the horror stories. The non-stop manual labor, the punishments for little nothing offenses like "making a face" at someone. It was ridiculous. Contact with one's family was strictly limited to a supervised once a month visit and two 15 min phone calls a week which could be taken away at staff whim. We spent all day Friday and Sat selling crap jewlery and T shirts outside walmarts to "earn our keep." However, with all the money we brought in from these sales, we still ate Ramen for many meals and were told to "be grateful." Wow, and just where was all that money going. Well, Katrina was fired for stealing and who knows how much. As I said, I could go on and on. Women left this cult right and left. The twisted Bible doctrine and harsh punishments and isolation was just insane. One day, I'll write a book. Stay away, just stay away and save your sanity.

I took my son to the location in Holden WV Big mistake it is nothing but a scam run by people taking advantage of these poor loss souls trying to stay clean from drugs. Maybe they have no family or outside support but anything would be better than this place. I am so disappointed they call themselves christians but in reality they are taking advantage of these young men. My son went there it was almost 6 hours away. We drove all night to get him there. I was told he would be fine my son took everything he owned to this place thinking he would be there 12 months. After 5 days my son left there. My son was still detoxing on the 2nd day they had him in Buffalo New York fundraising trip. He left there with only what he could carry. So far from home and no money. He did make it back home but all his belongings were still at Life Changers. I spoke to the man in charge surprisingly he had only been clean for 6 months and seem to be running the whole place. He said he had packed all my sons property and it would be safe. I made arrangements to make the trip back there to pick up his stuff. The man in charge Aurbrey knew I was coming. I arrive and only received not even half of his stuff 2 brand new coats and a packed tub of all his clothes were missing. When asked I was told to wait while they looked after an hour of sitting in the car I was told his stuff was not there. I was so mad and upset I couldn't beleive they would steal my sons things all he had in the world gone! These people are not christians they are theives! I would never recommend anyone take their loved one to Life Changers. CULT not CHRISTIANS! Please beware of this place!

I'm an outsider looking in. I have good insight on these programs because I was an addict for 15 years before spending 18 months in a program like this. I've now been clean for 11 years. For those who don't know or understand addiction, depression or what ever your problem is... you were not born that way and it took some learned behavior to get to the bottom. So to get out it takes some extreme measures. First you have to be brought down to nothing, to a point were even the most simple thing (such as a pack of sugar or a small bag of chips or choosing when you get to sit down, talking on the phone, writing a letter, etc. etc...) are important. This is how your brain gets reprogrammed to appreciate the small stuff and forget about the bad stuff. This takes 3 to 6 months. For me it took 6 months to get to this stage. I tried and tried to "buck" the system. Thank the Lord my husband and family said if I left, I couldn't come home... I had no home other than this "horrible cult people place". Yes, at that point I too believed it was a cult. You learn to talk to God again, because He's the only one that will listen to you complain. Finally, I started to relax and go with the flow. I didn't realize that the process was working... my brain was being reprogrammed, I was being reborn. The person I was ashamed of was slipping away and the new person was being reborn. New it's time for the next stage... here you are this new person and you dont know yourself anymore. Who is this person I have become? Where do I go from here? How do I get there? That is why it's important to NOT LEAVE NOW! You need to be in a controlled environment during this stage. Just like you can't just let a toddler have her way in a candy store. Supervision is important. Visits from your family, more phone calls, letters, maybe a picture of your family. You start getting more privileges one thing at a time. You'll find yourself closer to God and that you talk to Him now not to complain about your situation, but just to talk to Him. Then you go to the last stage. Continuing your growing and helping the new lost souls that come in. That are in the same place you were. You will take a lot of abuse from them, but now you are healthy enough to deal with it and to give them the understanding you once received.
MARY H. From Louisiana
Clean 11 years because of a similar program an God