Jeff Arp serves as Vice President of US Operations and Training for Living Free. He gave his life to Jesus at four years old. He went through Bible college and seminary. He pastored for twenty years. And for most of that time, he looked at addiction the same way a lot of church people still do. If you have a problem, just stop. Just say no.

Then he started working with Living Free, and the whole framework fell apart.

In this conversation, Jeff talks about the paradigm shift that changed how he preaches, counsels, and does evangelism. He unpacks what he calls "the trap," the reality that most addiction is people trying to numb pain they never learned how to carry. Emotional pain. Relational pain. Physical and spiritual pain. And he points out something the church rarely names out loud: the things we reach for to numb out are not always drugs and alcohol. Sometimes it's food. Sometimes it's entertainment. Sometimes it's whatever keeps us from sitting with what actually hurts.

Jeff also shares one of the hardest conversations he's had in ministry. A pastor once asked him, "Why would I want those people in my church?" His answer was short. Because Jesus would.

We talk about the Living Free online academy, the Awareness Workshop, and why equipping family members to minister to their own loved ones might be one of the most overlooked opportunities the local church has right now.

If you lead a church, love someone caught in addiction, or you're rethinking what recovery ministry could look like in your community, this one is for you.

Full Show Notes: https://svtc.info/podcast/jeff-arp-living-free-trap-behind-addiction

🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge
🌐 Full episodes + resources: https://svtc.info/podcast
📖 Faith-based recovery guides: https://svtc.info
🙏 Support this ministry: https://svtc.info/donate
📞 Need help? Call us: 540-213-0571

In McDowell County, WV, a little girl hides her food kits under the porch so her mom won't find them when she's sober. That's the world Pastor George works in. Bail bondsman, biker church pastor, and missionary to the communities everyone else forgot. 

This week on Rebuilding Life After Addiction, I sit down with Pastor George. He pastors Home Church in Dayton, VA, a church built for the people who don't fit in anywhere else. Bikers. People coming out of jail. People with addiction and abuse in their past. People who have been turned away from traditional churches and are looking for a place to belong. George also works in the bail bond industry, where he has built relationships with people at their most broken moments. 2AM phone calls, families in crisis, and conversations most pastors never get to have. 

His work has taken him into homes and situations that have shaped how he sees people and how he does ministry. We also talk about his work in McDowell County, West Virginia, one of the poorest communities in the country, where his team is helping build a women's recovery center out of an abandoned church. He shares what life looks like in Appalachia right now. The poverty, the drug epidemic, the lack of healthcare, and the children caught in the middle of it all. If you have ever felt called to do something outside the box, ministry that does not look like a Sunday morning, this conversation is for you.

Episode Show Notes: https://svtc.info/podcast/the-bail-bondsman-pastor-who-shows-up-when-everyone-else-walks-away

🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge
🌐 Full episodes + resources: https://svtc.info/podcast
📖 Faith-based recovery guides: https://svtc.info
🙏 Support this ministry: https://svtc.info/donate
📞 Need help? Call us: 540-213-0571

Sometimes momentum matters more than order. I'm at the 6043 Broad Street chapel working on the renovation, and I wanted to talk about why visible progress, even small and out of sequence, keeps you from stalling out. The sober living home page has been up for three days and we've already gotten calls. Monday the painter arrives. And today, I mulched the flower beds before the building even gets painted. If you're rebuilding anything right now, find something you can point to today and say: I moved forward.

Full Show Notes: https://svtc.info/podcast/progress-over-perfection-why-i-mulched-before-the-paint-job

🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge
🌐 Full episodes + resources: https://svtc.info/podcast
📖 Faith-based recovery guides: https://svtc.info
🙏 Support this ministry: https://svtc.info/donate
📞 Need help? Call us: 540-213-0571

We recorded this from the empty chapel at Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge. No students, no program, just an honest conversation about what's next. The ministry isn't closing. We're relaying the foundation and building something that serves the community differently.

Full show notes and transcript: https://svtc.info/podcast/were-not-closing-were-relaying-the-foundation/

🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge
🌐 Full episodes + resources: https://svtc.info/podcast
📖 Faith-based recovery guides: https://svtc.info
🙏 Support this ministry: https://svtc.info/donate
📞 Need help? Call us: 540-213-0571

How do you honor the past without getting stuck in it? Sitting in an empty ministry building after sixteen years, Justin wrestles with gratitude, nostalgia, and the fear that the best days are behind him.

Full show notes and transcript: https://svtc.info/podcast/what-i-m-learning-about-letting-go-and-what-you-might-need-to-hear

🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge
🌐 Full episodes + resources: https://svtc.info/podcast
📖 Faith-based recovery guides: https://svtc.info
🙏 Support this ministry: https://svtc.info/donate
📞 Need help? Call us: 540-213-0571

What if the story you tell about yourself is the very thing holding you back? We sit down with Aaron Gordon—raised in DC during its most violent years, humbled at West Point, and now a leader, speaker, and unexpected children’s author—to unpack how identity gets built, broken, and rebuilt on a truer foundation.

Aaron shares candid moments from pickup games on concrete to a chlorine-stung locker room where a 1.8 GPA and a failed swim test shattered the myth of self-made strength. That collapse didn’t end him; it introduced him to the freedom that only structure, discipline, and surrender can bring. Together we trace the danger of low expectations—not just dragging us down, but pushing us into pride—and the subtle ways comparison steals calling. Instead of chasing applause or keeping score, Aaron shows why peace arrives after alignment with design, not after another trophy.

We also explore the surprising origin of his children’s book, Cutler’s Wonderful Creations, a clear and charming guide to purpose that speaks to adults as much as kids. From the “spork season” of trying to be everything to the image of plugging into the source, Aaron offers memorable stories and practical cues for discovering design: follow the patterns where grace flows, honor the roles that keep finding you, and let time do its work. The cocoon has to hold until the wings are strong. Separate missions carry equal worth; a spoon is not a failed fork, and your path doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s to matter.

If you’re wrestling with transition, comparison, or the ache to prove yourself, this conversation offers a grounded way forward. Listen, share with someone who needs hope, and tell us: where are you sensing alignment these days? Subscribe, leave a review, and join us as we keep amplifying stories that help men and women rebuild with purpose.

Full show notes and transcript: https://svtc.info/podcast/you-can-win-at-life-and-still-feel-lost-or-aaron-gordon

🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge
🌐 Full episodes + resources: https://svtc.info/podcast
📖 Faith-based recovery guides: https://svtc.info
🙏 Support this ministry: https://svtc.info/donate
📞 Need help? Call us: 540-213-0571

We share why we’re selling our long-time building and returning to a community-based model to reach more people with sustainable recovery. The mission stays the same—help a few people rebuild their lives with Christ-centered hope—while the methods shift to meet real needs.

Full show notes and transcript: https://svtc.info/podcast/going-back-to-where-we-started-the-future-of-svtc-in-2026

🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge
🌐 Full episodes + resources: https://svtc.info/podcast
📖 Faith-based recovery guides: https://svtc.info
🙏 Support this ministry: https://svtc.info/donate
📞 Need help? Call us: 540-213-0571

What if the first year after quitting isn’t about grit, but grace? We sit down with Matt to unpack the overlooked stretch between an altar moment and a polished testimony, and what actually turns survival into freedom.

Full show notes and transcript: https://justinfranich.com/podcast/why-sobriety-didn-t-save-me-but-jesus-did

🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge
🌐 Full episodes + resources: https://svtc.info/podcast
📖 Faith-based recovery guides: https://svtc.info
🙏 Support this ministry: https://svtc.info/donate
📞 Need help? Call us: 540-213-0571

A single moment can open a door you never meant to walk through. For one of us, it started at age seven with a neighbor’s video and grew into years of replayed images, false hope, and a mind trained to spiral. The story we share isn’t neat or sanitized; it’s a ground-level tour of addiction’s mechanics and the way faith, fasting, and Scripture can turn the tide. We dig into the spiritual side of lust, the brain’s craving for novelty, and why “it’s not hurting anyone” blinds us to the end we can’t see at the start.

Full show notes and transcript: https://svtc.info/podcast/how-porn-creates-strongholds-and-how-to-break-them

🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge
🌐 Full episodes + resources: https://svtc.info/podcast
📖 Faith-based recovery guides: https://svtc.info
🙏 Support this ministry: https://svtc.info/donate
📞 Need help? Call us: 540-213-0571

Ever notice how “peace” feels great until life gets loud? We go straight at the counterfeit calm that fades with circumstances and unpack the kind of peace that guards your heart and mind when the storm won’t quit.

Full show notes and transcript: https://justinfranich.com/podcast/why-sobriety-isn-t-the-same-as-peace

🎙️ Host: Justin Franich | Executive Director, Shenandoah Valley Teen Challenge
🌐 Full episodes + resources: https://svtc.info/podcast
📖 Faith-based recovery guides: https://svtc.info
🙏 Support this ministry: https://svtc.info/donate
📞 Need help? Call us: 540-213-0571