Our History

The men’s discipleship program began in a small apartment in Rockford, IL in 1998.  As Bro. Curington’s local outpatient program of Reformers Unanimous began to grow he would meet men who needed “extra attention”.  They just couldn’t stay sober in their environment.  So, with the help of a friend, Craig Wilcox, we bought a home and moved them in under our 24 hour care.  It proved to be an effective way to disciple the habitually addictive personality that could not stay straight for any long period of time.

As a result of our success, other churches and families started calling with hopes of getting their church members, children or spouses into this incredible effective residential discipleship program.  Our success rate, significantly higher than other programs could not be compromised by our growth, so we kept our tenancy down and began to duplicate the process with a second, third and then fourth home all running the same program.

In 2003 God blessed our ministry with a large home for the men’s program.  It was a 36 bed facility that was being used as a downtown drug house by many of the people that Steve would someday help.  We bought the large dilapidated building for next to nothing and the community helped us remodel it to one of the most beautiful facilities in our downtown district.  The remodeling project was nothing short of spectacular.  To top it all off, the construction work and remodeling was performed by the men of the home.  This made the project all the more special.  However, 15 minutes before final inspections, a small explosion in the paint storage room brought the investment to an end and we had to build this home not once, but twice.  The city of Rockford and it’s people came to the rescue, helping in many different ways and we moved into the home in March of 2005.

During the second remodeling process we were given limited occupancy and we moved in the men.  At that time, we noticed an increase in calls from parents and pastors wanting us to begin a similar program for women.  So in 2003 we placed the women in some of the same homes the men once occupied and it became as successful as our men’s program in effectively turning around wayward addicts.

However, we experienced an even greater miracle in April of 2005.  One month after moving into our men’s new home on Mulberry Street in Rockford, IL. we received an incredible opportunity to purchase a old run down nursing home.  With the continued growth of the men’s and women’s program we set out to make this purchase and God subsequently sent people to help us pay for the building until we could secure proper funding.

Once again, our men began a huge remodeling project that turned a $250,000 building into a one million dollar mansion for our men!  Praise the Lord!  As for the ladies, they got the men’s home on Mulberry.  This concludes our current state of the ministry.  Two beautiful buildings, two incredibly successful programs and men and women discipling into active, vibrant Christians.

Oh, and our success rate?  80% of our graduates REMAIN successful in their recovery to this date.