War Cry - November, 2015 Page 46

How I Met

the Army

...... ......

The War Cry | NOVEMBER 2015

ot many people can say, "I came to

New Orleans to get sober." In fact,
many who venture to the city do

the opposite.

Raised in DeQuincy, a small town northwest

of Lake Charles, Vincent Trevis developed ad-
dictions to methamphetamines and alcohol that
enslaved him for 35 years. Trevis would spend
all his income on drugs and
liquor.

Ashamed and frustrated,

Trevis slipped away to Lake
Charles and checked into the
Salvation Army shelter. At
the Army corps, Trevis met
the officer who would have
an improtant impact on him.

"Major David Craddock invited

me to church at the corps that
Sunday, and what I remember
most about all the sermons
he ever preached was that
he always said, `This is straight from the Bible;
here is the chapter and verse. If you don't believe
what I'm saying, check it out for yourself!'"

The challenge appealed to Trevis, and when-

ever the major preached on a topic about which
Trevis had a question, he looked it up for himself.
Moreover, Major Craddock was happy to discuss
these questions with Trevis.

Trevis and Major Craddock both knew his

toxic lifestyle couldn't continue, "So the major
asked me if I'd be interested to go to New Or-
leans to check into the ARC program there. I
said absolutely, and he told me to have my
things packed by the next morning and that he'd

get me a Greyhound bus ticket," Trevis says.

When the major showed up the next morning,

it wasn't to take him to the bus station, but to
drive him all the way to New Orleans. "I know
for a fact that the reason he did that was to elim-
inate any temptation on my part to get off that
bus and go [get drunk]," he admits.

When they arrived at the adult rehabilitation

center (ARC), Trevis met Major

Charles Stewart, the adminis-

trator. "Major Stewart became
a mentor to me," Trevis says,

"as did Major W.D. Owens, who

talked to me about becoming a
Salvation Army soldier. It was
because of my time at the ARC
and at the [New Orleans Cita-
del] corps that I surrendered
my life to Christ."

Trevis was enrolled as a

uniformed soldier in June 2013.
He has given up cigarettes,

drugs and alcohol completely. "I don't need that
stuff," he says, "I'm full of the Lord now!"

After graduating from the ARC program,

Trevis worked at the center as a dock foreman
and then as resident manager of intake. He is

charged with rebuilding the number of men en-
rolled in the ARC, and he drives the program's
members to worship at the Citadel Corps.

Trevis uses Isaiah 42:16 (KJV) as his mes-

sage to those mired in addiction: "I will bring the
blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead
them in paths that they have not known: I will
make darkness light before them, and crooked
things straight."

"I Came to New Orleans to Get Sober!"

MAJOR FRANK DURACHER

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