Bishop Julius C. Trimble is the Resident Bishop of the Indiana Area of the United Methodist Church.

Bishop Trimble has the personal mission to encourage all people with the love of Jesus Christ to rise to their highest potential. It is his commitment to his personal mission that led Bishop Trimble to create the “To Be Encouraged” Podcast along with co-host Rev.Dr. Brad Miller.

Bishop Trimble says, “I am compelled by Jesus to share with you an encouraging word or two about Jesus, theology, the Bible, the pandemic, the environment, racism, voting rights, human sexuality, and the state of the United Methodist Church.”

To Be Encouraged with Bishop Julius C. Trimble is to be published weekly and is available at www.tobeencouraged.com and all the podcast directories.

https://www.inumc.org/bishop/office-of-the-bishop/

Episode 070:

From Local Churches to Medical Facilities: How to Help in the Opioid Crisis. Part 2 of a conversation with Rev. Randy Davis from Briannas Hope and the author of "Recovery Conversations"

Part 1, Episode 069 is available at this link:

Introduction:

In episode 070 of "To Be Encouraged," Rev. Dr. Brad Miller engages in a powerful discussion with Bishop Julius C. Trimble and guest Randy Davis about their efforts to combat the opioid crisis. With personal experiences and a shared conviction, Davis shares his insights on how people can support and engage with the ministry. In this blog post, we will explore three key takeaway points from their discussion.

1. Partnering with Communities:

The first key takeaway from the conversation is the importance of churches partnering with various substance abuse centers and medical facilities to provide a faith-based process for recovery. Bishop Trimble emphasizes ongoing training for pastors and the role of the church as a place for individuals to find help for their physical, spiritual, and mental needs. By engaging with local communities, churches can offer resources and support, thus becoming an integral part of the recovery process.

Randy Davis highlights the necessity of intentionality from the church. Someone within the congregation must champion the cause and have the passion to see the work through. However, Davis acknowledges the stigma and bias that still exist within many churches and emphasizes the need for overcoming these barriers to create a welcoming environment for those seeking help.

2. Accessing Treatment and Recovery:

The second key takeaway focuses on the challenges of accessing treatment and recovery programs. Davis highlights that while recovery resources are available to everyone in any county, there may not always be a facility in each county. However, through the ABL Better Life program, there are multiple means of accessing resources and guidance online.

One particular concern mentioned by Bishop Trimble in the discussion is the limited access to recovery plans, with only 20% of actively addicted individuals having access to such programs. The conversation delves into the importance of professionally administered medically assisted treatment (MAT), emphasizing the significance of proper care and monitoring by qualified medical professionals. It is essential to strike a balance between effective treatment and avoiding the potential pitfalls of dependency on medication.

3. Making a Difference:

The final key takeaway is the impact that individuals and communities can have in making a difference in the lives of those struggling with addiction. Davis emphasizes the power of choice and the personal responsibility for individuals to make the decision to seek recovery. Alongside professional assistance, support from family, friends, and the community can make the journey towards recovery less painful.

Moreover, both guests stress the need for education and raising awareness within the church community. By sharing stories of success and providing resources for clergy and laypeople alike, churches can play an essential role in fostering an environment of empathy, understanding, and support for those affected by the opioid crisis.

Conclusion:

The conversation between Bishop Julius C. Trimble and Randy Davis in this episode of "To Be Encouraged" sheds light on the opioid crisis and offers insights into how communities, churches, and individuals can have a significant impact in supporting recovery. Through collaboration, intentionality, and education, churches can become beacons of hope for those seeking to break free from the grasp of addiction. By providing resources, understanding, and embracing the power of choice, we can collectively work towards a future where recovery is accessible to all and the quality of life in every community is improved.

Remember, change begins with empathy, understanding, and a willingness to support those in need. Let's spread hope and healing as we tackle one of society's most pressing challenges — the opioid crisis.

For More Information on "A Better Life-Brianna's Hope" Randy Davis' book "Recovery Conversations" and the Podcast "Faith in Your Recover"

got to: https://www.ablbh.org/

Thank you. Thank you, Brad, for pointing that out.

How can people be supportive of the

ministry? Well, there are

several ways to make that happen. Number one, we'd love

for you. If you have any extra questions, I've not addressed

comments, questions, fears, doubts, go our

website@ablbh.org.

The book that I'm talking about, all the funds from this

book, this is volume one. Volume two is already in the works

and we've got plans for volume three. And I'd love to

go to volume six because we've got some incredible

stories to be heard. But that book can be

purchased for 1595 plus tax

off of

recoveryconversations.org.

We've got PayPal other venues

for donations on our website.

We've got our

podcast@ablbh.org,

and if you have an interest on a chapter in

your community, we'd love to hear from you. We'd help you

set that up. It's a simple process. It's a

minimal cost. You don't pay us anything in our office,

but there are some incidentals you'll need to cover to take

care of your meetings. But we'll be there with you. We'll

help you get folks into treatment. We can resource

that. We can make a lot of things happen and truly make a

difference for your people, your community, and the

quality of life in that community. So it's

going well and we just want to see it continue to grow,

continue to reach. It's one of those

missional projects of a sort that we've been able

to just turn into a

God given success. And that pleases me to the

bottom of my beam. I believe God is pleased too

as well. Randy, I was listening to the radio actually it

was earlier today, and they were sharing some

of the heart wrenching statistics

about the opioid crisis. How many thousands of people have died

in the United States due to the opioid crisis? One of

the things they said that really was a bit disheartening was that

they found things that are helpful when people are trying to come

off of opioid addiction. And they mentioned

several different things that I methadone and

some other different treatments. But they said only 20% of the people

who are actively in addiction have

access some of these recovery

both treatment plans as well as

accessing recovery itself. And I know

recently the Indiana state added some

additional funds to the mental health

budget, and myself and a lot of others went down to the state

House advocating for more funds. Randy,

we didn't get all that we wanted, but they did increase what

was previously in the state budget.

Do you know what I make a reference to in terms of those things that

have been found to be helpful as people are trying to

overcome addiction and whether or not there are places you

said you've helped people get into recovery

programs. Is that available in all the

counties or are there places where it's harder or easier than others

to access help? If you really want to be helped?

Yes, to all of that. Okay. But I'll try to break it down a

little bit. It's available

to everybody in any county, but

there's not always a facility in every

county. There are multiple

means on the Internet. We have resources.

We can help get you somewhere. We can

guide indirect. As far as

the medically assisted treatment that you're referring

to, there's fear on some

people's part. There's a great understanding on the

part of other people. I guess I'm somewhere in the middle.

Personally, I do not disbelieve in medically

assisted treatment, but there's a right way for

that to be done, and it has to be done

professionally, not through what we used to call the

pill mill to where you should just go and

pick the pills up. You need to be under a doctor's

care, and it needs to be done properly, just like anything.

Otherwise you turn into abusing

that drug instead of your old one. And

there are some that through the medically

assisted programs, you use them,

you can become addicted, and they can be harder to come off

of than the heroin or something else at times. I'm

not totally versed in this, but I can get you to people who

are who can help guide you and direct you to what's safe

and what is working. Well, what

you did say, and you said it earlier and you've said it more than once

is that part of this ministry is helping people

access treatment and recovery if they

choose to. Obviously, you got to make a choice to want.

Sometimes people might be living in a community. Maybe they become

disconnected with their family or they've kind of been

on an out and so they're in a different community. But if they connect

with the ABL Better Life program, brianna's hope

you're able to help resource them in terms

of their pathway towards recovery. We

would do our absolute very best.

I could almost give you the excuses we get many

times, randy the one that's the most often and the next

and so on. But, yeah,

it boils down. You made the choice to use the

drug. You have to make the choice to

stop using the drug. It's not just a matter

of stopping usage. You've got to get your mind

clean and everything else. So indeed, it's

process, but it's not nearly as painful as the

process that got you where you are.

Amen. Hey, Brad, what questions do you

have? I kind of got a question for both of you in

this regard because I'm really interested in how

it fascinates me how this has spread to so many counties and so

many communities, even across the different states. And that's an

awesome thing. And I really see the partnership opportunity for

local churches to really get engaged with their communities. So I guess for

Bishop and Randy, as both cordy people, how do you think

churches can partner with the various

substance abuse centers and what have you and medical facilities

to provide something like this, a faith based process

or some other process to help people get the faith that they need? How can

we help things like this, help

churches engage in their community in this great area of need?

Bishop, why don't you go ahead, please? I think

part of it is the ongoing training we do for our pastors.

I know this has come up in our cabinet meeting, so several of our

superintendents are fairly familiar with Better Life because

they have churches in their districts that

are hosting. But as a local pastor, I think

about brad, you and I went to seminary together. The things that we didn't learn

in seminary, things that would have been helped, things would have been helpful.

When I was in Cleveland, Ohio, I had an associate pastor

who was much more street savvy than I was. And

he also was a trained social worker, so he had his finger

on all of the resources that were available in our

county, in our community that we could direct

people to. But I think the ongoing education of

pastors, local pastors, deacons,

elders, and our laity and

our churches, because the church should be a place

where people can find help, whatever their help is they need, and

that's physical, spiritual, mental

help as well. So I think part of it is how do we resource

our pastors? One of the things we like to do on the podcast,

Brad, is to accentuate and

magnify these stories so that people,

they can be repeated other places. So I'm certainly going to be talking

to Serena, our communications person. And I know we've done stories,

it's been a while, but there have been stories done in the past about

A Better Life. But Randy, now I've for

you. What else? Yeah, because Randy's doing is really hands on in this. So,

Randy, what have you seen? How is this

program being translated and spread to other communities through the

churches? It certainly takes intentionality

from that church. There has to be someone, just as

with every mission within the church, who has

the desire, the passion to see this work.

There's still an incredible stigma and bias out

there that we deal with on a daily basis.

And as much as I hate to say it, it's alive and well within

many churches. Do we want that person next to

us that we just read about in the paper a couple of weeks

ago of going to jail on this kind of a

charge or that kind of a charge? How much do

we want to invest in that of our time and our

energy and our hearts? But I'm still of the belief,

and I tell nearly every chapter this at their start,

it's going to take you one success story, and people

will start to believe. I remember the

negativity we faced in the beginning, and I

get it because nobody around was doing anything like

this, so I'm okay with that. But that

didn't stop us. Again, tell me

no. And that's probably the best fire you can put in me.

That's the best amen you can give me sometime is to say,

that can't work, because I will try to prove to you can.

If God's with me, it's going to work. I think one of the great

things you've done here, Rennie, is you put a face on this. Is there's a

Brianna in every town, no matter what. It

could be a big city like Indianapolis, or it could be a small little

place like Red Key, Indiana, and every place in between, there's a Brianna

there or a Brian or

there's. If you put a face on this, I think it's one of the

brilliant, if you allow me to say, a kind of a marketing play on this

that you've done here to help give

that a face to that. And then when that story comes up, because it will

in every community where they will have that person pop up who

has a need, and, boy, you're ready to go, then

there's a lot. Of truth with that. And that was a part of the

purpose, so people could identify

you pick up the newspaper, you read of someone, boom.

You can just transfer that into Brianna's story. And

there's so much of that going on around us. And as you

said, every community's had their struggle. I have

been to two communities in my

know nine years of this who have told me we

don't have a problem. Well, to the best of my

abilities, I kept saying, then why don't you travel

with me and tell people how you keep from having a

problem? More so than that, I wanted to say, you need to move

that rock you've been living under.

I call that the Cleopatra excuse, the queen of denial kind of a

thing.

That society is in as big a denial

as any addict. Here's my quick story about that out of my

ministry. Had a big meeting one time about some new

folks coming to the church who were a little bit rough characters. And this one

older woman said, I cannot stand people coming to our church with

tattoos. And then while I'm talking to her at her

kitchen table, her grandson, about 20 years old,

who's been out mowing the lawn, comes in without a shirt on, and he has

this huge eagle tattoo all over his chest.

And I said, hey, would you ever like your grandson to be in church? He's

got the tattoo. So you can deny all you

want to, but the reality of the issues are right there in front of our

face, and we can no longer deny them in the church or we will not

be relevant to people who need the Lord.

Last year we took our group, three or four

speakers, went to J county High School, Portland,

Indiana the first question I asked the students

who were gathered, how many of you

personally know someone, have a

family member or are personally involved with

drugs? And out of the, I don't know,

1200 students who were there, 1100 hands went up,

randy, the other hundred just. Probably didn't hit

a line or out of touch. Yes. No,

it's a very real thing and it's everywhere. And

that will be true if we did that from the pulpit on Sunday

morning. How many

of our families have not been touched by this? I know that my

family has alcohol and drug

addiction and this is real. And

we are not just in the business of getting people ready

for heaven. We also should be in the business of

interrupting some of the hell that people are going through and

walking with them as they struggle through these.

And Bishop and Randy is also just in

practical, pragmatic terms that many churches are really leveraging

things such as ministry to abuse situations as an

evangelistic tool because there's so much need there. If you're showing

the need to people hurting this way, it can lead to growth

in your church as well. It can't, yeah. And

to see the change within people when that light comes

on I don't just mean those struggling with a drug, I mean

those folks who have never really gotten serious about

making a difference or getting involved.

It's been an incredible experience. Well, Randy, one of the things we really want to

hear from you, the theme of our podcast is to be

encouraged and we always give Bishop the last word in terms of wrapping

things up here in a few minutes, but really want to hear a

story. Now, you've shared with us a few things but a

story where you've seen either an individual's life

changed or maybe a group like a class or a church or something

that's been changed by the mission and ministry that you're involved

with now and how that can be a point of

encouragement or inspiration to others.

Let's hear a great story. I may be a

little hesitant, not because I don't have them, I'm trying to boil it down

to one, maybe. Hard to do, but give us

a story, if you will. Gotcha. I'll go ahead and I

know I have permission to use this by name because I have a before

and after picture. His name is Dustin.

Dustin was a classmate of our youngest son.

Used to come to our home quite often. I didn't

know, I didn't recognize he was in a home that

struggled with alcohol. Dustin,

as he got older in school and was moving

on, made some poor choices, got heavily

into addiction and

we would keep in contact. He'd show up at

meetings, he fought his own battles and dealt

with his own demons. And finally he

decided he was done. Done with that battle.

The before picture of when he was first booked into

jail to the after picture,

it was more than night or day. I oftentimes hold

up his before picture and make a comment to

people. This is not the kind of guy I'd want to meet

in a dark alley. And then I go ahead and say I don't think I'd

even want to run into him in a lighted aisle at Walmart.

But the change Dustin has made, the relationship

he's come into with God, the way he has

reconnected with his family, he is now

a journeyman brickmason. He's making good

money. The people of the community have got

nothing but good words for him and they saw him in

another situation for a long time. So Dustin's

a prime example along with Monica, who

is one of our partner expression poster kids

for recovery and her battle

with Meth, losing her family, her children over the

years, her jobs, her home, finally

getting to that point. She was so proud she finally owned a

car that had all four doors the same color.

To see her come into recovery and

she's now working for IUJ

Hospital dealing with those who are

those are those are two biggies.

That's fantastic. And you take those stories of

Monica and Dustin and you multiply them over and

over again, don't you? Absolutely. That's awesome.

That's been one of the joys of our podcast. Every one of those is a

victory story in the end.

What do you think about what you've heard here today from Pastor Randy

Davis about Brianna's Hope? I'd like to get your kind of your

reaction, what you feel about it, what is encouraging about it and

what is inspirational moving forward for other churches and other

leaders. I think this is an answer

to prayer. When we talk about breakthrough prayer,

I think that Brianna's prayer has really had a breakthrough

effect. So where her loss of life

has not been a loss in vain. And I give thanks

to God without apology for Pastor Randy Davis,

his enthusiasm, his exuberance, his

contagious positivity that I think

can be multiplied. And I think we ought to just continue to tell

and retell stories like this. I may have heard of Monica's story because

I don't know, is Newcastle one of the places

where early on it got to start? I may be missing my commitment.

Yes, it is. I'm sure Monica would have been involved.

Right. And I was at one of those meetings and I'll never

forget because I came back, Randy, and told that story. You never think about

somebody giving thanks for having a car where the doors

all match. And those of us who used know I

grew up in the city in Chicago and I knew what that was. If you

got a car and sometimes the doors didn't always

match because it was a replacement door. But if the car was

running that was the first thing. But if you had a car

where all the doors are matched. That's a step up.

Step up. That's awesome. Well, Randy, why

don't you tell us one more time how people can find out more

about your organization, about your book, about your podcast.

Because people are going to want to know how to learn more about this. Tell

us how people can get a hold of you, about your organization, and all those

things we've mentioned there. Post the book again.

All right. Our website

ablbh.org. Our office

email is

info@ablbh.org.

The podcast

podcast@ablbh.org.

It is titled Faith in Your Recovery, available on all

major podcast platforms. Our office

phone,

260-766-2006

and the book can be found on our website. You can

go there, get information I'll get the angle there in a minute.

You can go there and get information or go to

recoveryconversations.org,

and we'll get one out to you right away. That's

fantastic. We'll put all those connections on our website at

tubing. Encouraged.com. The main website,

though, is Ablbh.org. I assume that stands

for it stands for a Better Life Brianna's Hope. Is that what that stands for?

I assume that it does, right? It does. Yeah. So that's

ablbh.org. So that's where to go.

Bishop, can you give us any final thoughts and close us with a prayer,

please? Yeah, well, I got a copy of the book, but I told

Randy I want an autograph copy, so he's working. On

getting my word.

Well, you know, one of the things we like to do is remind people of

the scriptures that really undergird this podcast.

First, thessalonians the fifth chapter. For God has

destined us not for wrath, but for obtaining salvation

through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us,

so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may

live with Him. Therefore, sisters and brothers, encourage one

another and build up each other, as indeed you

are doing. We have been encouraged by Pastor

Randy Davis and A Better Life Brianna's Hope. And I

hope you will support this ministry. It's a

ministry worth supporting. If we want to save lives,

we've got to invest in lives. And I give thanks to God

for Randy Davis, and for the many people who have

been, as we like to say, up the rough side of the mountain.

Well, thanks for sharing, Bishop Tremble. And just a reminder,

our guest today here on To Be Courage, Randy

Davis from Ablbh.org, and

here on the To Be Encouraged podcast with Bishop

Julius C. Tremble, the podcast where we like to offer an