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Seeking New Life A faith-based program in the backwoods of Spotsylvania helps drug-users face their addictions. Date published: 11/24/2003
RAYMOND JOHNSON was sick of his lies and promises to change, of telling his family he could handle the drugs that cost him his job and took over his life. The Maryland man was ready to beg for help from anyone, anywhere. He had tried a rehab program through his government job, but it didn’t work for him, and Ray’s family searched for something different. His brother heard about a faith-based facility near Fredericksburg where men like Ray spent a year learning how to control their addictions and rebuild their lives. Ray’s family drove him almost 100 miles from the suburbs of Forestville, Md., to a winding, unlined strip of asphalt called Log Cabin Road. They ended up in a backwoods-sounding place called Beaverdam, on the border of Caroline and Spotsylvania counties. They turned left at the sign for New Life for Youth and rode up a gravel driveway to a rambling white dormitory surrounded by open fields and patches of pines. All over “the ranch,” as the men called it, were references to II Corinthians 5:17. The Bible verse was even carved into a tree and spoke to the divine changes that were possible: “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: Old things are passed away; behold, all things become new.” It was here, in this peaceful refuge far from the city life he’d known, that Raymond Johnson would try to get rid of the old habits that haunted him. Thousands of men in need of a new start had been through the ranch doors since 1976. The program was created by Victor Torres, who later wrote a book about his life on the “evil streets” of New York City. He had converted from the same kind of lifestyle as those he tried to help. He and his wife, Carmen, first ran the rehab program from their home, then developed it into a million-dollar-a-year ministry. New Life current operations include the men’s facility in Spotsylvania and a women’s home, Bible institute and thrift shop in Richmond. They’re all directed by New Life Outreach International Church in Richmond.
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