MyTurlock.com, Turlock Area Online Magazine

March 2008

Dennis Whitman

We interviewed the Reverend Dennis Whitman, the director for Teen Challenge this month. He is a passionate man, with a lot to say! This interview is a little bit longer than the ones in the past, but we felt it important to keep it in its entirety. Dennis goes out with the men in TC on Sundays to various churches to share his testimony (which is where we first heard of him). He has quite a story to tell about his own life, but it doesn’t stop there. And it isn’t so much his persuasiveness of speech with which we were impressed, but his passion. He believes, with everything in him, that Teen Challenge is making a huge difference in the lives of the guys who are in the program. Dennis is a strongly-opinionated man, and not afraid to say what’s on his mind! We loved being able to interview him, for all the strong views and no apologies! Dennis doesn’t come off, in the least bit, as harsh or mean. On the contrary, there’s an unexpected gentleness about him. We hope you find him as interesting as we did!

Us: Describe the first day for someone coming into Teen Challenge.
DW: There are two ways someone can come into Teen Challenge. A lot of times when someone wants to come into the program, we will send them to one of our crisis centers in Watsonville or Sacramento. They will be there for a month and then they will come to us. We are one of 17 regular full time centers in Northern California. We will check them in at our student office and assign them an advisor. (We don’t call them counselors because they are more of a spiritual mentor.) Their advisor will sit down with them and go through the rules and how long it will take before they can have a visit or a phone call. If they are coming from one of our crisis centers, it will be two weeks before they can have a visit or a phone call. We don’t have to do any additional paperwork because that was already taken care of at the crisis center. They can also come straight into the program which is what we rarely do. If we do take them straight in from the streets, the process is a little different which includes a full physical. They would have to wait a month before they can have a visit or phone call. We will also have them write down five people that they can write letters to. It can’t be just anybody. These people have to be solid influences in their life. So the first day is a lot of getting the men settled in.

US: Give us a little history on Teen Challenge.
DW: Teen Challenge started in 1958. David Wilkerson was in New York and began to hear about the violence in the streets. It involved a lot of kids in the 13 to 17 age bracket. He really began to feel a call to go to the streets of New York and preach to these kids. He went in and began to preach to these kids and first they didn’t take too kindly to him. They spat on him and kept rejecting him and he kept on coming at them. He led several of them to the Lord. In fact Nicki Cruz was one of them and he is still walking strongly with the Lord today. What David began to realize is that once he led them to the Lord, they would go right back out in the streets and do the same thing again. So what he started doing was to disciple and teach these kids how to walk with the Lord. What’s prayer? How do you study the Bible? Why do we go to church? So he decided to get a home where he can bring these kids into and disciple them. From that first house, Teen Challenge has grown to 160 homes, nationwide and 240 throughout the world. Teen Challenge will be celebrating 50 years of ministry in New York at the end of this month. Among the speakers will be David Wilkerson, Nicki Cruz and Sonny Arguinzoni who is the fouder of Victory Outreach. He actually went through the Teen Challenge program.
Now the history of this center, San Juaquin Valley Teen Challenge, I was working in the San Francisco Teen Challenge. I had a vision of starting a Teen Challenge Ranch. I thought I was out of my mind because in San Francisco we didn’t even have front lawns. Then I was asked to pioneer a home in Turlock at the Abundant Life Church. When I first came here, I saw all of the farm land and thought Oh oh. We moved out of the home at Abundant Life and moved the center to 521 West Main Street but still had a vision for the ranch. Then about three years ago Faith Home Teen Ranch had to shut down. So they partnered up with us and about 2 years ago turned it all over to us. We just paid off our house on West Main Street.

US: What is your favorite thing about serving as the Director here?
DW: Being able to preach the gospel without any apology at all. That is what Teen Challenge is all about. As directors of a Teen Challenge, we are all about the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that Jesus Christ can change a life. Jesus Christ walked into San Quenton and saved me. So I know how he can change a life and that is what I like about being a director here. We got the gospel and we preach the gospel. All of the curriculum that we have is all around the Bible. Everything is biblical and everything is connected to Jesus Christ. I don’t preach to them,” lets get drug free”. I preach to them that they need to get saved and connected to Jesus Christ. Drugs are not the problem. Sin is the problem. We get down to the nitty gritty. When you die, God isn’t going to be moved about you being drug free. He is going to want to know what you did with his Son. Now can God get you drug free? Yeah, but the whole thing isn’t about the drug thing, it’s a relationship with Jesus Christ. Now we will acknowledge that you have a problem with drugs, but why do you have a problem with drugs? You didn’t know how to function in society. You went out to a job and didn’t work and your boss was always having to find you. You wonder why you got fired. You’re always arguing with people. You thought people were rejecting you. Then when you found drugs, it was a good hiding place. That’s your problem. When you start dealing with that, you’re not going to have to worry about drugs because things are going to turn around in a different way. You’re going to learn how to relate to people and work through problems. You’re going to learn how to listen to someone when they say, you know what, I hired you and told you eight o clock but you always show up at eight ten. Did I stutter when I said eight o clock?! Eight ten is not acceptable. Your going to be able to understand that and realize, maybe I need to show up five minutes early so I won’t be late. Teaching them those kinds of basic things. Hard work and getting rid of their simple heart (selfishness). Teaching them how to function in society as a Christian.

US: Is there a cost for someone to come in? How does Teen Challenge pay for itself?
DW: There is not a cost to come in. We will ask them if they have parents that can support them. If they can support we ask that they give at least a hundred dollars a month or more if they could. However, nobody is turned away for no money. How we support ourselves is we get donations from the community. We visit churches that support and they will take a special offering for the center. One of the biggest ways we support ourselves is having many fund raisers. We just had a big spaghetti feed. We have a golf tournament coming up. We have a bass tournament coming up. We will be selling tickets for a Modesto Nuts game night. We also have a paint business, landscape maintenance service, cleaning service, and we sell firewood. That’s how the men support themselves. It’s two thousand dollars a month to house one person each month. When they get hired out, they don’t get the money. We get the money, but we give them credit off of their tuition. We’re teaching them, even though we are letting you come in, as you work you’re paying your own way, because it costs money to have you here. So we’re teaching them responsibility and that’s one of the things we do even though its free. If you don’t work, you don’t eat. That’s what the Bible says, so we’re teaching them right off the bat responsibility. The difference between a liberal organization and Teen Challenge is that the liberal organization will give someone a hand out and pat them on the head. They tell them, “oh you poor swab, let me give you some welfare”. We don’t do that. We’re saying, do you want to change your life? Then we will help you, but there is going to be some responsibility. We’re going to give you a hand up. But with that hand up, we’re going to expect something from you. We’re going to feed you and clothe you and take care of you, but you’re going to work to pay your way. We’re teaching them how to not be connected to welfare all of their life. How to get up on their own feet and go out there and work. How good that feels. Nobody’s giving you a hand out. Instead of just giving you a fish, we’re going to teach you how to fish and then how to clean the fish!
You can do many things, but part of what the problem that you are having is responsibility. We’re going to teach you how to have a relationship with God and get the strength to be responsible in society. They have to be teachable to come into the program. If they say, no I’m not going to work, we will tell them that’s fine, but you’re going to have to leave. Go find some other program. God has called you to something. Let’s find out what that is.

US: Does an addict need to be religious to be accepted into this program?
DW: No. What we share with them is that our program is all about Christ. It’s all based on the Bible. You don’t have to be a Christian coming in, but you have to be open to the Bible because that’s all you’re going to get. This is how we deal with your problem because we believe that it’s a spiritual problem. Sin got you into the drug addiction, so you’re going to have to deal with your sin. We will deal with the drug addiction, but then we’re going to go after the real problem. You’re in rebellion with God, that’s your problem.

US: Tell us about your family.
DW: I have a wife. We have no children, but we have a cat named Scooter. We’ve had him for seven years and he’s our little baby. My wife and I have been married for twenty- seven years. I met her when I was in the San Francisco Teen Challenge. Her name is Jody and she is a blessing. I thank God for her. By not having my own children, I see these men in the program as my spiritual children. God has called me to reflect Christ and the Father to them.

US: Are there any misconceptions about addicts that you would like to clear up for the public?
DW: The misconceptions are that people think these addicts come from a different world. These addicts are their children. These kids were like any other kid. These kids are from their communities. This is America. They have had a big part in creating this monster. How? Taking God out of school. Making homosexuality another lifestyle. Aborting babies. This society isn’t for the family. They made sin the norm. These politicians don’t even have a clue. They’re busy worrying about global warming. They’re aborting babies, marrying two men and killing each other on school campuses. If global warming comes and kills you, it will be merciful. You got the cart before the horse man! Pollution! You have more pollution that’s killing your society. You got kids killing themselves. You got schools that are out of control and you’re worried about global warming!?! You wave that flag and you think God’s going to say, “Oh that’s great, they’re worrying about global warming.” He’s worried about what you’re doing to people. The addict makes his own decisions, don’t get me wrong. But he comes up in this society and sees all the things that are wrong. Nobody tried to keep his mother and father together. Society made it easy for them to get a divorce. There needs to be a society that deals with that. This society helps perpetuate the problem. Another misconception is that they think these addicts are coming from the streets. The drug problem is crossing all boundaries. You got kids from every walk of life becoming drug addicts. Drugs are not prejudiced. The drugs will take them all, and equally.

US: What are some of the most exciting things happening for Teen Challenge right now?
DW: We had eight men finish our program and eight men graduate in the in-house program in the last two months. In that graduation, we saw several men go back to their families and become fathers and husbands. That’s the most exciting thing because that’s what Teen Challenge is all about; restoring men that have life-controlling problems and families being healed. There are a whole lot of other exciting things happening, at this center.

US: If a reader wants to donate to Teen Challenge after reading this, what should they do?
DW: They can send donations to Faith Home Teen Challenge Ranch, P.O. Box 611, Turlock, CA 95381.