John Barrow - Founder of A Better Way Ministries

...I was a very strong willed child, and possibly ADHD, which made me very difficult to control. When my Dad got home from Vietnam I was set in my ways. The first 6 years of a child’s life are critical. I don’t blame my grandparents for what I went through, although it is a harsh reality if you spare the rod you spoil the child. (Proverbs 13: 24)

At the age of 12, I had ran away from home, been expelled from school, used drugs and alcohol, had sex, stolen, and many other things that went along with that way of life. The results of which was my incarceration in Fulton County Juvenile Detention Center. Instead of being rehabilitated, I became more street smart and savvy in all of my ways. One night a man by the name of John Koth, visited the Juvenile Detention Center to speak with us. I will never forget the setting. We were sitting in plastic chairs, in front of our cells in a group, and John Koth was facing us. He had been a gang leader in New York, and had just completed a program called Teen Challenge. He came all the way from New York just to tell a bunch of troubled children that Jesus loved them, and that there was a better way to live. As he gave his testimony, I remember thinking how all I wanted was for him to leave, so I could go back to my cell with the lights out and the door shut and cry. This is one of those memories that will be with me for the rest of my life. I wept bitterly for hours because of the conviction of my soul. That night the Lord placed a seal on me that could never be removed.

The next day, I called my probation officer because I wanted to know if I could go through the same program John Koth had spoken to us about, the night before. Fortunately, my probation officer was a Christian, and when I explained what I wanted to do he helped me enter a Teen Challenge program, instead of remaining in Y.D.C. While in New Life for Youth (a branch of Teen Challenge), I was exposed to a way of life I never knew existed. We were on a huge farm with cows, goats, chickens and a large river that ran through the back of the farm. We would play guitar and sing worship songs as we sat beside a creek. We would take showers in the creek and freeze from the cold water. We bailed hay and fed the cows. (I can still remember the smell of the hay) When we needed food, we would pray and God would supply as he still does today. I wish I could say that this is where I got my life together, but I cant. I still wasn’t ready to give up my sin and live for Christ. Although, what transpired from the time I met John Koth until the day I left the program, changed my life forever. I could no longer enjoy the way I was living, and although I was never able to hide from the Lord, I continued to run from Him for another 13 years.

After leaving New Life for Youth, I was sent to a reformatory in Milledgeville for 2 years. Once I was released from there I joined the Army where I went through basic training, AIT, jump school, and had a brief stint in the Ranger Battalion. I learned a great deal about self-discipline and motivation, but I also learned how to drink more alcohol. I left the Army and was in and out of jails and prison for the next 6 years. After numerous arrests, 3 failed marriages, VA hospital, Ga. Regional, leaving 2 children in the aftermath, and losing everything over and over again, I found myself in prison with a 10-year sentence for robbery. All due to drugs and alcohol and a deep insecurity in my life.

During the second year of my sentence, I was caught selling drugs inside the penitentiary and was placed in solitary confinement for 28 days. I had been in the “hole” many times before, but this time was different. As I lay on that cold slab of concrete, I began to reflect on my life. Finally, I came to the realization that not only was I in prison, but now I was in solitary confinement! It was then that I knew I couldn’t go on any longer the way I was. The only book you are allowed to read in the “hole” is the Bible. So out of boredom I began reading in Genesis and read the entire thing. For 28 days I literally cried until I couldn’t cry anymore. I found myself under the same conviction I had been under as a boy, when John Koth had spoken to us at the Fulton County Y.D.C. The seed had been planted when I was 13 years old and was still alive, it would not die because the word of the Lord says in Isaiah 55:11 “…My word will not return to me void. It will accomplish what it is set out to do.” I was a changed man. Even though it took me years to shake off what 26 years of living in sin had done to my life, God helped me every time I fell, to get up and begin again.

He has blessed me with a wonderful wife of 15 years, beautiful children, grandchildren, a great job (where I have never lacked anything), a great church body, and so many dear friends such as you, yet there is still something lacking in my life. I have known for quite a few years that the Lord has been calling me to a greater purpose in full time ministry. The most difficult thing for a Christian man to do is to die to himself and lay down the things that so easily try to entangle and hinder his walk with Christ. It’s been the greatest hurdle for me to overcome. I have tremendously enjoyed the last 15 years of working in the construction industry and the Lord has truly blessed the works of my hand. Now He has called me to a different “second half” of my life.

The Bible says in Luke 12: 48 “…To whom much is given, much is required”. I was given much mercy and grace as a young man, (I deserved to die a long time ago, but God spared my life), and now it’s time for me to give back what was given me. One thing I’ve noticed over the years as I go to speak at the prisons is that I see the same faces every time I go. These men have every intention of doing the right thing when they get out, but they go back to the same environment that they left and find themselves in trouble all over again. There are so many hurting and lost young men out there and they don’t realize they are called to be the priests of their home. Something has a hold on them and it is bigger than they are, whether it is drugs, alcohol, lust, anger, etc. it continues to defeat them. They just can’t seem to overcome their life controlling issues.

There are many homes in the Fayette and Coweta county areas that help women and their children struggling with life controlling issues, but not many that offer help to men and boys. That’s why there is such a need for places like Teen Challenge- a place of refuge where they can come and learn how to be responsible Christian men. They are the next generation charged with raising their families. If we can change the head of the family the rest will follow. Instead of destroying their future, the future of their wives and children, and starting another “dysfunctional generation” they can go out and change this fallen world by spreading the good news of salvation and hope. They are called to be the priests of their home and the wives will follow the footsteps of their husbands and fathers. Their grandchildren and great grandchildren will do likewise. If we can help change the men we can help change the world. - John Barrow