Read More on the Recovery Stories of our Eagle’s Nest graduates!
Grant’s Recovery Story
"I came to Eagles Nest in June of 2013. I had spent the previous eighteen days in a hospital, bed-ridden from crippling withdrawal as I detoxed from a severe prescription painkiller and benzodiazepine habit. My life was in shambles. Months earlier, I had dropped out of graduate school, medicating my shame and guilt with ever-increasing amounts of intravenous narcotics. My family wanted nothing more to do with me.
I remember how my arms were still bruised and scarred from the track marks that first day when I walked through the front door at Eagles Nest. I was so ashamed. I wanted to hide. And then Fern greeted me in the foyer with open arms and a bear hug that left me half-dazed. I knew instantly that these men were my brothers. They understood what I had been through.
I knew instantly that these men were my brothers. My program was difficult, fraught with personal resistance and rebellion. Although 29-years old, I was still a child in my thinking. I wanted to do things my way — neither God nor anyone else was going to tell me what to do.
Patiently, with more grace than I deserved, the Lord began to speak to me. He spoke to me through my journal, through staff, and through the other men around me. He showed me the fruit of my pride and arrogance. As much as I fought to look away, He never blinked.
“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it,” Hebrews 7:11. Although I couldn’t see it at the time, the difficulties and trials I endured during my program were preparing me to walk in an eternal calling and receive unimaginable blessing.
Following graduation, I committed to stay on at Eagles Nest for a year of Servant Leadership Training. I also became more involved at church, joining the worship team to play keyboards each Sunday. During this season, I met Amy, one of the worship leaders. We got to know each other through the worship team, and eventually, we started dating.
I stayed at Eagles Nest for OJT (on-the-job training) and I transitioned into a new role on the clinical side of Eagles Nest. I was able to become a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist and Certified Substance Abuse Counselor in the state of Virginia.
Today, my blessings are too many to count. I married Amy in March 2016. We bought a home and are now expecting a son. I have a purpose and calling in my life; a career doing what I love and have always wanted to do. I’ve been restored to my family. I get to worship beside my wife every Sunday at church.
Above all, I am blessed with an intimate and personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I thank Eagles Nest for giving me an opportunity to meet Him."
Video Coming Soon
Matt’s Recovery Story
"I remember from a young age I felt a calling on my life, but there was also a deep void.
As so many others have, I tried to fill this void with substances beginning in middle school. A bright and athletic kid, I had lots of potential but began to place more value on getting high and gaining acceptance through that.
Jesus says in Matthew 6:21 “Where your treasure lies, there your heart will be also.” As time passed, my addiction morphed into something uncontrollable and the innocent kid I had been was no longer present. I had become a thief, a liar, and just an undesirable person to be around.
In August of 2007, I met the woman who would become my wife. She saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. It soon became apparent that we were on different trajectories in life, she moving towards a healthy, responsible life with God, but mine … well, not so much. So I did what most people in active addiction do, I lied.
I began to lead a double life and hide my addiction. This went on for years, with me spending all of my money (and also lots of hers) on drugs. The lies were many and never-ending. The weight of guilt and shame that I carried multiplied daily. I began to feel extremely hopeless. I began to seek God, but found only condemnation, feeling that I had to be sinless to be accepted.
Ultimately, my wife and I married in June of 2015, with me still keeping my addiction in the dark. Soon after, my wife became pregnant and on May 17th, 2016, Rileigh Mae was born. All of my lies began to unravel. My wife was devastated to find out that her husband wasn’t the man he represented himself as.
"It was over. I cried out to God. He heard me. When Rileigh was 6 months old, I checked in at Eagles Nest Regeneration. It was November 22, 2016. My marriage and my life in shambles.
I fought tooth and nail against the love they poured on me for about two weeks, then I surrendered. I began a relationship with the one who had put that calling in my heart so long ago. Jesus. I began to get to know him through His word, through the body of Christ and through my journal. I also began to get to know myself. I began to forgive myself. I built friendships that were not based on what I could do for someone, or what they could do for me, but solely on camaraderie and love.
Through a program within Eagles Nest called Family Recovery, my wife and I began to clear the pile of rubble that had become our marriage. With God’s grace and guidance, and with the loving help of staff and peers who truly cared for me and my family, my marriage began to heal. My wife began to trust me.
In November of 2017, I graduated Eagles Nest Regeneration. I didn’t do it perfectly, but God's strength is perfected in my weakness. (2Cor 12:9) I now have 3 daughters and another child on the way. My wife and I have a relationship that I never dreamed possible. God has blessed me beyond measure and I have completed training and received licensure to host an intellectually/developmentally disabled individual in my home.
I am excited to see the fullness of what Christ has in store for my family and I. All of this is thanks to God and to the others who came before me, who decided to help others lost in addiction. Recovery is possible … I am proof."
Video Coming Soon
Ryan’s Recovery Story
"I grew up in a good Christian home, was loved, and believed in God.
To the naked eye I lived the "American Dream," but there was always a void in my life I couldn't explain. From the age of five, I began to find my place in the world through sports. While playing football for Marshall University I was hit by an SUV while riding a motorcycle and life as I knew it ended. I was informed I would never play again.
In seconds my whole identity was lost. WHO AM I? Hopeless and lost, for years I struggled on the best way I knew how. I performed my way back into life and held an ever-growing grudge against God who had taken it all from me.
I became addicted to the pain medication I was given for the accident, but truthfully, it kept reality away if only a little while, my escape. In and out of rehabs for years, I destroyed every relationship I had and “performed” my way into Regional Jail on a five-year sentence.
From a cell bunk, I cried out to God for the first true time. He met me there, comforted me and led me to the Eagles Nest. Finally, I found what I had longed for my entire life. A personal relationship with the Lord. No longer did I only believe in Him, I knew Him.
God has continued to restore all that the locust devoured and so much more. He has blessed me with a wonderful wife, Sarah, and two beautiful daughters, Selah and Josie; our first home, health, a job in ministry, and a purpose and vision. But this hasn’t come without costs.
The last two years the Lord has walked us through have been the hardest of our lives. Minutes after Josie’s birth, Sarah had severe hemorrhaging, multiple blood transfusions, and ultimately had to have an unexpected hysterectomy to save her life.
At the same time, Josie was fighting for her life rooms away. She was unable to breathe on her own, was given a 0.03% chance to live without complications, and was diagnosed with Coombs disease.
Five weeks later, my father and closest friend passed away. Looking back, I realize that God was there each and every moment, even in times when the question in my heart of “why” was greater than His presence to me. Although emotionally, physically and spiritually, we are still processing the events, He has been faithful and merciful! He is the foundation we choose to stand on.
I’m blessed to say our family is complete, healthy, growing stronger than ever and eternally grateful to God to be as blessed as we are. We are overcomers only by the grace of His faithfulness and through the ever-present loving relationships He established at the Eagles Nest.
We will forever feel honored to help build a kingdom of believers at the Eagles Nest and beyond."
Video Coming Soon
Jason’s Recovery Story
"My dad abandoned my family when I was 12 years old, leaving me feeling rejected and tremendously inadequate.
I had my first beer when I was 13. I was sent to my first program at 14, but I still drank and used drugs socially through high school. I tried cocaine for the first time when I was 19, and it quickly consumed my life. Within five months, I had isolated myself from everyone who cared about me. I had stolen money from my family and my workplace. I was in and out of relationships.
One night around Christmas, I found myself alone at the end of a five-day binge. I had overdosed, and I thought I was going to die. I cried out to the Lord and begged him to save my life. He did, and I had a few months of sobriety before one drink put me right back where I left off in my addiction.
Life became pretty hopeless. I settled for a white trash, redneck, drug addict existence. I was merely surviving life … until I visited an old friend in Virginia who loved me enough to confront me about my lifestyle. Finally, I decided I didn’t want that anymore and moved to Virginia. Shortly after moving, I started my program at Eagles Nest, and allowed the Lord to walk me through the hurt and pain that I had tried to numb for so long. The areas of hopelessness and despair in my heart were filled with hope for a future and love for others.
After graduating the program, I stayed at Eagles Nest for Servant Leadership Training, finally surrendering my own plans and ambitions to the Lord. I’ve now been on staff at Eagles Nest for over 12 years.
Since I’ve been here, God has restored my relationships with my family, and He has given me my own family – Lindsey and I will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary in July 2020. I had no idea what God had in store for me when I gave up my old life, but what He’s given me is better than anything I ever would have dreamed of.
I’m so grateful to Eagles Nest for the opportunity they gave me, and to the Lord for the redemption He’s brought to my life. He has answered the longing in my heart to be a son and to have a father.
I am not who I was; who I am is new. I haven’t been rehabilitated; I’ve been regenerated."
Video Coming Soon
Aaron’s Recovery Story
"I discovered drugs and alcohol at a pretty early age, around 12 years old, which was right around the time I was saved and became a follower of Christ. When I was in middle school and high school the weekends were usually a party at my parent’s house on some level. I loved to party with my friends and drugs were a pretty normal thing for us.
When I was about 15 years old my parents turned their lives around for Christ and began to challenge the lifestyle I had learned to love, which only fostered rebellion in me. For more than 15 years, I would experience a roller coaster of ups and downs; sobriety and then my old lifestyle along with addictions of the world. I was prescribed a stimulant called Adderall at age 19 until I was around 29 years old. I recreationally used other drugs like cocaine, ecstasy, etc. off and on.
My wife and I married in 2011, and then in 2012 we had our beautiful daughter. I destroyed my dreams of becoming a doctor and dropped out of the pre-med program at Virginia Tech. I bounced around different jobs and other schools.
My wife and I both hurt each other in different ways and eventually separated. During that time, every weekend was a blur of drugs on some level and during the week the Adderall kept me going. I had given up on many levels.
My wife and I eventually went to counseling and moved back in together to give it another try. I was still caught up in addiction. Eventually, I went on a bender that was bad enough, my wife called the police. I ended up being temporarily detained by the State to a rehab facility. I was hopeless and lost.
"However, in the short time I spent at rehab, I began to feel again and to feel the Lord again. Life had stopped, just long enough, to turn around and look at the path of destruction I had left behind me. After I left rehab, my wife and I knew it was not enough. I needed more help. I reached out to my friends at Eagles Nest. Thus, began the road to redemption through Jesus.
Jesus showed me who I am to Him and He began to restore, redeem, heal my heart and to father me. Through their Family Recovery program, my family was restored, redeemed and healed and it was nothing short of a miracle.
Eagles Nest helped change my life and brought me back to this place of love and relationship with Jesus. They pointed me to Christ, encouraged change and walked with me to bring freedom from the chains of addiction through the blood of Jesus. I learned to love myself again.
It was not easy, but changing never is. It makes a big difference when you are loved and surrounded by a group of guys, who’ve also walked through what you are going through, and will point you to Jesus. I am grateful for everything they did for me and my family."
Video Coming Soon
Brandon’s Recovery Story
"In 2010, our lives took a drastic turn. We were a year and a half into our marriage, had bought our 1st home, and were expecting our firstborn child together. We were "living the dream" as most would call it, but unfortunately, it became a nightmare. Soon after moving into our home, I relapsed into my opioid addiction.
Within a matter of weeks, I was stealing, manipulating, and deceiving everyone around me. After eight months I found myself in a jail cell, alone, scared and full of condemnation. I had hit rock bottom, lost everything I had, and I was broken.
I served several months in jail. One month in, my wife gave birth to our firstborn son, alone. My older children from my first marriage had watched me throw my life away … again. I had visitation with them over a blue monitor from jail. While in jail, I reached out to Eagles Nest in search of help, and once I had served my time, I entered the program.
That’s when our lives started to take on a new direction. What a mighty and graceful God we serve! The restoration process began. It wasn't pretty, but it was progressive. Most importantly, God restored me in right relationship with Him, by teaching me how to be a son.
He tore down my defenses, healed my brokenness and loved me when I was unlovable. The parts of my heart that felt like a failure as a father and failure as a son, had come to life again.
Through the family recovery process at Eagles Nest, I was restored as the spiritual head of my home. My wife had a platform for the Lord to heal the parts of her heart that were broken and hurt, and she gained her own freedom in the Lord as well.
Through the family recovery process at Eagles Nest, I was restored as the spiritual head of my home. My wife had a platform for the Lord to heal the parts of her heart that were broken and hurt, and she gained her own freedom in the Lord as well.
After graduating, we made a decision to stay for training and to become part of the Eagles Nest family. We are still here today, almost ten years later. We’ve grown to a family of 7, living on a large farm with everything I ever dreamed of as a kid. We have cattle, chickens, turkeys, and a creek full of fish. My children have a safe place to play, hunt, go fishing, ride ATVs and enjoy God’s landscape. They have opportunities to learn about life and how to be responsible by taking care of animals and helping with the birth of baby cows.
Where I was once beat down by my failures, God has redeemed. Through Eagles Nest and God’s grace, He has rescued, restored and redeemed. He is a good God, full of mercy and lovingkindness, and we are forever grateful."
Video Coming Soon
Zach’s Recovery Story
"My addiction started when I was 19 years old. I had injured my shoulder while playing baseball and had surgery not long after. I was prescribed opiates for pain and started abusing them. My addiction to opiates eventually led to methamphetamines, and I continued to use meth for the next 10 years.
I was in and out of jail during my addiction and was a hopeless drug addict. While on meth I was arrested and charged with felonies. I was sentenced to 4 years probation and completion of a 1-year substance abuse program - Eagles Nest Regeneration in Floyd, Virginia.
While in jail, I was accepted to Eagles Nest. Once I arrived at Eagles Nest in 2016, the Lord immediately began working on my heart. I gained a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, received healing and forgiveness for many hurts and mistakes, and I learned how to love others along with myself. Along with that, my relationship with my family has been restored.
After being with Eagles Nest for almost 4 years and completing various levels of ministry training, I was asked to stay on as a full-time staff member. Shortly after being put on staff, I married the love of my life, Hannah Maddox. The Lord has blessed me so much more than I deserved. Jesus Christ is the only reason I’m where I am at today.
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.'" Romans 8:28
Video Coming Soon
Tom’s Recovery Story
"I was raised by good parents and had a good childhood. We had everything we needed and most of what we wanted. Mom made sure we went to church and I was saved at church camp at the age of 12.
That’s also about the time I started smoking weed. I always wanted to be something more than I was. I stuttered every other word was tall and very skinny so I was very insecure. I found that when I was high I didn’t stutter so much and had more confidence.
Since I like to smoke weed I tried everything else and found that I like most of that too. The day after I graduated high school I found a game changer - I tried intravenous cocaine for the first time.
I didn’t know what I was getting into but I was off and running at 17 years old and I was headed down a dark, dark road. So then came crack and opiates and everything else I could get my hands on.
For almost thirty years, I tried to fill the hole that was inside of me... to no avail. In 2017 I ended up in detox in Roanoke, Virginia. I couldn’t lift my head off the pillow for four days detoxing off heroin.
When I could finally get out of bed, they asked me what I wanted to do and I said I’d like to go to a long-term faith-based program. So they brought me three printouts and on the top was Eagles Nest Regeneration. Robbie Maddox, the founder, had put a statement there that said he wanted to help broken men. I knew I was broken but I knew I could be fixed so I started calling. The very next day after I called, Peter Burgraff came and picked me up in Roanoke and brought me to Eagles Nest.
It was a rocky start. I didn’t know what all was wrong with me, but I thought if I could just get off of the drugs I’ll be OK. They told me that I had a faulty belief system and that I had a stinking attitude and that if I didn’t start listening to other people and stop thinking I knew it all I was probably going to kill myself. So I started listening and started letting the Lord in and I learned a lot. I learned that rejection and my insecurity were a part of my faulty belief system. I learned that the Lord loves me no matter what I did or how much damage I caused, that it was all forgiven. I got a lot of healing love but I thought I could pick and choose what I wanted to change.
I would like to tell you that I got it all in my first program and graduated when I was supposed to. But I had to go back out and try it my way one more time. After about 3 1/2 months, I called and asked to come back to Eagles Nest. I would also like to tell you that it was an uneventful program the second time around, but I’m a special kind of hardhead. I had my ups and downs to my second program but I learned that I had to let God be the Lord of my life - of all of it, not just some of it - all of it. I had to give it all to him.
I did graduate my second program, and I stayed for stage two, and then I made a year commitment to Servant Leadership Training (SLT). SLT is where you learn how to help the next man the way you were helped. I’m still a work in progress, but I’m thankful for Eagles Nest.
If you need help, please reach out to us. There’s nothing on this earth we’d rather do than help you. I hope to see you soon."