Many organizations strive to help people recover from addictions: clinics of various forms of ownership, commercial and non-profit corporations, and so on. In some of them, religion becomes part of the treatment. We spoke with Sergey Matevosyan, the president and founder of the NEW LIFE USA Center, about how to build healing on biblical principles
At the NEW LIFE USA Center, among those trying to overcome addictions, 90% are children from religious families. “This is a very complex category with destructive habits,” says Sergey Matevosyan. “I call them religious mutants because they have superficially grasped biblical sermons but have chosen to live a demonic life. Our task is not to turn people into parrots who, like Pharisees, quote the Word of God but do the opposite. Our goal is to teach them to live according to the Word of God.”
According to Matevosyan, this is often the fault of parents who have taught their children to live irresponsibly, being kinder than God Himself, resulting in the streets having their influence.
NEW LIFE USA accepts everyone for rehabilitation, regardless of social status, nationality, and with any addictions: alcohol, drugs, gambling, and so on, but under one condition—they must have the desire to change their lives.
We Practice the Word of God
The Center helps restore social reputation so that after returning to society, a person has normal health and the right spiritual foundation. To achieve this, it is necessary to restore the patient’s psycho-bio-social-spiritual life. Each of these spheres is important, so at NEW LIFE USA, they consider it a misconception to treat only with prayers without assigning certain duties and responsibilities to the patient. “The first thing those who come to us for rehabilitation learn in practice,” says Matevosyan, “is that if you don’t work, you don’t eat. Or if you want to have friends, be friendly yourself. If you start looking for enemies, you do it artificially, harming yourself. Change your attitude towards others because the enemy lives inside you, not around you.”
How do people of different faiths, from various denominations, or even atheists coexist in a corporation with religious service? Sergey Matevosyan believes that Judaism and drug addiction, or Islam and alcoholism, are incompatible; therefore, he does not consider those who have cultivated destructive habits to be true believers. In one conversation with a newly arrived patient, he said: “You are not an orthodox Jew but a common addict. You have your own satanic faith and worship heroin, to which you bow multiple times a day, sacrificing your family and yourself while being hypocritical in the synagogue. Even the Rabbi would not bless you. You put on a religious mask of one denomination or another to appear more respectable.”
Routine and Discipline – The Foundation of Rehabilitation
The founder of NEW LIFE USA explains that in the Center, they first and foremost “strip away the masks of hypocrisy.” After rehabilitation, everyone has the free choice to go to their mosque, synagogue, or to believe and attend a Catholic or Orthodox church or remain an atheist. But during rehabilitation, when a person has come to change their life and not to preach religious principles, they must adhere to the rules of the Center.
“We have two meetings per day according to the schedule, which are based on studying the Bible. Whether someone likes attending a meeting where the Bible is preached or not, they are required to be there,” says Sergey Matevosyan. “You can sit with your ears plugged and think about your own things, but your physical body must be in that place. This is also part of discipline.”
By Serving Others, I Become Stronger
By serving others, I serve myself; by serving others, I become stronger. Helping others teaches me to solve my own problems more easily than constantly focusing on them and never fully resolving them.
Remembering this truth, some people who have been healed choose to stay at the Center to serve. However, Matevosyan notes that NEW LIFE USA is not a monastery where people hide from the outside world: “Only those who, out of inner conviction, want to serve God and help people can stay with us.”
In 30 years of ministry, more than five thousand addicts have radically changed their lives. Many of them have become church pastors, founded new ministries, rehabilitation centers, and created shelters for homeless children around the world. In other words, this is a whole vast network that has given rise to an entire movement in this new life.
“Our main goal is to open as many centers as possible so that more people with addictions can be involved in the rehabilitation process,” emphasizes the president of NEW LIFE USA.
NOTE
NEW LIFE USA is a non-profit corporation that runs a free drug rehabilitation program. The ministry is international, religious, and non-denominational. The mission of “New Life” is to fight to eradicate drug addiction, serve people in need, and expand the ministry to give more people the opportunity to start a new life through free drug rehabilitation centers in Missouri and Nevada.
To date, the New Life USA recovery program in America is carried out in two locations: Cabool, Missouri, and Lovelock, Nevada. It has also spread to countries such as Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Israel, and the USA. The “New Life” team firmly believes that no one is hopeless, and the impossible is possible.
