Kellen always wanted to go to college at a big football school. He chose the University of Alabama, joined a fraternity, and started partying “way too much,” he said. “I wasn’t attending a lot of my classes, and I was doing a lot of drinking, coke—just kind of going crazy for a couple years.”

Kellen dropped out after his sophomore year and his drinking increased in the couple years that followed. After a car crash resulted in a DUI, Kellen entered rehab, then spent a year in a sober living facility before moving into a house with his cousin and his best friend. “I was sober the whole time and I was doing well,” said Kellen. “But I never really thought I had a serious problem. The whole time, I didn’t really want to be sober. I knew eventually I would drink again. And then I did, and it was worse than before.”

Kellen had what he calls “a big, long relapse,” from May 2017 to March 2018. “Most the time I would just drink quietly, every day,” Kellen said. “I was hiding the drinking from my cousin, and spending most my paychecks on drinking and opiates. He finally caught on and told me he was concerned about me.”

Another of Kellen’s cousins had graduated from the Mission’s program. “He said it would be really good for me,” Kellen said. “I felt I needed something that was God based because that was a big part that was missing. I wanted to reconnect. … This time I felt like I wanted to be sober. That had never happened before.”

Kellen entered the program in March. “It just felt right,” he said. “A big part of it has been reconnecting with God. Another one of the biggest things for me is how humbling it’s been, having to clean, making new friends.”

Kellen wants to finish college after he graduates from the program. But for the most part, he is leaving his future in God’s hands. “I’m just kind of going with the flow,” he said. “There’s no sense worrying about it. I’m just working on myself and working the program.”

Kellen said his relationship with God is growing. “It’s been really natural,” Kellen said. “I feel closer to God almost every day. I’ve just been working on reading the bible and praying and meditating—all that is helping me a lot in coping with everything.”