It's Time to Reclaim Your Life
Sober Homes Based in Westminster Maryland and Serving Carroll County
Why Choose a Sober Home?
A sober home offers a supportive and secure environment for individuals who have dedicated themselves to recovery. Our well-maintained and structured surroundings enable residents to concentrate on their sobriety, free from disruption. We recognize that achieving and maintaining sobriety is a collective effort, which is why we provide assistance and guidance to all of our men.
Our objective is to assist our men in establishing a strong foundation in Christ for a prosperous and sober future. The path to recovery can be challenging, but we are committed to supporting our men at every stage of their journey.
Employment Services
Our men need to gain employment as part of their recovery journey as that is a part of normal life. However, the process of sobriety can be overwhelming and challenging, especially without the right guidance. That's why we offer job-searching assistance and resources to our residents, helping them find meaningful employment that will help keep them on the right path. When available, we also provide job training for a fulfilling career in construction, for those who are interested. Our primary objective is to provide the resources our residents need to feel empowered in their recovery journey.
Here Are A Few Personal Testimonies
Brian
"I have had the amazing experience of living at the Shepherd House for over 4 years now. I arrived at the Shepherd House fresh out of a treatment program where I spent 15 months learning about who I am and where I am. In the Westminster Rescue Mission, I re-kindled my love for the Lord and I grew spiritually more than I ever could have imagined. I found a new and bright outlook on life that I had never had before. My spirit was awakened and as I have come to find in others working with them at the Shepherd House the light came on inside of me. When the light comes on is an uplifting and amazing thing inside. My entire attitude and outlook on life changed and I had a hope for the future that I had never experienced before."
Ricky
"Long story short, I began managing a Shepherd House sober home in 2011. I have been with Pete ever since and have never looked back. It has been a sheer pleasure seeing how these sober homes have changed many men’s lives. Many times, the men come in completely broken and hopeless. Some seem to be at death’s door, with their addiction consuming every part of them. We give them a safe place with a lot of love and hope for a future through a relationship with God, first. We never push anyone to believe in God, but many do find him during their journey with us."
A Personal Note
A couple more examples of what has taken place in the lives of men, Sharon and I have been blessed to be a part of, over the years.
Chris, our second house manager [2010, for the next 8 years], would not move in til his Texas Roadhouse job was secured. He is still with them and became their number 3 training manager in the USA. In the meantime, he also developed his own DJ company, DJ’s for local HS proms, runs the NA website for both Carroll County and the DMV region and does much of the audio for the NA conventions. Chris celebrates 12 years sober now, and received a full pardon of all his Alabama charges in 2022.
Ricky has been with us now since 2011 and provides an incredibly warm, caring, and safe atmosphere at David’s Place, the farm home a mile out of town. He has been working at the Westminster Health Department for years and they have partnered with the Westminster Police Dept. and now he has his office at the police department, to be available to go with them on overdose and drug-related calls. What an incredible opportunity to live out his influence for good, God, and sobriety, and to follow up on those desperately needing help, though they might not yet think they need it.
Gary was with us 4 years, [coming to us after a 6-month coma in Alaska, from an overdose], worked at Home Depot those years, learned and developed his own successful flooring business and touches deeply those he gets to serve through his work ethic and his story.
Brian has been with us for 4 years. Took over after Chris, has initiated the AA mtgs and Bible discussions thru covid, and that continues to go on at the house. He presently is on staff at the Westminster Rescue Mission, and just earned his Peer Recovery Certification. He has funneled many of their graduates to the Shepherds Homes as their next step to maturity and independence.
Tommy, celebrating 7 years clean now, and since leaving David’s Place 5 years ago has excelled in his career as an electrician was foreman over several multimillion-dollar projects, has done our electrical work in several home renovations we have done and is presently completely rehabbing an 8 acre farmette home for his family nearby.
Jim has been with us for a year and is an incredible wood craftsman. I am encouraging him to make his “hobby” an additional means to supplement his retirement as he can create exquisite and beautiful totally wood creations that folks would love to buy as gifts for their friends or loved ones. This picture is just one example.
Incidentally, the Shepherds House website and business card graphic design were done recently by a friend still struggling with his addiction but so talented when sober.
We have simply grown by word of mouth these past 12 years, but sense it may be time to allow greater awareness beyond our state through the website.
These are just a few stories still in the making of men we have been blessed to get to be a part of in their journeys.
If you could see the Realtor pictures of a couple homes Referral Construction [my 50 yr. livelihood] has been able to renovate, it would touch your hearts to see the incredible workmanship of these talented sober men.
We do need to express our gratitude for some folks in our community that have played an important part in this ministry to men:
Tim Webber, whom we first received counsel and encouragement from in 2010, in that he started Westminster’s first and only men’s sober homes; Mike and Wanda Semies who partnered with us that first year and then blessed Westminster by opening up the first sober home for women [Maddies Place]; Tim Krout, who in 2011 purchased the Grace[Shepherd] House we were leasing, so that we could continue this ministry without future interruption; Milt Beebe, Vietnam Vet who tirelessly plays taxicab for folks in need, leads AA mtgs, sponsors men and continually helps people thru the 12 steps; Peter Jones of Lifepoint Church, has led Saturday morning Bible discussions for 2 years at the house for those interested, both in and outside the house; and we have received many good men from the Drug Court program started by [retired] Judge Galloway, carried on by Judge Hecker, his whole team, and Master Moffit;[who said to me, after their team visited the sober homes in 2011, "you have more in mind than just these men's sobriety, don't you?' . And I said, 'Absolutely, to me their sobriety is just the 'birth of the baby'!!] DC Attn. Steven Polin’s availability to us, [the attorney who wrote the Federal Fair Housing Act, for President Reagan, that all sober homes across America fall under its ‘umbrella’ of protection]; and for Wayne Jacobsen, [co-loborator in THE SHACK , {2007- book, 2017-movie} which in my opinion is the most profound recovery book/movie of our day] who spent an evening with the recovery community on 10/31/2021 and hopefully again. For these and ones not mentioned, we are grateful and look forward to the decades to come of having a positive impact on our town, county and beyond by this endeavor.
We have seen the two goals we had from the beginning take place. First, “ATTRACTION VS.
PROMOTION” [AA motto], and second, to help men regain their lives thru sobriety resulting in their
family relationships rebuilt, financial and relational amends, become good employees, good citizens, become a caring family of men in each house, and in the process, many drawn to know the God who created them, loves them, and has ‘good plans for their lives’. Their sobriety is simply the ‘birth of the baby’ [in my opinion] and all good comes after that, depending on their choices.
My wife and I have been so blessed to get to be a part of their lives, and in the past 5 years, many of
their parents, as they have traveled thru the trauma of their sons or loved ones addiction , or worse, the loss of their life from it. Parents, PLEASE don’t go thru this alone. Contact us!
In that we are in this for rest of our lives [my mother lived alertly for 102 years, so that should give me
about 30+- more good years!!], It is our hope and prayer, if it be ‘Gods Will’, to be able to purchase the 6-8 acres that David’s Place is on. It could become an incredibly encouraging, and fun gathering place [huge existing 100 year old barn] for the whole recovery community in our town, county and beyond. My heart for it would be to develop the atmosphere the “L’ABRI”s [French for “the shelters’—google L’ABRI] all over the world have had for the thousands of hurting, broken, disillusioned, searching people, in a caring community setting, from the 1960’s to still present.
Realtors have communicated that it is a reasonable price for all we would be gaining, for the recovery community for decades to come. Would you consider donating towards this end?
Sincerely,
Pete and Sharon
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