Volunteer Spotlight

Years ago, in the middle of his decades–long fight with alcohol and substance abuse, Charlie Kerr sat in New York’s Port Y Authority bus terminal and prayed for one thing.

“I asked God to let me die. But He had another plan for me,” says Kerr.

For most of Kerr’s adult life, he had gone from addiction to temporary recovery and back again. When he was sober, he worked as an electrical contractor, had a family, and even coached local children’s sports teams. However, during his substance misuse, he was an absent father and husband who was in and out of jail and living on the streets.

In 2008, after enrolling into the Salvation Army’s Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) in Newark, N.J., he made a phone call to his wife, Valerie. Kerr had been away from her and the children for about nine years. This was his sixth time to enroll in an ARC.

“Val, I’m in trouble,” Kerr said.

“Don’t come back here and don’t call again; the kids and I are done with you!” she replied.

As Kerr looks back on that moment, he says, “I remember crying as I walked into the Army’s chapel. I prayed to Jesus and said how sorry I was for the mess I had made of my life. This time I asked Him to come unto my life, not to take it from me, but to be my Lord and Savior.”

Accepting Christ was the start of Kerr’s true recovery. He finished the Salvation Army’s ARC program and moved into a “sober” house. He also reconnected with his family, who saw the change in him that could only come from God. “Addiction is sin in a sinful heart, and my cure was Jesus,” he says.

Charlie Kerr and Ralph Capoano visit Salvation Army ARCs and share the love of Christ. For a detailed account of one of these visits, scan the QR code to read Ralph and Charlie: Preachers on a Mission on SAconnects.org.

Nine years ago, Kerr reconnected with Ralph Capoano, another former addict who had turned to Christ. Capoano had come to talk to ARC beneficiaries in Staten Island, N.Y., where Kerr was at the time. Capoano asked Kerr if he would be interested in joining him in speaking to former substance misusers. Kerr agreed.

At these meetups, which today take place in ARCs across the Salvation Army’s Eastern Territory, both Ralph and Charlie talk about their experiences and their paths back to God. They offer men who listen to them an opportunity to accept Christ in their lives, just as Kerr had done.

“Since we made those invitations a part of our meetings in 2019, at least one person has accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior every time,” says Kerr. “Over 200 souls have come to Him.”

“We develop a relationship with these men, many of whom think that being in the ARC is God punishing them. For years, I thought that too,” says Kerr. “I tell them that being here isn’t a punishment, but rather a rescue mission. God allowed all those things to happen in their lives, as He did in mine, to bring them to a point where they had no other place to turn. In that brokenness is where freedom starts.”

Kerr passes around a prayer request sheet to the men. After they fill in their requests, the sheet goes to the Calvary Evangelical Free Church where Kerr is a member. The congregation has been supportive of his ministry. Kerr’s pastor invited him to take college–level courses on how to write expository sermons.

“He said to me, ‘Charlie, I can give a beautiful sermon on recovery, but it comes from a different place when it comes from a guy like you,’” says Kerr. “So, I sat in classrooms with pastors, to learn when to touch upon certain points in my sermon, and how to explain what I wanted to say more clearly.”

“I love this ministry, and I love every person who I meet at the Salvation Army ARCs. When no one else wanted me, the Army opened its doors for me many times over, and now I’m giving my time back to them.”

Kerr wants to remind every beneficiary that just as God had a plan for him years ago at the Port Authority, He also has a perfect plan for their lives.

“God’s Grace is deeper than any sin that they have committed,” says Kerr.

by HUGO BRAVO