When someone is addicted to drugs, the impact rarely affects just that one person. It deeply affects the entire family and even the wider community. Addiction alters relationships, finances, emotions and the mental health of everyone involved. Drug abuse brings emotional pain, broken trust, financial stress, mental health struggles and risks to physical safety. Healing often requires support for and even from the whole family, not just the person struggling with substance abuse. A mother’s prayers are considered a powerful force of unconditional love.
They can offer comfort and influence lives. That was Senzo Xaba’s experience – he made a conscious decision to change after hearing his mother pray for him. Senzo said, “From my teenage years in high school until my early twenties, I was in bondage to drug addiction. I would trouble friends, family and my community with my life of housebreaking, theft and violence. Because of my lifestyle, I was beaten almost to death and ended up in prison. Even this could not change my life, and I continued to use drugs. Things even got worse, and I could no longer even imagine living a life free from drugs.
“One day, I heard my mother praying and pleading with God to help her. My mother was ill, had diabetes, and was crying to the Lord, asking that He help me, before she passed away. My mother’s prayer touched me deeply, and I contacted one of the CYPSA counsellors based at KwaSizabantu Mission to ask if I could visit CYPSA to seek the Lord and have my life changed.
“While at CYPSA, I could make my life right with God, and by His grace, I was set free from my past sins and drug abuse. I was able to reconcile with friends, family, and members of my community and ask for their forgiveness for the life I had been living. I am now employed in the construction department at the mission station and am serving God with my whole heart.” CYPSA stands for Concerned Young People of South Africa. It is a restoration facility based on Biblical principles.
In 2009, CYPSA was registered as a nonprofit, and by 2010, it had gained recognition as a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO). Since its founding over fifty-five years ago, more than 25,000 young men and women have passed through the mission gates to follow the CYPSA programme, and more arrive every day. NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: If you enjoy stories of restoration and inspiring people, visit the website of our sister publication, Devoted, by following the link: https://www.devotedmag.co.za/