Keystone Stories – Steve Fravel

From Boldness to Baptism: A Story of Prayer and Recovery

It began during Prepare 2024 when we learned to pray boldly to God. On July 16, 2024, we learned that God answered the “bold” prayer I prayed.

I had made a prayer request before that Prepare, but I made a commitment that January to “fervently” and regularly pray about my daughter.

My daughter, Jennifer, has an addiction to methamphetamine. She has been addicted for some time. The addiction had ruined her life to that point. I knew this. It had hurt our family. It took her away from us. In January, I didn’t know where she was. I thought she might still be in the Des Moines area. I didn’t know.

I prayed that not only would we know where Jenny was, but that we would rebuild our relationship, that she would seek recovery from the meth addiction, and that she would want to spend time with our family and find and follow Jesus again.

My mother often tells a story about a conversation she had with Jenny when Jenny was about five years old. Jenny said: “Grandma, do you know what sin is?” My mother answered her by asking the question: “what is sin?” Jenny’s response was: “it’s when you do wrong and know it’s wrong.”

Somehow, after Jenny became an adult, making her own decisions and not leaning into God turned into an addiction in response to losing her mother to cancer. She lost her mom in 2012.

Jenny was lost to meth in 2015.

At first, we knew where she was some of the time. After a while, we didn’t know at all.

On July 16th, Jenny called and wanted to know if we could pick her up in Des Moines. She had just been released from a recovery center. There was no vacancy at the time she was released for her at a sober living home. She had nowhere to go. We brought her home.

We talked about what had been going on. Jenny entered the recovery program in March 2024. They kept her until July 16th. We talked about why this time in recovery was different.

She told me that she was tired of living enslaved to drugs. She said she was ashamed of all the wasted time and money. She said she had nothing to show for her life. I asked her if these realizations started right before she went to recovery and she indicated that they had.

I talked to her about Jesus, and praying, and establishing a relationship with Christ. She said she had been praying. I talked to her about coming to church with us when she felt ready. I gave her the web address so she could watch some Keystone services on her phone.

Once she got into the sober living environment, I asked her again if she’d like to go to church with us. The first weekend she said no. The second weekend she called and asked if we’d pick her up so she could come to church with us. After that she would come with us most weekends. Soon it was every weekend.

We had good conversations about her relationship with Jesus. We made sure she had a good Bible. We prayed with her. She got to hear what and who we pray for each day.

In October, the shelter where she was staying told her it was time for her to leave. She called during our Connection Group and I went to get her and brought her home.

This has been a good time for each of us. Jenny has been coming to church consistently with us, and spending time in her Bible. She has been rebuilding her life with God’s help.

She went to a couple services that featured baptisms. After the third one she asked about the people that go into the water with the person being baptized. We explained that those are church staff, close friends, family and Connection Group people. Her next question was if she wanted to get baptized again, if I would go with her. I told her yes.

She has come a long way since last March. I can see that were it not for the Holy Spirit and God’s guidance she would not be where she is today. She has been attending meetings for addicts called Sober Soldierz. This is a Christ-centered recovery “family.” We went to a meeting with her and they tell you at the beginning of each session that Sober Soldiers is not a 12-step program. It is a God-guided recovery family.

I have no doubts that the place where Jenny is, would not be so, if God hadn’t answered my prayer and kept Dawn and me involved in this part of her recovery.

Her “giggles” are back and she has a peace that only Jesus could have provided. She is motivated by her prayer life and is seeking answers from God.