Recorded 2012 at a concert to support Betesda, a Danish TC Rehab centre.
Vocal and Nord: Ron Brown, Executive Director of Teen Challenge California.
Drums: Martin Boesenbæk.
Ron
Brown has ministered as a worship leader, youth pastor, assistant
pastor and associate pastor. For eight years Rev. Brown served the Los
Angeles Mission as a Chaplain, Program Director of its Long Beach
outreach, Director of Urban impact, and the Executive Director.
As
Executive Director, Ron oversees the ministry of Teen Challenge in
Southern California, which includes eight centers located in Kern,
Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties. In
addition to the year-long structured Christian discipleship program for
those addicted to drugs and alcohol, Teen Challenge of Southern
California provides comprehensive outreach and prevention programs for
inner-city youth at risk of gang affiliation and drug abuse.
In
addition to his Executive Director responsibilities, Ron is an ordained
minister and the Missions Pastor of Eben-Ezer Family Church in Carson,
California. This 3,000-member congregation is the fastest growing
multicultural church in the South Bay. Rev. Brown oversees the 24
missionaries supported by the Eben-Ezer Family Church who are stationed
around the world.
Ron is married to the beautiful Demetra Ann Brown, is the father of 2 daughters and has four grandchildren.
Teen
Challenge is the oldest, largest and most successful program of its
kind in the world, and was founded over 50 years ago by Reverend David
Wilkerson. It was Feb. 28, 1958 when the 26-year-old Pentecostal
preacher from rural Pennsylvania disrupted a highly publicized murder
trial in New York City. Wilkerson had made the eight-hour drive from his
quiet mountain town to downtown Manhattan for a simple reason; to speak
to the seven accused gang members about their salvation. In a grave
attempt to share the love of God, Wilkerson rushed to the front of the
courtroom at the close of trial proceedings and pleaded publicly with
the judge for permission to meet the teenage defendants. News media were
everywhere, and Wilkerson unwittingly made himself the source of
headline news throughout New York City.
The judge had been
receiving death threats during the trial, and Wilkerson was almost
arrested as a presumed assailant. The judge later refused Wilkerson's
request to see the boys and ordered him never to return to his
courtroom. Wilkerson made more than the news back in 1958; five months
after his discouraging day in court, his compassion for teen-age gangs
and drug addicts began to make history. Since Wilkerson opened the first
center in New York in 1960, Teen Challenge has grown to over 195
centers across the nation and over 550 centers worldwide. In Puerto Rico
and parts of Africa the organization is building AIDS care facilities.
Wilkerson also founded a global evangelistic ministry, World Challenge.
Yet the Pentecostal preacher remains today what he was over 50 years
ago; a man dedicated to preaching the gospel in the heart of New York
City.
Teen Challenge of Southern California was established in
1963 and includes nine regional facilities with seven strategically
placed residential facilities throughout Southern California. Last year
Teen Challenge served over 200,000 men, women and children in Southern
California through its resident and outreach programs. The Teen
Challenge residential program continues to be one of the largest and
most effective substance abuse recovery and prevention programs of its
kind.
Teen Challenge is a non-profit organization that relies
entirely on the generous donations, funding and volunteer efforts of
both individuals and organizations throughout our communities in order
to offer services at no cost to the individual. We know that community
involvement and support is an essential component of recovery and
necessary to providing services that address the specific needs of the
communities involved.
It is the mission of Teen Challenge to
provide youth, adults and children an effective and comprehensive
faith-based solution to drug and alcohol addiction as well as other
life-controlling problems. Teen Challenge reaches out to people from
all backgrounds, with particular emphasis on the urban poor, women, and
ethnic minorities.TC also give back to the communities with outreaches,
events, after-school programs and much more.