AMEN, Inc. (2005)

Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved. Matthew 9:17

City Lights kicked off the New Year at AMEN, Inc. on Tuesday, January 11th. AMEN is a ministry located in Druid Hills Baptist Church that helps recovered addicts launch their own businesses by offering marketplace orientation, life skills training, career path evaluation, management development, and entrepreneur preparation. AMEN is a place where permanent changes begin; it is a place where hope is instilled and where dreams become reality. It is a place where new wine is poured into new wineskins.

In Tuesday morning's meeting, we first heard from Art Druckenmiller, AMEN, Inc.'s executive director. After several years in business consulting, Art decided to invest more of his time in ministerial work. One day, he received a phone call from the chairman of the Atlanta Union Mission, David Coleman, who had been approached by Michael Masters, a Christian interested in creating and investing in a program that would inspire and encourage recovered addicts and serve as a place where they might receive guidance to build profitable businesses. When Coleman, Druckenmiller, and Masters got together, AMEN, Inc. took flight. AMEN provides training and resources to people who have the skills and desires to own their own businesses, but because of their backgrounds do not have access to capital to make their dreams a reality.

Each AMEN candidate undergoes a thorough, step-by-step process before graduating from the program and launching his or her business. Those who come to AMEN for assistance must have maintained a drug-free status for a minimum of two years and be living in community independent of recovery programs. They must also be employed throughout the program, the AMEN-sponsored training sessions, which occur twice a week, are held in the evenings so that participants are able to maintain their regular jobs. Art described the AMEN process as though starting from the base of a tree and expanding upward, into four branches: Entrepreneur, Management, Career, and Life. Participants are directed to the most suitable branch, given their emotional and physical stability, level of education, motivation, and career vision.

Ed Lawrence, AMEN's Lead Action Coordinator, and the Director of Day Senior programs at Emory Healthcare's Wesley Woods Center, also spoke to the CityLights group. He explained AMEN's intensive program sessions and offered a broad vision of the types of training AMEN participants receive. CityLights also heard from Don Shannon's inspiring story. A successful graduate of AMEN, Inc, Don worked diligently to complete the training program, Many thanks go to Art Druckenmiller and Wanda Braziel for hosting City Lights at AMEN, Inc and for providing coffee and orange juice! The delicious muffins our group enjoyed came fresh from the ovens of Full Cup Coffee House (www.fullcup.org), another wonderful City Lights ministry.

To learn more about how you may be able to help AMEN, Inc., go to www.ameninc.org, call Art or Wanda at 404-875-7677, or get in touch with the City Lights office at 404.842.7878.

Towles Kintz