Rock Solid Refuge was established as a nonprofit corporation in the fall of 2005 in the reality that many of our young people and their families are struggling through the crisis of teen addictions with little or no real help available to them.   We recognized through one of our board members own son's struggle with addictions, that what is needed is a long term residential program that is Christ centered to bring freedom from the addictions and abundant life in every area of life.  They need a refuge away from their present environment and into a place removed from the temptations of their addictive lifestyles.  They need a long term program because it takes time for the mind and body to heal from the affects of drugs, the dependency on drugs, and the reality of relearning some basic life skills and developing new beneficial way of life.  We also recognize that those caught up in addictions have bought into a wrong philosophy of life, and it takes time to tell them, and show them that there is an all powerful God who by his grace, through faith can give us a victorious, and full life.

       In addition we believe that it is important to work with the parents and families, to help them in the challenges that they face as a family dealing with addictions in their home. We have 4 days of camp for the families to come on site for us to work with them through workshops (parent to parent), chapels, conversations, and fun activities.  This is an amazing opportunity to share the gospel with those who maybe have never been introduced to Christ before.

We are working from this perspective also because of having seen the results that Christ centered programs such as teen challenge and many others have.  

How do we facilitate the opportunity for change in a young person's life?  

We do this with Christian discipleship and character building through mentoring, work projects, daily chores, workshops, special speakers, assignments, workbooks, classes, worship and chapels.  We believe it is important to also do fun activities with them such as swimming, out trips (horse trip, and canoe trip), evening games, workout equipment, and sauna.  We also believe that discipline is an important part of shaping their character, so extra work projects are assigned when attitudes, speech and behavior is needing to be confronted and corrected.  Through all these things we strive for a family feeling culture with the campers for the summer.

Summer 2008 we ran 12 weeks of camp for 8 first year campers and 3 returning campers starting June 1 and finishing Aug 22 here at Simmie Lutheran Bible Camp, 35 miles south west of Swift Current Sask.  We did have more that were in our program for short amounts of time, but didn’t stay to finish the program.  

Summer 2009 we ran 14 weeks of camp from May 18 to August 21.

        May 2010 we started into our year long, year round program on our own property.

What are some of the things we experienced working with the teens?

The campers are not necessarily wanting to be at camp, as most of them have been in real trouble, and want to continue to do there own thing, but those who care about them most, have stepped in and done what it takes to help them see they are headed down a terrible path.  We deal with lots of disrespect, and stubbornness, but also kids that have not had the chance to be kids.  Some getting into drugs in their own homes, others coming from stable homes.  It is a very difficult work that we asked our staff to do, and not something for someone to do that is stuck in selfishness.   Some of the teens attitudes seemed to change early on, while others seemed to struggle against our efforts till the last week when we saw incredible attitude changes.   It was very exciting as we presented numerous of  them with their own Bibles during the last week that they had asked for, and to see the excitement in their eyes, and asking  all the staff to sign their Bibles.

So what could you help us with?

        We exist to help teen boys ages 13-18.  Do you know someone in need of what we are doing? 

We need individuals and churches to partner with us in prayer.  The teens we have worked with in the past are back home now  where temptations are strong, and they need the Holy Spirit's help and strength to live a new life.  We need individuals who will mentor and encourage the teens and families, inviting them to be a part of the church, youth group, etc.  We also need people that will pray with us ongoingly as we no longer have an off season.  Pray for our staff to have strength and wisdom as they disciple and mentor the students.  Also, please pray for the completion of our new building that will house 16 students.

We need individuals, churches, and businesses to partner with us financially.  Our program takes a lot of resources.  We do not charge a fee for our program, but have a suggested donation for parents which is still far below the cost per teen that we incur.  Right now we are needing financial support for our program expenses (staff, food, power, etc.), as well we have a major building project in progress, which we will also need strong financial support for.  Please let us know if God is leading you or your church to partner with us in some way,.  You can mail cheques to the address on the home page or inquire about monthly sponsorship and pre-authorized payments.  God Bless.