Shaver won’t let knife attack alter his goal
It’s hard not to admire what Brother Michael Shaver is trying to accomplish with his Ray of Hope Street Ministry.
Shaver is taking heavy drug users under his wing and making every attempt to get them back on their feet. This can include life-threatening violence, which Shaver discovered can strike in an instant.
As reported in Sunday’s Southern Standard, Shaver was telling a meth user that his parents were not coming to pick him up and that he would have to stay at the ministry, when the 27-year-old snapped.
According to eyewitness reports, the man jumped over a coffee table and cut Shaver six times. Two wounds were to the face and a deep stab wound was inflicted in Shaver’s shoulder.
An attack like that might rattle some people. It might force them to rethink their resolve. But not Shaver. He has bounced back from the knife wounds with more determination than ever.
“We have some recovery going on here,” said Shaver. “I’m not going to let this stop me. Meth is in more places in this town than people realize. The churches need to pull together, we all need to pull together.”
If nothing else, the attack on Shaver shows how dealing with meth users requires a multi-faceted approach. Simply taking items used to make meth off store shelves is not going to make the problem disappear. That, combined with longer jail sentences to keep people away from the drug, are two important aspects.
Just as essential is ongoing treatment if the drug user is ever going to recover. Simply putting a person in jail for three months, then setting them free back into their same unstable environment, is only going to perpetuate the cycle of drug use and dependence.
The road to recovery is a painful one, and one that is too infrequently traveled. Sadly, it is more common for a person to become consumed with a meth addiction rather than break free from the downward spiral.
That’s why it’s refreshing to see Brother Shaver so hard at work. For $75 a week, he provides a bed, all meals and utilities, and even a ride to work “because some of them have sold their cars for drugs,” Shaver said. His ministry on Hobson Street currently has four residents with a capacity of seven.
Shaver gives people three days to decide if they want to stay. After that, he gets serious about recovery because overcoming an addition is a serious challenge. Strict house rules are laid down and must be enforced.
Shaver is a recovering addict himself. He knows all too well the path of destruction meth creates in every direction. But he’s been clean for five years and now he’s trying to make a difference.
Slowly but surely, we are coming to realize just what needs to be done to reverse the vicious trend of meth addiction. Shaver is one of the people leading the way. The Standard applauds his efforts and is relieved a potentially deadly knife attack is not going to restrain his determination.