Manatee church's conference set to address drug epidemic

Doug Carpenter just loves to talk by nature, but when the subject of his Manatee County church’s upcoming conference on addiction comes up he goes into hyper drive.

“Our hope is to fight the addiction epidemic,” Carpenter said Monday of Freedom Conference 2017 set for Friday and Saturday at Resonate Life Church, 1820 53rd Ave. W., Bradenton.

“We have eight speakers and every one has a story to tell about some aspect of addiction,” Carpenter added. “With what’s happening today in Manatee County with the heroin epidemic, this conference is coming at the right time. It’s not just for those struggling with addiction, but also for their families and friends who are struggling to help them.”

Opioids, mostly heroin and fentanyl, killed an average of 14 people a day in Florida during the first half of 2016, according to a report from the state’s medical examiners.

In the 12th Judicial District, which comprises Manatee, Sarasota and DeSoto counties, 43 people died due to heroin or fentanyl overdose in just the first six months of 2016, the report states. The year before in the same six-month period there were 75 deaths.

Carpenter seems to have the credentials to lead a conference like this.

Not only is he the co-director of Resonate Life Church’s “Addicted to Life” Friday night addiction recovery program along with his wife, April, but he battled substance abuse for 25 years and says he has now been clean and sober since 2011.

He has gone from a self-described “trash can addict” to a position of elder at Resonate Life Church, as co-director of “Addicted to Life,” which averages between 35 and 45 people from 7-9 p.m. every Friday at the church, and he is the owner of a painting business.

“I manipulated and even got into a life of crime,” Carpenter said of his own quarter century of suffering. “I considered myself a ‘trash can’ addict. I did everything I could get my hands on. In that life, the motto is, ‘Where there is a will, there is an angle.’ You did anything you had to do to acquire the drug. With cocaine, you might do it and the next day you want it, but it is not an all-out, overpowering need. But with opioids, you are so sick the next day. You are dope sick. We called it ‘being in the ditch.’ You almost have to do it again. You can’t go through the sickness. You lie and steal and cheat to get that next pain pill or next bag of heroin.”

On July 19, 2011, Carpenter entered into a program in Dade City that was formerly Lighthouse Ministry and is now Loving Hands. He stayed there a year.

“I got saved and redirected my life with the help of my pastor here, the Rev. Nick Manassa,” Carpenter said.

Freedom Conference 2017

Carpenter has gathered seven speakers for the conference and he makes the eighth.

“The conference will be a mixture of testimony and Bible teaching that allows not only the addict but the family, to see a light at the end of the tunnel,” Carpenter said. “I know family members who wake up each day in tears wondering if their loved one is going to overdose.”

While some of the speakers will share personal experience of being on drugs, as Carpenter has, others, such as firefighter Michael Dunn, who started “Your Life Matters,” will offer their personal experience having worked with addicts.

Between speakers the crowd will experience Resonate Life Church’s highly regarded praise and worship team, called, “Ever Flowing Stream.”

Carpenter considers himself the perfect example of his church’s motto: “Reaching people, restoring lives and renewing minds.”

“Jesus Christ is able to turn lives around because he has no condemnation for us,” Carpenter said. “When you put him in charge of your addiction, he handles it by starting to put joy and peace and hope in your heart. Hope, that’s the big one. Once I lost hope I felt there was no turning back. It wasn’t until I surrendered to Jesus that I began to experience hope again.”

This story was originally published July 4, 2017 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Manatee church's conference set to address drug epidemic."