James McCluney has experienced a slow but sure process of transformation.
One directed by Christ and his deeper relationship with his savior. He is living proof, and shares his story to witness to others. It is a daily reminder for him as he continues to learn as a loving husband and a strong Godly influence in his sons lives.

James grew up under the guidance of his grandparents. He remembers alcohol always being in the house. Yet, his drug use did not begin until age sixteen. He began by smoking marijuana with fellow, teenage, basketball players. Still, his frequent drug use did not start until a few years after entering the military. On the weekends he would attend different parties where speed, acid, cocaine, and other drugs were set out for anyone to try. He slowly experimented with all types

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The Cliffs Communities hosted a luncheon in which “The Drug Guy,” Winn Freeman, brought a message entitled “Is There A Problem?” Winn Freeman is the Founder of Wisdom In Living Life Ministry The luncheon was held in the Clubhouse Ballroom at the The Cliffs Valley.

• 70% of functioning addicts are employed and have families.
• Alcohol and drug addiction is associated with declines in work productivity and increase in medical costs.
• The average age of children using drugs for the first time is between 10 and 12 years old.

Driven by the desire to improve the quality of life for you, your family, your neighborhood, and the business community; we are doing something to eliminate the cost of addiction and its impact on our community.

Download the photos and program in PDF format:

A few years ago, The Times Examiner published the miraculous story of Winn Freeman, Founder and President of Wisdom in Living Life Ministry. The title of the article was “Man on a Mission.” For almost two decades, Freeman has been showing others the way to real freedom from addiction. Farron Hancox is one of many who sought and found real freedom from addiction with the help of Winn Freeman and Wisdom in Living Life Ministry.  READ MORE>>>

2010 marks the 10th year of ministry for Wisdom In Living Life!

In 1988, Winn Freeman was given a 3% chance of succeeding at anything. He was living in California, a heroin addict and a drunk; headed for jail. Today, Freeman is still in contact with law enforcement, only instead of riding in the back of a patrol car on the way to jail, Freeman has law enforcement on his side. When he walked out of jail, he was walking toward hope, Greenville, college and Wisdom In Living Life Ministry.

Wisdom In Living Life is the organization Freeman founded in 2000. It is a Bible-based ministry seeking to “educate, equip and empower God’s people to effectively reach those imprisoned by addiction.” As testimony to Freeman’s character and reputation since, with the help of the Lord, Freeman turned his life around, the ministry’s advisory board, as well as its board of directors, is comprised of a group of distinguished community leaders and dedicated public servants.

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Freedom is not found in a program, it’s found in a person. His name is JESUS!

Life is no picnic…but freedom can be found here this summer!

I mentioned last month about changes and the seasons in life and about how we are putting some new material in place to serve our students and their families.

I am talking about a Christ-like model for living, we are calling it the “Beyond Recovery Training Model.” It will be structured with (4) phases and each phase is 8 weeks in duration. Each level will be more challenging and delve into a deeper understanding of how scripture applies in a practical way to our life. We want to teach people how to live and as we line up with God’s direction for our life, we begin to transform into what God had intended us to be.

We are an end addiction ministry helping individuals and families who are imprisoned by addiction! That’s why it’s important that people move beyond recovery as found and experienced in 2 Cor. 5:17.

Applications for the launch of our Beyond Recovery Training Model are now being accepted. Please inquire at info@wisdominlivinglife.org.
Until then, if you’re looking for real help, and we can agree on one thing, no matter what you know or think you know, what you’re doing is not working? Then I want to invite you to our 7pm Thursday evening orientation class, Choosing To Be Free, where I personally teach people what God’s word says about real freedom from the sin of addiction.

God is still working!

Winn Freeman “The Drug Guy”
Founder and CEO

Read our entire June/July 2010- E-newsletter- Life is no picnic, but freedom can be found!

Winn Freeman, Living Life rehabilitation program help addicts gain wisdom

By Abe Hardesty • City People Writer • October 7, 2009

Nine years after Winn Freeman made a drug/alcohol training program his life ministry, the California native continues to get strange looks when he talks about the Wisdom in Living Life program.

“Our focus is not to teach people how to be clean and sober,” Freeman says. “Drugs are the symptoms, not the real problem,” Freeman continues. “We deal with the problem.”

The 54-year-old Freeman, sometimes known in rehabilitation circles as “the drug guy,” deals with the issue each week in classrooms at a training facility near Travelers Rest. He typically spoke to 10-12 students when he began the ministry in 2000; today, a room of more than 100 is common for his “Choosing to be free” program each Thursday.

It is the oldest of three weekly programs offered at the training facility that once housed the Ebenezer Elementary School. He and colleagues teach similar classes Monday and Tuesday evenings.

It is a fitting subject for Freeman, whose life was thrown into chaos as he developed drug dependency as a teenager. “Clean” for 21 years, he now speaks to drug users with authority.

Sometimes it takes a person like me to convince someone that they can get their life back,” says Freeman. “If you want to work on a car, you don’t talk to a painter.”
In terms of drug knowledge, Freeman is a certified mechanic. “A good kid” who found himself in trouble when he began to experiment with alcohol and speed as early as age 11, Freeman dropped out of school and left home at age 15. In the next 17 years, he lived the life that many teenagers dream about – playing guitar in a Bakersfield, California, rock band that traveled from city to city. It was a lifestyle that made illegal drugs easy to find.

Freeman saw his family life and two careers crumble under the weight of alcohol and drug addictions. His younger brother, Aaron, died as the result of a heroin overdose. Freeman “hit bottom” at age 32, when, from the back seat of a police car, Freeman began his recovery with a transformation to the Christian faith. In a nutshell, that’s the foundation of Freeman’s program today. He calls it a “Christian, Bible-based alternative” to more conventional drug treatment programs.
In fact, Freeman never refers to his program as one offering treatments.

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If you missed our appearance on WSPA Channel 7 “Your Carolina” with Jack and Kimberly…

Watch as Jack and Kimberly speak candidly with Winn Freeman “The Drug Guy” as he explains how people do not have to struggle with drug and alcohol addiction their whole lives, as most people are taught. An exclusive interview explaining: DRAWING THE LINE IN THE SAND, and moving BEYOND RECOVERY. He concludes to further explain the concept of helping families to BRING THE BOTTOM UP, which is what is taught at Wisdom in Living Life Ministry.

CLICK TO VIEW>>>

• Partner with us and donate $65 a month
• Serve as a Friend-raiser and ask 5 people to do the same
• Help us reach our goal of 400 committed monthly donors
• Pray for Wisdom In Living Life Ministry

This is a tangible way for friends of Wisdom In Living Life Ministry to allow God to use YOU to serve in a powerful way for someone else’s life. Your financial commitment means we can continue to reach out to those who need to find freedom from addiction. You are a conduit to help people find the hope that only Jesus can offer.

Be a part of changing lives for eternity.

Checks can be sent to: WILL Ministry, PO Box 150, Travelers Rest, SC 29690 or donate on-line…

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By Winn Freeman:

So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. Matthew 17:20

Have you ever woke up with that knot of fear right in the pit of your stomach followed with what if questions? At that moment if I’m not careful my mind quickly races with images of fear and impending doom. It’s at that time that I must choose to muster up everything that I can and remind myself of the great miracles in my past and what God has said in His word. Been there done that?

“I recently woke up one morning dragging physically and mentally. My sugar was high and my mood was low, but not for long because Galatians 6:9 came to mind. “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” I’m telling you that the only thing that gives purpose and finality to my life is my faith in God and His word. He can pick me up in a moment when nothing else matters.

“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” Psalm 27:14
Like you, we’re at a great time for God to show up and answer our prayers. We need a financial miracle! We’ve done everything that we know to do! But, God exists and operates on a different scale than we do. That means that what seems like an eternity to us is just a moment to God. When it seems like God is being slow to act, we’re called to wait patiently for God to act in His own time.

Taken from the Autobiography of George Muller:
With every fresh trial, faith either increases by trusting God and getting help, or it decreases by not trusting Him…If we trust in God, we do not trust in ourselves, our fellowmen, circumstances, or in anything else. If we do trust in one or more of these, we do not trust in God.

If we desire our faith to be strengthened, we should not shrink from opportunities where our faith may be tried. The more I am in a position to be tried in faith, the more I will have the opportunity of seeing God’s help and deliverance.

When a trial of faith comes, we are naturally inclined to distrust God and to trust in ourselves, in our friends, or in circumstances. We would rather work a deliverance of our own than simply look to God and wait for His help. But if we do not patiently wait for God’s help or if we work deliverance of our own, then at the next trial of our faith we will have the same problem. We will again be inclined to try and deliver ourselves.

God will prove His willingness to help and deliver at the perfect time…All difficulties may be overcome by acting according to the Word of God.

I want to remind our team and our supporters to move beyond our feelings and rid ourselves of all negative inner voices that are contrary to what God has said in His word. Recognize that we serve a great God! Let our conversation be words that lift up our possibilities and potential in Jesus. Let us encourage each other to move forward in anticipation of great challenges and many victories that are before us today and tomorrow.

I continue to personally pray for each of you knowing that God is the only one who can give us the peace we need in difficult times. We’re not in this just for the temporal gain; we’re in this for what is to come after this life and we must press on to the end. I hope that you will be refreshed with new vigor and excitement as we continue to push forward in faith with what He has given us to do!

Thank you again and know that I appreciate each one of you. Your gifts and prayers enable us to continue to invest and plant seeds into the lives of individuals and families who are imprisoned by addiction.

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
Even when I don’t understand, it’s my faith that always gets me through!

Let’s keep looking up,

Winn

To read other articles in our April e-newsletter click here.