When Sawyer Green reflects on his middle and high school years, he says he didn’t know who to go to for help.

“My dad was working long hours. My brother married and moved out. I didn’t have anyone who I felt I could ask for help.”

In Sawyer’s junior year of high school, he started drinking and using drugs. But he says the process of walking away from his knowledge of right and wrong started a few years earlier, when he transitioned from private to public school.

“December 7, 2014 was the day I finally asked for help,” he said. “I was 27 years old and had been to a bunch of different treatment programs. In those short-term programs, I just wanted to get out of trouble. This time, my emotional, spiritual and physical health were at a demolished rock bottom. I was at the lowest low I could imagine. And this time I actually wanted to stop.”

When Sawyer arrived at No Longer Bound, the Assistant Program Director was a young man he had known in addiction.

“Graham had become so happy and successful and full of joy,” he said. “Seeing his transformation was very hopeful to me. In addiction he seemed worse than me. It was very inspiring to hear other men talk about how he was helping them change their lives.”

Ultimately, the freedom Sawyer felt from becoming fully known gave him the desire to help others have that same experience.

“Talking openly to others, not having to hide who I was, the structure of work—I bought into all of it. I wanted to be a part of the life change happening at No Longer Bound.”

Sawyer, far right, with one of his North Point youth groups.

Sawyer graduated from No Longer Bound in 2015, then stayed on for a year as an intern. From 2017 to 2019, he worked as a counselor. It was 2018 when he began leading teenagers at North Point Community Church.

“They ask for a four-year commitment, and that commitment has helped carry me through the difficult times of serving teens. COVID was hard, especially as my guys were getting driver’s licenses. But over the past three years, some of my guys have made incredible transformations.”

Sawyer says his time at No Longer Bound, helped him understand how he got off track as a teenager.

Celebrating their first year of marriage!

“I was about their age when I was struggling with normal life things—changing grades, changing schools, my brother going off to college. I didn’t know I could ask for help. At No Longer Bound, I learned people need validation for their struggles.

It’s a lesson he now  employs frequently. “I validate my guys, so they know it’s okay that what they’re going through is hard.”

In addition to serving teens, Sawyer also serves the Recovery community through meetings, service work, and sponsorship.

There’s something personal that means a lot too.

“And I am just finishing up my first year of marriage,” Sawyer added. “My primary goal now is to be a great husband. And I want to finish strong with my Inside Out guys. After that, God hasn’t given me next steps yet. I just plan to keep serving and maintaining my recovery while being honest with God, self and others.”

Your financial supports helps NLB continue to transform lives.
In many instances, the transformation ripples
not just throughout this life but for eternity. 

“People have three needs: to be heard, to be understood and to valued. If you listen well and are fully present with the person your with, then you access their heart and you can sew a seed. That has been my mission and my calling for 20 years, but it all began at No Longer Bound.”

The road Rand Eberhard traveled to that realization was a rocky one.

In seventh grade, Rand started drinking and using drugs. For the next ten years, his life spiraled out of control.

“The facades I developed as a teenager—funny guy, tough guy—became my false foundation. I set aside all my moral boundaries and said,

I’m going to run this thing and do what I want to do.”

In Rand’s final semester at Milton High School, he was kicked out.

“I was chemically dependent and emotionally a wreck. All of my income was going toward my substance abuse. I even lived homeless on the side of the Chattahoochee River for a time, so I could use drugs.”

A 2002 NLB grad, Rand Eberhard.

Rand’s heart began to change when a young mother came to buy drugs from him and brought along her children. “At that point, I became troubled,” Rand said. “Even in my party world, I knew I was dividing a home.”

Soon after, while working at a grocery store, a customer shared a Bible verse with Rand.

“For the first time in my life, I believed it,” he said. “It cut me to the core and exposed my brokenness and my selfishness. But instead of condemning me, it gave me hope.”

As Rand considered changing his life, his probation officer gave him the opportunity to interview at No Longer Bound, and then enroll. “It was there I began taking an honest look at myself and my addictions and, most importantly, at God.”

At No Longer Bound, Rand learned his addiction was a response to a deeper issue. He began keeping a prayer journal. For the first time, he developed empathy for the needs of others and a calling to be like the men who spoke the word of God into his life.

But Rand’s newly developed passion lacked formal credentials.

“When I graduated No Longer Bound, the only education I had was a certificate from DUI school,” he indicated. “But I got my GED then attended Bible college, graduating in three-and-a-half years with a degree in Biblical studies. I knew I wanted to work in the ministry of reconciliation, and I knew I wanted to work in prevention with young people.”

The transformed life was initiating its ripple effect, starting to transform others.

First God gave Rand the opportunity to work in urban ministry in Atlanta, then He opened the door for Rand to join the staff at The Church of the Apostles, which was founded by Dr. Michael Youssef. After years working with hundreds of students in downtown Atlanta, Rand ultimately earned his Master’s degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Rand acknowledged the consequences of his early life.

“Some of the drugs I used took a toll on my mind. I am now dependent on a continual connection with the spirit of God. Without that, it wouldn’t be possible for me to be a dad, a husband, or a person who is about the Lord’s work.”

Today, Rand is Associate Director of Congregational Care at the Church of the Apostles. He says the theme of his work is hope, healing and harvest.

“My goal is to affect people for hope, so they can find pathways to peace, all so they become restoration workers and sowers of the Gospel.”

That is the ripple effect of a transformed life.

Your financial supports helps NLB continue to transform lives.
In many instances, the transformation ripples
not just throughout this life but for eternity.