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Local Reach
Check out Doris and Dave's ministry update video here.
Doris and Dave Jasperson serve in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, a city of 8,500 which serves as the shopping, industrial, educational, and medical hub for the surrounding rural communities. Abuse of alcohol has been in the # 1 position of most common substance abused in Barron County since records have been kept—until 2016 when methamphetamine took over the #1 position.
The Gap is a place of learning, accountability, and support for addicts who are ready to turn their lives around. This restored home in a residential neighborhood opened up in July 2016 as an answer to the need for relational and spiritual support for those who were done with their lives of addiction, and with their best attempts at sobriety on their own, found themselves back with the wrong people and in the wrong places.
For those in recovery, ReGroup is held on Wednesday evenings and begins with a home-cooked meal, followed by a video-driven (using RightNow Media) Bible Study with discussion. This is a well-attended event and for some people, it is their only exposure to God through Bible teaching and interaction with other Jesus-followers.
On Friday mornings Overcomers Outreach, a Jesus-centered 12-step group, meets at the Gap. Unlike AA and NA meetings where the term "Higher Power" is "anything that you recognize is stronger and has greater control than you" we believe that without God there is no recovery, only disappointing substitutions and repeated failure.
The Gap Garage is a place where donated cars can be made road-ready, then be sold at an affordable price to individuals working hard on their recovery. It is also a clean, dry, warm garage with necessary tools for those active in recovery to do repair and maintenance on their own cars.
Whatever the addiction – meth, heroin, marijuana, opioids, gambling, alcohol, or pornography – there is a person behind it with a story of pain, brokenness, and shame. Hopelessness reigns in the life of an addict. For those who want things to be different, the road to recovery when taken alone is filled with disappointments and repeated failures.
God wants to heal the broken and bring hope and strength to the weak. He is using Doris and Dave in the lives of those in recovery to introduce them to Himself and bring those who have lost their way back to Him.
The Jaspersons receive referrals from the courts, probation, Health & Human Services, churches and social media as well as word-of-mouth.
The Jaspersons have served as InFaith field staff since 2016.
Doris was a registered nurse for twenty-five years before returning to school to study Christian counseling. She has worked with low- to high-risk offenders since 2012 doing victim-offender conferencing and teaching a cognitive-based curriculum. For many years Dave owned his own business, Property Care & Repair, maintaining and repairing seniors’ homes and properties.
In 2015, when Dave and Doris took on the task of renovating a badly damaged old house, they realized they were being called to turn this restored house into a place of restoration for those in the community. Having worked with those involved in the justice system since 2012, Doris recognized a large gap in services for the emotional and spiritual needs of those trying to turn their lives around. The Jaspersons named this place of education and ministry The Gap.
God put on Dave’s heart the need for safe and dependable transportation for those in recovery. With no public transportation in our area, those in recovery need reliable transportation of their own, and it is now possible in and through The Gap Garage.
Doris explains, "God has given me the passion to teach and care for individuals involved in the justice system who want a better life and are willing to make changes to make that happen. By developing relationships and giving them tools, we motivate and encourage them to make positive changes, as well as repairing and restoring broken relationships. It is a privilege and a joy to introduce them to God's kindness, mercy, and grace in the process."
