{"id":23925,"date":"2016-12-01T05:30:44","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T10:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=23925"},"modified":"2018-10-01T13:14:46","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T17:14:46","slug":"leap-faith-meet-james-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/leap-faith-meet-james-hunt\/","title":{"rendered":"A leap of faith: Meet James Hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every week, I will be profiling an extraordinary human being who lives in our community. If you know someone who is doing something interesting with their life, I want to hear about it. Send me an email at <\/strong><\/em>laura.maclean@doppleronline.ca<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s true. Sometimes, when you least expect it good things happen. And that is the case for 43-year-old James Hunt. After a long battle with drugs and alcohol, he found the light. And much more, too. He found his purpose in life.<\/p>\n

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And when he looks back today, nine years into sober living, James still can\u2019t help but harbour some uncomfortable feelings of who he once was. Maintaining sobriety is a lifelong thing, says James. It\u2019s a commitment, a promise, to yourself.<\/p>\n

James is open and honest and he\u2019s got a big, caring heart. He\u2019s a man of faith but he hasn\u2019t always been and he\u2019s not the type who wants to shove religion down your throat. He\u2019s certain God saved his life and his job allows him a form of repaying a debt of gratitude.<\/p>\n

James is the executive director of The Door Youth Centre and he believes it\u2019s part of his life purpose that he ended up there. The Door is a valuable place in so many ways. It gives teens a safe and fun place to go and hang out. There\u2019s a lot for kids to do there: shoot pool, play checkers and video games, listen to music, snack and chat, or just chill out. James has a big role there. He\u2019s responsible for organizing all of its programs, recruiting volunteers and fundraising not only for 100 per cent of his salary, but for the operation costs as well. On Tuesdays, James is busy volunteering at Huntsville High School working with teens in the Student Success Room. It\u2019s safe to say he has a soft spot for teenagers.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s an ear to listen, a shoulder to cry on and someone who really cares. He can easily sympathize with teens who are going through tough times. Because, the truth is, James had it pretty rough as a teenager himself. Quite simply, he just gets teenagers. He knows that kids today are growing up at a fast pace. In fact, it\u2019s harder today than ever before. There\u2019s a lot going on during the teenage years: existential questions are being asked that form your identity (who am I and who do I want to be?) and, at the same time, teens are bombarded with mixed messages from every direction.<\/p>\n

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He led a troubled youth and now works with teens, offering advice and guidance if they are facing a tough time.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a confusing world we live in now, so trying to navigate through that with changing hormones and there\u2019s also poverty issues here where both parents are working and families do less and less together and the kids are often left on their own to make their own meals\u2026 They\u2019re trying to work their way through this world but who\u2019s helping them? It\u2019s a tough time just to be a person and survive the teen years. The influence of the internet is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drugs and alcoholism became the story of his life. There was no hope. There was no light. He had even devised a plan to end his life. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

James had a pretty troubled youth himself. His parents’ divorce really hit him and drugs and alcohol became his coping mechanism. In a short time, he went from being a gifted high school student to a guy who preferred to chase the party. He continued on a downward spiral. He dropped out of school and became a parent just after he turned 19. Eventually he graduated high school when he was 20. His first-born daughter attended his graduation.<\/p>\n

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James’ wife, Rachel, has been a rock in his life. She has seen him at his worst and, for the last nine years, at his best.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cEvery day, I\u2019d think, ‘today will be the day I don\u2019t drink’, even though I had already devised a plan to get more booze for that day. It was an endless cycle of wishing I could quit and realizing I couldn\u2019t. It came to a point at the end of my drinking that I would black out, and this went on for several years. One day I I\u2019m spending an awful lot of time thinking about ending my life\u2026 I had hurt everyone around me and I was never going to escape. I had a plan. I knew there was a rope in the shed and what branch I was going to hang myself from. I\u2019m drinking to the point I didn\u2019t remember the night before. But I had a family and a fianc\u00e9e and so part of me wanted to live. I reached out to a 12-step program and that\u2019s where the road to recovery started for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the beginning, James was skeptical. He wasn\u2019t so sure being part of Alcoholics Anonymous would have an impact on him. But he knew one thing for certain: he was tired of living a life with no meaning. When he attended his first 12-step meeting, he had the attitude that he was going to give it a try and he was going to prove there was no escape from his disease and he could go on his merry way drinking himself to death. But he was wrong. He immediately saw that there were people who had it just as bad as he did and many who were worse than he was, yet they had recovered.<\/p>\n

That was the first place I saw hope of escaping alcoholism. I went to those meetings every day for three years until I slowly drifted away from that as life got busier and I felt comfortable with myself. It was a rough road but looking back everything I went through equipped me to work with the teens. It will be nine years on Christmas Day since I had my last drink.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He was meditating when God busted in\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

About a month and a half into his recovery, James put himself in a treatment centre in North Bay. He was full of shame and guilt and at the lowest point in his life. It was while he was there that he had a truly defining moment \u2013 a powerful encounter with God. It wasn\u2019t something he expected to happen or necessarily wanted either. Sure, he grew up going to church but he turned his back on it when he was around 12. He didn\u2019t believe in God, nor did he have any concept of God or a higher power. But then, some unexplainable things started to happen in his life and that was enough to restore his faith. It got to the point where James could no longer explain them as coincidences. He believes it was God setting him up for this moment. For the first time in his life, James felt like he was okay and he was going to be okay just as he was.<\/p>\n

During his first year of recovery, he spent a lot of time just focusing on recovering. Eventually, he started going back to church and playing in a band. He was learning and serving and taking every opportunity to do that. He became involved with a youth ministry at his church and led that for a couple of years. And then he had heard about a Huntsville youth centre seeking volunteers. He had a conversation with one of the steering committee members and the next thing he knew he had been hired as the director.<\/p>\n\n\t\t