OUR STORY

In 2021, our Director, Travis, moved to the Bolivar area from Southern Alabama where he served in vocational ministry and directed an aftercare program as part of a residential, faith-based addiction recovery center. He eagerly sought to get engaged in serving the Bolivar community in a faith-focused role and took a position as a case manager at Community Outreach Ministries (COM). While serving at COM, he had a great opportunity to get to know many people from all walks of life that comprise the Bolivar / Polk County Community and saw first-hand the needs of our area. 

As Travis sought to help those in need through his position at COM, he realized that there was a significant gap in resources for young adults that were having to recover from challenges in their life within our community. The only answer for them was to point them in the direction of Springfield and pray that they would succeed long enough to find help. Much discussion and prayer between he and his wife Brandi convinced them both something had to change, but neither knew the right way ahead. 

Over two years of this being the only approach, the Lord began to place the burden for these young adults on Travis and Brandi’s hearts. They could not accept that the only help our community could offer for young adults in need was to point them out of the community and support structures of family and friends that they had grown up in simply because they had made a poor choice and were struggling to overcome the consequences of that choice in a very difficult environment. 

Travis and Brandi sought out others in the local area that were helping young adults and the Lord crossed their paths with many great faith-focused programs, but they were all in Springfield. The question continued to resonate in their hearts, “What about the young adults here in Bolivar?” 

As Travis and Brandi continued to pray for guidance, the Lord crossed their paths with several local supporters that also acknowledged the gap in resources and felt the responsibility in our community to speak to the needs of our struggling young adults here in their hometown, not simply direct them out of our city and responsibility. 

Within the next month the team found the perfect home and committed to offering a safe, substance-free, stabile, supportive, faith-focused housing opportunity for young adults (18-25) in the Bolivar area that would allow them to work themselves through challenges on the walk to independence while engaged in mentorship and developing strong relationships in their home community. From this, Restore 12:12 Ministries was born in the spirit of Biblical encouragement to “Rejoice in Hope, Be Patient in Tribulation, and Constant in Prayer” (Romans 12:12). 

We look forward to serving young adults in need and our community through the submission to God’s call upon our lives. Thank you for your interest in our ministry and in the lives of young adults in our community.