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Teen Challenge was a very popular show in the 1960’s that featured real life stories about troubled teens. This program was the idea of a Pastor named David Wilkerson who conducted various rallies in the streets of New York. Through this process he was successfully able to help troubled teens get help for their drug addiction and to get out of a gang. Instead the turned the life to Christ and used their time to help others find salvation by sharing their stories.
 This TV show that followed the life of troubled teens showed them in a house where the troubled youth would live together. Some of them were gang members and others were drug addicts. Some of these troubled teens had been living on the street and had no where else to go.
While the TV show Teen Challenge is no longer on the air the legacy of what David Wilkerson started is still alive and well. There are more than 170 residential programs for troubled teens that include teaching about Christ in the United States. There are many in other countries as well. The program as recognized by the United States Government National Institution of Drug Abuse as one of the most successful programs for troubled teens.
This type of program for troubled teens isn’t one that simply stops when they end the program. Since so many of these troubled teens embrace Christ they decide to help others. They become part of the ministry and work in these residential programs to offer first hand experiences with other troubled teens. Helping teenage drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, and gang members make the choice to turn their life around is an awesome experience. Many of these teenagers believe that since someone cared enough to step in and help them it is God’s will that they do the same.
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