We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jason and Leslie Skinner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jason and Leslie below.
Jason and Leslie , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
Understanding that every Fortune 500 business every one of those began with an idea. Mixed with the vision God has given us, hard work, dedication and lots of sacrifice we came founded We Do Recover Sober Living LLC. When we first began my husband Jason was completely homeless. Through prayer and guidance from God we were blessed with our first property and my husband decided to turn it into the first recovery home while still remaining homeless. God began to bless that sacrifice and we were blessed with opening the second property where my husband and I slept on the office floor. In these sacrifices God has truly blessed us. I wish I could honestly tell you that there was some incredible secret to how we went from 1 property housing recovering addicts and ourselves being homeless in the process but the only way I can explain it is that we stayed obedient to the vision God gave my husband and literally sacrificed our own living situation in order to succeed the task. My husband and I were both addicted to drugs partying and the lifestyle the world promotes. It led us to violence, multiple prison stay and a combined total of over 40yrs of addiction. Getting clean and surrendering to Christ we dedicated our lives to the recovery through Christ process which in-turn has helped hundreds of people not only get clean but flourish and become productive members of society. We started this whole process in June 2020. We then incorporated We Do Recover Sober Living LLC and became a business to which we acquired three more properties housing 40+ people. We then kept going and eventually acquired a non-profit We Do Recover Through Christ Ministries. In this process my husband and I poor ourselves out into the community multiple ways including our ministry going to Nashville to feed the un-housed. Not only this but we help our residents acquire a license to drive, we help families be restored through the courts. We offer classes such as GED, Transformation Discipleship, Relapse Prevention, Biblical 12 Steps, Discipleship and Budgeting. We partner with All For Him Ministries with clothing and necessities for our residents and the un-housed. We offer several parts to our ministry such as We Do Lawns, We Do Beauty, We Do Construction and Remodeling and on the road to doing everything we can to serve our community. And everything we do is not for profit. We now have 13 properties housing up to 101 residents. We also have been granted by the Judicial system our own children back into our custody and have obtained our own property for our large family which includes my husband and I, 3 boys, 1 girl, 2 dogs and a temporary parolee. We are in the process of obtain our own church and we won’t stop there. This is mind blowing that we only started 2 years ago and we are now reaching thousands of people and helping them follow Christ and become true productive citizens and restored families. W have a mens program, Womens program and couples and family program.
Jason and Leslie , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
We are a 12 month Christ centered life recovery program. We incorporate scriptures into every aspect of recovery. Going into the fires of the world sharing Jesus and the recovery through Christ process. We offer classes ranging from GED, budgeting, transformation Discipleship, Relapse Prevention, Discipleship and Biblical 12 Steps. We offer job placement and ride to work services. We offer resources to help restore families. We offer food shelter and necessities to those who are ready to change their lives for the better. We offer several in-house ministries including the We Do Beauty to serve as a resource for those in need of anything to help with confidence. Also we offer our lawn care equipment to help the community keep their lawns maintained. We serve as vessels when we go out to the communities to serve food and necessities. We have many skilled workers ready to offer their skills to remodel or construct if needed. We are most proud of the work that God has done in us and our residents who society deemed never had a chance.
Testimony from Pastor Jason Skinner:
I was acquitted of murder at age 15. I was lost in addiction for over 20 years. I served multiple prison stints and nothing ever changed my life or way of thinking. I was lost and engulfed in the devils snares. It was not until one day after committing suicide in 2019. God raised me from the death bed where I went into treatment. During treatment I quickly became accustomed and eventually became the executive Director of the program. In that position I quickly learned what not to do in recovery. After stepping away from that position I went through a storm of homelessness and more addiction and in that storm God blessed me with the vision for We Do Recover. I wasn’t quite ready to stop using marijuana until God introduced me to my wife who was also in another recover program setting. And she took my weed and through it int the toilet and said I will n to be in a position trying to help other in addiction if we are just going to continue to use. So that was the day I let all substance and addiction go completely out of my life. My wife and I became married and then partners to grow Gods vision he gave me into what it is now. We are like Sarah and Abraham in the Bible (Gods first power couple).
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
So I (Leslie) was involved in another ministry teaching classes and literally just trying to find any way to serve and give back to the community I took from for so long. However, I was working a job that was hard labor and not much time with family and ministry. My husband (Jason) had 1 property that he was already housing 6 people. At that time he wasn’t very seasoned on how to help these people properly to say the least and I knew nothing about him or his program. But my brother who was also in active addiction at the time calls me and says “hey I’m in this program called We Do Recover in Lebanon”. So me being the curios and worried sister I did some research and found nothing about the program on google. So my brother tells me that its new and he wants me to meet the owner because the owner needed a director to help him in growing and reaching more people. Well this was crazy to me cause I had literally been praying for a year straight for God to open a door for me to continue to help people but also be able to support myself and get my kids back. So I agreed to meet him and feel it out. So we met at Waffle House to have a sit down meeting and ill be honest, I was a little taken back by his demeanor. He definitely has an overbearing presence. But I just kept listening to God and eventually we got super close, we had the same dreams and our biggest thing in common was we just wanted to help as many people off the streets as we could. So within 3 weeks we were married and then came 3 properties, 4 properties, hundreds of peoples lives changed and so many more miracles.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
In the beginning Jason was blessed with a vehicle for $1200. He set up a payment plan and the same day he sold it for $3500 which in-turn payed the vehicle off and had $2300 left which he bought beds and put in his first property. He then utilized the program fees from the residents to grow the business and obtained more properties, more beds etc. 6 months in my husband and I split a $300 salary which took care of our needs at the time. Now we have 8 people on full salary. And my husband still refuses a salary check. He makes his money off side jobs such as construction and things of that nature.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.wdrthroughchrist.com
- Facebook: We Do Recover Ministries Inc
Image Credits
These are my personal photos