We were lucky to catch up with Kelly Tinley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kelly, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I am the woman I am today because of the risk I was willing to take in my life. After divorcing my sons father, I had found myself a single mother for the first time to a teenage son. Struggling with a personal drug addiction myself and aware that my son was experimenting with drugs, I knew I had to do something radical. I had a friend in East Texas who was willing to help. After speaking with my son about starting a new life in Texas, we began to pack. Leaving everyone and everything we knew in Arizona we got behind the wheel of a U Haul and started on a new journey. We arrived in Palestine, Texas and we were welcomed into the home of my friend with open arms. I immediately got plugged into a good Gospel preaching church and began attending recovery meetings. In a women’s Bible study at Church I met a new friend, Tesne Davis, whom I began doing jail ministry with in Anderson County. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine how different my life would look only seven years later. I am currently six years sober and the Executive Director of Rock Bottom Ranch, a Transitional Recovery Home for Women exiting incarceration who struggle with addiction. My son received a scholarship to University of Texas Permian Basin, and is currently finishing his Masters Degree in Business. Today, I am living my life for the Lord and more fulfilled that ever before.

Kelly, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Addiction has always played a huge part in my life; whether I myself was in active addiction or I was counseling others. In an intense way, I am so grateful for addiction because it brought me to my knees, led me to seek God and to become who He has called me to be. I first got sober in 1993, promptly got married and started a family. As I began to watch my family and friends die in addiction all around me, I was determined to help. I began my education at the University of New Mexico and received my Bachelors in Psychology. During which time I began working in a treatment center for adolescents. I was able to see for the first time the real generational nature of the disease. We moved as a family to Arizona where I finished my Masters Degree in Social work at Arizona State University. Upon graduation, I took a job in another treatment center, determined to help those who desired to get sober. I thought that working with and helping those who wanted sobriety would in turn help me stay clean and sober. inevitably realizing that it alone would not. Life still happens. Lost jobs, infidelity, divorce, and ultimately a drink. Alcoholics Anonymous states that one is too many and a thousand is never enough, that is a statement that I found to be true. One drink opened the door to six more long years of active addiction, incarcerations, and precious moments lost with my son. After we moved to East Texas we really plugged into the church. I began doing jail ministry with Tesne Davis, and finding the true need for a recovery home in this community. As my eyes had been opened to the fact that I could not stay sober, happy, joyous and free without Jesus, we decided to build a program with Jesus at the center. Within the year Tesne Davis, Nima West, Lori Wolf and I founded Rock Bottom Ranch. The mission of Rock Bottom Ranch is to provide a safe and loving transitional home for women exiting incarceration to break free from the bondage of addiction. The objective of our program is to educate, care for, encourage, and love the women who fully commit themselves to this program. We assist women to re-enter everyday life with productivity and success. We provide our residents with room and board, clothing and hygiene, education and therapy all in a monitored environment where they may grow and mature. The program is designed to empower them to become sober, responsible and compassionate members of society, learning to live for Jesus.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The World tells us throughout life that in order to be fulfilled and accomplished that we must make a name for ourselves or get an education, own a house, do more and work harder. What I have had to learn is that more I try to control the less control I have. That my title is not as important as what God has called me to do. I had to learn to turn it all over to the care of God. I had to give up and realize that without Him I was nothing.

Can you open up about how you managed the initial funding?

The way we knew that this ministry was in God’s will was that within two days of viewing the property an individual, who also struggled with addiction and incarceration, donated twenty thousand dollars for the purchase of the property to start a faith based recovery home. This was our first lesson on God’s provision. He was right on time with the exact amount of money we needed to get started. This experience was so unexpected that it really opened our eyes to the true power of prayer, and the beauty of true surrender.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rockbottomranch.org
• Instagram: rock_bottom_ranch_gals
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/@womenontherock
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKD5in9MasAaU_jpkqYXvUQ