Lyle and Aleisa Craig are graduates from Finding the Family. In this interview, Lyle and Aleisa share their experiences of their recovery journey, and what life was actually like before, during and after coming to Finding the Family.
QUESTION #1: Do you remember when you came here to the ministry?
Aleisa: Yes. I was telling Lyle on the way here that I remember that day perfectly.
QUESTION #2: Were you scared?
Aleisa: Yes
Lyle: I wasn’t so much scared, but it was just the unknown. I didn’t know what to expect. The hardest part was moving away and not knowing anybody.
Debra: Yeah, you guys moved an hour and a half away from what home was and family was at a time.
Lyle: When you’re surrounded by nothing but negativity, it’s hard to believe there’s good people out there. So when I first got here, that was the hardest thing I had to work through – knowing that you guys genuinely wanted to help somebody not just to get something out of it. That was really hard for me.
QUESTION #3: How long did it take you to realize we were there to help you and not get something from you?
Lyle: I had my guard up for like four months. I just visualize and overanalyze everything.
Aleisa: Me, it was totally opposite. I was oversharing from the get go.
Debra: Lyle and Aleisa have brought so much personality the ministry.
QUESTION #4: What your your biggest “aha-moment?” It wasn’t just about getting your kids back, because your kids were in foster care.
Lyle: When we first came here, we didn’t have our kids for three/four months during COVID. That was really a good time for us to grow. I think the Lord put us in that situation for that exact purpose – for us to grow so we could, in turn help our kids out. Because that’s one of the bigger parts of this is, family. In order to help them {the kids} we have to help ourselves.
Aleisa: And mend our relationship.
QUESTION #5: How has your relationship changed with each other?
Aleisa: I can’t stop bragging about him. It’s totally different. Which he was extremely good to me when we first got together, and then the drugs took over our lives. And then we just didn’t like ourselves and in return, we didn’t like each other. We didn’t like each other.
Lyle: I don’t know how she’s so happy all the time. I love it, it’s awesome. I want some of that
Debra: I remember when you first came Lyle, you would come up for our class, and you would come skidding in with your notebook, and you’d open it to tell me all the scripture that you had written down. You had chased the other life with your might, so you decided that you were going to chase God with all your might. You were such a learner and a student. And then here comes Aleisa. And she would pop in the door and you were like, “Why is she so happy and I’m not yet?”
Lyle: That was hard for me to stop trying to figure God out, and just live knowing that Jesus loves us. One day, I was sitting on the back of Chris’ truck. He’s told me, “Stop trying to figure God out. You never will.” That’s always stuck with me. So that’s something that just kind of let go and let God take care of it. And now, I don’t need to figure him out. He knows me, He knows how I am, He knows what I’m gonna do. I just love Him. That’s all you can do, and be obedient.
QUESTION #6: What was your life was like before Christ and what is it like now?
Aleisa: I’m a lot of the same person that I was before. I’m all or nothing and super loyal. It’s just grown and blossomed more.
QUESTION #7: Do you feel like you’ve become selfless as a parent?
Lyle: You have to give up a lot. You don’t realize how much you have to give up until you’re sober and actually know what you’re giving up. But you learn to take it and just be okay with it.
Debra: You said before, you would just do what you wanted.
Lyle: Yeah. Now we have little kids watching us, looking at us, wanting to be us. We have to set that example and there’s no other way to do that then to teach them about Jesus.
QUESTION #8: If somebody is scared to commit to the program at Finding the Family, what would you say to them?
Aleisa: I would say, WHY NOT try something different? WHY NOT see what you can do? If it happens to work, what did you lose?
Lyle: There’s more to lose, not doing it. The scariest part is going. Once you get here, the atmosphere of God over this place is overwhelming and you just want to stay. Putting God at the center for the first time really started opening doors for us.
QUESTION #9: What keeps you walking in the right direction?
Aleisa: That’s a fantastic question, Chris, because we actually lived that. We pulled out of church for about two months. We thought, “Okay, we got this. We’re on our own.” It was a supernatural tug from God. We didn’t like the feeling that we felt by not going.
Lyle: You feel turmoil inside of you when you try to disobey God. Another thing for me is when I look at my kids and see what God pulled them out of through all of this. For me to make them go back to that, would be so selfish. It would do nothing but ruin their lives and the calling that God has for us.
QUESTION #10: What does your life look like now?
Lyle: It’s awesome. We get to go to church. Not because we have to, because we want to. We get to be around you guys all the time, which we never had a family before that was actually there for us when we needed them. Now we do, and we have great support system from church. Our kids are doing awesome. We pray with them every every morning and every night. Their eyes light up and our son gets excited and says, “Prayer request! Prayer Request!”
QUESTION #11: What’s something you do with your kids now, that you didn’t do before?
Lyle: I call them around about 7:10am as I’m heading into work. So if I don’t call by 7:11, the kids call me like, “Dad, why don’t you call me?”
Chris: What are they calling about?
Lyle: They want me to pray. It’s something they look forward to every morning, and it lets them know that Daddy loves Jesus and he wants to share it with them.
Aleisa: We feel it. I think there’s been maybe two times that we’ve busy and the kids missed their call. They didn’t like it at all.
QUESTION #12: There’s a specific piece of scripture that stuck out to you while you were here, which one was it?
Lyle: Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for Him to act. It was one of the scriptures that first hit me when I first got here. I was always so impatient. I was trying to do things my own way all the time and it didn’t get me anywhere. Yeah. And it didn’t get me anywhere. So now, I know that it’s not in my own time. I have to sit and be still in the presence of the Lord – which means being in the Word of God. Listen to His voice and know what He has to say. And then His Will will be done through me.
QUESTION #13: How has Christmas changed in your household over the last couple of years?
Lyle: Before it was all about gifts. We’d give the kids presents… what we could give, because we cared more about the drugs than anything. Now it’s more about family. Spending time with family, and just talking about Jesus instead. Before we had never talked about Him. I just tried to scrounge up some money for some presents and get the kids something {Aleisa: at the last minute}.
Lyle: They don’t need material things from this world.
QUESTION #14: What’s your favorite day of the week?
Lyle: Well, there’s three. Wednesday there’s church. Thursday, there’s Post and then Sundays for church too. I’ll be honest, there’s some days that the enemy tries to get you not to go. He knows that there’s a Word for you that day, and it’s hard to fight that.
Aleisa: What do our kids do if we miss a Wednesday or a Thursday?
Lyle: Oh, they get mad.
Alesia: They get mad at us, we will hear about it all night long.
Chris: God created us for that. He created us to be in His presence. He created us to worship. He loves His church. It’s by no mistake that when we put our kids in that environment, that they begin to realize,
”Oh, this is part of me.” That’s how they’re created.
Lyle: It makes them feel loved, They know the love of Christ and see it through the people in the church. They feel that. They know mom and dad are making the effort to go and they see that we set that example for them.
Aleisa: Our daughter wants to serve at church already. I’ll be wearing my serve shirt, and she’ll be full of questions. She’ll ask, “Why are you wearing that?” I tell her, “Because anybody that walks into the church knows that they can walk up to me and ask me about the church. I’ll be able to assist them.” She already wants to serve in all areas.
QUESTION #15: What does your future look like?
Lyle: Right now, it’s good. I don’t know what it looks like, honestly. But I know God does. He has a plan for me and I know it’s not bad. I don’t have anything to fear. 2 Timothy 1:7 – God has not given the spirit of fear but of power love and a sound mind.
Chris: I’m super proud of you guys.
Aleisa: We love you guys.
Chris: You’ve blessed me. Thank you.