{"id":45,"date":"2017-11-02T20:36:51","date_gmt":"2017-11-02T20:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globaltc.org\/?page_id=45"},"modified":"2023-02-27T18:33:50","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T18:33:50","slug":"our-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/our-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Our History"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>\n\t\tOUR HISTORY\n\t<\/h1>\n\t<hr>\n<h3>\n\t\tIt was the evening of February 28, 1958. A highly publicized murder trial was underway in a New York City courthouse as the nation watched and awaited the verdict.\n\t<\/h3>\n\t<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"..\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/promo_bible.157123326_std-249x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"249\" height=\"300\" \/>David Wilkerson, a 26-year-old Pentecostal preacher from Pennsylvania, had made the eight-hour drive from his quiet mountain village to downtown Manhattan for a simple reason &#8211; to speak to the seven accused gang members about God\u2019s love and their salvation. At the close of trial proceedings, he rushed to the front of the courtroom and pleaded with the judge for permission to meet the teenage defendants. News media stayed live as Wilkerson unwittingly made himself the source of headline news. The judge resisted the request. He had been receiving death threats during the trial and almost had Wilkerson arrested as a presumed assailant. He ordered Wilkerson never to return to his courtroom.<\/p>\n<p>The refusal inspired Wilkerson\u2019s move to New York City where he began a street ministry to reach people suffering from drug addictions and gang members. In the years and months that followed, Wilkerson authored the best-selling book\u00a0<i>The Cross and the Switchblade<\/i>\u00a0and founded Teen Challenge, a faith-based drug rehabilitation program serving troubled youth and adults in the United States<i>.<\/i>\u00a0In 1995, Teen Challenge expanded its reach through Global Teen Challenge, overseeing the development of local Teen Challenge programs worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>Wilkerson passed away in a car crash in 2011 at 79 years of age. His brother, Don Wilkerson, continues support of the Teen Challenge ministry, having served as the executive director of the initial Teen Challenge center in Brooklyn, New York, and as the Global Teen Challenge Executive Director from 1995-2007. Don is the author of\u00a0<i>The Cross is Still Mightier than the Switchblade<\/i>,<i>\u00a0Within a Yard of Hell<\/i>,<i>\u00a0Counseling by the Scriptures,<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0<i>Called to the Other Side<\/i>.<\/p>\n<h3>\n\t\tToday, Global Teen Challenge operates over 1,400+ affiliate centers in 129 nations, with one of the highest addiction recovery success rates anywhere in the world.\n\t<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OUR HISTORY It was the evening of February 28, 1958. A highly publicized murder trial was underway in a New York City courthouse as the nation watched and awaited the verdict. David Wilkerson, a 26-year-old Pentecostal preacher from Pennsylvania, had made the eight-hour drive from his quiet mountain village to downtown Manhattan for a simple&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v14.6.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Our History- Global Teen Challenge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We are committed to starting indigenous programs in every community where there is a problem with drugs, alcohol or other life-controlling issues.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"googlebot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"bingbot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/our-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our History- Global Teen Challenge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We are committed to starting indigenous programs in every community where there is a problem with drugs, alcohol or other life-controlling issues.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/our-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Global Teen Challenge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-27T18:33:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/..\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/promo_bible.157123326_std-249x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/\",\"name\":\"Global Teen Challenge\",\"description\":\"Putting hope within reach of everyone struggling with addiction\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/our-history\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"..\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/promo_bible.157123326_std-249x300.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/our-history\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/our-history\/\",\"name\":\"Our History- Global Teen Challenge\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/our-history\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-02T20:36:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-27T18:33:50+00:00\",\"description\":\"We are committed to starting indigenous programs in every community where there is a problem with drugs, alcohol or other life-controlling issues.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/our-history\/\"]}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6188,"href":"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45\/revisions\/6188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globaltc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}