Contact: Abigail Davidson, WinePress Publishing Group, 360-802-9758, abigail@winepressgroup.com

ENUMCLAW, Wash., October 17 /Christian Newswire/ -- Children as young as 4 are abusing heroin and other drugs, according to a recent article in a Pretoria newspaper.

Alan Lester, author of "Unending Hope for the Exhausted Addict"(Pleasant Word, 2008), is a firsthand witness to the misery of addiction and the heartbreaking cycle of rehab and relapse. When he was 11, his family moved from the small town of Ermelo to the greater Johannesburg area. There, his teenaged brother became enslaved to drugs.

After trying all the major rehabilitation programs in South Africa, Lester's brother entered His Mansion (hismansion.com), a Christian residential care facility in the U.S. When Lester's brother returned home after 18 months, he was so radically changed that his family decided to establish a similar facility in South Africa, and opened Grace Manor, a home for young men addicted to substances.

During the seven years Lester managed Grace Manor, he was astounded by how little addicts and the people who love them know about God's perspective on addictions. "The world has no hope for addicts and the rehabilitation world is cynical because of the low rate of recovery they see."

Convinced there is unending hope for the exhausted addict, Lester penned a book "written out of hard experience--both living and working with addicts, and struggling against my own addictive tendencies."

His book condenses years of intense theological study into a simple, straightforward "lifeline for addicts and their loved ones."

Lester calls the book an appeal, not a lecture. "It is a product of personal agony over the issue of addictions--seeing family and friends wasted, attempting to help people who are destroying themselves, and struggling with the same tendencies myself."

In his book, Lester defines addiction as an uncontrollable urge to do what is wrong and self-destructive. He helps readers understand what God's Word says about addictions, and provides the bottom-line solution to the heart-issues that hold addicts captive: the transforming power of Jesus Christ.

"This side of the grave, there is true biblical hope," says Lester. "Addicts can hurl aside the chains of destruction, by the grace of God."

To order a copy of Alan Lester's book, "Unending Hope for the Exhausted Addict", visit www.winepressbooks.com or call 877-421-7323. For a review copy or to schedule an interview please contact Abigail Davidson at 360-802-9758 or abigail@winepressgroup.com.