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Hope for Families in Australia
Finding Hope Family Support Groups
Impact Stories
Written By
Finding Hope Team
Hope for Families in Australia
When Trevor and Cheryl Joyce first met at Bible college, they had no idea their calling would eventually lead them to launching family recovery groups in Australia.
“We both had a heart for mission work,” they said. “We did missionary training and were missionaries in the Philippines for four years. We wanted to stay longer, but health issues forced us to come back to Australia.”
After returning home, they served in churches across Australia for years, moving often. Eventually, family circumstances required them to settle. To them, nothing was going as planned. But ministry work rarely works according to plan.
They didn’t realize at the time that the Lord was weaving together decades of experience — missions, church leadership, mental health work, addiction ministry, and personal heartbreak — to prepare them for something new.
Finding Hope
Trevor and Cheryl’s introduction to Hope is Alive didn’t begin with a strategy meeting or conference. It began with a song.
“One of the people we had helped sent me ‘Black Sheep’ by Ben Fuller,” Trevor said with a laugh. “I wasn’t going to listen to it because it was country, and I didn’t like country music. I like classical and rock. But because he sent it, I thought I should listen.”
That decision led to watching Ben Fuller’s testimony. Which led to watching a prison concert. Which led to seeing Hope is Alive residents being baptized. And then they watched people share about their experiences with addiction, and how helpful Finding Hope had been for their families.
Addiction wasn’t unfamiliar territory for Trevor and Cheryl. It had been part of their ministry for decades, and a part of their personal story as well. They had walked alongside family members navigating the chaos of addiction. They had seen the strain of rehab stays, relapses, and late-night phone calls no parent or grandparent ever wants to receive. They had witnessed the shame that keeps families silent and isolated.
“There are Christian rehabs in Australia,” Cheryl explained. “But we realized there wasn’t really anything for the families. Especially for those whose loved ones aren’t in rehab yet — they’re just at home, struggling.”
As they watched more testimonies from Hope is Alive and learned more about Finding Hope, they began to see something unlike anything they had ever seen before: a structured, faith-based support system designed specifically for families of addicts and alcoholics.
“It wasn’t just emotional support,” Cheryl said. “There was education. There was guidance. There was a path forward. And we knew families here needed that.”
Launching Finding Hope in Queensland
Once they realized what Finding Hope offered, Trevor and Cheryl knew they couldn’t keep it to themselves. After connecting with the Hope is Alive team and completing the leadership training, they began preparing to launch the first Finding Hope groups in Queensland, Australia.
“We’ve only advertised within our church so far,” they explained. “We wanted to get comfortable running the meetings, working the technology, and finding our rhythm before opening it up to the wider community.”
They now run two groups — one during the day and one in the evening — and each has developed its own dynamic.
“The daytime group tends to have more spouses and single mums,” Trevor said. “The evening group has had more parents with a child struggling.”
In every meeting, there has been a good rapport and bonds forming among attendees. While the groups are still small, there is already a sense of relief in the room when people realize they are not the only ones walking through this. For many, it is the first time they have spoken openly about what is happening in their homes.
The need for such support in the Queensland area is significant. Located in a lower socioeconomic region, many families are impacted by substance abuse in some way. There has already been interest from other pastors who are watching closely and considering how Finding Hope might be introduced in their own churches in the future.
For now, Trevor and Cheryl are focused on faithfully stewarding what is in front of them — one group, one family, one week at a time. As trust continues to grow and word begins to spread, they believe this is only the beginning of what Finding Hope could become in Queensland.
“Finding Hope is a trusted program that has been running for a long time and has proven results,” Cheryl said. “That gives us confidence and reassurance.”
Though both Trevor and Cheryl bring decades of ministry experience, they are quick to acknowledge that leading a family support group comes with its own struggles.
“You forget what it’s like to hear a story for the first time,” Trevor shared. “And some leaders may struggle with that. But Hope is Alive has given us all the resources and support we need to handle it.”
Because of Trevor and Cheryl’s patience, compassion, and understanding through this process, families in Queensland are no longer walking this road alone. This time next year, we pray we’ll be celebrating not just dozens, but hundreds — even thousands — of lives impacted by the Finding Hope support groups they helped launch.
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