Since 1986 his life has been controlled by his crack addiction. It sapped what little money he earned as a cook and isolated him from the non-using world. Three times he enrolled in drug treatment programs to appease family members, but each time he failed.

        “I wasn't living life on life's terms; I was working to use,” he said last week. “I was keeping a job, being productive. I was just killing myself slowly.”

        Now Mr. Britton has gone more than 157 days without using or even desiring crack.

        He plans to “graduate” from a men's drug treatment program next month. And he expects to rejoin the workforce, volunteer at a church and visit his 21-year-old daughter in Dayton.

        Mr. Britton says his new motivation comes courtesy of an overlooked but growing ministry operating in Over-the-Rhine called Wine Skin Ministries.

        Named for a parable about God pouring his Spirit into “new wine skins,” this 24-hour street outreach involves more than 30 volunteers at New Prospect Baptist Church.

Beyond the boycott

        That's right — the church led by the man most often associated with the boycott against downtown Cincinnati, the Rev. Damon Lynch III.

        The Rev. Mr. Lynch's Black United Front has convinced several conventions to cancel in Cincinnati, costing at least $13 million in economic impact. The group also mans minor protests at downtown events, including last month's Greater Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Billy Graham Mission.

        Wine Skin is reaping a more direct and positive benefit.

        Launched amid the April 2001 unrest, Wine Skin has fed and clothed several hundred adults and children, providing temporary shelter and individual counseling on restoring torn lives.

        But it hasn't been 100 percent successful at keeping its converts off the streets.

Lost converts

        The Rev. Mr. Lynch talked mournfully last week of a young man who gave his life to Christ but was shot to death the next day. Another convert later killed someone in self-defense.

        Many, volunteers concede, are just seeking food and shelter and aren't ready to reform their lives yet.

        Don't count Mr. Britton among them. He says his nearly daily contact with volunteers Bruce Phillips and Eddie Woods helps him walk closer to God and to his dreams.

        “It's a powerful ministry,” he said. “These guys have touched my heart.”

        In a year's time, Wine Skin has directed about 50 adults to full-time employment through a partnership with another non-profit, Cincinnati Works, and placed another 25 people with work through informal networks.

        Cincinnati Works annually trains and places about 500 chronically unemployed people into entry-level jobs; about 350 a year are helped into careers that boost them into the middle class.

        But Cincinnati Works always has more jobs open than it can fill, says founder Liane Phillips (no relation to Bruce). Until recently most of its clients were women. Ms. Phillips credits Wine Skin with helping her reach more men.

        Wine Skin, she says, helps get people off drugs and mentally prepared to seek jobs.

        The ministry has gained national attention. Last March The 700 Club on cable TV designated New Prospect “America's Church of the Week,” crediting the ministry with bringing more than 200 people to God.

        The 700 Club, founded by Pat Robertson, profiled the church on Christian Broadcast Network and its Web site, noting that “in the place of anger and bitterness, many are finding salvation and forgiveness.”

        E-mail damos@enquirer.com or phone 768-8395.

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