One afternoon in October 1983, I was preparing to leave the office when the phone rang. "Dr. Senior," a lady' s voice choked on her words. As I waited for her to recover, her husband broke in. "Last night, Bill, our 14-year-old son, was arrested. He's in juvenile detention and we need your help."

That evening at family worship, I shared with my wife and three daughters, ages 14, 13, and 11, the experience I had with the grieving parents. I felt sad to see hurting Christian families who could not get help for their children.

My oldest daughter, Tamara, quietly said, "Daddy, you've developed group homes for the government, why not develop a group home for Christian families whose teenagers are getting into trouble." That night the idea of the Advent Home was born.

In April 1985, we rented a four-bedroom home in St. Petersburg, Florida and provided residential care, counseling and schooling for teenage boys with attitude and behavioral problems, learning differences, ADHD, substance abuse, school failure, and violent reactions. Calls started to stream in from all over North America .