Born and raised in Huntsville, Alabama, Joey Betterton has deep roots in the community. He attended Whitesburg Elementary and Middle School before going on to Grissom High School. His story—like so many who have come through His Way—is one of brokenness, surrender, and redemption.
A Downward Spiral
Joey’s struggle with addiction began shockingly early, in sixth grade. What started as alcohol, cigarettes, and pot, soon escalated. By seventh grade, his stepbrother, who would later end up in prison, introduced him to crack cocaine.
Through his teenage years, Joey’s addiction progressed. He spent time in and out of juvenile detention programs, boot camps, and group homes.
“Most of my teenage years are a blur,” Joey recalls. “I dropped out of high school because of a lot of turmoil going on in my life. It was around that time my mom got divorced from my stepdad. Then, she ended up leaving town when I was 17 and I was basically homeless on the streets.”
By then, he had moved on to harder drugs — oxycontin, Xanax, and eventually injecting drugs. His family tried to help, but Joey says he wasn’t ready to change.
“I started getting into more trouble with the law,” Joey reflects, “and it escalated to the point where I felt like my family didn’t want anything to do with me. (In) hindsight, I know that it was hurting them to see me like that, and they did the right thing letting me suffer through my consequences.”
By October 2003, after eight years of addiction, Joey found himself sitting in county jail. He had just turned 20 and was facing prison time. While behind bars, he decided he was tired of the life he’d been living and something had to change.
A Surrendered Life
While in jail, Joey began reading the Bible. He felt God working on his heart, revealing the selfishness and emptiness that addiction had built. “I was tired of the life I was living,” he said. “It felt like no one believed I could change, but God began working on my heart, making me hate the selfish person I had become.”
On January 3, 2004, while still incarcerated, Joey was baptized on the 10th floor of the Madison County Courthouse.
He remembers the moment as a complete surrender to Christ. “After my baptism, I knew I still had a lot of work to do, and it wasn’t going to be easy but at least now I had the power of the Holy Spirit. When you surrender your life to Christ you are no longer white knuckling it.”
As he sat in jail, Joey faced a choice — to continue down the same destructive path or embrace the hard work of recovery. “Either way it was going to be hard,” he said. “But I had to choose what kind of hard I wanted. Recovery is hard but so is continuing in addiction.”
A New Beginning in Huntsville
When Joey was released in February 2004, he had nothing — just the clothes on his back. He walked from the courthouse to Central Church of Christ, unsure of what came next. There, he met His Way founder Clyde Jones, who would become one of the most influential figures in his life.
“Clyde took me in like I was one of his own,” Joey said. Clyde was known for quoting The Princess Bride, often reminding Joey,
“Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”
Joey remembers hearing that line as he pulled weeds in the church parking lot to earn money for probation fees. It was during that season that he also met Richard Gregg and Tom Reynolds. Together, these men led a small recovery ministry called The Bridge Group — a gathering of about ten people seeking healing and hope through Christ.
Joey had no idea then that this small ministry would one day grow into His Way, a Christ-centered recovery program that would transform hundreds of lives in Huntsville and beyond.
In those early days, Joey took any job he could find and shopped for clothes at thrift stores. But no matter how busy he was, he made recovery and Bible study his top priorities. He attended every Bridge Group meeting, studied Scripture, and worked through the twelve steps with guidance from mentors like Tom Reynolds.
“God started giving me opportunities to make amends with people I had harmed,” Joey said. “But only when I had the right amount of time behind me. None of it was ever rushed.”
When His Way was founded, Tom invited Joey to become one of its first Resident Managers. Seeing the ministry take shape was deeply meaningful. “It was super exciting to see this place take off and having a place that solved the problem that so many people including myself faced when trying to turn your life around,” he said.
A Life Transformed
Now, more than 21 years later, Joey is still clean and sober, and a living testimony to the transforming power of Christ. He met his wife in Huntsville, and today they live near Louisville, Kentucky, with their two children.
He has served for over a decade as a Sergeant with the Louisville Fire Department, attends AA meetings every Monday at Southeast Christian Church, and continues to share his faith with others.
“I teach my kids about Jesus and what He can do in their lives if they allow him to work,” Joey said. “I also don’t shy away from telling them the mistakes that I made so that hopefully they can avoid them.”
Looking back, Joey knows that only God could have written this story. “If you knew me when I was using, you probably thought I was the last person who would ever get sober,” he said. “But that’s the cool thing about God—He likes to do the impossible to prove that it was Him, not us, that did it.”
Don’t Give Up
Joey recently connected his story to a passage from Kyle Idleman’s book Don’t Give Up. Idleman recalls visiting his grandmother’s house as a child, where he’d spend hours working on puzzles that came in Ziploc bags — no box, no picture to show what the final image would be. He’d start, get a few pieces together, then give up out of frustration.
That’s what recovery can feel like. You make some progress, but it doesn’t come together fast enough, so you give up. You can’t see the whole picture, so you go back to what’s familiar.
But Joey knows now that God always sees the big picture. “God has the big picture in mind for your life if you give it to him. He sees all the pieces to all the puzzles. Sometimes things may not go the way you want it to, but I promise it is going to be worth it if you wait for it.”
No More Waiting
Joey shared his story at our His Way Fundraising Dinner in August 2025. Our founder, Clyde Jones, started His Way to help men like Joey find freedom, purpose, and a new path forward. We hope Joey’s testimony has inspired you to join us in our mission to reclaim, rebuild, and restore men to productive, Christlike service.