DEFOREST, Wis. — Pastor Kent Van Horn said he tries to lead by example at Harvest Church in DeForest, Wis. 

What You Need To Know

  • Kent Van Horn is lead pastor at Harvest Church in DeForest

  • His daughter Savannah died two years ago from an overdose at age 23

  • He became active with the nonprofit Great Lakes Adult Teen Challenge

  • The organization provides faith-based addiction support and offers residential treatment centers

Dropping off food and supplies at homeless shelters and soup kitchens is part of his routine. He hasn’t always done this work.

He just became a full-time pastor a few years ago.

“If people can just get a helping hand at those crisis points in their lives, and get through them, it can often prevent a domino effect of them having trouble in other areas down the line,” Van Horn said. “As you walk through life, you see the needs, and the people who are hurting and lost. I came to a place where I felt I needed to put my talents and my energy into helping others.”

Overcoming hurt and loss is a challenge Van Horn said he knows all too well. Two years ago, his daughter Savannah died from fentanyl poisoning. She was just 23 years old.

He said he had been trying to get her help.

“She confessed to herself, essentially, in her journals, that she had become addicted to drugs and alcohol a couple of years before her death,” he said.

He admitted the grief never goes away.

“We just engage in that, and move through that,” he said. “Remember the good times, grieve the loss and just accept how we feel rather than try to push it down or deny it. There’s that temptation to either sort of shut down, pull back and go into despair. We looked around and asked ourselves what we could do, so that other people don’t have to go through it.”

He said his answer was in trying to help others who are struggling with addiction, as well as their families, who often don’t know what to do or where to turn.

Van Horn has become active with the nonprofit organization Great Lakes Adult Teen Challenge, which provides faith-based addiction support. In Wisconsin, the organization offers a residential treatment center for men and women.

This work has given Van Horn a new purpose, he said.

“In the scriptures we even have a passage about that, that our trials are used to help us help others,” he said. “That builds a bridge of compassion and empathy that allows me to help others.”

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