Our Story

In November of 2003 Daniel Holsomback began his own journey of recovery from alcohol addiction. After many years of spiraling more and more out of control, he was finally forced to seek help. He attended AA for several months and eventually found himself wanting to attend church. Other than a few small secular recovery groups, there wasn’t much assistance for him in the early days. He had to travel at least thirty minutes to find a meeting that offered support, but very few people attended those groups. He did find some help though, especially through the church. As God began to do great things for him, both Daniel and Lori (his wife) had a desire to help others.
After his first couple of years of sobriety, they began serving in ministry and trying to find ways to help those battling addiction. In November of 2008 they were introduced to a Christian recovery program called Celebrate Recovery. They began a ministry in their church and ran it successfully for nine years. Daniel also served as a state representative for CR and helped many other churches start their own ministry. They saw some success, but they knew there was a need for more.
In February of 2015, they saw the need to take things a bit further and they purchased a house near their church that they hoped might help some of the men that were coming to them for assistance. It was at this time that they began the Xtra Mile ministry. Over the course of the next year, they established a board of directors and became an official 501(c)3 non-profit organization. They later purchased a second house and were helping as many as eight men at a time.
In March of 2017, Daniel was called to be the pastor of First Baptist Church Pine Prairie. With the help of his new church family, the Xtra Mile was moved to a house near their campus. They were limited to only five members because of this move, but they were also able to provide better services and supervision. Since this move, the program has become more successful.
In 2020 Daniel began developing a second curriculum that is called Unbroken and it has become the most sufficient and effective method of presenting the truth of God’s answer to addiction since the Xtra Mile opened its doors. Members are responding favorably to the material and positive changes are being seen.
In late 2021, the Xtra Mile assisted another church in opening another house in Alexandria, LA. This church and pastor have a similar passion for helping the addicted through the gospel and The Xtra Mile was able to partner with Family of Grace Church to create another place of refuge for those seeking freedom from addiction.
Also, in late 2021 the ministry purchased another house in Pine Prairie, LA that is now called Elm Street. It took several weeks to renovate, but it is now housing as many as four men.
In January 2022, Daniel resigned from his position as pastor from the church where he served and now works for The Xtra Mile full time. He and the other volunteers and board members are passionately seeking to see more houses that are connected to compassionate ministry minded churches.