The turn off the main highway is just a mile out of Santee. A sign, "Hebron Grace Home," directs you onto a paved country road that changes to unpaved after a half-mile. From there, on a narrow, sandy stretch, it turns again and again through endless, fallow soybean fields. No houses, no cars or trucks and no people, it seems to have been deserted to itself.

Finally, after what feels like a lost quest, it opens onto hundreds of yards of mowed grass and, on the left, several handsome, white buildings. Three hundred feet to the right, a broad circular pond lies with a dock, some boats and a few shade trees, a place for anyone who wants to take a quiet walk, paddle a boat or fish for bream -- another Shangri-la of the Carolina back country.

Knock on the front door of the office and in no time you will get a friendly greeting, usually from Nita Smith, the pretty, capable director. Just inside is a large, carpeted lounge with cushiony sofas, chairs and tables for every kind of game. Beyond lies a dining room seating 30 or more, and through a wide wall opening, the kitchen, where three or four of the residents work on the next meal. Eight more women at a round table are shelling pecans from a bushel basket.

Lucinda began

to blossom

Not that cooking is their main activity. Nearly every week one or two arrive for ten weeks of help. They have daily counseling in personal problems, conferences in religious philosophy and classes in lifestyle improvement. Most are high school graduates, ten percent finished college.

"Lucinda" came in 2004 from a homeless women's residence in Georgia. An alcoholic with serious nervousness, she had been sponsored by the residence, which knew about Grace House and saw to her written and medical requirements. Very much a loner, she made scant communication with any of the others for the first three weeks. Then, according to Nita, Lucinda began to blossom, chatting with the other 14 women and taking part in fellowship, craft classes and Bible study. By the time she completed the ten weeks, she had re-connected with her family which she had not seen for two years. After graduation, cleansed from the addiction, they took her home.

"We encourage them to find work and she did soon," Nita says. "Today, her life has made a full turn."

The Hebron Grace Ministries, headquartered in Boone, N.C., opened its first residence in 1947. A success from the beginning, it accepted only men until 1953. The first female residents lived in a remodeled house high on a mountainside.

Hearing of the home, Mr. and Mrs. Avinger of Santee applied for admission for a family member in about 1984. So successful was his recovery and so full their gratitude, they offered the ministries 41 acres of their farmland for a second home. Eventually, the board of directors decided to build it there, exclusively for females. Completed in 2001, it has given hundreds of women a new chance at life, none of whom are charged for their care.

The two-home, $1 million annual operation is financed by many southern churches. A few of the local churches include Providence, Target and Holly Hill Methodist, First Baptist of Holly Hill, Santee Baptist and Santee Presbyterian. Hebron operates three thrift stores, two in Boone, one in Mountain City, Tenn. to help with costs.

Crack, cocaine

and heroine

People suffering from drug addiction began enrolling in the homes in the early 1980s. Like the alcoholics, many were alienated from their families, homeless and desperate for help. Crack, cocaine, prescription drugs and even heroin had virtually taken over their lives.

The homes offer no medical treatment but a healthy lifestyle among kind companions, with good care, food and work for two and a half months. This seems to open their minds to, and desires for, a decent existence, Nita says.

In Boone, the 38 men enrolled work in a large auto shop, maintain a big garden, tend the grounds and, of course, have counseling and Bible study.

"We do have an occasional failure here," Nita smiles. "A lady here, a street drug addict, disappeared into the woods one morning. We could not find her, then, several days later her father called. She had reached home.

"Shortly afterwards, she left with a trucker she met saying, 'God has told me to go out and witness the truckers.'"

T&D Correspondent Thomas Langford can be reached by phone at 803-534-2097. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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