Harrisburg ministry gives women hope
HARRISBURG, Ark.—Before coming to Restoration House Ministries in Harrisburg, Carrisa Radford said her past left her without love.
“I was an extreme addict for 22 years, intravenously for 17 years of it,” Radford said. “I did everything under the sun, all at one time, honestly. I am an extreme victim of violent rape, repetitively … a very, very awful life was in my past, honestly. My mother was into witchcraft and things like that, so I never knew the Lord at all.
“One day, I just reached bottom. I’d been in prison, in and out of jail, lost my son … it was just awful. I was homeless and didn’t know what to do, but knew I needed a change in my life.”
That’s when Radford met Rebekah Whittley, the program director at Restoration House, The Jonesboro Sun reported.
“I never knew people could love, and really love and it really meant something, until I came here,” Radford, now a graduate of the program, said. “I met the Lord, and I met these wonderful people. Now I have a family; I have contact with my son. I have been completely sober for the first time since I was 11 years old. I know how to love; I know how to
be loved, and I’m madly in love with Jesus. This place saved my life, and it put my life back together.”
Restoration House Ministries began in 2012 as a day program and became a residential program helping women with drug abuse, alcohol abuse and other life-controlling issues.
Pastor Eddie Passmore of First Assembly of God in Harrisburg, executive director of Restoration House, said his church acquired the property after a man bought and gave it to them under the condition of using it for a women’s rehab center.
The ministry uses the Teen Challenge curriculum and teaches women how to study the Bible and live the Christian life. Staff also teaches the women how to have a good work ethic and succeed.
“It’s been remarkable, day in and day out, as we see students that come in dejected, broken, without hope, can’t look you in the eye, sense of guilt, shame and then, as the word of God gets into them, day in and day out, suddenly they brighten,” Passmore said. “Their countenance changes, and it’s amazing what we see, what we notice. It absolutely is amazing.”
Whittley said the change the student undergoes has a “ripple effect” on her family.
“The things she goes through, the things she deals with, and the closer she gets to God, that draws her family closer,” Whittley said. “It’s rewarding to watch that happen, because when the girls come in, you have families that are just done. They’re done, they don’t think there’s any hope, and then, by graduation, you have families that are reconciled and restored and brought back together and closer to God.”
One of the current students, Brooke Robertson, said the program has given her hope.
“I came from a divorced family,” Robertson said. “When I was 6 years old, my parents got divorced. That hurt me a lot, and I walked in that broken heart for the rest of my life. I used drugs since I was 14, it went from smoking pot to taking pills to whatever I could do just to numb what was really going on.”
The pain of her past impacted her marriage and temporarily cost her a relationship with her child.
Robertson said her life has changed since letting God take control of her life.
“It’s not all been easy for me,” Robertson said. “But as I learn to let go and let God have control of my life, it gets easier. ... Through coming here, that relationship I always wanted with my dad, when I gave that to God, God has allowed me to have a relationship with my dad, with my family, with my little boy, with my mom, the people that were done with me.
“I had no hope. I do have hope now. I can’t see the end, but I can feel that there’s a beginning to the end.”