Ministry offering New Hope Refuge for women with addictions
BETHESDA — Miranda Childers knows about the chains of addiction.
She almost lost rights to her daughter, her freedom and herself. After three years of trying to recreate the first “high” she had experienced from methamphetamine, she realized she was chasing something that would never be found again, and she needed to make a change before she lost everything.
Now she says God is leading her to help other women in that same situation, and she is starting a ministry for women who are dealing with drug and alcohol addiction.
Childers and her husband, Todd, are opening New Hope Refuge at an old Baptist camp on Bell Grove Road in Bethesda.
“The name is really sentimental to me. For years, I was an addict and got in a lot of trouble,” Childers said. “The last time I got in trouble, … the place I was arrested was called New Hope Road, so the name of the ministry came from that road, and this will be a place of refuge.”
Growing up in Smithville, Childers said, she had a wonderful upbringing. Her parents have been married 35 years, and every time the Smithville Baptist Church opened its doors, her mom was there, taking the family.
“I got older and ended up pregnant at 16, married young, divorced months later and ended up hanging with the wrong crowd,” she said.
Childers said that when she was 18, she had already been drinking and smoking marijuana.
“One day, I had a bad day and decided to try meth — and it took everything from me,” she said. “I never wanted to be someone who did that, [but with one bad choice], I was hooked.”
That first time, she felt an energy she’d never known, but when she came down from that high, she felt like she was going to die, she said.
“You say, ‘I’m never going to do this again,’ and a few days later, you find yourself wanting to get back to that spot,” Childers said. “It’s an awful drug. You spend forever trying to get back. … It becomes your motivator. It’s what you’ve got to have to get out of bed and go to work. It just takes over.”
This went on for three years, she said. One day, police raided Childers’ house in Black Rock, and she was caught with marijuana.
“My daughter was there, and that was the beginning of the end for me. She was 2,” Childers said. “Our bond was broken. It took a long time to get back where we needed to be in our mother-daughter relationship.”
Following her third arrest, her ex-husband filed for emergency custody of their daughter.
“That was my absolute breaking point,” Childers said. “Even though I hadn’t been a great mom, it was always my desire to be that for her. I had lost everything but her, and now I was about to lose her.”
The judge ordered that Childers’ daughter live with her dad for the summer.
“I tried in every shape, fashion and form to get into a place because I needed help. All the places I called were full at that time, but I got into an outpatient counseling group at St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro.”
Childers said she went through a 10-week course and changed everything else in her life. She refused to let her old friends come over, and she went back to church, she said.
“I started doing what I needed to do, which was have a relationship with Christ, and that’s what did it,” Childers said. “I had no other options except for Jesus, but that was the biggest blessing ever. … He delivered me from addiction.”
That was in April 2007, and from then on, things were different, she said.
“I found I could have life, and I could be forgiven,” Childers said. “Then you want other people to know that.”
Following another failed marriage, Childers had befriended the stepdaughter of John 3:16 Ministries founder Bryan Tuggle. According to its website, John 3:16 is “a spiritual bootcamp for men with drug and alcohol addictions.” Childers said that one day, she and her friend walked into the Tuggles’ home to find the Tuggles and a few of the John 3:16 graduates praying in the living room.
One of them was Todd Childers.
“They were praying for God to send Todd a godly woman, and about that time, I walked in,” she said with a laugh. “They all had that look, that ‘we’re-fixing-to-set-y’allup’ look. From that day, we started talking on the phone.
She and Todd dated for three months before they got married, and they will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary in November.
“He’s amazing — he’s the best dad, the best stepdad, the best godly, leading husband,” she said. He’s what I always hoped for, but it took a while to get it.”
Todd became an instructor at the camp, and Childers went to work there in January 2008.
“I’ve had it on my heart for many years to eventually be able to do something like this but never had the full faith enough to walk out and start it,” she said.
She shared her desire with her husband, and the two prayed about it, she said.
Childers began looking into what properties were available, and her first call was to a real estate agent who was on a committee for the Independence Baptist Association, which had closed its church camp more than a year ago.
“He said, ‘We’re actually looking for somebody to buy it but keep it in Kingdom work.’ So they didn’t want to sell it to someone for general living or for cattle. … It was absolutely perfect,” Childers said.
There was a three-bedroom, two-bath house with a separate dorm building.
“That was a selling factor for us, that we could live on the property, and the girls would be right there.”
The dorm already has a private bathroom in each of its 19 rooms, and Childers said she thinks 19 will be the maximum number of women she’ll have at the camp.
Other structures on the property include a commercial kitchen with an apartment, an outdoor tabernacle and “the lodge,” a 5,000-square-foot building where the kids stayed when they came to church camp.
“Our plans are to eventually have an exercise room in there and a fellowship room, then a chapel area when people come out and teach,” Childers said.
Childers hopes to hire a part-time employee at the camp, and that person can stay in the apartment.
She said a lot of the buildings already have furnishings, which is another blessing. Outside, there is a playground, a basketball court, a softball field and an inground swimming pool, although Childers said they don’t know yet whether the pool is in good enough shape to open.
The sale on the property was finalized March 3.
Childers said all of this happened over the course of about five months, and waiting was very hard for her. Since moving, she said, the family has had to make adjustments, particularly Childers’ younger three daughters: 11-year-old Addie, 8-year-old Lilla and 2-year-old Millie Jo. Her oldest daughter, Rileigh, is 19.
“They’re so excited …,” Childers said. “I was worried about the transition because we’ve changed schools and moved out here in the middle of nowhere, and they don’t know anybody. … It was a big deal, but they’re just loving it. They’ve got acres and acres to roam on.”
Before the coronavirus led to social distancing and self-quarantining, Childers said, she and her husband were going to churches and detailing their plan. She said she still hopes to start taking women at the facility by May 1 and have an open house/dedication in June if everything stays on track.
She said the facility will not house the women’s children, but there will be family visitation on Sundays, and some children may get to occasionally spend the night with their mothers.
Childers said the women will do some form of community service or work every day, and on Sundays, she will take them to a local church.
“God is faithful, and he has shown every step of this journey, so we know where we’re supposed to be,” she said. “If he worked all that out, he’ll work this out. There are girls in addiction now, and the coronavirus ain’t stopping that. God can make it happen. He’s a waymaker.
“This has been a passion of mine forever, and it’s just unfolding before our eyes. It’s been awesome.”