My Sister’s Place: Support and Community in Recovery
As a youth pastor early in his ministry, Davis was saddened by the number of kids from broken families he encountered, often with one or both parents affected by substance abuse.
When Mark and Lorna Davis felt God leading them in 2002 to plant a church, they knew they wanted not only to reach those struggling with addiction but also disciple them. They were cautioned against starting a recovery program too soon, due to such factors as finances and staffing, but they believed the Holy Spirit’s leading was strong. An early attendee at the church, Lisa Greathouse, provided valuable counsel in the area of recovery ministry, and in 2003, just seven months into the church plant, Christian Life Fellowship started Celebrate Recovery.
Meanwhile, God was preparing someone to step into leadership when Greathouse could no longer serve. In God’s timing, Davis was serving as a volunteer chaplain when a woman named Cindy Hildebrand was “having a meltdown” at drug court, and Davis was asked to take her aside and help her calm down.
That started a turnaround for Hildebrand. Navigating jail, drug court, and rehab, she was allowed supervised time with her children, attending church services with them while on county work release and eventually during the reunification process. The church experience was a positive one as she and the children accepted Christ and got involved.
The children realized their mom was truly changing. “They never said, ‘We have to go to church today,’” says Hildebrand. “It was, ‘We get to!’”
When the Celebrate Recovery leader had to step away in 2007, Hildebrand was sober and ready for a leadership role with the ministry, now known as Living Recovery. Realizing there were no nearby residential facilities for women in their area, she began researching the practicalities of starting one.
Conversations with a businessman who was a former Celebrate Recovery participant led to opening My Sister’s Place in 2011, starting with one-half of a duplex in nearby Montevallo and a $5,000 donation to help with start-up costs.
The ministry was eventually able to buy the duplex, and meanwhile, relationships were being built with law enforcement and court systems in both Shelby and Chilton counties. As people saw good results, donations came in and finances gradually began to develop, assisted by grant funding.
Staff members were added, all of whom are alumni of the program, and opening a thrift store in 2020 meant the ministry could begin paying employees. “Isn’t God good, helping us do that even during the COVID restrictions!” says Hildebrand.
My Sister’s Place has grown to include two duplexes, a house, and a large residential building, housing up to 64 women in various stages of recovery including restoration with their children. Another eight rented after-care residences help continue the journey, and there are now three thrift stores, two in Calera and one in nearby Clanton, to help provide funding.
Davis’s original concern, that the church come alongside broken families in fellowship and discipleship, is now being met in several ways. The Christian Life Fellowship building is available for supervised visits with children. In addition to Davis, another area pastor serves on the nonprofit board; another pastor’s wife hosts a Bible study for the My Sister’s Place women. Other churches serve or give regularly, and vetted church volunteers from the community conduct Bible studies at each of the residences.
Many women entering the program have never experienced real love in a family context, or any type of Christian community. Davis and Hildebrand emphasize that the stability the church provides is a huge part of success, as church members welcome new believers for fellowship and discipleship.
“The ones who get involved begin to parent and conduct their relationships differently,” says Hildebrand. “Once they surrender control of their lives to Jesus, we help them figure out what that looks like.”
Her personal experience is a great example: She is grateful that her own kids, now young adults, are serving Christ—some on staff at Christian Life Fellowship, and one completing graduate studies. “Gratitude is the root of this ministry!” she says.
My Sister’s Place has now served over 1,000 women, most arriving with nothing except a broken life and shattered emotions. Although some women do leave prematurely, those women are welcomed should they choose to return, which many do and eventually complete the program.
One of those was Arryon Kelley, who learned about the program and the church from her sister, who entered My Sister’s Place after being incarcerated and meeting Hildebrand at a Celebrate Recovery meeting held in the jail.
“I watched my sister grow in ways I couldn’t understand,” says Kelley. “She would talk about Christian Life Fellowship and say, ‘These people really love you.’” Pregnant and in a dark place herself as a result of her broken childhood and heavy drug use, her sister’s experience gave Kelley a flicker of hope, and she entered the program in 2013.
“I wasn’t the easiest person to love,” she says. “I wish I could say I didn’t mess up and make choices that led me back down the same dark roads, but I did. I knew in my heart that Jesus loved me, but I didn’t believe in myself or feel worthy of being loved.” Kelley’s return to her old ways lasted about two years; but Hildebrand didn’t give up, personally visiting Kelley at a drug house and eventually talking her into coming “back home.”
Kelley says she had a lot of trauma to walk through and bad beliefs to unlearn. This time, though, she stuck it out, and the number of people who helped her is “too many to count.” Along with miraculous family restoration including her three children, her sister and her sister’s children, and her mother, Kelley completed her GED, has held a job for seven years, and is nearing completion of an associate degree in criminal justice. She also serves in children’s ministry at CLF.
“But God!” she says. “I have purpose! I could never find words to express my gratitude or how special these ministries are. This type of work gets messy, but Pastor Mark and Cindy have been showing up and taking the hits for a long time. My kids’ story could have been a lot different, but they have grown up in the Lord and in a fellowship that lives life with one another and really loves people.”
Last Mother’s Day was an emotional time for the church leadership team and My Sister’s Place staff, seeing many mothers and children sitting together, worshiping God together, and sharing redemptive testimonies.
As the Holy Spirit impressed on Davis as a youth pastor years ago, broken families need, and respond to, the love of Christ. “Drugs and alcohol are the symptom, not the entire problem; and just sobering up is not the entire solution,” says Davis. “What the church does with discipleship, to follow up with the converts, really matters.”