Teen Challenge buys former Baptist home for new program

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- For more than 50 years, Teen Challenge has helped people overcome their drug and alcohol addictions. The name no longer describes the people who seek its help; most of the men who enter the program near Cape Girardeau are adults.

But the name does fit the newest endeavor, the Teen Challenge of Missouri Boarding Academy. Director Jack Smart recently explained to Bollinger County Chamber of Commerce members how the new program works.

"Five years ago God started the process" in which the boarding academy was born, Smart said.

The board members had wanted to create a ministry that would reach boys and girls ages 13 to 17 who were foundering.

"We were dedicated to helping young people get their lives started out before they make a total mess of them," Smart said.

Around the same time, a former Baptist boarding home became available. Mountain Park, near Patterson, Mo., in Wayne County, relied on Christian fundamentalist teachings, strict discipline and corporal punishment to work with teenagers with behavioral problems.

The home, which opened in 1987, closed after a series of trials and civil lawsuits.

Teen Challenge bought the 180-acre property and now offers a 15-month program that involves a high school curriculum that lets students work at their own pace, daily chapel services, group and personal Bible studies and devotions, structure, discipline, and a chance to grow in a loving atmosphere and learn life skills.

Eleven students are now at the boarding school, but there is room for 150. Organizers attribute the low population to tuition costs at the boarding academy, a departure from the Teen Challenge program. As the program becomes better known and as people begin to support it, Smart said, the program will grow and become self-sustaining.

"I can't think of anything more rewarding than seeing it happen," Smart said. "I'm especially thankful to see it happening in the lives of younger people and know they have their entire future ahead of them, they can be productive citizens and most of all serve the Lord."

Don Crader of Marble Hill is one of the board members of the new academy, and most of the board meetings are held at Crader Distributing. Smart said there is room for more board members and encouraged anyone interested in becoming involved to contact Crader.