Hometown Heroes: Local evangelist touches broken lives behind bars

On most Sunday mornings, you can hear a joyful noise coming from inside the cell blocks at J. Reuben Long Detention Center.

“This is the day that the Lord hath made!“ sings Evangelist Vernette Avant, as she’s surrounded by about a dozen or so female inmates. Some of them are singing, and some are not.

“Sometimes we come in, and we sing songs, and have praise, and then we go into teaching,“ said Avant at her home near Conway. “Sometimes we have no songs, and we have prayer and maybe I’ll preach. It’s just according to how the Lord leads us.“

For nine years now, Avant said she’s been lead to not only help the inmates at J. Reuben Long worship, but she’s helped many get back on their feet once the gray bars slam behind them and they’re back on the outside, in the real world.

Some of the former inmates have nowhere to go, don’t have jobs, or even the means to seek out a job.  Some don’t even have a phone number to give to potential employers, and that means they may end right back up doing what it was that got them in trouble in the first place.

“Sometimes I have to go into my own pocketbook to get some money in their hands, to get them where they need to go, because they need it at that time,“ she said.

One of those inmates Avant reached a couple of years ago was Maria Martin.

“As soon as (Avant) walked into the room, she was the type of person that made you glad she was there,“ said Martin, who joined Avant at her home one day last month. “My world was in a crumbled mess around my feet, and talking to her, and spending time with her, made me realize my world, from then on, is what I make it.“

Since her release from jail, Martin has worked with Avant to seek out ways to provide services to women in Horry County.  They want to find ways to reach out to women who may have fallen on hard times.

“These are women (at J. Reuben Long) that have children,“ said Martin. “These are women that have intelligence and they could be doing so many other things. These are women just like anybody else, that took a wrong turn, and fell on their head, maybe,“ she said.

Avant would like to establish a women’s shelter, and offer health and professional services to those women and others who need them, so their lives can get back on the right path.

“What I’m doing, I feel like I was called to do, and I love doing it,“ said Avant. “I do it for my heart, and I love those girls,“ she said.