June 17 1996

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Sheila Anderson plants herself before the crowded classroom in the old Baker school in Richmond's north- central ghetto.

Focusing her eyes heavenward through the stained ceiling tiles, her rich voice booms out a gospel song about persevering along the narrow way. Then she levels her gaze on the new students--most of them, like herself, in their early thirties, black, and struggling to get off welfare and out of the projects with the help of a church-based ministry called Strategies to Elevate People (STEP). "I sang that song because before I got into step, my life was a mess," Anderson declares.

Several years ago, she hit rock bottom as a crack addict, selling her children's beds out from under them--even selling her own body--for drug money. She was homeless, and her children were taken from her. The chair-shuffling noises stop, and Anderson's voice quickens. One night, she "accepted Jesus" at the invitation of a televangelist and was miraculously delivered from her cocaine addiction. She started attending Victory Christian Fellowship, the urban church affiliated with STEP, and then enrolled in the step Academy. Today, Anderson is in college majoring in early childhood education. She has her children back and is active in her church--counseling, teaching Sunday school, and witnessing on the streets around Gilpin Court, the sprawling housing project where she and other step students live.

Sounding like an evangelist, she concludes, "If you're looking to be changed, you're in the right place. Because not only are they going to teach you the educational thing, they are going to teach you about Jesus. And at a time like this, when we've tried everything else and nothing worked out, we need Jesus."

In the projects STEP has been ...