In front of the old farmhouse in Yawkey that is now the home of Stop the Revolving Door Ministries, recovered pill addict Jeff Carter explains his plans for a place where men with substance abuse can build the spiritual foundation for a new life. The program, “a work in progress,” is sponsored by the Perrow Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Cross Lanes.

Jeff Carter talks candidly about his descent into hell, how it feels to be feverishly dope sick with fluids oozing from every orifice, the shame of stealing from the people you love, what it’s like to wind up behind bars.

It started with prescriptions for a workplace back injury, drugs that tempered the excruciating pain. Wonderful pills. He couldn’t give them up, couldn’t function without them. He would do just about anything to get them.

Finally, in the cold, hard confines of jail, he hit the wall, rock bottom. And he begged God for help.

Today, he’s starting a church-sponsored “discipleship house” called Stop the Revolving Door Ministries. There, in that old farmhouse he’s refurbishing in Yawkey, he will help recovering substance abusers build spiritual values to foster their return to functioning society.

His story isn’t pretty. Telling it is his testimony, the framework of his redemption. He’s 52. “I grew up in Pinch. My dad was an engineer for the Penn Central Railroad. I had one of the greatest childhoods a person could have. I ended up working at St. Francis Hospital for 16 years. I worked in the storeroom. I was lifting an oxygen tank to put in the truck, and my back and knees buckled. I was under medical care for the next year or so.

I could walk, but sometimes I was bent over. Extreme pain. The doctors kept prescribing pain medication. They did nine spinal injections and an epidural to try to relieve the pain. I was taking so much dope that it became a recreation because it made me feel so good.

“After a couple of years, the pain got better, but by then, I was hooked. At the start, it was pills. I use the reference of a snowball starting at the top of a hill and gaining momentum as it goes downhill. After so long, red flags go up and doctors quit prescribing the pills. Your body craves those drugs. If you don’t have it, you get dope sick. I was raised in a Christian home, but this stuff just takes over your being.

“This is a terrible story. It’s going to get worse.