When Bethany Barrett was born to a drug-addicted mother, she was so sick from the cocaine in her system that it was days before she opened her eyes.
For Bethany Barrett (center), who began life facing physical and emotional roadblocks, “everything has been a miracle” on her journey to discovering God’s will for her life.Eighteen years later, after graduating from high school, she found herself spending the summer at a home for at-risk girls on her third trip to Peru, singing little girls to sleep with the song, “Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord.”
Now her eyes are open wide to her path in life. The Charleston Southern University sophomore is preparing herself to become a missionary.
Her father, Jeff Barrett, who with his wife Bonnie, adopted Bethany as an infant, said it was a miracle their daughter was ever born. Her birth mother tried to get an abortion but was in her third trimester, and the doctor would not perform the procedure.
“Her birth mother did a heroic thing,” said Jeff, minister of music at Cannon Memorial Baptist Church in Central, adding that he “grieves” to think what might have happened if Bethany’s birth mother hadn’t allowed her baby to be adopted.
Although Bethany had a “pretty normal” life, she was part of a University of Florida study of babies who had been exposed to crack cocaine in utero. In the study, her growth and development were charted. The doctors marveled at her high intelligence, good teeth and eyes, and general development, Jeff said.
But her birth mother’s drug abuse left lasting scars. Bethany suffers from celiac disease (an intestinal condition), has had problems with coordination and suffers from arthritis.
She has also battled depression and anxiety. Her emotional struggles were particularly evident as a teenager, when she self-injured as a “cutter” and suffered from depression and bulimia.
She recently started Freedom Ministries at Charleston Southern, which she says is geared toward reaching people who suffer from grief, anxiety and depression. Members meet twice a month as a support group and to study Scripture. They also meet in order to minister to others. Barrett said one of the best ways to lift oneself up is to lift up others.
“The way the Lord made us, he knew we needed human relationships,” she said. “When you do something good for another person, you feel good – that’s God-given. That’s the same joy that God gives us when he redeems us to himself.”
An accomplished pianist, Barrett went to the Governor’s School for the Arts and began her collegiate studies as a piano major. (She also is church pianist at Ridge Baptist Church in Summerville and works with the church’s collegiate ministry.) However, her life experiences and trips to Peru have led her to change her major to religion.
She has a “passion” for seeing people come to know the Lord, and she loves to travel, so missions seems a natural fit. She’s not sure where the Lord will lead her, but, wherever it is, she will follow, she said.
“I’m really content on just taking it one day at a time in ministry,” Barrett said. “I need to focus on now.”
Barrett, 19, admitted she has had to deal with anger over her birth mother’s drug use and desire to have her aborted. But, she said, those same experiences have molded her and made it possible for her to minister to others.
“Now I see it more as a blessing that I was able to go through these trials,” Barrett said. “Everything has been a miracle. The Lord didn’t have to deliver me through that, but he did.”
Her dad agrees her life is a miracle. “She’s an amazing testament of God,” he said. “She’s come out on the other side. She’s living in complete victory – and all of that comes from a girl who was nearly aborted.”