Since it opened ahead of schedule last January, Mountain of Faith Ministries’ Women’s Restoration Shelter has relied largely on the kindness of strangers.

The local nonprofit group, founded four years ago to combat woman and child homelessness in Vicksburg, has survived thus far strictly on private donations; no government money, no grants, only private, corporate and church donations and volunteers.

Not many of those volunteers, however, have traveled 400 miles to get to the shelter.

&#8220We were looking for ways to help,” said Theresa Barnett, who loaded up from Union City, Tenn., with her father, Sonny, and another member of their church, Dave Isbell, to make the six-hour drive from northwest Tennessee to Vicksburg last Wednesday after coming across an ad for its post-Hurricane Katrina cleanup needs on the Internet around Christmas.

&#8220I searched for ‘disaster relief needs’ and found a site for Freedom Corps, and (the shelter’s) ad came up,” said Theresa Barnett, who added that her father, who is retired, would be heading to the Gulf Coast at the end of the month to assist cleanup in harder-hit areas. &#8220I wanted to do something sooner.”

So she called, talked to executive director Tina Hayward about the shelter’s needs, and set up the visit. The trio remained through the weekend in the large, four-bedroom house donated by the city in 2004, cutting downed limbs, hauling wood and debris, fastening gutters to the still-damaged roof, repairing exposed front columns, securing loose railings on stairways, installing locks and resetting doors on their hinges.

&#8220And I’m sore,” Theresa Barnett joked as she began her fourth day of work Saturday.

Though the shelter has been open for just more than a year, the small tasks and day-to-day upkeep have fallen largely to volunteers from far and wide, Hayward said – especially for an organization that has only two regular staffers, and especially after Hurricane Katrina.

&#8220I’m just glad they chose our shelter,” said Hayward, who lives at the shelter and also works full-time at the Nissan plant in Canton. &#8220We needed them.”

Last week, three families were in the shelter, formerly a girls’ home, which has 24 beds and has taken in 50 people from the 200 or so calls it has received in the last year and a half. Those calls began before the shelter ever opened, said Hayward, since the ministry was awarded the house in September 2004, making the home’s improbable opening by last January a kind of miracle inspired by necessity.

&#8220It had to be a God-given thing, because in four months we had all this together except for the repairs,” Hayward said.

Repairs have1 been the domain of volunteers. The shelter gets regular help from the community, said Hayward, including numerous church groups and bi-monthly visits from students of All Saints’ Episcopal School.

&#8220It’s totally been a community project,” Hayward said. &#8220We put our name, Mountain of Faith, on it, but it’s really been a community thing.”

Out-of-state visitors have made their way before, too, including a church youth group from Texas in July and, last month, a relative of staffer Jimmie Smith from Tennessee who helped clean up some of the Katrina-related debris, including the removal of a large tree that had toppled onto the roof.

That tree was cut up into logs and hauled into piles by the most recent visitors from Mississippi’s northern neighbor.

&#8220I’m a firm believer that if you have the time, you should give back,” said Theresa Barnett. &#8220I can’t donate money right now, so volunteering my time is what I can do.”