Between "Before and After"

Change is a long process, in fact, a lifelong process. Our program is about assisting women to make changes they desire to make in their lives and introducing them to the biggest change-maker there is - God, creator and redeemer, known to us through Jesus Christ.

In 1967 I read a poem in HIS, a magazine of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, that has remained my all time  favorite. It was written by Lona Fowler. As we passed the halfway point in this 13 week session, we took some time to reflect on it. I want to share it with you.

                                       Middle Time

                             Between the exhileration of Beginning

                             and the satisfaction of Concluding
                             is the Middle Time

                                      of enduring, changing, trying,

                                      despairing, continuing, becoming.

                             Jesus Christ was the man of God's Middle Time
                             between Creation and...Accomplishment.
                             Through Him God said of Creation,
                             "Without mistake."
                             And of Accomplishment,
                             "Without doubt."

                            And we in our Middle Times
                                    of wondering, waiting, hurrying,
                                    hesitating, regretting, revising;
                            We who have begun many things--
                             and seen but few completed;
                            We who are becoming more -- and less;
                             through the evidence of God's Middle Time

                             have a stabilizing hint
                                     that we are not mistakes,
                                     that we are irreplaceable,
                                     that our Being is of interest
                                     and our Doing is of purpose,
                                     that our Being and our Doing
                                     are surrounded by AMEN.
                             Jesus Christ is the Completer
                                     of unfinished people
                                     with unfinished work
                                      in unfinished times.

                             May He keep us from sinking, ceasing,
                             wasting, solidifying --
                             that we may be for Him
                             experimenters, enablers, encouragers,
                             and associates in Accomplishment.



God's Timing and Orchestration

I am convinced that I would not be a part of the Christian Women's Job Corps in Amarillo if God had not prepared me for this work during our years in Slovakia. There are materials we are using here that we first had translated into the Slovak language and taught there through an interpreter. It was there that we worked with a number of homeless, jobless people struggling to develop a healthy recovery from their addictions. It was before we left there in early 2009 that we asked the Lord to show us what He had next for us that would allow us to be good stewards of all He taught us in Slovakia.

Without taking the time to explain God's orchestration of circumstances, it seems that Slovakia was our experiential training ground for CWJC. A little over three months from the time we arrived in Amarillo, I was on my way to the first level of training for CWJC.

Nineteen months later our closest colleagues in Slovakia, who worked side by side with us and learned along with us in the ministry there, have come to Texas to complete the first level of National Certification Training in order to introduce the Christian Women's and Christian Men's Job Corps to Slovakia. It seems natural. It seems fitting. It seems timely.

I don't know that I can explain the significance of this to Joe Ann and to me, but I'll try. During the years we were in Slovakia we witnessed the introduction of a number of American-born ideas and programs before their time. They were foreign concepts that were ill-fitted to the people and the culture. They were planted but did not flourish.

The excitement we feel today is about God's timing and orchestration of circumstances and preparation of people in a way that will allow Jozef and Jana to take in a program that won't have much of a foreign feel to it. The Slovak soil has been prepared by their continuation and enhancement of a ministry that is truly theirs.
The addition of CWJC and CMJC to the ministry there will be more like welcoming a new family member than greeting a stranger.

As we sit around the table and imagine CWJC/CMJC's Youniqueness in Slovakia, we share a dream, a hope, and a prayer and anticipate a continuing partnership in ministry.

Welcoming Jana



I picked up Jana Jurcova at the airport on Friday as she arrived from Slovakia. Joe Ann welcomed her by phone before we left the airport. As we came into Park Place Towers, where we live, Helen Roller was one of the first people she met. This September it will be twelve years since Helen began CWJC in Amarillo.

For the next two weeks Jana will be experiencing CWJC in Amarillo before she and Jozef Brenks, who arrives on the 18th, fly to Dallas for the National Certification Training. We want them to be immersed briefly in a working program before training in order to be able to put a picture in their new knowledge frame. 

After working with Jana for the better part of the 12 years we were in Slovakia, we know not only Jana but also the timely match between CWJC/CMJCand the ministry there. In fact, there are many similarities between the participants in our program here and those we worked with in Slovakia. There are also materials we currently teach in interpersonal skills and life recovery that we used in Slovakia. Consequently, they are already adapted and translated.

Jana is a home missionary of the Baptist Union in Slovakia who serves as a vital part of the ministry of a nonprofit Joe Ann and I were privileged to help establish in 2005. In Slovak it is called Zivot bez Zavislosti, which in English means Life without Addiction. Jana manages the office, works primarily with women and children, translates materials, and assists the director in every way she can.

The ministry, located in Poprad but reaching out to the whole country, operates with a Slovak staff and volunteers, has a Slovak Board of Directors, and is supported financially by Slovaks. Since we left Slovakia at the end of March 2009, the ministry has grown and developed under the leadership of Jozef Brenkus. (More about Jozef after he gets here.)

It gives us such joy to continue to work with Jana, Jozef, and others, share in the ministry there, and now see the potential birth and development of CWJC/CMJC in Slovakia.

What do you think a Slovak gal takes a picture of on her first day in Texas? Horses on the parking lot of the local Dairy Queen while their riders are inside.

February 23 Designated Day of Prayer

The Texas WMU has designated February 23rd as a day to pray especially for the 67 Christian Women's Job Corps and Christian Men's Job Corps across the state. You can check the link to Texas WMU to learn more about other programs around the state.

 

It is always helpful to me to know how I can pray specifically for individuals. So, I have decided to give you some specifics about our program and those involved in it. Here are some of the people you can pray for.( I will give you their titles so that you can pray for those people who occupy the same positions in other sites.)

• Marilyn O'Brien, Administrative Assistant. Marilyn is the person who, besides me, is at CWJC every day - Monday through Friday - answering the phone, handling the mail, coordinating all the volunteers, attending to many needs of our participants, and much more. I could not do what I do without her. She is well organized, efficient, and displays the fruits of the Spirit.
• Our teachers - Chris and Dennis Johnson, Lisa Lowery, Marilyn O'Brien, Cindy Palmer, Larry Payne, Joe Ann Shelton, Carolyn Strovas, and those working on our redecorating project - Mary Stephens, with Clydene Collinsworth, Cheryl Evans and Carolyn Strovas teaching sewing. I am also teaching.
• Our mentors (coffemates), who spend time every week one-on-one with the women in the program. They are listeners, prayers, confidants, encouragers, and many times advisors, always modeling a maturing faith. Our active mentors at this time are Neva Blair, Cheryl Evans, Betty Ferguson, Becky Herich, Ann Huebner, Linda Loper, and Carolyn Strovas. We have a few other wonderful mentors and substitutes who are not active now because some of our participants dropped out of the program over these months.
• Our participants - Barbara, Brandi, Glinda, Elaine, Kim, Leigh, and Stephanie. We have appreciated Pray for also for the germination of the seed sown in the lives of those five women who started and left us for various reasons during the course of the program.
• Phillis Rhine, our faithful food coordinator, has done a wonderful job enlisting Sunday school classes and WMU circles that have provided snacks and meals for our participants. She represents the giving and involvement of dozens upon dozens of women and men.
• Advisory Council - a wonderful group of people whom I count on for their wisdom and input into the issues that are presented to them at our meetings. We will be having a meeting on February 25th. Our Advisory Council members are Wandalee Fontaine, Clayton and Mary Hoffman, Larry Mills, Helen Roller, Joe Ann Shelton, Jimmye Winter, and Clarecia Jackson, the current director of First Baptist Church WMU.
• For me, as I deal with the day to day functioning of the program and as I lead us to consider how we might reach out to those in the community more effectively and minister to the women who come to us. 

Why This Blog

Last month I had my first experience attending the annual retreat for Texas CWJC/CMJC site directors and coordinators. I was away for less than 48 hours, but the impact of the event will be felt for months. Before I left for the retreat, I was anticipating beginning this blog as a way to share with others the week to week aspects of our Christian Women's Job Corps ministry in Amarillo. Nothing drove home the uniqueness of each CWJC and CMJC program more than attending the retreat. Networking with others about program length, curricula, mentoring, physical facilities, support, and even participant differences reinforced it.

More than those measurable differences I had a beginning acquaintance with women, each of whom was unique, who committed herself to the same task of ministering to and with other women - each of them bringing her own creativity of mind and heart and her own discipline and experience to the task. And when they joined others in each place to form a team, a YOUnique site flourished.

At the same time there is that marvelous sense of family and family resemblance that comes from a common foundation, core program requirements, and the shared commitment of those involved in these ministries. The retreat was kind of a family reunion in which stories are told and experiences are shared, where people laugh together, sing together, pray together, and share concerns and dreams. Without making the time together a"training" event, it was a learning event.

If you visited any CWJC/CMJC site in Texas or in other states across the US, you would know that we are all part of the same family, yet we are YOUnique. So, we invite those who read this blog to learn about us and become a part of us in ways you want to do so. We invite you to comment and to share your experience and ideas.

I chose our template of books and more books for this blog because I am and want to be a lifelong learner. I saw a model of that in my father, who finished high school the year I completed by Ph.D. Although I am writing this blog, what I am looking for, in part, is a growth experience that will come to me from what you and others contribute.

Each week we plan to add to our postings and, with some pictures, try to give you a visual image of what is taking place too. On Friday, February 11th, we will meet an airplane that brings Jana Jurcova to us from Slovakia. She was our friend and colleague during the 12 years that Joe Ann Shelton and I spent there. Because we know the ministry of which she is a part, we believe it can be enhanced by the addition of a Christian Women's Job Corps and a Christian Men's Job Corps. Jana will be with us for a month. During that time she and Jozef Brenkus, who arrives on February 18th, will complete the National Certification Training in Dallas, to help prepare them to carry CWJC/CMJC to Slovakia.