CHAPTER 10
SENDING ME TO ALLIED CHURCHES
On June 24, 1991, about 75 local church representatives gathered to meet and hear this talk that I called “The ANGELS sent me.”
I’ve often said to my husband, “If I die tomorrow just put on my headstone: LIFE WAS INTERESTING.” That may sound like a morbid beginning but I have truly been blessed and know that GOD and his ANGELS have keeping close tabs on me. I grew up in a small New England town, was active in a Congregational church and was actually baptized Unitarian. My dad was a lay delegate to the Ohio general synod in 1957 that created the United Church of Christ. At age 16 I encountered my first direct relationship with God as he spoke to me and gave me a jolt of realization that perhaps I would be called to do His work.
After graduating from Elon College, Bill and I married each other. Bill was soon in the Air Force due to the Vietnam War; I left my Hartford, Connecticut computer programmer job and joined him in Mississippi and then we moved to Greece for 18 months and our daughter was born in Germany. While living in Greece we took and 8 day trip to the Holy Land and I also was active in the chapel program and went to Izmir, Turkey and got a great tour of Ephesus. Another protestant chapel trip took me through Austria, over Yugoslavia and into Germany. After Greece, Bill was on a “remote site” in the Aleutians for a year, so Cindy and I lived in Connecticut with my parents. When Bill left, Cindy was 5 months old and when he returned she was 17 months. Cindy and Bill were strangers to one another but eventually got very well re-acquainted when we finally ended up those four Air Force years in San Antonio, Texas.
In 1971 we settled down to be “normal people” in Connecticut. Bill got a job at Travelers in Hartford, we bought a little house, both became active in my “home” church and our son was born. The ensuing 19 years enabled us to live a full life, raise our children, and enjoy our community (I even coached a girls’ softball team). In 1980 we bought the family homestead from my parents who were retiring to Florida. We had a mini farm complete with pony and raised goats, chickens and beef cows. We also hosted a foreign exchange student, Susy, from Ecuador for a year. They were, again, good years, and we are grateful for many happy times.
I so much enjoyed the Allied Churches personnel committee. Bill and Brenda were a delight to listen to, their questions of me were perfect. Ometta and I hit, it off on our first meeting and I’ve found a warm sympathetic friend. Richard did the calls on my references and told me “you sure have a lot of friends in Connecticut,” but my favorite was Howard who told me the personnel committee had statement t them “Well, God, you got me here, how what am I supposed to do?” and his response was “we think the angels sent you to us!” When I asked the committee how they felt about hiring a YANKEE, we got a few chuckles but I’m hoping I get some credit for being an Elon graduate and the fact that I WANT to be in North Carolina.
When I reflect on my career (it was really a job path that jumped around), I can see now that God was preparing me for this job as Executive Director of Allied Churches. I have a math and religious education major from Elon and have worked primarily in schools and human service fields, but my strengths are: organization, delegation, computerization and efficiency. My favorite thing to do is to match a skill with a need (maybe I should run an employment agency). And 2 years ago I was at a community meeting in Connecticut and I shared a vision of creating an agency like Allied Churches. I had never heard of Allied Churches until I read the classified ad in the paper here. Those ANGELS sure have done a job on me.
Now that I am here and in place as your Executive Director, I have found that I am impressed with your vision of local ministry and touched by your deep commitment to care for the poor. In the Northeast it seemed that one only did for the poor what was mandatory by the law. I find Alamance County very refreshing because YOU are a kind and generous people.
Allied Churches’ mission and philosophy is outstanding. In practice, it needs a bit of organizing, delegating and fund raising. Your resources are here and Allied Churches appears to have a good reputation. I have faith, that with God’s guidance and your prayers, we shall journey together towards giving hope to the hopeless, feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless.
Having only been “on the job” for 24 days, I have a few observations to share. As some of you know, I had to buy a car. I’ve traveled 500 miles for business (no time for personal) and I haven’t even left Burlington yet! I also think I should have purchased a VAN—I’m always getting donations of items to deliver to the shelter, etc. Care must be given to avoid Executive Director burn-out—maybe an assistant is one answer but you have such a strong core of volunteers that I believe much can be “farmed out”. One immediate problem is that I haven’t yet met enough people to know where the skills and strengths and time are. But I’m doing pretty well—I’m pretty quick at identifying those. I have some great telephone callers: Mary, Chinkie, and Chris. Also some talented computer people like Bob, Ambrose, Ed and Jack are providing help. CROP WALK assistance is coming from folks like Phil and Leila.
God is also watching over me in two other areas. #1. He found me two temporary secretaries, Billie and Carolyn—they are terrific and have put up with a tough month of June. #2. God has provided me with a HOUSE HUSBAND. No wonder Bill could work full time for 21 years so easily—he had a house wife. I am enjoying every minute of the help and love and support I get from my husband; he contributes to this ministry in many ways. I appreciate him.
There are many rewards in this job. I look for at least one every day to inspire me to the next day. Someone will say “YES I’d be glad to serve”—that always makes me happy. The newsletter prompted Vickie to help me with our antiquated KAYPRO/wordstar. One day last week we conducted a “ministry sharing” meeting at the new building. Ten people came to discover ways to be part of the ministries there—we told one another what we did for others. It was a learning experience for all of us, a prayerful event and that gathering energized us about moving into the new building.
My present vision for Allied Churches includes using our existing committees. Perhaps we can help the building committee bring closure to their superb effort. The program and policy committee will want to develop policy on who uses the building and how and when. The properties committee will be concerned with care and maintenance, insurance, custodial, etc. The environmental committee will help us with recycling decisions and evaluate our use of paper and cleaning supplies and conservation. Our personnel committee will to put together an evaluation plan for our several employees: secretary, custodian, two night managers, kitchen manager and dishwasher. The finance committee not only needs to help plan the budget but serious thought and effort needs to go into funding.
Financial stability is a problem—as with most programs like ours. There are grants (United Way and Federal), and there are donations from churches and we already know that the businesses have been very generous on the new building. But we all need to pay attention to fund- raising. You are our ambassadors. It is well and good that food is donated, but who pays for the light bills and other operational expenses? I see part of my job as a fund raiser—but I’m sure some good publicity and positive public relations will help that. If you belong to an organization that has funds for charity, please tell them that Allied Churches is feeding 80 per day in the community kitchen and housing 20 people per night in the shelter. We cannot care for 100 people per day unless contributions start to increase. As times get tougher, we will have more indigent to care for… I will be very glad to visit organizations/churches to ask for funding. Please help the word get out.
The Board of Directors and I will be wanting to work on some short term goals and some long term goals. And we need to have a PLAN for the future so we are not constantly reactive but that we might become more pro-active. As I was reflecting on my first 3 weeks, I needed to realize that God sent me here to do a job but He never told me I had to do it all by myself. That must be why you are here.
I already have a list of needs and if you can help or know of someone, please let me know. If we all do a share in the Lord’s work we can not only minister to the poor and needy but we can minister to one another (I need you). There is a serious computer issue to address—we need an updated system badly; a newsletter editor is sorely needed who will help publish a monthly paper (desk top publishing program would be great); more volunteers are needed to serve on the Emergency Direct Assistance Committee who will take calls and meet with clients who need help. I am an ambassador, not a social worker, and my secretaries have additional duties. Help is always needed to transport donations to the shelter and the kitchen.
Again, I need your support, prayers, and encouragement and help so that TOGETHER we can give hope to the hopeless, feed the hungry and provide shelter for the homeless. AMEN
As I review this speech written four years ago, I know the ANGELS helped me prepare it.
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