Tenesha Thomas’s ministry has a concise mission: to equip people with essential skills to improve their lives. What that looks like is a moving target, due largely to circumstances outside her control.
“We’re in the middle of an active pivot,” said Thomas, who leads one of the 186 Christian Women’s and Men’s Job Corps sites in the United States and abroad.
Woman’s Missionary Union started the ministry 25 years ago to provide spiritual development, job training, life skills, continuing education and mentoring.
As it celebrates a milestone anniversary, CWJC/CMJC is at a crossroads in many communities, including Huntsville, Alabama. Changing ideas about work and the rise of technology have created challenges for her group, Thomas said. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and resulting “great resignation” have led more people to question the meaning of work and in some cases, to leave it altogether.
But Thomas speaks optimistically of the blessings to be found in the hardships of this season. She and her team have had a chance to look afresh at their community.
“A lot of their needs have changed,” she noted, “and that’s a direct reflection of where we are in the world right now.”
All things to all people
The ultimate goal of CWJC/CMJC is to provide a Christian context for people to move from one place in life to another, said Lena Kappen, whose role at WMU includes serving as national coordinator for the ministry, “and to give them a hope for the future. After that, the individual sites reflect the specific needs in their communities.”
“One of the beautiful things about the ministry is that every site looks different,” she added.
WMU provides resources and training for the autonomous, self-supporting sites, each of which certifies with the national organization every two years.
“Our desire is for sites to form and evolve over time with the purpose of meeting the current needs that are in the community,” Kappen said, “Meeting the needs that aren’t being met in other ways.”
Every site has connections with members of local congregations, and some are housed inside a church. Others formed within local Baptist associations, and some sites are 501(c)(3) organizations.
“I always tell someone if they’ve felt like the Lord is leading them to start something like this, just follow that lead,” Kappen said, “and the Lord will show them what it needs to look like.”
Restoration Women
In Athens, Georgia, Jessica Mathisen was looking for a way to help the families she met as a teacher at an inner city elementary school. Christian Women’s Job Corps was the answer. The Athens site, named Restoration Women, started serving women in the spring of 2020, meeting regularly for sessions on budgeting, relationships, self-image, parenting and a variety of other topics. Last semester’s Bible study was a walk through Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.
One early participant was struggling with job satisfaction, Mathisen recalled. She now works to engage others in community involvement and improvement. Another student started saving for her first home after attending a budgeting class.
“The biggest thing that we want is for women to be restored to who they were created to be in Christ,” Mathisen said. “We feel like that would have a domino effect.
“When women are set free, when they are being poured into, when they know that they matter, that changes everything about their family’s dynamics.”
Season of change
Fluidity is key, Thomas noted, especially when circumstances constantly change. Over the past year her site in Huntsville has focused on reconnecting with past participants through a series of workshops that also operate like an open house for the community, she said. They also launched a men’s program in 2020.
Thomas calls it a “pulse check” — the process of determining what people in the community really need. One recent discovery has been their role in helping people gain certification for employment or job advancement. As participants go through a certification process, Thomas’s site also pairs them with mentors in their specific discipline.
But not everyone is looking for a job, she acknowledged.
“Some people are just looking for a change, and they don’t know where to start.”
The ministry’s goal is to be a catalyst to ignite that change, Thomas said. It’s a season of excitement mixed with a bit of uncertainty.
“We don’t want to just be in the community — we want to be effective in the community,” she asserted. “If we only serve one person, that’s going to be the most poured-into, loved-on person ever. Because that’s what it’s all about.”
Go to the WMU national website to learn more ways to be involved with this program.
Lives changed
‘The biggest fan club of your life’
Auburn, Ala.
Neeley Caldwell directs Christian Women’s Job Corps of Lee County in Auburn, Ala. When participants come in, she asks them whether they have a support system or someone they can call when they need something. Do you have anyone that supports your decision to make positive changes in your life? The answer, Caldwell said, is often no.
“You’re about to walk into the biggest fan club of your life!” she tells them. Caldwell recounted a student’s excitement over holding her newly created resume. “When I put it together on the computer it was important, but not as important as when I held it in my hand,” she said. “When I held it in my hand, I knew that I was going somewhere.”
Her reaction says a lot about what happens at Christian Women’s Job Corps, Caldwell said. “Our ladies come to us wanting job skills because they need a job. But they walk out with confidence, a better self-esteem, a greater awareness of who they are as a female [and] as a person, and a hope for the future.”
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‘Look what God has done!’
Hattiesburg, Miss.
Catherine Jorns is a champion for the people of Hattiesburg, Miss., and for the city itself. If nearby Natchez can host an annual hot air balloon festival, she thought, why not her hometown?
Jorns is the executive director of RISE, which began as Pinebelt Christian Women’s Job Corps in 2001. The festival, scheduled for August after two years of Covid-related postponements, will serve as a fundraiser for the ministry.
“No one can rise by themselves,” said Jorns. At RISE, participants accumulate 130 curriculum hours over a year of study. They learn money management, interviewing and resume building, public speaking, and a host of other skills. Each class includes Bible study, and local therapists come in to help students grow emotionally.
A student named Jamie originally came to RISE as a volunteer sent by a homeless shelter. She hesitated to sign up for classes because of her mental health issues, but eventually she graduated from the program’s first phase and also completed her GED. She enrolled in community college, receiving tutoring from RISE and assistance from a national scholarship Jorns applied for on her behalf. Still, Jamie struggled with discouragement and self-doubt.
Jorns recounted encouraging Jamie to look up her grades for the past semester. The young woman, sure she had failed. Instead, she’d made the dean’s list. Jamie graduated last year with her associate’s degree and has her own car and apartment. Jorns and RISE were there to encourage her.
“Jamie,” she said, standing in the young woman’s apartment one day. “Look what God has done!”
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‘The only reason I’m here today’
Waynesville, N.C.
Ricki Lynn Lalemand was in the middle of a conversation about whether the LifeWorks center in Waynesville, N.C. should stay open while she had to be away from work for a brief period of time. But the young woman who walked in only heard her ask whether they should stay open or close.
“Miss Ricki, you can’t close. This place is the only reason I’m here today.
The woman was rebuilding her life after spending time in prison, during which Lalemand and volunteers at LifeWorks kept in touch with her. When she walked in that day, Lalemand didn’t recognize her. Four years later, she’s a nursing student.
“The word of God will not return void,” Lalemand said, quoting Isaiah 55:11. The young woman wasn’t a full-time participant in the LifeWorks program that offers Bible study, mentorship, and training in job and life skills. But she recognized the encouragement she’d received there, and the role it had played in her life since then.
“It’s not about a program, it’s not about the time they’re here,” Lalemand said. “It’s about what they get when they need it.”