A New Family

A few weeks ago, I received a call from a friend and graduate of the JFL Program saying that she was in the hospital and was not going to make it up to Advance Memphis that day. Although I could not go to the hospital right then, I was determined to go visit with her as soon as possible.

The next day, I called to make sure she was still in the hospital and asked another friend of ours who graduated with her to go with me to visit her and see how she was doing.

When we got there, our friend was looking horrible. The only time I ever remember going to the hospital was to be with family members, especially grandparents. Sitting in that hospital room, I was so aware that day of my family in Christ. Moving to Memphis several hours away from my immediate family was also never more obvious. I realized that even though my parents, brother and sister, are far away how truly blessed I have been this year. My friend is my family. While she is 25 years older than me, black, not white, and from completely different worlds, we both have the same God that deeply loves us.

I rejoice in the fact that even though I am miles away from those I love, He has given me a view of what He desires His family look like. I cannot wait for the day when we all stand before the throne reconciled praising our God.

"After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb." Revelation 7:9

julie@advancememphis.org

No Snow Days for Our Staffing Service!

Last Friday night (March 29) as Mother Nature showed her stuff, I was very apprehensive about having no one show up for work on the 3^rd shift at KTG. The regular Team Lead was out and I had asked one of the other team members, Rico Harris (Big Brim, pictured above with Ann), to step up to the plate and act as Lead until her return. He readily accepted this task and was the person who rang my phone around 11:20PM telling me that only he and TWO others had shown up so far. I made several phone calls, all to no avail – and had to end up calling Rico back with the news that those three workers would be on their own.

With a team of only three employees when the norm is eight - Rico Harris, Annie Osby and Junior Davis worked diligently throughout the night and completed the shift. Annie, being the only female, stepped up and coordinated the process – giving the guys instructions as to what she needed them to do while she did all of the palletizing. To put this into perspective, production for a team of eight is 75-80 pallets per shift. Annie completed 43 alone! BRIM, ANNIE and JUNIOR - You three showed leadership and dedication. These are qualities that would make any employer proud. Great job!

Juanita Johnson
juanita@advancememphis.org

Friday News Update

UNBANKED TO BANKED: More Than 40 Graduates Open Bank Accounts

In the last 2 months, more than 40 of our Jobs for Life grads and Staffing Service employees have opened bank accounts with Independent Bank. None of these individuals have ever had bank accounts before. Now they are in a position to deposit and cash checks without paying a fee, and to begin saving.

When did you open your first bank account? Did you open it on your own, or did someone open it for you, and put some money in it to get you started? Have you ever considered how your bank has helped you with major purchases? Have you thought about how essential a checking account is in your day to day life?

Here are some things we've heard people say upon opening account:

"I just walked into a bank for the first time. You know I never had a bank account before."

"He said they were even gonna send me a bank card and checks in the mail."

We thank Independent Bank for helping with this daunting process, and we praise God that so many grads have taken a significant step towards financial independence.

Washington Scholar Graduates from UT

In the early years of Advance Memphis's ministry, we operated a program called Washington Scholars, where excellent students from Booker T. Washington Highschool, here in the neighborhood, were chosen to participate in internships and job training. Scholars then received a scholarship to use towards college, as well as a guaranteed paid internship with Advance Memphis after graduation. While we've discontinued the Washington Scholars program in order to focus our efforts entirely on adults, we're so pleased to share that one of our Scholars, Michael Russom, has graduated from the University of Tennessee, and is now serving his internship here at Advance. He has also been offered a position with Nashville City Schools, with the Nashville Teaching Fellows. We're proud of all Michael has accomplished, we're grateful for his work at Advance Memphis, and we wish him well as he goes on to a career in teaching!

It's exciting to go from 7 employees to 170 in one year. And the Memphis Business Journal noticed! We're so proud that Advance Memphis Staffing is employing so many of our Jobs for Life grads!

http://memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2010/02/01/daily4.html

2010 Resolution: We're Going to LISTEN

There are changes taking place at Advance Memphis. Our four week Jobs for Life/Financial Freedom class is becoming a six week class. We're adding more "deliverables" - meaning that students are required to participate in KeyTrain and literacy testing, complete computer training, and create a Life Application Plan, among other things. We'll have slightly fewer graduates, but we feel confident that our graduates will be more prepared to move toward the goal set in our mission statement: economic self-sufficiency. All of the changes we're making reflect our desire to develop deeper relationships that will allow us to love and serve our neighbors.

John 13:35: Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you, love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples--when they see the love you have for each other.

Below, Jobs for Life instructor Andrew Vincent discusses the conviction he felt to strengthen our programs by allowing time and space for listening.

There are two core beliefs of our Jobs for Life Program. First, every human being is created in God's image and therefore each one of us could not be any more or any less valuable. Not only do we have an infinite amount of value, but through the good news of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, there is nothing we can do to destroy this God-given dignity or separate us from the love the Father has for us. The second belief is that God knit us together in our mother's womb, which means all of our strengths and weaknesses, and even our unique personality quirks, are part of that intricate design.

I state these beliefs nicely on paper and they roll easily off my tongue, but the sad reality is that too often my life teaches an opposite set of beliefs. Too often I am too "busy" to sit down and truly listen to someone. This is especially true when I am counseling someone who, for one reason or another, has become trapped in the struggle of poverty and the various problems associated with poverty like crime, death, crisis, and shame. What about you? What does your life teach? If you, like me, are quick to teach, but slow to listen and learn from the poor then you, too, struggle with the "god-complex." We think we have acquired success by our own hard work, and therefore, we think we know what's best for poor people. The truth is, one of the major problems with generational cycles of poverty is people like me. By constantly trying to "solve" people's problems, rather than simply listen to them, I am denying the core beliefs I mentioned above. Instead, my actions are communicating that this white, twenty-five year old always knows best. As it turns out, I am the one who really needs to learn something! I am the one who has it all wrong!

Of course, I am not the only problem. It's much bigger than you or me. Our welfare programs reinforce the same wrong beliefs. Too often our programs are designed to get as many people through the doors as quickly as possible, so that we can "save" as many people as we feasibly can with our vast knowledge. Oh how wrong we have it! I think that if we really believed what the Bible teaches, namely about each individual's inherent value as God's image bearers, both our lives and our non-profits would look drastically different. We would at least do a little less talking, and a little more listening.

This is exactly what we are trying to do more of in 2010: listen. We are making some significant changes to the structure of our program to make sure we are accomplishing this. Some of the decisions we are making seem counter-intuitive to the non-profit world. For example, we are cutting the class size from 24 to 16 and stretching the length of the program from 4 weeks to 6 weeks. Both of these changes will mean fewer graduates in 2010, even though the demand for our program is the highest it's ever been. Though this is opposite of what we feel pressured to do (results! higher numbers!), we believe that these changes are necessary to truly invest in the ones who are coming through our doors.

andrew@advancememphis.org

Bringing HOPE to the HOPELESS

While many of us enjoyed a long holiday, Advance Memphis Employment Specialist Juanita Johnson spent much of the last week helping Advance grads find jobs. Below, she writes about an experience working with a recruiter who is hiring for the 2010 US Census.

It is very discouraging to see a recent Jobs for Life graduate, eager to start work after passing their drug test, become disappointed to find that they are still not eligible to work because of his/her criminal background. I, along with the other staff members, try to uplift and encourage, however, it is very disheartening. So, to have an opportunity to introduce these grads to a potential employer who does not automatically disqualify past felons was a blessing and joy! Ms. Marissa Jenson, a former resident of 38126 who currently attends church at Mt. Nebo down the street, is a recruiter for the 2010 US Census Bureau. I took a call from Ms. Jenson who originally wanted to come by and leave some flyers - but as we continued to talk I quickly saw a greater opportunity that would benefit both she and our graduates. I invited her to hold an orientation here and she was very excited!

When I started to make phone calls, some of the graduates were concerned to hear that they would have to pass a 28 question assessment to qualify. Even after being told that they only had to get 10 correct answers - there was still some worry. However, after getting here and listening to the recruiter, they were all eager to test and to get their results the same day.

I have never seen such joy and encouragement
shine in the faces of those who passed!

One of the ladies who confessed to me that she does not read well scored a 14! She confessed to me later that she took my advice and said a prayer before attempting the test and she was praising God once she received her results.

We had thirteen out of fifteen scheduled attend the orientation. Although only six of the thirteen passed the written assessment, the other seven may take the assessment over as many times as needed. Several have already come by to get information about retaking it on Monday.

juanita@advancememphis.org

Do We Really Believe That God Changes People? A Volunteer's Thoughts on Grace:

(What follows are some thoughts that arise out of a relationship formed through the Advance Memphis family.)

“My friend was converted.” I could almost feel the skepticism from my audience as I described the new life my friend was experiencing. You see, my friend is black, poor, has spent time in jail, and a gang, and knows the demon of addiction firsthand. My audience is white, has lived a life of privilege and is conservative politically and religiously. The later two, being weaved so tight into their belief system, are indistinguishable.

There really is skepticism, in the church, toward the possibility of change. God bless us. We have spent too much time sitting through heady sermons meant more to squeeze out a compliment, better yet a raise, than real deep heart change. A resulting culture has been formed, bent more on seeming righteous than being righteous. This culture is much more passionate about discussing radical change than walking by faith toward it. James, Jesus’ brother, made it abundantly clear that the kind of religion God wants is centered on justice, mercy and compassion. True religion, so James tells us, looks after widows and orphans in their distress. Distressed about the weak, needy and cold, that is true religion that arises from a person that has been truly changed. Somehow we have moved off center. If the motto of North Carolina is “to be rather than to seem,” the church’s motto is more in line with, “to seem is to be.” The Word is failing to result in deed.

This friend called me last week and told me his heat was out all night. Temperatures that night dropped to 22. The walls of a housing project know more rodents than insulation. The windows are lucky to be pained at all, much less be double pained. Yet my friend called, not to complain, but to tell me what God told him. First, God impressed the little boy a few doors down upon his heart. The last time he saw the boy he had no socks. “I wanted to find him to make sure he was alright,” he told me. Second, he told me that God directed him to think about the homeless. “Richard, something I never told you is that I too was homeless for a time and this morning God told me to open a homeless shelter. I don’t want to charge for the shelter, not even $6, because God didn’t charge me anything for His grace and love, He just throws it on everybody.”

I came away skeptical too, not of my friend’s conversion, but my own. Has grace sunk that deep into my pores? Does my heart move toward others in the midst of personal distress? My friend is now my teacher. God’s work in him is getting all over me.

God taking on infant form? The Almighty wrapped in cloths and lying in a feed trough? That stuff, like the possibility of radical change, is hard to believe. Yet, from creation to incarnation to salvation, Christianity is about the real possibility of impossibilities. It may be more than that, but it is not less.

Richard Rieves

richard.rieves@gmail.com