June 10, 2002
Lubbock woman has $3 million vision
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___LUBBOCK--Shirley Madden has a dream. She believes God gave it. And she is not inclined to let a little thing like $3 million take it away.
___Madden, executive director of My Father's House of Lubbock, wants to build a residential facility where low-income women can live while they learn how to become self-supporting. And the Texas Baptist Men Retiree Builders have agreed to provide the labor to help make her vision a reality.
Women attending the recent Texas Baptist Men Retiree Builders reunion at Latham Springs Baptist Encampment lay hands on Shirley Madden and pray for the success of My Father's House.
___"We're finding that there's housing available in Lubbock for people who have been involved in drugs. There's housing for people who have been abused and beaten by a husband or boyfriend. There's even housing for people who have just gotten out of jail or prison. They are all good programs to help them change their lives. But for people who fall through the cracks, who won't fit these categories, there's nowhere," said Madden, a member of First Baptist Church of Lubbock.
___She wants to change that. She envisions building a center where up to 30 women and their children can live. And she plans for the ministries of My Father's House to expand to meet the needs of those single-parent families.
___Currently, My Father's House operates from "Second Place," the old facility of Second Baptist Church.
___The centerpiece of its ministry is Christian Women's Job Corps, teaching job skills and life skills to unemployed or underemployed women. Texas Baptists help support Christian Women's Job Corps, a ministry of Woman's Missionary Union, through gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions.
___The 10-week classroom portion of Christian Women's Job Corps includes instruction in basic computer, math, job readiness, communications, money management, parenting and nutrition, along with daily Bible study.
___After each participant in the program completes the curriculum, she is assigned to a mature Christian woman who serves as her mentor for at least one year.
___Madden wants to build on the Christian Women's Job Corps model, already in place at 22 sites in Texas and at numerous other locations around the country, by adding the residential component.
___She plans a center with 30 two-bedroom apartments, classrooms, a licensed commercial kitchen, a licensed day-care facility and a laundry. In addition to completing the Christian Women's Job Corps training, each resident would receive hands-on training in service occupations such as housecleaning, laundry, meal planning, cooking and child care.
___Participants would be able to live at the center for up to 24 months during their period of training and early employment.
___"Housing will provide a safe haven for the women while they choose to change their lives by completing their education, enhancing skills, maturing as responsible adults and becoming active in the church of their choice," Madden said.
___She believes the 24-hour-a-day residential approach is important because many of the women need "reparenting." Since many of them left home as teenage mothers, she feels they never developed beyond that level of maturity. And they have continued to make decisions based on emotion and impulse.
___"They are adults in one sense because they became parents. But they're not adults in their choices. They're not adults in responsibility. They're not adults in education," she said.
___"There's no hope for them, unless somebody steps in and does the things that parents do--offer them safe housing, protection, education, training, direction for life and hope for the future."
___The Texas Baptist Men board of directors committed at its February meeting to provide the volunteer labor for the building project. Bill Pigott of Livingston, coordinator for the Texas Baptist Men Retiree Builders projects, anticipates up to 240 volunteers working next spring for three months on the 40,000 square-foot building.
___Estimated cost is $3 million. While Madden is busy seeking significant gifts from potential donors, she does not have money or pledges in hand for the full project.
___"I'm not worried. The last time I checked, this God we serve is the same God who parts seas and brings down walls," she said. "If you and I can do it on our own, it's probably not worth doing."
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