My Father's House sets sights on a new home

April 7, 2003

My Father's House sets sights on a new home
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___LUBBOCK--About a month after the ceremonial groundbreaking, earthmoving machines now are doing the serious site preparation for a "groundbreaking" ministry to low-income women in the High Plains.
___Shirley Madden, executive director of My Father's House of Lubbock, envisions a facility where up to 30 low-income women and their children can live while the women learn how to become self-supporting.
___Turning the dream into reality will require about $3.5 million and an army of volunteer builders, but Madden said, "We're walking by faith here."
___My Father's House currently operates at Iglesia Bautista Templo in Lubbock, offering Christian Women's Job Corps training. That ministry, originated and sponsored by Woman's Missionary Union, teaches job skills and life skills to unemployed or underemployed women. Texas Baptists help to support Christian Women's Job Corps through gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions.
___Madden plans to build on the Christian Women's Job Corps model by adding a residential component. She plans a center with 30 two-bedroom apartments, classrooms, a licensed commercial kitchen, a licensed day-care facility and a laundry, where women can gain hands-on experience in a variety of service-industry jobs.
___Anonymous donors already provided 4.29 acres of prime land for the building site, and the Lubbock City Council approved a zoning change in February that would allow the creation of the unique residential training center for low-income single mothers.
___Madden has received building pledges and donations totaling between $400,000 and $450,000, and she anticipates receiving significant grants for the project.
___She also has received substantial contributions of skills, such as three plumbers from Oakwood Baptist Church in Lubbock who did work valued at $80,000 for just $18,000, and a professional landscape designer from Laredo who is donating his services.
___The largest gift of labor will arrive April 28, when Texas Baptist Men Retiree Builders begin a 12-week volunteer project to construct a 40,000-square-foot facility for My Father's House.
___Bill Pigott of Livingston, construction coordinator for Texas Baptist Men, estimates at least 120 volunteer builders are needed to donate three months of labor valued at about $1.5 million.
___Texas Baptist Men Retiree Builders blocked out their calendars for the 12-week project, and leaders have encouraged all participants in the ministry to move their travel trailers to Lubbock for the duration.
___The Lubbock Independent School District has agreed to allow the volunteers to turn the nearby Lowery Field parking lot into an RV park, and an area under the stadium bleachers will be used as a dining area for the builders.
___Pigott encourages church groups to consider the building project for an early summer mission trip. Volunteer groups are expected from as far away as North Carolina and Alabama.
___Pigott and Madden are enlisting churches in the Lubbock area willing to open their facilities to construction volunteers for showers and lodging, and they are seeking volunteers to prepare meals for the workers.
___Individuals or groups interested in volunteering for the project may contact Pigott by phone at (214) 707-4379 or by e-mail at bypigott@aol.com.

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