Lubbock ministry meets needs, changes lives_72505

Posted: 7/22/05

Lubbock ministry meets needs, changes lives

By Jocelyn Delgado

Communications Intern

LUBBOCK–Soon after graduating high school, Tanji Lamar was pregnant and living in an abusive relationship. She always planned to attend college, but after seven years, she thought it never would happen.

Depressed, angry and not knowing what else to do, Lamar decided to follow her stepmother's advice and enroll in Christian Women's Job Corps.

“At first, I didn't want to come, because I felt like a failure,” Lamar said. “I was in a miserable situation.”

She arrived at the Living and Learning Center of My Father's House-Lubbock without an appointment and signed up for Christian Women's Job Corps. Upon graduating from the program in May, Lamar had a plan and enrolled in South Plains College to study medical transcription.

Christian Women's Job Corps is a ministry of Woman's Missionary Union of Texas, supported through gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions. The Baptist General Convention of Texas helped finance the development of the Living and Learning Center of My Father's House-Lubbock, and the BGCT Church Facilities Center designed it.

Lamar benefited from My Father's House-Lubbock's growing ministry. The nonprofit organization recently received enough money to build a black iron security fence around its four-acre complex and add a residential building with 18 two-bedroom apartments.

After raising funds for the fence, the center had twice the amount originally needed. God blessed by providing money, said Shirley Madden, executive director of My Father's House-Lubbock. Now leaders are looking to add a counseling center and equipment for laundering services. A counseling center would cost $45,000 to operate for one year.

“Women that we work with are significantly burdened with their history,” Madden said. The center “would help them heal from a lot of that dysfunction,” she explained.

Recently, My Father's House-Lubbock partnered with Texas Tech University's medical school to begin offering daily triage health care for students and their children.

Aside from attending classes, students help keep the campus running smoothly by working for laundering services, the daycare center and the housekeeping staff.

This three-month vocational school offers classes to prepare women not just for a career but for life.

My Father's House-Lubbock offers communication classes in which women learn how to talk to someone without getting angry or how to establish personal boundaries, said Martha Head, the house's assistant director.

The mission is to help women in need of mental, emotional, spiritual, educational and vocational support, Head said. Students benefit from all the school has to offer free of charge, but it is not just another shelter.

“It's about women who want to change,” Head said.