BCH Ministries Impact Mothers in Different Decades

Fourteen-year-old Jazmine loves cooking with her mom. She helps her prepare dinners and feels very accomplished. When Greater Vision Outreach offered their clients the opportunity to attend cooking classes produced by partners Piedmont Fresh, Davidson County Local Food Network, and Kitchenology, Jazmine was all in. She anticipated learning new cooking skills and there was the promise of new recipes. Learning from a real chef would be exciting, she thought.

Jazmine's mom Lisa has been a Greater Vision client since 2018. Struggling to get on her feet financially and make ends meet, Lisa desired a life of self-sufficiency. She knew she needed help. The past seven years have been hard but Lisa has never given up.

Clients set goals, work with mentors, and learn to manage their money, saving as much as they can afford. Lisa has made remarkable strides. Once afraid for her children, she has seen her three oldest grow into adults who bring her pride. One can see how her hard work has paid off by looking at her children.

"You can especially see how Lisa's choices have made a difference in Jazmine's life," Greater Vision Outreach Ministry Director Sara Becker says. "Her future could have been much different."

The life Lisa lived was a good life she thought. She was married with children. She had given her heart to Jesus in 2008. It was all she had wanted. She and her husband had built this life. But the walls of glass that set her beautiful world apart were shattered when the unspeakable happened and her husband was sent to jail in 2012.

"It was like suddenly all the walls broke at once," she remembers. "It was over and there was no putting it back together."

Lisa was reeling in pain but she was determined. She worked three jobs and tried to keep her family together and a roof over their heads. As hard as she tried, there was never enough money and she felt her middle son and daughter slipping from her grasp. Both were skirting the law and her son was in a gang.

She learned about Baptist Children's Homes' (BCH) Family Care program on the Mills Home campus in Thomasville. "I have a deep stubborn streak—prideful even, and I didn't want to ask for help. But it clicked with Family Care."

Family Care offers supportive cottage homes for single, working mothers and their children. The program is goal-focused, helping mothers transition to successful, independent living and connects mothers and families with the necessary resources and community services needed to bring stability and keep families together.

Sara Becker was a Family Care worker then. That is when she and Lisa met and became friends. "We have gone through so much together," Lisa says. "She is like a sister, a gift from God."

Lisa began by setting goals to improve her life. Family Care counselors and Sara offered encouragement. She was finding her footing once again—although far from the way it once was. Hope returned, but her biggest accomplishment during these two years was keeping her family together.

On her own again, Lisa had good days and bad ones. Some days were dark. To feel better, she would spend money. It was her coping mechanism—"retail therapy."

"I lived beyond my means," she confesses. "I spent too much and my credit score suffered. I was unable to save any money."

Working multiple jobs again, just trying to meet all of her responsibilities, the stress was unbearable. Lisa fell ill. She had a stroke and wrestled with diabetes and hypertension. She comforted herself, remembering how things had not always been this way. Then Sara came into her life again.

"We opened Greater Vision in 2018 and I reached out to Lisa," Sara says. "I knew she was struggling. She was one of the first five clients."

Greater Vision Outreach helps meet the essential physical and spiritual needs of working families who are struggling to financially stay afloat. By offering food and clothing supplements, health and education programs, and referral and preventive services, the ministry provides help to keep vulnerable families together.

"Lisa's goals were realistic," Sara says. "She wanted reliable transportation, to save and pay down her debt and improve her credit score, and grow spiritually and be involved in church again."

For the next few years, Lisa learned to handle trials better. She has improved her credit rating, is saving money, and is earning her GED. She has dreams of entering the associate nursing degree program at the community college.

Throughout Lisa's journey with BCH, she has made remarkable strides. There have been a few bumps in the road but she has never given up, working hard on improving her life and setting and reaching new goals.

"Lisa's success creates a ripple effect," Sara says. "It has produced stability for her entire family. Her adult children have stable lives and Jazmine is involved in sports and does well in academics."

Lisa was one of the first again, when she and Jazmine attended Greater Vision's inaugural cooking classes. Sara had dreamed of offering clients this education experience. The two learned how to cook fresh, healthier food, impacting their family's well-being and building new impressive skills. They are proud of their joint accomplishment that adds to living their best life ever.

Written by  Jim  Edminson, Editor of Charity & Children