We Get By with a Lotta Help from our Friends!

FaithWorks has been extremely blessed by the volunteers who give so generously of their lives to the men and women who are a part of the FaithWorks mission. I’d like to introduce you to one friend of FaithWorks who you may not know. Shelley teaches leadership and communication classes at the university level. She also trains realtors across the state in leadership skills. Since Shelley heard the FaithWorks story, she now drives to Abilene from Austin each semester to spend a day in a communication workshop with the current class.

Last Christmas, Shelley and a dozen friends of hers (who have never been to Abilene or met a FaithWorks student in person) played Santa to a graduate and the 11 children in her family.

Shelley drives to Abilene to join a corps of the best volunteers in the world. Jim and Glenda, who came in and transformed our clothing closet to a clothing SHOPPE. Gloria, another teacher, who wrote federal grants and worked with under-resourced college students as her lifelong career, now helps FaithWorks with those same critical skills. DeLynda, a certified foreign language teacher who assists families from other countries adapt to living in their new culture, provides those essential skills to the men and women who are committed to making a change in their own personal employment culture. Shelley joins Derek, the university jazz musician who lends his gift of art to our newsletters. And Mike and Jeanne who are making our webpage sparkle. She joins Cole Bennett, PhD, our official resume polisher and Ovelia whose day job is hiring noncertified employees for our local school district and who gives a morning or two each semester tutoring our students in specific interview skills. And Dave, the real estate broker who teaches volunteers at the state and national level and has spent a morning a week for the last 28 classes walking our students through the book of Matthew. Shelley joins the fourteen families this month who provided lunch for our students and guests.

We need more volunteers!

Our second imminent need is for a media/social media person – we need to keep FaithWorks events, (graduation, next class dates, internships) in the local written and spoken media. We also could use help with social media communications and web page updates. If this description speaks to you, we would love for you to speak to us! On a related note, please notice the enhancements to the calendar on the back page. This is also now in our webpage.

We continue to try to tell the FaithWorks story in new and improved ways.

Let us know what you think.