A Servant Heart
Celebrating the Ministry of Eileen Jones
In a recent Sunday Coffee Hour, Eileen Jones was lauded and honored for her 25 years as a member of the staff of the church. Hired first as someone to supervise the children in the church’s day care program, she progressed to Parish Worker, then advanced to Christian Education Director, and, finally, today, she is the Director of Urban Ministry.
All along the way, however, she had her hands and soul in the Germantown Avenue Crisis Ministry of which she is the Executive Director. She says very confidently, “My heart lies in the Crisis Ministry.”
Eileen Jones is one self-assured woman. When she says that “we need to understand who we are and what we are about,” she is speaking from the vantage point of recognizing her own strengths and gifts, qualities that she has nourished and refined in her job and in her education which consists of both bachelor’s and masters’ degrees from Temple University, each earned since she has been at First Church. Eileen credits former pastor Donald Simpson for nurturing her and encouraging her to return to college. Earlier credits earned at Cheney University had prepared her for a position she held for a time as an assistant teacher.
After applying for the opening here, “some church that had some job,” as someone told her, she was given a position at the Salvation Army, but she felt that she hadn’t yet received an answer to the question, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” But almost from the moment she arrived here, she acknowledged that “God led me to this place.” She knew—and still knows—this is where God wants her to be.
Baptist/Presbyterian/Pentecostal
As “a Baptist working in a Presbyterian church but having a Pentecostal preference,” she set out to continue an after-school venture that had been started for community young people. Next, she organized and conducted the well-known summer camp until two years ago when she and others felt that the Freedom School was the path to take for providing more emphasis on reading and learning.
While she was the Christian Education director, a job she won over many candidates, Eileen worked hard to engage children and their families in dance, music and drama in the church. After all, with four children of her own, Ms. Jones knew a great deal about how families would respond to what a church might offer.
The Germantown Avenue Crisis Ministry is indeed a ministry. Anyone observing a few days in the center will see the power of that ministry. As Eileen stresses, “The people who come through our doors are God’s people. We will demonstrate our faith in the way we treat them.” The “people” are the clients of the center, coming to “resolve their crises, stabilize their lives and take the next step for self-sufficiency (education).” At the center which serves postal Zip Codes 19118, 19, 26, 38, 44 and 50 in providing emergency assistance for food, fuel, cloth-ing and housing, food is distributed one day a week for six hours; social services are offered two days a week for a total of 10 hours. As many as sixty people have been helped in one day; the record is 92. Ms. Jones feels the ministry needs to move more towards education now: offering small group counseling, teaching skills, sharing information about city agencies and how to use that information.
Sixteen More Volunteers
What is accomplished in the Crisis Ministry under Eileen’s leadership is achieved largely through volunteers. Whereas just one volunteer served in the office not long ago, 17 volunteers, many of them First Church members, now assist. They bring valuable skills and expertise to the non-profit organization which has both state and Federal guidelines to follow. But more volunteers are needed. Individuals with data entry skills can be of great as-sistance. Especially needed are people willing to coordinate certain projects, e. g., contacting maybe 20 churches to see whether food collection can be combined would be most welcome. Others gifted in speaking and writing can be valuable in telling the story of the ministry and getting out the word. People who have political knowledge and savvy can work as advocates for the ministry and can effect change in that way.
Such involvement can be a social and spiritual experience for the volunteers, “a learning lab for people of faith,” as Eileen expresses it. Getting to know and learn about the clients may help volunteers to understand poverty and thus be able to articulate the needs of the poor. “Bringing people into the ministry as volunteers,” she says, “may show that the [clients] are more like us than we realized.” But above all, “we come to Christ every time we meet a client.”
Sometimes people come to the Crisis Ministry who, for various reasons, cannot be helped. When that occurs, they may go away, however, equipped with appropriate information to be assisted elsewhere. That too, is a part of the Jones ministry.
One of Eileen Jones’ favorite verses of scripture is Proverbs 3:6: “in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
What a Christ-paved path she has been on these 25 years! What a path she has cleared for countless others!
By Sam Whyte