Chapter 4 The Revolving Door Opens Another Door

As I continued to spend more time with the ladies and I got to know them better I began to see something that disturbed me. It is like a revolving door at the jail. While in jail many of the ladies would attend Bible Study, get saved, hope for a better way of life, and make promises to themselves and others never to be back. The problem was that she went right back where she came from. Did you know that many times an inmate is released at 12:00 midnight because their sentence is up at 11:59 pm.? And guess who is there to pick them up. The same people who were there when they got arrested.

I had some ladies ask me for help to find somewhere else to go. That's when I started looking and there was not much to find. I began to realize just how hard it is for them. How does someone who has no skills to cope, cope when there is no open door. Well, they go back to what they know. Drugs, bad relationship, and abusive behaviors. Some really wanted to get help. Some really did not want to change. This is when I began to see the difference.

I started to investigate Christian programs for women with what I call life controlling problems. This really intrigued me. One group of homes I found is called Teen Challenge. Teen Challenge was founded by David Wilkerson in the 1950's and there are homes for men, women, and teenagers. There is at least one in every state. When I went to Israel I found out that there is even a Teen Challenge in there. The ones I found for women are in Columbia, Ga, Philadelphia, Pa, Lansing Michigan, Davie Florida, Chattanooga, Tn. I also found a home in Mississippi called Home of Grace.

I started working with the probation office to get our ladies in McMinn County in these homes. We sent several to Home of Grace and some to the other homes. This is when I began to see who was serious about change and who was just wanting out of jail.

I took one lady from the McMinn County Jail to her mother's house in Maryville to get her clothes so she could go to a program in Columbus, Ga. We got to the trailer and I went in with her. Her mother had several dogs and the smell of urine was so strong I thought I would throw up. I told her I would wait outside. She came out carrying a huge suit case filled with what must have been everything she owned. It smelled like the trailer. I drove home that day praying that this was not what God was going to have me do the rest of my life. The next day I took her to the bus station. That was on a Thursday. On Sunday they called me and told me she has left their program. And I never saw or heard from her again. This was a big shock for me. God's training grounds.

I helped another girl get into Teen Challenge Chattanooga. She had only been in the program for a couple of weeks at Christmas time and she asked me to bring her daughter to see her on Christmas Day. I thought that was asking a lot. I was asked to leave my boys and take her three year old child to see her. Was this really what God wanted me to do. It worked out where I could do it after we had opened gifts with my husband's family and everyone said it was okay for me to leave. In fact my parents went with me. She stayed in the program there for about 10 months. She was so close to graduating. I was so proud of her and then I got a call from them telling me she had left. More training.

One lady I sent to Philadelphia, Pa stayed for about six months and left. I sent a girl to Davie, Florida and she stay several months and left. I helped her get in Chattanooga TC and she left there too. Even more training. Someone once told me I had stickablity (not sure if that is a word) Their right. I don't like to give up it's just not in me. Finally, Tammy went to Statesboro, Ga Teen Challenge and graduated the program. Nicki graduated a program in Lancing Michigan that took women that were pregnant. A few ladies graduated the program in Mississippi. One of them I see from time to time and she is doing very well.

As I helped the ladies go to other programs I felt a deep urging that there needed to be a home for ladies here in Athens. I told all the people who came into the jail to minister about this vision. I hoped that one or more of them may feel the same way and start the home themselves. Some people had a few ideas but nothing ever worked out. This was a matter that was on my mind all the time.

Then one day I was driving back to work from lunch and all the sudden I felt like something fell out of the sky and landed right in my belly. Like I had just inhaled something that became a part of my very being. I thought I heard the Lord say "You are going to build that house for women". Oh no, Lord not me. I don't think I can do that. Is there not another way. The thought that it was me never left me after that day. I'm not sure when I submitted to it but I did. Then things began to take off very fast.

In 1997 a prayer group was organized to pray with me about this need. We met weekly. I started talking to Susan Drake a probation officer for McMinn County about what I wanted to do and she had been wanting to do the same thing. We began to start to organize a group and at first it was me, Susan, and Cathy Arnwine one of the ladies who came into the jail to minister. We started to talk to people about how to get this organized. There was a lot of legal things that had to be done. One of the first things that we had to do was come up with a name for the ministry. Sitting in my car in front of the justice center I looked over at Susan and without thinking I said "The Women at the Well Ministries". It had to come straight from God because I had never heard of it before and I really don't think I'm that smart. It was so fitting because it was the story of the woman at the well I told the very first day I taught in the jail. Susan and Cathy like it so it stuck.

So we had a name and now we could apply for a charter with the State of Tennessee. A local law office help us with the paperwork and we sent off the forms. We decided to send out flyer's to all the local churches to tell them what we were doing. It was a nice summer day and I was home working on the flyer's. I had had a hysterectomy three weeks prior to this and had just gotten back from a trip to Florida. I was to be off work another two weeks from my surgery. I was sitting outside folding flyer's and I got up to do something and fell and landed on my ankle and broke it. It was broken in two places and now I was out of commission a little longer.

That was one of many attempts of the devil to stop me but it did not work. I did finish the mail out and sent them out and got a good response. Remember Pop it was around this time that he gave us our first $100.00. We took it and bought a P.O. Box and we received $75.00 from the first mail out. When I think back it was then that I believe things really started to move. That thing that landed in my belly was growing and it was so evident that God was in it there is no other way to explain it. This was June of 1998. I went back to work and on my birthday June 22, 1998, The Women at the Well Ministries received our charter. And then we were really going forward with this, sometimes too fast, sometimes not fast enough.

In October 1998 we formed a board of directors consisting of local people with a heart women with life-controlling problems. One of those board members was Betty Gentry. She and Jackie Lee became my side kicks for the next few years as we went to churches to share this vision with others. Carrie Clemmer Watson had just graduated the Teen Challenge program in Michigan and came back to town. Susan was her probation officer and she told Carrie to get in contact with me. Carrie started going with me to share with churches. I'll share more about Carrie later.

In spring 1999 I was busy almost every day promoting the ministry. I knocked on every door I could think of to get this program started. We opened an office downtown. Carrie worked in the office part-time. We started a support group for ladies who had just gotten out of jail. That was more training. The support group was very difficult to get off the ground. The ladies did not have a way to the meetings and when we went to get them they were not very dependable and it seemed like we were just running around after people all the time. I don't feel like the support groups were very effective. But God just reminded me of Jill who came to the support group who is doing very well. The fact is Jesus works every time.

Carrie was a Registered Nurse before she went to the program and she still has her license by the grace of God. She got a full time job at the hospital and had to quit the WATW job. I remember the day she told me while I was happy for her, I cried and cried because I knew what God wanted me to do. It was never so real as that moment.

After much pray and agony I realize it was time for me to leave my position at the McMinn County Justice Center so I could spend more time on WATW. I loved my job. It was something I enjoyed doing and plus it meant that I would have to give up being over the jail ministry and that had become my passion. It was so hard to pass it on to someone else. I still miss it today. Writing this has made me think about the joy I experience during those first days of jail ministry. It was then that I learned that all things are possible with God.

The day I told the Sheriff I was resigning my heart broke. Of course Jesus was there to mend it back together. When He takes away something, He always has something better to replace it with. I got a part-time job at the Register of Deeds office and I work for WATW part-time. We opened an office downtown. I stepped out of the door at the jail that revolved and into the door at WATW. This was the beginning to something I would have never dreamed could happen the way that it did.