Statement of Service to the Community

 

                                                                                               

     Six years in the ministry plus theological seminary and Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) hospital chaplain training has helped to shape my inner world. Four years as Director of Campus Ministries at a Wesley Foundation of The United Methodist Church caused me to develop a service-style of leadership and a desire to empower lives.

 

     I went into the ministry because I wanted to serve God and to better understand my purpose on this earth. In the ministry, I saw the heights and depths of human experience and felt myself grow to embrace the suffering and the spiteful. Although in 2000, I decided to return to teaching college, my service years are by no means over.

 

     Beyond teaching, which is itself a service, I have continued to serve community.  During my first year at DSC, I trained for and contributed two hours per week working at Hospice of Northwest Georgia. Here I had the honor of working with the dying at that most precious transitional time.

 

     Next, I developed a clown outreach so that Dalton State College students could experience that tremendous growth that comes with visiting senior homes and hospitals.  I hoped to in some way provide a service that would give incentive to students to engage in meaningful outreach. Thus, in 2002, I worked with interested students to establish on campus a club, The Funny Healers.  Currently, the student leadership is strong. In fact, we had fifteen clowns visit Chatsworth Seniors Home in November 2004.

 

     Another outreach I thoroughly enjoy is my work in the Buddy program, which is a service of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the Northwest Georgia Mountains. I work one-on-one with an at-risk child, an hour per week, providing encouragement when needed, but mainly being her friend. I am also engaged in a research project to evaluate the impact of service on the lives of these young people. This work I plan to continue because it is on the academic schedule, which frees me to do professional development in the summer.

 

          St. Marks Episcopal Church is where I currently worship. Other areas of interest and service include Habitat for Humanity and church mission trips.