Woman On A Mission Ministry

Diana asked her small group of 6 women, inmates of Depart­ment of Com­mu­nity Cor­rec­tions in Pine Bluff, “Have you expe­ri­enced life change in your­self since start­ing this course?” Den­isha*, a sharp, young African-American replied in a voice that implied her self-surprise, “Yes, I have! A few weeks ago if I’d come to class with­out fin­ishin’ my les­son, I woulda just lied. I’da left my book in the unit and told you I’d for­got­ten it, but I fin­ished my les­son! I didn’t do that today. I brought my book and told y’all the truth–I just didn’t get it done.”

Her demeanor sug­gested a new-found dig­nity in truth-telling. And she knew what it represented—the begin­ning of sig­nif­i­cant change on the inside. A will­ing­ness to be hon­est about sim­ple, every day things.

Can we ever hope to be choose well in the big things if we’re unwill­ing to come clean in the small? Her response indi­cates a minus­cule shift in her approach to life and rela­tion­ships. Hon­esty. Integrity. Inten­tional tiny choices. The taste of suc­cess. The ball begins to roll in a new direc­tion, lead­ing her ever so slightly away from her past. In time it could lead to a world far away from what she once knew, from what landed her in prison.

Matthew 25:21: Well done, good and faith­ful ser­vant!
You have been faith­ful with a few things;
I will put you in charge of many things.
Come and share your master’s happiness!

Lauri Cur­rier — front, sec­ond from left

Answer­ing the Call

As her Woman on a Mis­sion class was end­ing, Lauri Currier’s father was los­ing a two-year bat­tle with liver can­cer. Lit­tle did she know at the time that the self-discovery process she’d under­taken dur­ing the class would lead her to a mis­sion that would deeply honor her dad.

“All I knew was that I wanted a voca­tion in keep­ing with my unique design. I wanted to do some­thing sig­nif­i­cant for the king­dom that mat­tered to me per­son­ally, some­thing that I could do espe­cially well… And my daddy mat­tered to me! He was a world-renowned physi­cian in his field and the world’s best father to me and hus­band to my mother. And I attribute much of his suc­cess in life to the adop­tive fam­ily who raised him.

Orphaned at two, Lauri’s father came into fos­ter care and was even­tu­ally adopted by his fos­ter fam­ily. “Through Woman on a Mis­sion as I began to con­nect the dots of my life, I began to won­der if I might be able to use my spir­i­tual gifts of admin­is­tra­tion and pastor/shepherd to make a dif­fer­ence in the lives of the father­less. God placed firmly on my heart the plight of chil­dren suf­fer­ing from aban­don­ment, abuse and neglect. I knew my dad was one of those who, by the grace of God, was placed in a sta­ble, lov­ing home where he thrived. I was uncer­tain where God would lead but con­tin­ued to pray that He would put my feet on His path. Then, I learned about The CALL, a non-profit min­istry that recruits Chris­t­ian fos­ter and adop­tive fam­i­lies for chil­dren in fos­ter care. When I dis­cov­ered that Mary Carol Ped­er­son, a woman in our church, serves as Exec­u­tive Direc­tor for the orga­ni­za­tion, I knew I had to con­tact her. Maybe there would be a place for me. I sent her an email ask­ing if she had any job open­ings. She told me that they cer­tainly needed some­one but that no funds were avail­able for hir­ing cur­rently. But, she told me, ‘Let’s keep in touch in case things change!’”

Three short months later, Lauri joined The CALL, Chil­dren of Arkansas Loved for a Life­time, as Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Coor­di­na­tor. “It’s my dream job! I get to get up every day and do some­thing I absolutely love, some­thing that’s chang­ing the lives of chil­dren in fos­ter care!

Since Lauri began work­ing at The CALL, she has helped recruit 85 new fos­ter and adop­tive fam­i­lies. She has seen over 200 chil­dren placed in fos­ter homes and more than 50 chil­dren adopted. The min­istry is thriv­ing and so is Lauri!

“When I ran into Bill Parkin­son, one of our pas­tors, at church, I told him that I had taken a job with The CALL. He response touched me: ‘It’s so nice to meet an answer to prayer.’ He’d been pray­ing for some time for funds to become avail­able for another hire and for that spe­cial some­one to be found. What a great way for some­one to describe you —as an answer to prayer!”

To find out how you can become involved in The CALL, con­tact Lauri at lcurrier@thecallinarkansas.org or Mary Carol at mpederson@thecallinarkansas.org or call them at 501.823.0607.

To find out more about Woman on a Mis­sion, go to womanonamission.net .