No Jobs Ahead

I live in a small town that is really in the middle of nowhere. 30 minutes one way is Harrison, AR which is a city of about 12,000 and a handful restaurants and small businesses. 45 minutes the other way is Branson, MO which has restaurants but is more of a tourist town so jobs are not entirely plentiful. Other than that there is a few family run diners and gas stations. I point this out to draw attention to the fact that many families in my area are impoverished, because of lack of jobs. This really affects the way I do ministry in this small town. I want to just share a few observations and ideas I have about how to impact a community where jobs are few and money is tight.

Where I grew up there was a city 5-10 minutes down the road that had an abundance of restaurants and retail shops. I was always taught the importance of work. When I was growing up most people who were 16 or 17 had a job. I took for granted the fact that there were so many jobs available. Now that I live 30 minutes from any real jobs, I see the effects it has on families. In my ministry I have come across the fact that in Lead Hill many families do not just have 1 or 2 children, most have 4 or more. Mixed with the lack of jobs available this makes life in our small town very hard. The parents that have found jobs have to drive to Branson or Harrison or even farther for work. This really changes the family dynamic in the home. The older siblings have to step up and be guardians to the younger ones, and even make sacrifices for their younger siblings. They learn responsibility as a survival skill. This makes my ministry at the church even more difficult. Just like parents do from time to time, those students who constantly take care of siblings want a break. And church should be that place of refuge for them. Somewhere they can relax and forget about their worries for a short period of time and lean on the everlasting arms of Christ.

If there is a positive spin on the poverty of the area, it makes outreach that much simpler. Me and my wife have recently started making our own laundry detergent. I anticipate it to save us a ton of money. We got the recipe from the Dugger's website (here). It is incredibly simple to make and very inexpensive. Basically all you need is: (1) Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (2) Borax (3) a bar of either Fels-Naptha or Zote laundry bar soap and (4) water. All the ingredients can be found at Wal-Mart. They have even gotten smart and put all three right beside each other on the shelves. The borax and Washing Soda comes in a big box that sell for around $2.50 or $3 a piece and the soap bar is under $1. You can get many batches of detergent out of the boxes. I would imagine it cost somewhere around 20 cents per gallon of detergent. This summer somebody suggested that we put it into bottles and take it around to our community as outreach. I was floored! That was the greatest idea ever! We just used empty water gallon jugs. My wife being highly crafty and creative printed up cute labels for the jugs. We are going to use them as an icebreaker to go around and meet and greet our neighbors.

I would love to hear any other ideas that y'all have for doing ministry to a community that is stricken by poverty. I welcome and appreciate all comments!