Christmas Project

Christmas Party

I’ve been at City of Faith 20 years.  I’ve learned a lot in 20 years as one should and we’ve grown as a company and established a culture of servant-leadership that I am extremely proud of.  Success has been defined to me as “a few small acts of self-disciplined practiced daily over a reasonable amount of time.”  Now while you’re thinking about this definition, please allow me a moment to tell you about someone who personified this definition. 

My parents married in 1948.  They were both from the Louisiana Delta. She was 17 and my dad was 22.  Neither of them had much of a clue about life.  Someone gave my mother a used iron skillet with a broken handle as a wedding gift that became my mother’s biscuit pan and was used for nothing else.  My mother made biscuits every day. My dad demanded them and she supplied.  She was not a great biscuit maker in the beginning but over time it became her signature baking item.  The only time she didn’t make them was when she was sick in the hospital but the minute she came home, she made a pan of biscuits.  She never measured anything.  She knew the exact amount of flour, lard and milk it would take to put the same amount of dough into this pan.  In the early 80’s, my parent’s house burned and much to my dad’s delight, the biscuit pan was the only surviving material item.

My mom was very self-disciplined in her biscuit making.  I’m sure there were some days she hated it.  I’m sure it was irritating.  I’m sure there were days she wished my dad would eat something else with his meals or maybe she wished he’d just go away.  Maybe there were days she woke up and said, “Jesus, please let me cook something else, somewhere else.  If you’d just let me move on from here.”   But the biscuits became her legacy and became her art.  They became her signature.  They became her excellence.  She became very well known for biscuits and the fact that she never saw them as any big deal only made them taste that much better.  When asked why she never tried to market them, her reply was, “I only have one pan.”

When I came to City of Faith in 1996, I was basically given a “biscuit pan.”  I was terrible at this task and made mistakes daily.  I couldn’t figure out how much flour, lard or milk it took to achieve the right consistency.  I knew I loved the people, I knew I loved the work, I loved supervision and I loved providing second chances.  Each of these “ingredients” were great by themselves but it took trial and error to figure out how they all could come together to create a work of art.  I too would wish there were days I could “eat” something different and days I’d ask Jesus if He would just let me move on.  But I also knew in my heart that if I continued to refine the technique and pay attention to what works and what doesn’t then it would all “pan” out. 

Our success at City of Faith has been one of “evolution” rather than “revolution.”   People have been placed in leadership positions and have fallen in love with the work and risen to the occasion.  God put together one of the best teams reentry has to offer right here in Little Rock.  Just this past year we were able to build an 8,000 square foot administration and training center much to the delight of my biscuit eaters.  Since November of 1996, over 8,000 federal inmates have been assisted in job placement, housing and reestablishing themselves into their communities and last year alone, the residents of City of Faith earned a gross income of $1.5 million dollars.  More than 80% of the federal inmates we’ve assisted have made it successfully to their release date.  But my favorite part has been the efforts on behalf of our population to give back to the community.  In three years, with our annual Pudding Cup 5-10K race, we’ve raised more than $15,000 for a local backpack ministry and have blessed over 1500 senior citizens at Christmas.  Our residents have worked tireless hours volunteering for such organizations as the Little Rock Animal Shelter,  the Maumelle Senior Center, Counting on Each Other and The Stars Come Out as well as cleaning both Boyle Park and Hindman Park.  As we enter into our 21^st year of operations in Little Rock, all of us are looking back saying, “you know, all it took was a few small acts of self-discipline practiced daily over a reasonable period of time.”   When we take little steps daily and discipline ourselves in the small things such as getting better at making biscuits...then all of us can be difference makers in the world we touch.

Moving forward,

Terry