Our Father’s Family Keeper Ministries provides several resources to support youth, young ladies with children who are in need of housing, transportation and connection to much-needed resources.

Following is the story of one young women whom OFFKM first came to know on a summer trip to a Bible camp and then later as a student in area schools and for whom we were later able to provide no-cost housing and support of her educational goals during a very vulnerable time in her life.

Michelle began her life on this earth living with her grandmother, as a result of her mother dying at her birth.  Under her grandmother’s leadership, Michelle grew into a wonderful, mannerable and responsible young lady.

Life, however, has a way of growing a person up in an instant.  The health of Michelle’s grandmother began to fail after the young woman’s first year at Southwestern Michigan College.  As a result, Michelle was forced to take on the responsibility of caring for her grandmother, such as managing the daily operation of the home they’d shared Michelle’s whole life, as well as physically caring for her aging grandmother.  Her grandmother eventually had to be placed in a nursing home where she could receive around-the-clock professional health care.

Unforuntately, life took another turn:  Michelle’s grandmother passed, leaving the young woman with the responsibility of giving away and otherwise disposing of her grandmother’s lifelong personal effects.  Additionally, immediate family members turned their backs on Michelle, leaving her with no housing and no money.

She found herself virtually alone, even as she was awaiting a final date to head off to Job Corps where she planned to pursue certification as a nursing assistant.

That’s where Our Father’s Family Keeper Ministries entered the picture in a major way.  We had first met Michelle a few years earlier on a summer trip we coordinated to Cedine Bible Camp in Spring City, Tennessee.

We assisted Michelle in the disposition of grandmother’s personal items.  We were also able to provide for her transportation needs to and from Job Corps.  Primarily, though, we were able to provide housing for her, in the OFFKM Transitional House, giving her a room, a “home base,” if you will, for the times when she left Job Corps on breaks and when she actually left the program after graduating from it.

Michelle said the OFFKM ministry programs and support were invaluable in helping her regain solid footing during that critical time in her life.

“Actually I don’t think I’d be here (without OFFKM’s support),” Michelle said.  “I’m very appreciative of what they’ve done for me. I don’t think my life would have been like this — with me having a job, being a CNA or going into nursing in the first place. I don’t think I would have been on this path, actually.”

After earning her Certificate as a Nursing Assistant from Job Corps, she returned to the OFFKM transitional house.  The Mays did not charge her rent for her room in the house, but did take a stipend from her — a program component that is a saving plan that help residents save money to have for housing, furniture, vehicles and other needs when they do leave the housing program,  That money was all returned to Michelle when she left: A little more than $1,000, she said.

She credited Sis. May with helping her create a resume and register on some online job sites and apply for jobs.  She eventually found one, which is where she works now.  Since she started working for the company in 2015, she’s earned pay increases that now see her capable of earning up to $17 for various weekend work.

Both she and the Mays count this as one of their many successes.

“They did help me so much,” she said. “I don’t know (what path I’d be on now without them).  Only the Lord would know about that one.”

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Click here to read how OFFKM has impacted the community.

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Need to apply for our Transition House program? Click here!

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Learn more ~ download an OFFKM Transitional House brochure!