Every woman who participates in the New Life Fellowship program at Simonka Place engages in the Learning Center during their time in the program. As a Learning Center Instructor, I help women brush up on math, writing, and computers skills or gain a GED so they may be prepared to get a job or go back to school. As a key part of the New Life Fellowship program, the Learning Center helps women in recovery build skills, gain confidence, and have hope for their future.
As each woman participates in Learning Center classes, whether they are working toward earning their GED or taking a computers class, they are learning to hope in Christ and persevere through challenges.
One woman tells me almost every day during class that for the first time, she is not only understanding math, but enjoying it. This program has helped equip her with the knowledge that her confidence comes from Christ, and she’s able to enjoy something that in the past was daunting to even think about doing.
What a privilege it is to watch women come in to program who haven’t been in school for 10, 20, or 30 years gain their confidence back by completing their GED or learning to use a computer for the first time.
Not only are they gaining confidence, but they’re learning to see God’s hand in the little things. I fully believe that every part of our NLF program, Learning Center included, helps each woman grow in her faith in God. And seeing the transforming power of Christ in these women absolutely helps strengthen my own faith.
These women have taught me so much. Every day, I see the healing power of Christ in action, and it helps me to grow in my own relationship with Him. The same women who come to us broken and desperate to change their lives display such great strength.
By choosing to enter the New Life Fellowship program, these women are choosing to turn to the arms of Christ because they know they can’t live by their own strength anymore. The easy thing would be to continue with their current ways of living, but they choose to enter the difficult, messy and painful process of healing.
That is why I love working with and educating the homeless through UGM – I see the transforming power of Jesus in their lives.
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5
Written by, Sarah Moreau, Simonka Place for Women and Children Learning Center Instructor
