God Has Passed the Baton to Me
I am Ericka Scott from Georgia in the USA. My calling is to work with young adults who were convicted in the Juvenile Court and are now re-entering society as an adult. God has called me to teach them job-readiness skills to obtain gainful employment. Out of these young men and women, community leaders will be identified and trained to uplift the community their crime impacted. God has passed the baton to me. So I am studying at the Christian Leaders Institute to prepare for my restorative ministry service (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here).
How God Brought Me to Restorative Ministry Service
While visiting my grandmother in South Carolina, she often brought me while she taught a Bible study to the kids at Willow Lane Youth Detention Center. The director, Chaplain Brody, let me tutor the girls after Bible study. He also allowed me to organize sports activities for them. Chaplain Brody felt that the peer-to-peer interaction was a clever idea. Apparently, he was right. Chaplain Brody reported that their behavior drastically improved for a time after my visits. He also stated that some of the girls’ grades improved.
I was able to interact with them from the time I was 11 until the time I was 14. Then I started working during the summer. During my last visit with the girls, they presented me with a large, hand-drawn card. They decorated it so beautifully! This was their farewell and thank you for treating them with kindness and respect.
I was a troubled teen. Thankfully, God kept me out of any danger. God uses all of our experiences – good and bad – to make us more relatable to the people we will serve. Even as a troubled teen, I found myself on several occasions helping other troubled teens solve their problems of being aggressive or disrespectful to their loved ones.
God’s Next Step
While working in an underserved community, I helped high school students and their parents and grandparents with job-readiness skills. I taught them how to fill out applications, write their resumes, and dress for their interviews. I held mock interviews with them and taught them how to be the best candidate for the position. None of this was in my job description. However, I found that ministries must go above and beyond what they think God has called them to do when working to uplift a community.
After all of this experience spanning almost 40 years, I got the “bug” to help troubled youth learn the job-readiness skills needed to support themselves and become productive members of society. Being a troubled youth myself qualifies me to relate to them on a much more intimate level. God passed the baton.
My Restorative Ministry Service
I am contacting local law enforcement agencies and working with a non-profit to get the targeted data needed to put my program together. My biggest challenge right now is funding. Due to a disability, I have not worked since November 2020. However, I am believing and trusting in God to provide the funding when it’s time to file the necessary paperwork. Amen! I have always believed in the “Lead by example, not by direction” model. This ministry course at Christian Leaders Institute confirmed that this is the best way to lead in any situation. It’s the way Jesus leads us! My ministry dream is to offer the 2nd Chance Workforce re-entry program in every part of the Southeast USA.
