Mothers Ending Poverty: MaryBeth Stover, Marietta, Pennsylvania

Leading up to Mother’s Day, the NCC Poverty Initiative is sharing a series of stories lifting up, celebrating, and praying for mothers who are fighting poverty and alleviating suffering in their communities.

Prayer for Marybeth: God, thank you for expressing your love through MaryBeth to her family and community members seeking employment. Thank you for filling her heart with love of her neighbor. When times get tough, fill her with your grace and courage. Bless and strengthen her family and her work. In good times and bad, let her life overflow with the deepest joy that only You can give. Amen.

Recognized by: Lancaster County Council of Churches in Lancaster, PA

A single mom, MaryBeth Stover worked hard to get off welfare and to overcome homelessness and poverty in her own life. Now, through her work, she is inspiring others to follow her lead.  Not only is MaryBeth a caring and devoted mother to her two children, but MaryBeth Stover inspires so many who are trying to build a better life for themselves and their families. In her current job as a career counselor to the unemployed, this bubbly and vivacious woman works with people who are experiencing the desperation and poverty she herself faced three years ago. She encourages them to persist and to hold onto their dreams. “If I can crawl out of poverty,” she often says, “you can, too.”

Only a few years ago, MaryBeth and her two children were living on public assistance in a tiny, one-bedroom apartment. At the time, she worked as a data entry clerk but her job was 14 miles from her home, and, she had no car. She depended on the one bus that came in the morning and the one that returned in the evening to get to and from home and work. But many times the bus came late, or she missed her bus connection while bringing her infant son to child care. Though her  supervisor warned her about lateness and told her she was in danger of losing her job, she saw no way to correct what she couldn’t control. No matter how early she rose in the morning she couldn’t change the bus schedule. Nor could she change her work schedule. While she knew she could lose her job, she didn’t see a solution. She didn’t have the money to buy a car, and the car she tried to borrow left her stranded and in tears.

She felt trapped until she learned about Wheels to Work, a Lancaster County Council of Churches program that sells dependable, used cars below cost to the underemployed. Through the Wheels to Work program, MaryBeth purchased a car. That first Friday night she owned her car, she drove her children the four hours to the Maryland shore. She wanted them to play in the sand, to feel the breeze, smell the salt air,  and watch the ocean waves roll onto the beach. “We arrived about midnight and went on the beach,” she recalls, with tears rolling down her cheeks. “ I didn’t have money to stay anywhere, so we all played on the beach for an hour or so. Then we drove home. We all had a wonderful time.” Having this ability to give her children a trip to the beach, even a brief one, meant the world to MaryBeth, and this beach trip also marked the beginning of a new life for MaryBeth and her family.

MaryBeth’s personality and persistence, supported by an old, reliable Toyota, has changed everything. Now a star employee, MaryBeth has received three raises. “I’m making it,” she exclaims. “I’m paying my bills. I bought a little house with a little garden out front. I love my job, because I get to see other people succeeding, too. I love being able to pay back by helping others, and I love being able to do more for my children.”

MaryBeth is a member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Please join us in wishing a Happy Mother’s Day to MaryBeth Stover and to hard-working mothers everywhere.

Opening Invocation, Martin Luther King Day 2012

This opening invocation was given by Rev. Michael Livingston at the Faith Advocates for Jobs service to honor King’s commitment to Worker Justice.  (See information about the event here.)

The Old Testament text for the common lectionary yesterday was God’s call to the boy Samuel. It’s about hearing and responding to a call from God for service, it’s about speaking truth to entrenched power, old power, power plus money, arrogant power, it’s about wrong masquerading as right, it’s about God’s persistence, God’s relentless pursuit of us as if we are necessary to the triumph of right over wrong in our world, as if our ordinary voices matter, as if what happens next is up to us—whether the least among us will be served, whether or not truth will see the light of day in the midst of the sound bites that dominant public and congressional debate these days.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was like Samuel, young, going about his daily business, following his comfortable path when God called.  He was a preacher’s kid from a solid middle class family.  He went to Morehouse College then on to divinity studies and doctorate in philosophy.  He was on a Yellow Brick Road headed for Oz.  But God had need of him and he joined the ranks of the prophets and like Samuel, Amos, and Jeremiah; like Martin Luther and Sojourner Truth, Dietrich Bonheoffer; like Gandhi and Ella Baker.

Let us worship the God who calls prophets like Martin and every one of us to cry out against injustice and the abuse of power in the world.  Our God has no tolerance for those who prey on the weak, who turn their backs on the unemployed, who eat their fill while others are hungry.

Urgent: Relieve Unemployed Families’ Anxiety this Christmas Season.

This morning, I joined our friends at Faith Advocates for Jobs in Upper Senate Park to lead a prayer vigil for unemployed workers. While we pray, we are also working for justice. Please click here to write to your members of Congress and ask them to extend the unemployment insurance program. 

Unemployment insurance is an important lifeline that helps people who are out of work maintain stability for their families while they seek a new job. Congress may not renew the unemployment insurance program before it expires on December 31. This could prove a devastating start to the new year. Two million unemployed workers would lose their insurance in January. Another four million would lose insurance over the course of 2012.

In the past year, unemployment insurance has kept an estimated 3 million families out of poverty.

This instability hurts families and creates anxiety for everyone. People are asking themselves, “can I afford a toy for my child this Christmas? What kind of meal can I put on the table for my family?” There is a fundamental moral incompatibility between celebrating the joys of this holiday season and Congress leaving this session without passing legislation to extend unemployment benefits. Our Congress needs to act now to serve the American people, especially those who are struggling to support their families in the Christmas season and beyond. Please click here to write to your members of Congress and ask them to extend the unemployment insurance program.

Please share this message with friends and family. Our voices make a big difference.

Grace and Peace,

Michael Livingston

Director, National Council of Churches Poverty Initiative