For 17 years I have managed 24/7 residential recovery programs for women, as well as teaching the Word, providing counseling and case management, discipling and mentoring in multiple settings. Titus 2 has wound down the residential component over the last two years, reducing beds, and now is accepting no more residential care students. Our last two residential women are now moving onto other activities.
This decision to end the 24/7 residential component was made possible by seeing the growth of new residential recovery ministries arise in our panhandle area in the last few years. At the same time more and more requests have arisen for short term and longer term out-patient counseling and case management needs, discipleship, and teaching. God has freed me to do more of the things I love most…. teaching the principles of recovery, healing and growth found in Scripture, walking with women through times of emotional or spiritual crisis, and helping equip others to teach and disciple effectively.
At the same time God has been guiding me through these changes, He has been preparing me for expanding my territory. I have been led to buy a home in Montgomery, Alabama , closer to more of my family members. I will retain a home in Lynn Haven also that now is no longer needed for residential recovery students where I will have a part time residence to continue work I have begun doing with other residential programs in the Florida panhandle area. I will also be providing similar services … teaching, training, case management and discipling….to several ministries in Alabama. Tomorrow I meet with the principles of a new start-up women’s ministry in South Alabama who have asked me to assist in program and curriculum development with them. I have believed since the beginning of Titus 2 in 2014 that we were forging a ministry model that any community with one or two churches in support of the goal of a residential recovery program could accomplish on a low cost, high impact scale. We’ve been sought out by 5 other groups over the last 10 years to share our information, experience, and encouragement to create similar faith based programs in So. Georgia, Tampa area, California, and the panhandle. 4 of the 5 are now realities.
Also, after many years of God telling me “No” about writing/publishing, God has now given me the go-ahead to put teachings given to me through the years into a formalized collection. I am not sure yet what that is going to look like, but I will be obedient as God directs me.
In March 1997 God began preparing me for vocational ministry by directing my attention to a beautiful freshly plowed field as I drove south on Hwy 231 near Cottondale at which time God said to me, “This is you.” (As Paul had also said to those he was putting in place to oversee new churches in 1 Corinthians 3:9 – “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.”)
Soon after that vision of the plowed field, it was converted to pasture land for a number of years. A few years ago it began being cultivated again for crops, but I had never again seen it in that freshly plowed state until Saturday, August 10 this year. I was driving to Montgomery to see a house in my sister’s neighborhood that she thought would suit me. As I drove up 231, when I saw the field again in that freshly plowed state I realized it is now a different season, not spring, but rather fall. It will, no doubt, be a different kind of crop. God was ready to do something new in a different season of my life. It gave me a sense of excitement and expectation.
Tuesday evening the Titus 2 board of directors approved the expanded geographic footprint across So Alabama and the Florida panhandle and the anticipated expansion of teaching, discipleship, and other activities we have been doing all along. The board will add a new member in Montgomery, as well.
This all seems sudden to many, but it is the culmination of changes God was pressing on my heart that began in the fall of 2022 with our first cutback in the number of residential beds, followed by the purchase of the smaller Lynn Haven home in May 2023 and sale of the former Deerpoint area house in August 2023. God’s guidance and faithfulness were present each step of the way.
I am excited by the growth we’ve seen in non-residential services over the last two years and look forward to where God will lead in the months and years ahead!
Thank you for sharing in the healing ministry of life recovery for women through your prayers and support. I will be giving periodic updates on our progress as we partner with new ministries and strengthen our ties with existing partnerships for the Kingdom building and family strengthening we envision in Christ!