Grace Major has been with GSA since 1998. She is a member of the Elijah Gate Worship Center in Leesburg.
Photo courtesy of Cherise Ryan.
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Grace Major - Compassion for the Homeless
A Deep Understanding and Compassion for the Homeless
Grace Major cites Isaiah 40:35: 3-7
Grace Major has been employed by Good Shepherd Alliance (GSA) since retiring from Safeway Stores in 1998. She has worked in both the GSA Thrift Store in Sterling and the GSA Family Shelters in North Leesburg. She is currently a house monitor at Hebron working intimately with women and children who come to her doorstep with medical, behavioral, and physical problems and general confusion about the state of their personal lives. In addition to her paid and volunteer efforts at the GSA Emergency Homeless Shelter, she is also a member of the Elijah Gate Worship Center congregation in Leesburg since 1991.
Grace was born in Binghamton, New York. Her father died when she was only four years old and she spent her youth shuttling between her mother’s home and various foster homes in Buffalo, New York. During these arduous, adolescent years, Grace became aware of her ability to minister to other girls experiencing serious personal conflict. This desire to give and to share was part of her passion to relieve anger, frustration and hopelessness in people's lives.
Grace moved from Buffalo to Leesburg, Virginia in 1961. Grace was miraculously healed from a bout with cancer in 1992 and again overcame a crippled spine in 1995. Her strong belief that God is always with us has assisted her through her own serious calamities. She feels that God has given her a special grace for working intimately with homeless people.
Our community’s population has increased tremendously in the last ten years, and Loudoun County is expected to eventually exceed 300,000 people. The trend of homeless people needing emergency housing in our community will not diminish any time soon. Good Shepherd placed 133 men, women and children in its shelters in 2008 and provided community outreach to another 88. The support required for 133 needy folks translated into 8,473 bed nights and 22,379 meals. However 904 people were turned away due to lack of funding, manpower and available rooms. Nobody really knows how many homeless are actually living in our community. However for those homeless people who register with GSA, it is a sure bet that Grace Major will be available to accept these families as residents and support them in their greatest time of need.
A Sitting Room at Hebron
Grace serves as manager, trainer, nurse, and counselor during the course of any given work day. She creates a “family-style” atmosphere in an effort to provide that which is most lacking in our guest’s personal lives. She is a peacekeeper and leaves a lasting impression with all who reside here or work on her team.Grace believes the greatest challenge for Good Shepherd Alliance is to give the residents as much assistance as possible during their short residency in the shelters (maximum 89 days). She observes that, while the GSA Case Manager is providing a great service to school-age children, by the time they begin to benefit from the much-needed attention, it is time for the family to move on. Moreover, Grace says that married couples are always in need of marriage counseling. They often come from dysfunctional families and unconsciously exhibit unforgiving behavior. She attempts to teach these families that through the act of forgiving, a man or women can put an end to the cycle of hurting behavior perpetuated by previous generations.
Homelessness can have detrimental effects on children’s cognitive, emotional, physical and psychological development. Risk factors facing homeless children include poverty, family problems, parental loss, violence and drug use. Children may experience the loss of family members, friends and familiar neighborhoods; disruptions in school attendance; and exposure to strangers and threatening situations. All of these stressors increase a child’s risk for physical and mental health impairment. The counseling provided to families at the GSA emergency shelters become especially important in the face of these risks.
Childrens Bedroom at Hebron
Grace impacts the lives of lost and unfortunate families and individuals every day by showing them love and a willingness to walk with them as they tackle their most difficult burdens. While providing them with shelter and a safe haven, GSA staff and volunteers share about God’s love and faithfulness.
By supporting GSA’s family shelter, women and children’s shelter, single women transitional or transitional home for pregnant women, you also can have a direct impact on the lives of the indigent in our community. While we are not all called to the same ministry, perhaps God has called you to provide a reasonable service.One of Grace’s former clients was a 32 year-old single mother with three children and one on the way. She had left her husband for irreconcilable differences. During her stay at the shelter, she and her children participated in family counseling. Upon her exit, she moved to County Transitional Housing and lived there for one year, allowing her to receive low insurance rates, an educational grant and an opportunity to save money. She is now teaching, and renting a single-family house where she has established a relationship with the landlord that includes both parties contributing to home improvements.
What sets the Good Shepherd Alliance’s work apart from that of other organizations is the welcoming environment of its shelter’s. Grace Major is the most important factor in creating that initial reaction in our residents.
Grace's favorite scripture is Isaiah 40:35: 3-7, “Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.”
If anyone is interested in publishing a faith article on this web column, please contact Mark Gunderman at gunderman2001@aol.com.
God bless all.
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