Bookless looking forward to role as Main Street director

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN CYNTHIA MARTENS
Main Street Ministries has successfully existed in Hillsboro for more than a decade-striving to bring help and hope to those experiencing difficult times.

But the new director has a vision that will take the non-profit organization beyond its current outreach.

“Obviously, it’s been in place for 13 years,” said Lillian Bookless. “But personally, I feel as if Main Street is just doing the tip of the iceberg. I think there’s a lot of future out there for Main Street.”

In the past, the goal of Main Street Ministries has been to provide low-income housing, accountability for its tenants, life-skills workshops, a food and clothing center, fellowship meals, discipleship groups for youth and a safe and supportive environment for tenants.

Keeping those in place, Bookless plans to add new programs and opportunities and bring back others that were successful in the past.

The official mission statement of Main Street Ministries is to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ to those oppressed physically and spiritually by providing physical and spiritual resources in a supportive environment.

When Bookless ministers to people, her words are not just fancy rhetoric. She’s been in their shoes and knows their pain.

“God has brought us through a lot of deep waters over the past 20 years,” she said about her family.

“So we feel a connection to people who find themselves in unexpected circumstances. That kind of experience can really open up the doors-being able to say, ‘Hey, I really have been there.'”

Speaking with a hint of a Canadian accent, Bookless said husband Don is an occupational therapist and the two have three boys ages 12 to 18.

Her educational background includes an associate degree in health-information management.

“But, I’ve had a lot of experiences that have educated me,” Bookless said. “I’ve worked with three different Christian ministries in the past. So those years of experience have sort of prepared me” for this position.

She worked as assistant director at Main Street Ministries from the summer of 2000 to the summer of 2002. Prior to that, Bookless and her boys were tenants there for three years.

Since the summer of 2002, she worked in health-education management at the McPherson hospital. She was approached about the Main Street Ministries director position last winter.

“But the door really opened last fall when I actually sat down with some people on the board, and we started to discuss it seriously-coming back,” Bookless said. “Then, I came in on March 1.”

Between 2002 and the present, Scott and Jennifer Proffitt worked as interim directors.

“They’re still here,” Bookless said. “They’re now staff. They were treading water until somebody new could come in.”

Living on the premises with her family, Bookless has office hours and carries a cell phone. In the office, she plans to be available from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

“It’s really kind of a life-style,” Bookless said. “I didn’t take it on as a job. Call me crazy, but I know it can be a consuming life. And so we’re trying to make sure I put things in place to make it not be consuming.”

Her job description includes giving vision and direction to the ministry, creating a nurturing and compassionate environment and networking.

Reviewing the successful programs in the past, Bookless says she wants to continue those, such as the following:

n Housing. “The housing is great, we absolutely want to continue that,” she said. “That’s providing a safe place that’s nurturing.”

n Accountability. Tenants are matched with someone in the community and schedule weekly meetings. “So that’s in place, and I want to see that continue,” Bookless said.

n Food bank. Donated food items are available for those in need. That was a program that was put on hold until Bookless took over as director. A tentative start-up date is from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., beginning Saturday, April 17 and continuing Saturday mornings after that.

n Clothing. On the schedule is to offer donated clothing as in the past. “As volunteers make themselves available, it will mushroom,” she said. “I’d like to start it today, but everything takes time.”

n Basketball court and playground. “Something else that Main Street does is provide a place for kids to play in the back yard,” Bookless said. “There are kids back there all the time. It’s the only place in town where you can play (basketball) outside.”

n Meeting rooms. “We provide meeting rooms for Fellowship of Christian Athletes,” Bookless said. “And Alcoholics Anonymous meets here, too.”

Looking toward the future, Bookless said she would like to see the following programs initiated or brought back to Main Street Ministries:

n Offering furniture and appliances. “We used to offer washers, dryers, stoves and refrigerators,” Bookless said. “That’s something we’ll be developing again. And I’ve had calls for furniture, too.”

n Meeting with area churches. “I’m going to be traveling around to different churches in Marion County,” Bookless said.

“I’m hoping to go to each one of them on Sunday mornings-to let them know what’s going on at Main Street. Especially in Marion County beyond Hillsboro, they might have heard of us, but they don’t really know what’s going on.”

n Developing individual self-help plans. “We’ll be trying to develop tailor-made programs for people,” Bookless said. Guiding them to find answers within themselves, she hopes to see others in the program set their own goals to move forward in their lives.

n Offering life-skills workshops. Bookless is considering workshops, such as those focusing on personal finance, computer basics, cooking skills and shopping savvy.

n Creating a community health-ministries clinic. “There are health clinics springing up around the country for the uninsured,” Bookless said.

“Apparently, 14 percent of the population in the states is medically uninsured. I dream of (a health-ministries clinic) in Marion County, and I dream of it here under the auspices of Main Street. It would take several years to organize something like this.”

n Providing school supplies. “I want to offer school supplies for children who legitimately can’t afford them,” Bookless said.

“In the next few weeks, I’m hoping to contact the counselors in the schools. They obviously can’t identify them to me, and that’s fine. If they would make contact with those families for next year and let me know, we’ll have it all waiting for them in a packet in the fall.”

n Providing a prayer-group setting. Bookless said she initially envisions two prayer groups. One group would be parents who meet once a week to pray about their children. The other would be a prayer group focusing on the calling of Main Street Ministries.

“I would like Main Street to be known as a place that people pray over,” Bookless said. “And that we don’t move ahead if it doesn’t appear to be something that God wants to do.”

n Erecting a Main Street Ministries sign. “Right now, it just says Main Street Apartments,” Bookless said. “We need a sign.”

n Networking. “Even if people come through and we find out that it’s really not a match for them to come live here, I’d still like to do whatever I can to follow through with them,” Bookless said. “You don’t just reject them.”

With palpable enthusiasm, Bookless said she enjoys working at Main Street Ministries and looks forward to the future.

“I love to work with people,” Bookless said.

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