December 19, 2024 • 31 mins
Elizabeth Vendley describes her life as a social worker, and how this work can serve our communities, churches, and people we interact with in daily life. What is social work, and how can it inform how we serve our communities?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We have something called the social workstandards and ethics
that we have to certain competenciesthat we have to to go by.
They're all wrapped up in Matthewfive six and seven.
Conduct your life in a way of integrity,in a way of love,
in a way of looking at yourselffirst and pouring out to others.
(00:21):
There you have it.
You're doing social work.
All right.
Well,Elizabeth, welcome back to the podcast.
So you're a social worker, in the city.
And you also have a pretty fascinatingtestimony and story,
which we're doing that as a whole,separate thing that will be released
(00:42):
before this one.
So, you know, people can check that outif they want to get more of your context.
So we're not going to get into that part,
but I do want to get into another piece ofof your, well, your life story.
And that is being a social worker.
And focus in on that and exploringwhat is your role there.
So let's start with some basics.
What is a social workerand like what exactly do you do?
(01:04):
I mean, I I've never intervieweda social worker before.
I, feel pretty clueless about thisand I feel like I have a lot to learn, so.
Yeah, tell me.
Yeah, it's of course it's a topicof choice for me, a preferred topic.
So, because I did come from a,
a worldly societyor average American society.
I had a couple of years of college andbefore we came to the Anabaptist faith,
(01:29):
then there came a point where I knew that
I was going to have to take care of myselffinancially,
and that my body might not always be ableto be,
able to take care of people.
I worked in the field of disabilities,
and so I wouldn't always be ableto physically take care of my folks.
I needed a way to make a livingthat I could do past age 65.
(01:53):
So that's just some piecesthat fed into my pursuing social work.
I got my four yeardegree, bachelor's degree,
which is four years of college,in biblical studies
and human Services was my minor,but just got tagged on to that.
And that's when I became interestedin the idea of how social work can
(02:17):
serve the church.
And that put me on fire.
And I ended up going to graduate school.
And in May I received my master's degreein social work.
So I am now working towardsfull licensure.
That takes a year of supervision.
And then I will be a licensedclinical social worker.
(02:39):
So what what do you do exactly.
Like like what does a social worker do?
CurrentlyI work as a behavioral consultant.
I work with childrenthat have intensive behavior issues.
So I go into the homes and I
look at what's goingon, and I come up with a
I assess, I evaluate,come up with a treatment plan, say,
(02:59):
this is how we're going to go after thisbug, keep all the data.
Teach peoplewhat to do and how to work with this child
and bring them to where they want to be.
Best case scenario.
The beauty
of social work to me,and what really attracted me is
it is such a wide,
(03:21):
wide variety of things you can do with it.
At first, people hear social worker
and they think of a lady with a clipboard,
you know, taking children offto foster care.
You know, it'sgot some real negative connotations.
And in an urban area,it has really negative connotations.
(03:41):
where I live and serve in my churchis an urban setting.
So it's like, you know,
it it does look a little odd,
and I realize that, and I just acknowledgeit and work through it.
But a social worker can do thatcan work for the
the county or whatever,and protect children in need.
(04:01):
A social worker can do so many things,work in a hospital,
helping people to find the resourcesthey need.
Get grandma into a facility.
Get some. Find a rehab.
Get finding servicesfor people in the disability area.
I can manage group homes.
I can help people find get the servicesthey need.
(04:23):
What government programsthey can and cannot get.
What?
What programs are appropriate for them?
You can work in a disaster
situation helping people to figure out,okay, a tornado took my house.
Now what do I do?
All right, well, let's get you this aid.
Let's let's plug in to this.
As well as the component of sittingwith the person.
(04:45):
And processing the difficulty.
You know, then my faith can come in if theif they're open to that, you know, and.
Well, why would God let you know a floodtake my entire house away?
Why would God do that?
You know, you can work at a hospitalwith dying children.
You can. It's just.
It's huge.
(05:06):
You can work in a academic setting,teaching or school counselor.
You can work with the police departmentin a helping
to get through their difficulties.
You can.
Come up with a mobileshower for homeless people.
It's what?
Wherever God calls you. So that.
(05:27):
That clinched it for me.
That wide variety.
I can do wherever the Lord sends me.
I'm equipped.
Okay. So. Wow.
That that's really helpful for mebecause it seems like
there's a lot more variety herethan what I thought, you know.
So that's. Yeah, that's really something.
(05:49):
So so you already mentionedsome of the pieces,
but if you want to add any more of likewhy did you choose this career
and then the, the piecethat I was really thinking about as like
feels like this would be a pretty hard jobsometimes, right?
There'ssurely there's easier things to do. Yeah.
So if you wanna speak into that.
It is. It's messy.
And and we'rewalking into messy situations.
(06:11):
But didn't Jesus do thatwhen he walked into this earth?
He walked into amessy, sin ruined situation.
So, you know, that kind of helps me,
to take that contextwhen I go into a house
that might be culturally
quite differentfrom what I'm accustomed to.
(06:32):
That, you know, hey, Jesus visited a sinsick world
and lived there for 33 years and boughtall of that for an hour, hour and a half.
I can sit here,you know, with various situations.
So, but a lot of it is the,the component of is the Lord putting me.
(06:53):
Here. Or have I put myself here?
That's important.That's an important piece.
I'm not just here because I want to goand help these people.
It's the Lord sending me there.
It feels like motive.
Or the intention behindit is a is a really important piece
that I keep hearing coming out with this.
(07:16):
Right.
I think it is.
And it is for me as a Christian.
And it's very much an outpouringof my faith for other social workers.
It might be just that, that thing in them,
that altruistic, I want to do good.
You know, I want to make a impacton this injustice or that unjustice.
You know, for me,my motivation is what would Jesus do?
(07:42):
Well you can get into that a bit more.
Go a little deeper with that.
How does your faith inform the workthat you're doing?
Which I'msure there's many areas of intersection,
but but again, I think there's, there iskind of a stigma around the social worker,
like you said, the person with the,you know, stern and the,
you know, the clipboard and things.
So there's all these stigmas.
And so when I heard,oh, you're a social worker.
(08:04):
Oh, that now that is interesting.
You know, I want to drill into that a bitbecause how does what you believe,
how does that informwhat you do on a daily basis. Yeah.
It does have an impactbecause of the outward testimony.
You know I obviously look differentthan the people
in the inner cityor the people that I serve.
And so I get some real,
(08:26):
real blunt questions.
You know, I work with kiddos right now,
or I work with adultsthat have intellectual disabilities.
And their questions are real blunt.
What's in your head? Yeah.
Okay.
You know, we've got to go here right now.
You know,
so, you know, I kind of have some answersand I just say, oh, there's a Bible verse
I really likethat makes me want to wear it.
(08:47):
That's enough for them.
If mom wants to ask me laterthat's her thing.
So you're working with fairlyyoung people.
You said.
At this time?
Most of my kiddos are like age 4 to 12.
Okay.
Most of my experience is with adultswith intellectual disabilities.
So then I've got a greater range.
And I still do that.
Like on a ministry level with those folks.
(09:12):
So that kind of
lays my foundation, like, okay,I go with the Bible.
That's my measuring stick.
That's where I go.
And then if they want to speak into that,fine.
If they want to ignore that, fine.
Then we go on to the next thing.
Something that really impacts
(09:32):
how my faith informsmy social work practice.
Could.
Probably be summed up in Matthewfive six and seven.
We have something called the social workstandards and ethics
that we have to certain competenciesthat we have to to go by.
They're all wrapped up in Matthewfive six and seven.
Conduct your life in a way of integrity,in a way of love,
(09:56):
in a way of looking at yourselffirst and pouring out to others.
There you have it.
You're doing social work.
so let's pivot slightly
and saydo you have challenges of balancing
what you believe your convictionswith the responsibilities of your job.
Like do those ever misalign.
And you have to kind of wrestlethrough that?
(10:18):
Yeah.
And that that would be what we callin the social work field ethical dilemmas.
Okay.
And but it happens to everybody.
It doesn't just happen to a conservativeAnabaptist out there.
It also will happen to maybe somebody
who's part of the LGBTQ community
(10:39):
that needs to serve somebody
who is got Trump signsall over their yard.
You know.
Yeah. You know. Okay.
So if you're a social worker, youyou're going to have to deal with that.
And the answer is the same as the answerswe see in the Bible
and in the sermon on the Mount.
Look in at yourself.
Know what you are.
Know where you arebefore you be pouring out on other people.
(11:03):
So that's how we're taught.
You need to be aware if you have racial
racial blind spots
in either direction, whether you'rea white person who has racial things there
or whether you're a, social workerwho is African American,
who feels really ripped offand has had it with the system well,
(11:26):
she can't be getting in the faceof the white principal she's working with.
You know about this. So.
So we have to temper that.
That's that's biblical.
Okay.
This is all the considerthe beam in your own eye.
You know
so a lot of the concepts
very much tie in to my faith.
(11:48):
And then the outpouringvery much. Service.
I mean, that's that'sjust plain a gospel fact.
There have there been timeswhen there was a real tension there that,
that if you're able to give like saya specific
example like okay, wow, here'sone of those ethical dilemmas.
And you had to walk through thatand try to find the
(12:09):
I'm not even sure what you would say the,the middle ground or some.
I almost don't like that word.
It feels like there'sthat's not quite the right thing
I'm going for,but I think you get what I'm saying.
Common ground. Yeah. There you go.
If I am sitting with somebodythat is from the LGTBQ community,
some might not
all, but some might come at meas like, you're against me.
(12:31):
You think I'm a sinner?
You know, it's like, technically,ain't we all?
You know,
I can relate to that person.
And part of it isbecause I've had an education.
It might give me a little bit more of athe liberal viewpoint
on some of that stuff.
But it's like, yeah,but if somebody is in adultery
(12:54):
or drunkard or whatever,I mean, it's all the same.
It doesn't matter whether it's theif you're waving a rainbow flag
or whether you're going to the baror whether you're beating up your wife.
It's all the same, sin is sin is sin.
I want to gowith what's common between you and me.
And let's focus on that.
(13:16):
What do you need from me?I need you to understand me.
I understand you're human.
We're good. Let's go.
Okay. So.
So that's the.
Would that be one of the fundamentalprinciples that you end up using.
Then this concept of common ground? Yeah.
You know, somebody, sayI would be a school counselor,
and I have a teenager coming in,and she's like,
I want an abortion,and I need you to help me get an abortion.
(13:39):
I can't, you know, I can't do that.
You know, so I can refer her to somebody.
Okay.
Well I know of a place that showsyou all your options.
Check that place out.
Okay. See.
So that that gets a little more downinto like a real tangible situation.
Right. That,that could get messy really quick.
(14:00):
We’re quizzed on that stuff.
So what I wasn't sureif there are certain limitations
on what you're allowed to do.
Like like why I'm sure there arecertain there's parameters.
The way you just described it.
Oh, okay. I can see that.That makes sense.
You know.
Yeah.
If a same sex couple comes to meand says I need marriage counseling.
You know, I can assesswhat their issues are in general
(14:24):
and then I can say, hey,you know Sally over there,
she really understands your communityand your context.
I think she's a better choice for you.
That does make a lot of sense
because wow I can still imagine
tension being a possible thing.
(14:44):
Well actually probably quite a lotin a lot of different ways.
Right.
But then again, perhaps I'mlooking at this
a bit wrong, when in realitywe all face this to one extent or another.
Anytime you interact with society.
You know, obviously you experienced it
in one way as a social worker,but maybe all of us do.
I we interviewed.
I'm just thinking, off the top of my headinterviewed my dad, actually, about,
(15:07):
his business stories and things like thatand how standing up for,
you know, what was ethical, what was right
and how was like
sometimes that really cost, you know,and it was trying to find, again,
you know, kind of common ground like, wow,I can't really do that because that's
that's not right, you know,
and sometimes that the stories don'talways end amazing.
You know, sometimes there's a real costto standing up for something, right? But,
(15:28):
and so maybe
some of what you're facingin these scenarios
that we're talking through is actually,something all of us face
in one way or another is that you think,you know, respond to that.
And just our view of of humankind.
How do we ministerand how do we relate to people.
Now like I said, I'm in an urban
setting in my churchand our focus is serving that community,
(15:52):
almost that neighborhood in the,in a city.
You know, your neighborhood is like aboutabout the block
around you, you know,and of course, everything's upward.
So there's, you know, 3or 4 stories of families.
But that's your little community.
And you come across all kinds.
(16:15):
But we need to
just do that on a community basis
and then it just gets bigger. Okay.
So then we look at the whole cityand how our church will then
hopefully impact the city which will
hopefully impact societywhich hopefully will impact eternity.
You know so we're kind of
starting with the neighborhoodand making a spiral around.
(16:38):
And that's one of the beauties of,of being in the city.
Is that we are coming
across folksthat are fresh out of jail and homeless.
And I mean that's who we serve.
That's our concentrationfor our congregation.
That's where the Lord has calledour congregation is with the homeless and,
(16:58):
and those who don't have the servicesthat they need.
So my social work has been really workinghand in hand with
with my church's vision.
I think that's another partbut and maybe you can speak to that
as well as how, what your work is doing,how that interfaces with say
(17:20):
the different ministries that a churchmay do in this environment, say.
Yeah.
Well our church,the building itself was given to us
by a congregation that had money and age
but did not have the membership to sustainwhat they had gotten going.
It's a huge building.
(17:40):
Old fashioned stained glass windows,the church bell, the whole nine yards.
They gave us the building, plus,
plus plus.
But one of the conditionswas that we continue their homeless meal.
It's what they called it.
We call it a community meal.
So you don't have to be homeless to bethere.
It's just anybody.
And so we serve I think at this pointit's has been pre-COVID.
(18:05):
We are nearly 100.
Now it's probably up to about 40 folks
that come in and we getwe feed them, but we don't.
We sit down and eat with them.
They don't go through a line with aa tray.
You know,we sit down, our families sit down,
they get to experience usand we get to experience them.
(18:26):
And that's our visionof impacting the community.
Wow. And we've had peoplethat come to church.
I think almost all of our community,people that have attended our church
came first to the community meal,to check these people out.
You know, hey, I get it.
You know, I totally get it.
(18:46):
So, youknow, that is kind of our way of serving.
So we're coming it upagainst people who just got out of jail
or have significant mental health
diagnosis and can't maintain an apartment,and they're homeless
and living under the bridgeor don't want to because they believe
the whole world's corrupt, who know,you know, all kinds of scenarios.
(19:08):
We see all kinds of stuff.
And so my,my social work practice has been able
to inform the other people in the church.
We have had people under various
mental conditions, or sobriety conditions
that want to come to a church service,and they might be disruptive.
(19:31):
How do we handle this? You know?
They're just kind of like Elizabeth.
Now, all the guys in my church have thecrisis intervention number on their phone.
Now they know the drill.
Somebody is out of hand.
You know, this is the number I call.
Now, We've had it happen where they'vehad to come in and escort the person out.
(19:52):
We now have
different
plans in place for people that.
Really, all they want is our bathroom.
They're homeless.
They want to clean up.
They want to use our bathroom.
They have to sleep through churchso that they can use our bathroom.
Yeah. How do you handle that?
How do you handle your childrenseeing that?
(20:16):
How much do you wantyour children interacting with them?
You don't want themto be pulling away from it.
But is that person safe?
You know, all that stuff comes up.
And so I'm.
I'm really grateful for my social worktraining that I can,
you know, kind of stand in that gapa little bit, if that makes any sense.
(20:37):
So it's been a real blessing.
The Lord has just blessed itfrom all kinds of angles and made it
clear to me that's the path
that he wants me to serve him in.
Okay.
So I can imagine
that you have a number of stories
and experiences and things you know,from this type of work.
Is there one story in particular,perhaps, that you'd like to share with us
(21:00):
that kind of captures what you're doingand why you do it?
There's actually two hopefully I won't.
Sure.
The one story that has touched me
the most is from our own groups.
A group of churchpeople came together to say to each other,
we have a brother in our congregationwho is a quadriplegic.
(21:25):
He's 60 years oldand his parents are getting old.
What are we going to dowhen they cannot manage his care anymore?
What they ended up doing was coming up
with a multi church board,because we are in a larger area
and they came up with a
multi church board and built a housewell, added on to a house
(21:47):
and put up a group home for
conservative anabaptists with disabilitiesthat cannot be taken care of at home.
But a nursing home isn’t inappropriate.
They built this homethat is awesome and I was very privileged.
And again, it was a total God thing thathe landed me there to manage that home.
(22:10):
First, the Lord took me throughsome training at a place,
a very large ministry.
So I learned how to run a group home
and really went through some stuff,learning that.
And then it's like, that's why you had mego through that, Lord.
And so I had the privilege of managingthat group home for seven years,
watching the church interactwith with our residents.
(22:34):
We had three residentsinteracting as a church body.
I mean, you know, as conservativeanabaptists, we do that really well.
And they did. Oh, they did.
So that it was just
the church was workingwell and and it just wow, I loved
I loved it, and I'mstill very involved with the house,
(22:58):
but my
full time job is workingas the behavior consultant.
I go over to the group home,work weekends, or just hang out
with my dear ones. But I lived there.
I lived in an apartment above the housefor seven years and managed the home.
Yeah.
That's, that seems like such a snapshotof the body of Christ
coming togetherto, to to care for those in need, like.
(23:19):
Wow. Yeah.
That's amazing.
It was, it was is a God thing, you know?
So so it was just.
It just blessed my heart.
And because that was a basicallylike a church mission.
We weren't a licensed,and we only had three.
If you have four or more residents,you need to be a licensed facility.
(23:40):
So now as a social workerand as a licensed
social worker,I could have a licensed facility.
Oh. Which could be
I mean, it was much nicerto not have to deal
with all the paperwork, regulationsand licensure, but I knew the rules.
I could keep standard that House,you know, would have passed an inspection.
(24:03):
I knew what the regulations were.
I could keep that.
It was all, you know, absolutely.
You know, legal and on the up and up.
But if other groups, other states,I would know how
now, how to do thatand help other groups do that.
And I do work with,
Anabaptist Disabilities Networkand some different places
(24:26):
who have interest in that,this sort of, church outreach.
So that's,that's my probably my favorite story.
My other one, is what I see
in my congregation.
I just when I see
(24:46):
the men for lack of a betterI mean, the women do it too.
But you know, menlead out in relating to these folks
that are from the communityand dealing with these situations,
just from what they know in the Bible
and just what the Holy Spiritis doing in their hearts,
(25:06):
and the answers and responsesthat they are
giving to these peopleare the same things that we're learning.
That's thus and thus model.
Oh, that's this such a technique.
Oh, that was, you know.
But this is
just coming out of Christ in them.
And it's like, wow,
(25:26):
you know,they didn't have to be taught to do that.
You know,because they're open to learning.
You know,
I mean, yeah, none of them probably knew
what crisis intervention wasbefore we started our church.
You know, they're learning.
But yeah, it's just really touchingto see the church.
(25:48):
Work and.
We hear a lot of complaints aboutthe church this the church that, you know,
but I think it does us well to concentrate
on when the church is working well.
I think our ministersand our leaders deserve that.
Yeah I was just going to saythere are so many examples of that.
You know where you do see,you look around, you're like oh whoa.
(26:12):
That, that churchdid something really incredible there.
Really served its community and like madea difference in the local environment.
And people look at them like, wow,that's that's amazing.
You know.
And that feels like we're on such solid
historical footing, like, you know, thethe church's has has always done that.
You can
trace that thread, you know, all back backall the way to Jesus and the apostles.
(26:35):
And that's a beautiful legacy.
You know, and anyways,so that story you told about the
the home that you were involved in.
That'sthat's pretty spectacular, actually.
And, maybe there's someone listening,been like, like, hey, we should.
Yeah, we should think about doingsomething like that. Like,
how can we care for the people in thein these types of situations, you know.
(26:56):
And it can be switched into any situation,
you know, here in our area and,and other areas, there are,
kind of settings for people struggling
with crisises in their lifeor mental health issues
or family issues or,you know, things like that,
or they if they if the churchfeels led to have a homeless shelter.
(27:22):
How would they start doing that?
If our churches had more social workers?
We can help with that, you know?
So that was kind of somethingthat inspired me.
I feel like the church needs socialworkers,
and I think social work needs the church.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I think that isa pretty important piece
that this isn't somethingthat's happening in isolation.
(27:44):
Right.
Like this is interfacing closeor should be I guess you're saying,
interfacing very closelywith the local churches, you know?
Yeah.
as we bring this episode to a close,what's a piece of advice
or somethingyou'd like to leave the listeners?
Like I said, I, I feel thatthe church needs more social workers,
and I feel like, as general societydeclines and becomes more complicated,
(28:09):
we plain people aren't going
to enjoy the wide margins that we havefrom the government.
You know, right nowthey leave us school our own. Or.
Have births at home or whatever.
They kinda, you know,we get a lot of awful lot of privilege.
Actually, I think we're probably,as a Mennonite woman, I think
I'm probably about the most privileged,
(28:30):
you know, segment of societythat there is.
There's people open doorsand hand me their babies and walk away.
You know, it's just like,you know, It's awesome.
But, you know,I can see how that could decline.
Very rapidly.
And, you know, so now I'm gettinga little intellectual here, but
I just feel like as a church,
(28:52):
we need to be able to handle that.
And I so I think
my part of being a social workercould help that.
And all those who are out therewho are paramedics or doctors.
Or. Mamas raising their babies,I mean we all are doing, you know,
(29:12):
like we can all contribute to thatif we're wise,
you know, and think about the churchand how we as a church can impact,
you know, like I was saying before about,
you know, community go wider,
you know, society go wider,
eternity,you know, just keep opening up that lens
(29:35):
and letting letting your impactor letting Christ,
Christ, in you, impact.
This has been fascinating.
I, I hope this episode has encouragedpeople to have a better understanding
of this type of workand also encourage people to say, oh,
you know, let's think creatively.
Like how, how could our church, you know,get involved in, in society around us.
(29:57):
You know, like you said, start a homelessshelter or, you know, help
this person in this particular situation,whatever that might be.
There's lots and lots of options. Yeah.
We do community well. Yeah.
You know like you said historicallyI mean that's what we do.
Well. So let's give Christ
while we're doing that.
Let's make sure peopleare taking Christ with them.
(30:18):
Not shoo fly pie you knowand yeah barn raising.
So you know those are great things.
Those are valid things.
But let's give them Christ.
Yeah.
That's it.
That's that'ssome powerful pieces to leave us with.
Well Elizabeth, thanks for taking the timeto come on and share with us today.
I really appreciate this.
(30:39):
Thanks for listening to this episodewith Elizabeth.
There's much more to her storythat we weren't able to cover, but you can
find that whole story of how she wentfrom being Roman Catholic to the Amish
and then on to the Mennonitesin the episode linked down below.
If you appreciate what we're doing hereat Anabaptist Perspectives, consider
joining our exclusive Partner podcast,which is available to monthly supporters
(31:00):
of any amount.
You can sign up through our websiteand we'll see you in the next episode.
We have something called the social workstandards and ethics
that we have to certain competenciesthat we have to to go by.
They're all wrapped up in Matthewfive six and seven.
Conduct your life in a way of integrity,in a way of love,
in a way of looking at yourselffirst and pouring out to others.
(00:21):
There you have it.
You're doing social work.
All right.
Well,Elizabeth, welcome back to the podcast.
So you're a social worker, in the city.
And you also have a pretty fascinatingtestimony and story,
which we're doing that as a whole,separate thing that will be released
(00:42):
before this one.
So, you know, people can check that outif they want to get more of your context.
So we're not going to get into that part,
but I do want to get into another piece ofof your, well, your life story.
And that is being a social worker.
And focus in on that and exploringwhat is your role there.
So let's start with some basics.
What is a social workerand like what exactly do you do?
(01:04):
I mean, I I've never intervieweda social worker before.
I, feel pretty clueless about thisand I feel like I have a lot to learn, so.
Yeah, tell me.
Yeah, it's of course it's a topicof choice for me, a preferred topic.
So, because I did come from a,
a worldly societyor average American society.
I had a couple of years of college andbefore we came to the Anabaptist faith,
(01:29):
then there came a point where I knew that
I was going to have to take care of myselffinancially,
and that my body might not always be ableto be,
able to take care of people.
I worked in the field of disabilities,
and so I wouldn't always be ableto physically take care of my folks.
I needed a way to make a livingthat I could do past age 65.
(01:53):
So that's just some piecesthat fed into my pursuing social work.
I got my four yeardegree, bachelor's degree,
which is four years of college,in biblical studies
and human Services was my minor,but just got tagged on to that.
And that's when I became interestedin the idea of how social work can
(02:17):
serve the church.
And that put me on fire.
And I ended up going to graduate school.
And in May I received my master's degreein social work.
So I am now working towardsfull licensure.
That takes a year of supervision.
And then I will be a licensedclinical social worker.
(02:39):
So what what do you do exactly.
Like like what does a social worker do?
CurrentlyI work as a behavioral consultant.
I work with childrenthat have intensive behavior issues.
So I go into the homes and I
look at what's goingon, and I come up with a
I assess, I evaluate,come up with a treatment plan, say,
(02:59):
this is how we're going to go after thisbug, keep all the data.
Teach peoplewhat to do and how to work with this child
and bring them to where they want to be.
Best case scenario.
The beauty
of social work to me,and what really attracted me is
it is such a wide,
(03:21):
wide variety of things you can do with it.
At first, people hear social worker
and they think of a lady with a clipboard,
you know, taking children offto foster care.
You know, it'sgot some real negative connotations.
And in an urban area,it has really negative connotations.
(03:41):
where I live and serve in my churchis an urban setting.
So it's like, you know,
it it does look a little odd,
and I realize that, and I just acknowledgeit and work through it.
But a social worker can do thatcan work for the
the county or whatever,and protect children in need.
(04:01):
A social worker can do so many things,work in a hospital,
helping people to find the resourcesthey need.
Get grandma into a facility.
Get some. Find a rehab.
Get finding servicesfor people in the disability area.
I can manage group homes.
I can help people find get the servicesthey need.
(04:23):
What government programsthey can and cannot get.
What?
What programs are appropriate for them?
You can work in a disaster
situation helping people to figure out,okay, a tornado took my house.
Now what do I do?
All right, well, let's get you this aid.
Let's let's plug in to this.
As well as the component of sittingwith the person.
(04:45):
And processing the difficulty.
You know, then my faith can come in if theif they're open to that, you know, and.
Well, why would God let you know a floodtake my entire house away?
Why would God do that?
You know, you can work at a hospitalwith dying children.
You can. It's just.
It's huge.
(05:06):
You can work in a academic setting,teaching or school counselor.
You can work with the police departmentin a helping
to get through their difficulties.
You can.
Come up with a mobileshower for homeless people.
It's what?
Wherever God calls you. So that.
(05:27):
That clinched it for me.
That wide variety.
I can do wherever the Lord sends me.
I'm equipped.
Okay. So. Wow.
That that's really helpful for mebecause it seems like
there's a lot more variety herethan what I thought, you know.
So that's. Yeah, that's really something.
(05:49):
So so you already mentionedsome of the pieces,
but if you want to add any more of likewhy did you choose this career
and then the, the piecethat I was really thinking about as like
feels like this would be a pretty hard jobsometimes, right?
There'ssurely there's easier things to do. Yeah.
So if you wanna speak into that.
It is. It's messy.
And and we'rewalking into messy situations.
(06:11):
But didn't Jesus do thatwhen he walked into this earth?
He walked into amessy, sin ruined situation.
So, you know, that kind of helps me,
to take that contextwhen I go into a house
that might be culturally
quite differentfrom what I'm accustomed to.
(06:32):
That, you know, hey, Jesus visited a sinsick world
and lived there for 33 years and boughtall of that for an hour, hour and a half.
I can sit here,you know, with various situations.
So, but a lot of it is the,the component of is the Lord putting me.
(06:53):
Here. Or have I put myself here?
That's important.That's an important piece.
I'm not just here because I want to goand help these people.
It's the Lord sending me there.
It feels like motive.
Or the intention behindit is a is a really important piece
that I keep hearing coming out with this.
(07:16):
Right.
I think it is.
And it is for me as a Christian.
And it's very much an outpouringof my faith for other social workers.
It might be just that, that thing in them,
that altruistic, I want to do good.
You know, I want to make a impacton this injustice or that unjustice.
You know, for me,my motivation is what would Jesus do?
(07:42):
Well you can get into that a bit more.
Go a little deeper with that.
How does your faith inform the workthat you're doing?
Which I'msure there's many areas of intersection,
but but again, I think there's, there iskind of a stigma around the social worker,
like you said, the person with the,you know, stern and the,
you know, the clipboard and things.
So there's all these stigmas.
And so when I heard,oh, you're a social worker.
(08:04):
Oh, that now that is interesting.
You know, I want to drill into that a bitbecause how does what you believe,
how does that informwhat you do on a daily basis. Yeah.
It does have an impactbecause of the outward testimony.
You know I obviously look differentthan the people
in the inner cityor the people that I serve.
And so I get some real,
(08:26):
real blunt questions.
You know, I work with kiddos right now,
or I work with adultsthat have intellectual disabilities.
And their questions are real blunt.
What's in your head? Yeah.
Okay.
You know, we've got to go here right now.
You know,
so, you know, I kind of have some answersand I just say, oh, there's a Bible verse
I really likethat makes me want to wear it.
(08:47):
That's enough for them.
If mom wants to ask me laterthat's her thing.
So you're working with fairlyyoung people.
You said.
At this time?
Most of my kiddos are like age 4 to 12.
Okay.
Most of my experience is with adultswith intellectual disabilities.
So then I've got a greater range.
And I still do that.
Like on a ministry level with those folks.
(09:12):
So that kind of
lays my foundation, like, okay,I go with the Bible.
That's my measuring stick.
That's where I go.
And then if they want to speak into that,fine.
If they want to ignore that, fine.
Then we go on to the next thing.
Something that really impacts
(09:32):
how my faith informsmy social work practice.
Could.
Probably be summed up in Matthewfive six and seven.
We have something called the social workstandards and ethics
that we have to certain competenciesthat we have to to go by.
They're all wrapped up in Matthewfive six and seven.
Conduct your life in a way of integrity,in a way of love,
(09:56):
in a way of looking at yourselffirst and pouring out to others.
There you have it.
You're doing social work.
so let's pivot slightly
and saydo you have challenges of balancing
what you believe your convictionswith the responsibilities of your job.
Like do those ever misalign.
And you have to kind of wrestlethrough that?
(10:18):
Yeah.
And that that would be what we callin the social work field ethical dilemmas.
Okay.
And but it happens to everybody.
It doesn't just happen to a conservativeAnabaptist out there.
It also will happen to maybe somebody
who's part of the LGBTQ community
(10:39):
that needs to serve somebody
who is got Trump signsall over their yard.
You know.
Yeah. You know. Okay.
So if you're a social worker, youyou're going to have to deal with that.
And the answer is the same as the answerswe see in the Bible
and in the sermon on the Mount.
Look in at yourself.
Know what you are.
Know where you arebefore you be pouring out on other people.
(11:03):
So that's how we're taught.
You need to be aware if you have racial
racial blind spots
in either direction, whether you'rea white person who has racial things there
or whether you're a, social workerwho is African American,
who feels really ripped offand has had it with the system well,
(11:26):
she can't be getting in the faceof the white principal she's working with.
You know about this. So.
So we have to temper that.
That's that's biblical.
Okay.
This is all the considerthe beam in your own eye.
You know
so a lot of the concepts
very much tie in to my faith.
(11:48):
And then the outpouringvery much. Service.
I mean, that's that'sjust plain a gospel fact.
There have there been timeswhen there was a real tension there that,
that if you're able to give like saya specific
example like okay, wow, here'sone of those ethical dilemmas.
And you had to walk through thatand try to find the
(12:09):
I'm not even sure what you would say the,the middle ground or some.
I almost don't like that word.
It feels like there'sthat's not quite the right thing
I'm going for,but I think you get what I'm saying.
Common ground. Yeah. There you go.
If I am sitting with somebodythat is from the LGTBQ community,
some might not
all, but some might come at meas like, you're against me.
(12:31):
You think I'm a sinner?
You know, it's like, technically,ain't we all?
You know,
I can relate to that person.
And part of it isbecause I've had an education.
It might give me a little bit more of athe liberal viewpoint
on some of that stuff.
But it's like, yeah,but if somebody is in adultery
(12:54):
or drunkard or whatever,I mean, it's all the same.
It doesn't matter whether it's theif you're waving a rainbow flag
or whether you're going to the baror whether you're beating up your wife.
It's all the same, sin is sin is sin.
I want to gowith what's common between you and me.
And let's focus on that.
(13:16):
What do you need from me?I need you to understand me.
I understand you're human.
We're good. Let's go.
Okay. So.
So that's the.
Would that be one of the fundamentalprinciples that you end up using.
Then this concept of common ground? Yeah.
You know, somebody, sayI would be a school counselor,
and I have a teenager coming in,and she's like,
I want an abortion,and I need you to help me get an abortion.
(13:39):
I can't, you know, I can't do that.
You know, so I can refer her to somebody.
Okay.
Well I know of a place that showsyou all your options.
Check that place out.
Okay. See.
So that that gets a little more downinto like a real tangible situation.
Right. That,that could get messy really quick.
(14:00):
We’re quizzed on that stuff.
So what I wasn't sureif there are certain limitations
on what you're allowed to do.
Like like why I'm sure there arecertain there's parameters.
The way you just described it.
Oh, okay. I can see that.That makes sense.
You know.
Yeah.
If a same sex couple comes to meand says I need marriage counseling.
You know, I can assesswhat their issues are in general
(14:24):
and then I can say, hey,you know Sally over there,
she really understands your communityand your context.
I think she's a better choice for you.
That does make a lot of sense
because wow I can still imagine
tension being a possible thing.
(14:44):
Well actually probably quite a lotin a lot of different ways.
Right.
But then again, perhaps I'mlooking at this
a bit wrong, when in realitywe all face this to one extent or another.
Anytime you interact with society.
You know, obviously you experienced it
in one way as a social worker,but maybe all of us do.
I we interviewed.
I'm just thinking, off the top of my headinterviewed my dad, actually, about,
(15:07):
his business stories and things like thatand how standing up for,
you know, what was ethical, what was right
and how was like
sometimes that really cost, you know,and it was trying to find, again,
you know, kind of common ground like, wow,I can't really do that because that's
that's not right, you know,
and sometimes that the stories don'talways end amazing.
You know, sometimes there's a real costto standing up for something, right? But,
(15:28):
and so maybe
some of what you're facingin these scenarios
that we're talking through is actually,something all of us face
in one way or another is that you think,you know, respond to that.
And just our view of of humankind.
How do we ministerand how do we relate to people.
Now like I said, I'm in an urban
setting in my churchand our focus is serving that community,
(15:52):
almost that neighborhood in the,in a city.
You know, your neighborhood is like aboutabout the block
around you, you know,and of course, everything's upward.
So there's, you know, 3or 4 stories of families.
But that's your little community.
And you come across all kinds.
(16:15):
But we need to
just do that on a community basis
and then it just gets bigger. Okay.
So then we look at the whole cityand how our church will then
hopefully impact the city which will
hopefully impact societywhich hopefully will impact eternity.
You know so we're kind of
starting with the neighborhoodand making a spiral around.
(16:38):
And that's one of the beauties of,of being in the city.
Is that we are coming
across folksthat are fresh out of jail and homeless.
And I mean that's who we serve.
That's our concentrationfor our congregation.
That's where the Lord has calledour congregation is with the homeless and,
(16:58):
and those who don't have the servicesthat they need.
So my social work has been really workinghand in hand with
with my church's vision.
I think that's another partbut and maybe you can speak to that
as well as how, what your work is doing,how that interfaces with say
(17:20):
the different ministries that a churchmay do in this environment, say.
Yeah.
Well our church,the building itself was given to us
by a congregation that had money and age
but did not have the membership to sustainwhat they had gotten going.
It's a huge building.
(17:40):
Old fashioned stained glass windows,the church bell, the whole nine yards.
They gave us the building, plus,
plus plus.
But one of the conditionswas that we continue their homeless meal.
It's what they called it.
We call it a community meal.
So you don't have to be homeless to bethere.
It's just anybody.
And so we serve I think at this pointit's has been pre-COVID.
(18:05):
We are nearly 100.
Now it's probably up to about 40 folks
that come in and we getwe feed them, but we don't.
We sit down and eat with them.
They don't go through a line with aa tray.
You know,we sit down, our families sit down,
they get to experience usand we get to experience them.
(18:26):
And that's our visionof impacting the community.
Wow. And we've had peoplethat come to church.
I think almost all of our community,people that have attended our church
came first to the community meal,to check these people out.
You know, hey, I get it.
You know, I totally get it.
(18:46):
So, youknow, that is kind of our way of serving.
So we're coming it upagainst people who just got out of jail
or have significant mental health
diagnosis and can't maintain an apartment,and they're homeless
and living under the bridgeor don't want to because they believe
the whole world's corrupt, who know,you know, all kinds of scenarios.
(19:08):
We see all kinds of stuff.
And so my,my social work practice has been able
to inform the other people in the church.
We have had people under various
mental conditions, or sobriety conditions
that want to come to a church service,and they might be disruptive.
(19:31):
How do we handle this? You know?
They're just kind of like Elizabeth.
Now, all the guys in my church have thecrisis intervention number on their phone.
Now they know the drill.
Somebody is out of hand.
You know, this is the number I call.
Now, We've had it happen where they'vehad to come in and escort the person out.
(19:52):
We now have
different
plans in place for people that.
Really, all they want is our bathroom.
They're homeless.
They want to clean up.
They want to use our bathroom.
They have to sleep through churchso that they can use our bathroom.
Yeah. How do you handle that?
How do you handle your childrenseeing that?
(20:16):
How much do you wantyour children interacting with them?
You don't want themto be pulling away from it.
But is that person safe?
You know, all that stuff comes up.
And so I'm.
I'm really grateful for my social worktraining that I can,
you know, kind of stand in that gapa little bit, if that makes any sense.
(20:37):
So it's been a real blessing.
The Lord has just blessed itfrom all kinds of angles and made it
clear to me that's the path
that he wants me to serve him in.
Okay.
So I can imagine
that you have a number of stories
and experiences and things you know,from this type of work.
Is there one story in particular,perhaps, that you'd like to share with us
(21:00):
that kind of captures what you're doingand why you do it?
There's actually two hopefully I won't.
Sure.
The one story that has touched me
the most is from our own groups.
A group of churchpeople came together to say to each other,
we have a brother in our congregationwho is a quadriplegic.
(21:25):
He's 60 years oldand his parents are getting old.
What are we going to dowhen they cannot manage his care anymore?
What they ended up doing was coming up
with a multi church board,because we are in a larger area
and they came up with a
multi church board and built a housewell, added on to a house
(21:47):
and put up a group home for
conservative anabaptists with disabilitiesthat cannot be taken care of at home.
But a nursing home isn’t inappropriate.
They built this homethat is awesome and I was very privileged.
And again, it was a total God thing thathe landed me there to manage that home.
(22:10):
First, the Lord took me throughsome training at a place,
a very large ministry.
So I learned how to run a group home
and really went through some stuff,learning that.
And then it's like, that's why you had mego through that, Lord.
And so I had the privilege of managingthat group home for seven years,
watching the church interactwith with our residents.
(22:34):
We had three residentsinteracting as a church body.
I mean, you know, as conservativeanabaptists, we do that really well.
And they did. Oh, they did.
So that it was just
the church was workingwell and and it just wow, I loved
I loved it, and I'mstill very involved with the house,
(22:58):
but my
full time job is workingas the behavior consultant.
I go over to the group home,work weekends, or just hang out
with my dear ones. But I lived there.
I lived in an apartment above the housefor seven years and managed the home.
Yeah.
That's, that seems like such a snapshotof the body of Christ
coming togetherto, to to care for those in need, like.
(23:19):
Wow. Yeah.
That's amazing.
It was, it was is a God thing, you know?
So so it was just.
It just blessed my heart.
And because that was a basicallylike a church mission.
We weren't a licensed,and we only had three.
If you have four or more residents,you need to be a licensed facility.
(23:40):
So now as a social workerand as a licensed
social worker,I could have a licensed facility.
Oh. Which could be
I mean, it was much nicerto not have to deal
with all the paperwork, regulationsand licensure, but I knew the rules.
I could keep standard that House,you know, would have passed an inspection.
(24:03):
I knew what the regulations were.
I could keep that.
It was all, you know, absolutely.
You know, legal and on the up and up.
But if other groups, other states,I would know how
now, how to do thatand help other groups do that.
And I do work with,
Anabaptist Disabilities Networkand some different places
(24:26):
who have interest in that,this sort of, church outreach.
So that's,that's my probably my favorite story.
My other one, is what I see
in my congregation.
I just when I see
(24:46):
the men for lack of a betterI mean, the women do it too.
But you know, menlead out in relating to these folks
that are from the communityand dealing with these situations,
just from what they know in the Bible
and just what the Holy Spiritis doing in their hearts,
(25:06):
and the answers and responsesthat they are
giving to these peopleare the same things that we're learning.
That's thus and thus model.
Oh, that's this such a technique.
Oh, that was, you know.
But this is
just coming out of Christ in them.
And it's like, wow,
(25:26):
you know,they didn't have to be taught to do that.
You know,because they're open to learning.
You know,
I mean, yeah, none of them probably knew
what crisis intervention wasbefore we started our church.
You know, they're learning.
But yeah, it's just really touchingto see the church.
(25:48):
Work and.
We hear a lot of complaints aboutthe church this the church that, you know,
but I think it does us well to concentrate
on when the church is working well.
I think our ministersand our leaders deserve that.
Yeah I was just going to saythere are so many examples of that.
You know where you do see,you look around, you're like oh whoa.
(26:12):
That, that churchdid something really incredible there.
Really served its community and like madea difference in the local environment.
And people look at them like, wow,that's that's amazing.
You know.
And that feels like we're on such solid
historical footing, like, you know, thethe church's has has always done that.
You can
trace that thread, you know, all back backall the way to Jesus and the apostles.
(26:35):
And that's a beautiful legacy.
You know, and anyways,so that story you told about the
the home that you were involved in.
That'sthat's pretty spectacular, actually.
And, maybe there's someone listening,been like, like, hey, we should.
Yeah, we should think about doingsomething like that. Like,
how can we care for the people in thein these types of situations, you know.
(26:56):
And it can be switched into any situation,
you know, here in our area and,and other areas, there are,
kind of settings for people struggling
with crisises in their lifeor mental health issues
or family issues or,you know, things like that,
or they if they if the churchfeels led to have a homeless shelter.
(27:22):
How would they start doing that?
If our churches had more social workers?
We can help with that, you know?
So that was kind of somethingthat inspired me.
I feel like the church needs socialworkers,
and I think social work needs the church.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I think that isa pretty important piece
that this isn't somethingthat's happening in isolation.
(27:44):
Right.
Like this is interfacing closeor should be I guess you're saying,
interfacing very closelywith the local churches, you know?
Yeah.
as we bring this episode to a close,what's a piece of advice
or somethingyou'd like to leave the listeners?
Like I said, I, I feel thatthe church needs more social workers,
and I feel like, as general societydeclines and becomes more complicated,
(28:09):
we plain people aren't going
to enjoy the wide margins that we havefrom the government.
You know, right nowthey leave us school our own. Or.
Have births at home or whatever.
They kinda, you know,we get a lot of awful lot of privilege.
Actually, I think we're probably,as a Mennonite woman, I think
I'm probably about the most privileged,
(28:30):
you know, segment of societythat there is.
There's people open doorsand hand me their babies and walk away.
You know, it's just like,you know, It's awesome.
But, you know,I can see how that could decline.
Very rapidly.
And, you know, so now I'm gettinga little intellectual here, but
I just feel like as a church,
(28:52):
we need to be able to handle that.
And I so I think
my part of being a social workercould help that.
And all those who are out therewho are paramedics or doctors.
Or. Mamas raising their babies,I mean we all are doing, you know,
(29:12):
like we can all contribute to thatif we're wise,
you know, and think about the churchand how we as a church can impact,
you know, like I was saying before about,
you know, community go wider,
you know, society go wider,
eternity,you know, just keep opening up that lens
(29:35):
and letting letting your impactor letting Christ,
Christ, in you, impact.
This has been fascinating.
I, I hope this episode has encouragedpeople to have a better understanding
of this type of workand also encourage people to say, oh,
you know, let's think creatively.
Like how, how could our church, you know,get involved in, in society around us.
(29:57):
You know, like you said, start a homelessshelter or, you know, help
this person in this particular situation,whatever that might be.
There's lots and lots of options. Yeah.
We do community well. Yeah.
You know like you said historicallyI mean that's what we do.
Well. So let's give Christ
while we're doing that.
Let's make sure peopleare taking Christ with them.
(30:18):
Not shoo fly pie you knowand yeah barn raising.
So you know those are great things.
Those are valid things.
But let's give them Christ.
Yeah.
That's it.
That's that'ssome powerful pieces to leave us with.
Well Elizabeth, thanks for taking the timeto come on and share with us today.
I really appreciate this.
(30:39):
Thanks for listening to this episodewith Elizabeth.
There's much more to her storythat we weren't able to cover, but you can
find that whole story of how she wentfrom being Roman Catholic to the Amish
and then on to the Mennonitesin the episode linked down below.
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