by Larry Alexander, Joshua 1:9 member
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” Joshua 1:9
Our mission statement: Inspired by God’s love for His children, we help stabilize fragile families and empower them to provide a better life for their children.
It all began at the 2013 PACN banquet, where a group of men were inspired hearing the testimony of a young woman facing an unplanned pregnancy. The faith, courage, and boldness she displayed moved us to want to help any way we could – the Joshua 1:9 (J19) Group was born. We are a Texas non-profit and have applied for our 501(c)3 with the IRS, focused on scholarship charity. We help the parents of children, born and unborn, achieve their education and employment goals in hopes of providing a better life for future generations. J19 has partnered with PACN to help young families avoid poverty – specifically new mothers and fathers typically 15 to 23 years in age.
What we do is a bit different than other scholarships. We’re awarding workforce training scholarships through Lone Star College from $500 to $2,000 that take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months for certification. This gives the young men and women the skills they need to gain employment sufficient to support their children, co-parent, and hopefully keep the family together; potentially avoiding welfare and poverty. For example: welding courses cost about $1,000 and can open the door to an in-demand career that pays more than $30,000/year at entry level. Similar course offerings exist for phlebotomists, EMTs, and many other good paying, high demand jobs. A recent service added to the J19 offerings is free professional financial services from our partner, Tina Araujo of Primerica Financial Services. This guidance helps our recipients save and budget wisely once they enter the workforce and manage their income for the needs of their family.
Partnering with PACN to identify candidates and get our organization up and running has been a blessing. Cindy Sunday Powell and her team do such amazing work every day and have been so supportive of us from day one.
“We are excited to partner with the Joshua 1:9 group to help our clients become contributing members of our community”, said Sunday Powell. “We are like-minded in that we want to help families stay together and for the parents to provide a better life for their children. This group is working hard to serve God and our community”.
The Joshua 1:9 verse tells us to be strong, don’t be afraid, for the Lord is with us. We feel that embodies the courage we see in our recipients and are proud to help these young people who are making such big decisions at an early age in their lives, committing to a better life for their children. We are very excited about this and grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord and help others! This kind of opportunity can drastically change a life. It could even help save lives!
Our first two recipients are enrolled in classes and doing great! We will soon host our first annual fundraiser and plan to offer more scholarships in the fall. We have spoken to numerous churches, Bible study groups, ministries, charitable organizations and businesses. We would be glad to speak to your group or send you information.
You can help us in three ways: through financial giving, prayer and by spreading the word. If you do choose to give go to: www.joshua1-9.org. It will take you to the PACN website donation page. Please remember to include “Scholarship Program” in the notes field per the instructions.
To learn more, to donate or to contact us, please visit our website: www.joshua1-9.org. You can also find us at: Facebook.com/JoshuaOne9Group or Twitter @JoshuaOne9Group.