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The Woodlands UMC’s New Roots ministry helps women new to the area acclimate

By: Shelby Olive
| Published 08/29/2016

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THE WOODLANDS, Texas — In a mission to help those in need, the Women’s Ministry at The Woodlands United Methodist Church started New Roots, a group that serves women new to The Woodlands area and helps ease their transition and explore a new community.

The New Roots class is now entering its third year, and Dori Barber, Director of Women’s Ministry, said it started when they realized the amount of people who move to The Woodlands and how great their need is.

“During that time, it’s a tough transition, so we wanted a place for them to meet other women that were also going through that transition,” Barber said.

The class teaches from the book, “After the Boxes are Unpacked,” and brings in speakers from within the church to tell them about all the facets of involvement they can have in the congregation and the community. After the speakers finish, the women break into small groups based on their stages of life to discuss how what they heard applies to where they’re at, and then they’ll often go to lunch together in the church’s cafe.

“It’s a place where they can talk about the transition and the grieving that they’re doing as they miss their friends from wherever,” Barber said. “It’s really neat to see them help each other as they transition, because sometimes if you’ve lived here for a long time, you’ve forgotten what new people want to know.”

The book they use breaks the transition down into letting go, starting over and moving forward. Lisa Fenley, Traffic and Marketing Manager in The Woodlands UMC’s Creative Services department, said the program supplies women with the tools they need to make transitions easier on them. She said many people don’t see relocation as something that would take grieving.

“Unlike when somebody dies, you know that there’s a stage that you’re going to go through,” Fenley said. “A lot of women don’t see a move as something that you’re going to have to grieve, and you’re going to have to move on and put your roots down. I think that once they go through this program, they can take what they’ve learned here and apply it to their next move and hopefully not go through the pain that was involved and hopefully get them to adjust easier.”

Many of the women who go through the New Roots program become members and begin serving in the church. Barber said that one of her favorite parts of the class is seeing women step in and use their skill sets to meet the needs of the church.

“One of my favorite things about my job is matching up the church’s needs with members’ gifts,” Barber said. “Many times, I get to know the women as I work with them in New Roots. Then I can see their gifts, and a lot of times their gifts are very needed in the church, but they don’t know that. They don’t know where to use their gifts, and I think that meaningful work is a very important part of our lives, whether it’s being paid for that work or it’s not being paid. It makes me very happy to see women get involved and know that they are contributing.”

The group is open to any woman who is facing a tough transition, and women who go through the class have typically been living in the area anywhere from a few weeks to several years. Ultimately, the leaders of New Roots want these women to know that they are welcome and that there are people who understand they’re circumstances and want to walk with them through this difficult time.

“Christ walks with us. He wants to walk with us. As his church, we want to walk with people,” Barber said. “We want to help folks that are doing well do better. We want them to know the options. For some, it’s just this huge gift of a place to go and grieve. For others, it is a great place to go for people to use their gifts. I think it really goes with the church’s mission in terms of discipleship. Our final part of our mission statement is, ‘Help those in need.’ People in transition are in need.”

For more information about the New Roots ministry, visit The Woodlands United Methodist Church’s website at www.thewoodlandsumc.org/new-roots.

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