Supernatural business plan aims to lift felons nationwide
By
Steve Rees, Special to the ASSIST News Service
LONGMONT, CO (ANS –
Dec. 8, 2015) -- From childhood Jane Northrup knew she was going to
serve the Lord in a significant way. An evangelist who reached millions with the
Gospel or a pastor who led a large congregation never dominated her thoughts,
yet she knew in her spirit that there was something great and unknown in her
future – God's prophetic plan.
There
were glimpses of God's call on Northrup's life throughout her young adult years
in college and after graduation with a teaching degree. While working for an
executive employment recruiter in 2005, Northrup heard the Lord say, “I want you
to help young people find and keep jobs by teaching workshops.” It wasn't the
first time she'd heard the still, small voice of the Lord within, but this time
his words were clear and precise.
So,
in obedience to the Lord's directive, Northrup developed a program for high
school students at a private Christian school, where she enjoyed a measure of
success teaching job-seeking skills. She penned a workbook for students
attending the workshops but, over time, found herself less than fulfilled with
the assignment and doubting God's call to it, even with her success.
Still
the Lord continued to lead Northrup on her journey to doing something big for
him, and she realized his instructions were frequent and ponderous.
About
the same time of her fatigue with teaching workshops, and to Northrup's dismay,
she heard the Lord say, “You left me out the workbook and, besides, I want you
to go to Nineveh.”
“I'm
like, are you kidding, God? That's like going to jail, right? If this is really
you, God, I'll do it but you've got to open a door and, if you do, you're going
to have to push me through it,” Northrup recalls.
Remembering
God's specific instructions, Northrup revised her workbook, supporting its
job-seeking content with corresponding Bible verses, while selling advertising
for a monthly newspaper in Fort Collins, Colo.
Confident
in her writing skills, Northrup asked the newspaper publisher if she could write
a column about job-seeking tips for readers.
“The
day the column was published a woman whose son served time for aggravated
robbery called and asked me if I could help him find a job,” says Northrup, who
knew of an opening at a local car wash and detail shop.
“Sitting
on his front porch, I told him there were two conditions to my offer of
assistance: First he would have to thank his creator for the job and, secondly,
if the owner of the car wash saw the color of his boxers, it was over,” Northrup
says, laughing.
The
young man's probation officer was so impressed with Northrup's success in
finding employment for the department's “most difficult offender” that a group
of 10 officers asked her to assist the offender's accomplice and others land
jobs after serving time.
Today,
10 years after her call to “Nineveh,” Northrup is seeing God's prophetic plan
unfold before her spiritual and physical eyes, and remembering the good and bad
times she's walked through.
Along
the way, she's experienced supernatural visions, received a word of knowledge
that she is in fact a pastor, and listened to a Spirit-filled, Bible school
student tell her, “There's nothing you can do to escape from God's call on your
life.”
There
have been times in the valley, too. Northrup describes it as spiritual “boot
camp” that has, at times, produced tears of repentance, emotional and physical
exasperation, financial brokenness, and times of doubt about her ability to
discern the Holy Spirit's leading.
It's
a destination Northrup never imagined as a young girl eager to serve the God she
loves.
Providentially
on Dec 1, Northrup opened Authority Staffing in Colorado, the first of its kind
for-profit employment agency in the nation, specifically created to provide job
opportunities for convicted felons. She started with three eager employees.
Since
then, Authority Staffing added four more employees to the main branch's payroll
and Northrup is looking to hire two more managers for outlying offices where,
she believes, there is both need and opportunity. Her managers, like regular
employees, must be convicted felons as a condition of their employment because
of Authority Staffing's mandate from God.
Incredulous
to prison ministry workers who say recidivism among and opposition to convicted
felons are usually impossible hurdles for former inmates to overcome, Northrup
placed three of her employees - all former inmates - with a major company on
Authority Staffing's opening day.
“I'm on fire for
the Lord as never before,” says Northrup. “He is so amazing. I'm humbled that
after so many years of seeking – and sometimes failing in my pursuit of - the
Lord that he's brought me to this place of making a real difference in the lives
of felons.”
Northrup's
first big client, a yoghurt production and distribution center in Colorado, was
not only impressed with Authority Staffing's employees; the human resources
manager says he appreciates Northrup's outspoken Christian beliefs and her high
standards. Her business card bears the image of men erecting a cross – based on
Matthew 28:18 – and the words of Isaiah 61, referring to captives and
prisoners.
“I'm
not going to give my clients horrible employees. I want to give them the best,”
says Northrup, a forty-something single mother of two who, in addition to her
biological children, is spiritually “mothering” two employees. Homeless and
without transportation, the two are worth the extra effort, Northrup says,
because they have potential to be her best workers – if not leaders at the
company.
The
third employee is a man in his 40s who turned his life fully over to the Lord
Jesus Christ during his incarceration and, as a free man, is demonstrating
growth and maturity in leading Northrup's younger employees during the work
day.
Northrup
prays with her employees, coaches their success, prepares lunch boxes with Bible
verses inside and constantly reminds them that they have delegated authority
from the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18) to resist their former ways of life,
and instead heed God's spiritual and workplace authorities.
“I
am literally God's vessel,” Northrup says. “It's unbelievable the little
glimpses he gives me of what Authority Staffing is going to become.”
In
2012, when Northrup was still acquiring prophetic insights about her business
plan through visions, prophetic words and Bible verses that seemed to jump off
of the pages, one vision loomed over all other spiritual experiences.
“I
saw in the vision that this concept of hiring hard-working, Bible-believing
felons as temporary employees for outsourcing to bigger companies is going to be
recognized by state (Colorado) officials.
“From
here, it's going to spread like wildfire to every state in the nation and it's
going to change people’s lives,” Northrup says, hinting at a puzzle piece she
still doesn't understand. “It's going to be like the 'underground
railroad.'“
At
least one former prison ministry worker believes Northrup's grand vision is from
God, and he prays for its success.
“I
think she's onto something big with her business model, vetting employees with
felony convictions as stringently as she does, and by providing a Christian
influence for people who want to turn their lives around through hard work,”
says Ron Mallett, who has written extensively on the topic of cooperation
between faith-based ministries and government for The Denver Post.
“The
most fundamental cause of jail and prison growth can be traced back to that $100
word: recidivism,” says Mallett, a former prison minister.
“We're
told by authorities that the 'real' recidivism rate might be as high as 85
percent, in contrast to the official 67 percent because formal studies are based
primarily on surveys of people who are on parole – or times of best behavior,”
says Mallett.
Joblessness,
homelessness and lack of transportation all contribute to recidivism among
inmates as well.
Until
transportation and housing components are resolved for Northrup's first batch of
employees, she's willing to step up to the plate providing both.
“My
employees are hitting it out of the park for me every day, so I'm willing to
return the favor” says Northrup, adding others in prison ministry are helping
her explore other pieces of the transition from jail to society.
For
all Northrup's efforts, Authority Staffing's employees are grateful. They're
also hopeful that at some point they'll transition from temporary employees of
Authority Staffing to full-time workers with a slate of benefits, including
advancement opportunities. Northrup says that too is her goal.
“What
Authority Staffing and Jane have done for me is amazing, offering me both a hand
up and a renewed hope for my future without drugs and alcohol, as well as a
great job” says Anthony Padilla, 44, who is still living in a half-way house
while working to pay off fines before he can retrieve his car.
“I
was at the point where I believed the rest of my life would include a bottle in
my hand and no prospects but hard work, until I received the Lord Jesus Christ
and the Holy Spirit in prison. With Jane's (Northrup) support, I did the
impossible as a felon in landing a well-paying job that I really like,” Padilla
says.
Twenty-one-year-old
Gabriel McIntyre and his best friend Sarriah Brandsma, 22, say they are doing
better than ever before, employed and close to finding permanent housing after
five years on the streets and in jail. In the interim, living in Northrup's
small home isn't so bad because she treats them like they are her own, Brandsma
says.
“I'm
doing fantastic,” says McIntyre. “My work is hard but fun and my faith in God is
rising since I got saved in jail in August. I'm aware of how much God's s helped
me through Jane (Northrup) and Authority Staffing, and it seems that my life is
only getting better,” he says.
Brandsma
agrees. “It's crazy how things are getting better so quickly,” she says. “One
day we're living on the streets without my daughter, and now we've got
good-paying jobs with the hope of an apartment when we get our first
paychecks.
“God is amazing and Jane
(Northrup) is awesome for her assistance in helping us both get our eyes back on
Jesus,” says Brandsma, who grew up in a Christian home but became a
prodigal.
The
three are fulfillment of a vision Northrup had in 2011, four years before she
completed her business plan for Authority Staffing. Each employee – Brandsma,
Padilla and McIntyre – was handpicked by Northrup by the time she opened on Dec.
1.
“I
saw a landscape, a field if you will. It had no mountains, trees, flowers, grass
or anything like that. Rather, it was filled like a sardine can with angry men.
Their arms were up in the air and at their feet were little boys curled up in
fetal positions.
“As
I looked at the scene, I heard the Lord say, 'Go get them for me.'“
Northrup
now knows that God's redemption of people includes angry, broken felons who he
intends to transform into mighty warriors for Christ and, in her words, the best
workers in the world.
Photo
captions: 1) Jane Northrup. 2) This say it all about this work. 3) Logo. 4)
Steve Rees.
About the
writer: Steve Rees is freelance Christian journalist who loves the church and
writes about how it engages the culture and works toward fulfilling the Great
Commission. He lives in Longmont, Colo. and attends Resurrection Fellowship, a
nondenominational, missions-driven church that honors all the gifts of the Holy
Spirit and the five-fold ministry offices. The church is in Loveland, Colo. Rees
formerly worked as a newspaper reporter and was among the first journalists who
wrote about Promise Keepers before it spread nationwide from Boulder, Colo. He
can be contacted by e-mail at steverees@peoplepc.com
**
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