Arlene Miller, director of Impact Ministry in Hopkinsville, received the Dellanna West O’Brien Award for Women’s Leadership Development during the recent national WMU Missions Celebration in Columbus, Ohio. The award was presented to Arlene in the Sunday evening session on June 14.
The O’Brien Award is given annually through a nomination process. I have been acquainted with Arlene for most of my 15 plus years in Kentucky and counted it a privilege to nominate her for the award. Arlene exemplifies absolute dedication to ministry and helping women spiritually and with practical life issues. I was joined in making the nomination by others who provided endorsement letters. We recommended Arlene because she is a leader in ministries that touch women and families. She is active in WMU leadership in her association, directs Impact Ministry in Christian County Baptist Association, and is the Co-coordinator of Christian Women’s Job Corps (CWJC) in Hopkinsville, KY. She is involved with Mississippi River Ministry and is a member of the Kentucky WMU Leadership Network. I have observed Arlene in her ministry site as well as a participant in state WMU events. She is totally committed to missions and goes above and beyond to make things happen. Her ministries have received grants from the Eliza Broadus Offering almost every year and it is always exciting to read of what is happening through Impact Ministry and CWJC. Arlene has participated in missions in Haiti, Poland, and Greece. She has been involved in Eastern Kentucky through a quilt ministry and led others to join her on mission trips.
Arlene is a native of Kentucky, mother of three, and grandmother of five. She is a retired nurse (LPN) and a widow since 1995. Arlene was saved at age 12 in a small country church. She has been in church most of her life but did not get involved in WMU until 1974 because previous churches did not have WMU. Arlene began teaching Acteens and thought that teaching teenage girls to love missions was her life’s calling. She taught Acteens for 27 years and at the same time was the teacher for the youth Training Union class on Sunday nights. She says that even though the church did not have a group for teenage boys, the boys still received missions education because she would use missions stories along with the Training Union materials. The boys helped with many of the Acteens missions projects.
In 1994, Arlene was part of the start-up of Impact Ministry by Christian County Baptist Association. She became director of the program in 1996. In 2004 she attended CWJC training and began that ministry in connection with Impact in 2005. Both ministries are housed in the same building in downtown Hopkinsville. As director of Impact Ministry, Arlene leads a teach of volunteers who are mostly women. She inspires commitment to the ministry and helps them develop in their roles. As co-coordinator of Christian Women’s Job Corps, Arlene helps women develop life skills and helps them develop spiritually. She helps women get their GED so that they can get a job. She has Bible study and teaches other skills like cooking and sewing. Arlene is also very good with children and is a wonderful role model to mothers who come into Impact Ministry or CWJC.
Jo Pelham, WMU Director for Christian County Baptist Association, provided an overview of Impact in her endorsement: “The ministry is open for two hours on three days of the week. Impact Ministry depends strictly on the churches giving donations and many volunteers helping each week. No customer receives help without FIRST going through spiritual counseling – the counselors are also volunteers. Arlene coordinates all this work. Impact serves about two hundred people each month; this is about four to five hundred family members. Since the beginning of this ministry, an estimate of fifteen people a year receive Christ into their lives. Also Tiny Tots Diaper Ministry was started a few years ago and a new baby gift package is given to each pregnant woman who comes to Impact for help.”
Arlene is a member of New Palestine Baptist Church in Crofton, Kentucky. In 2001 she was approved as a MSC Missionary of the North American Mission Board. She continues to be recognized as a Kentucky missionary and now also serves as the West Kentucky Missions Mobilization Consultant to recruit and encourage other Kentucky MSC missionaries.
Please pray for Arlene and these ministries. Go visit the ministry and take supplies to help. And give to the Eliza Broadus Offering to enable us to make many more grants to ministries across Kentucky.
Congratulations, Arlene, for receiving the 2015 Dellanna West O’Brien Women’s Leadership Development Award. We are Kentucky proud of you and all who serve with you.
