Haven on the Farm
Crazy Faith and God’s Provision
It was the summer of 1955, and 11-year-old Vurnice was hot, miserable, and tired in every way. Taking a momentary break from chopping cotton, she leaned against her long-handled hoe and whispered a prayer of desperation.
“God, if you get me out of this field, I’ll serve You all the days of my life.”
All these years later, Vurnice Maloney knows only God could have orchestrated the details that led her from a sharecropper’s farm in Mississippi to the south suburbs of Chicago. She’s never forgotten her adolescent prayer, God’s compassionate answer, or her promise to faithfully serve Him.
And serve Him she has.
Whether it was while enduring hatred as the only black nurse in a suburban hospital during the Civil Rights Movement or rising through the ranks to become a top administrator for a mental health institution, she has consistently trusted God to be her Provider, Protector, and Guide.
Vurnice’s children often laugh about her “crazy faith” that has repeatedly led her to take wild and unconventional steps to obey God’s calling.
Love in Crisis
It was that “crazy faith” that led Vurnice and her mother to give up everything in 1995 to purchase a remote Illinois farm and establish the Garden of Prayer Youth Center. Together, they’ve poured their sweat, tears, and investments into a place where they show Christ’s love to teens in crisis.
Today, Garden of Prayer Youth Center offers group homes, residential services and comprehensive emergency foster care services to ensure a safe haven for children and youth in need. The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) often brings the toughest cases to Vurnice and her staff, knowing these kids who no one else wants will be welcomed with love and outstanding care.
Under Vurnice’s leadership, the Garden of Prayer Youth Center has received both the Illinois Governor’s Hometown Award and the Governor’s Cup Award. She has also been named Kankakee County’s “Woman of the Year” and recognized by the Illinois House of Representatives.
“I Will Sustain You”
Now in her 80s, Vurnice is acutely aware that her stamina and physical abilities are not what they once were. And yet, she says, God continues to challenge her. She recalls a passage through which God has spoken to her.
“Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” Isaiah 46:4
She remembers with a laugh, “When He gave me that, I said, ‘Ok God, I appreciate that. That’s very encouraging. Now who’s going to help me?’”.
Last year, she found herself completely overwhelmed by the care of three teenage boys who were delivered directly from a detention center to her group home in handcuffs. Drug addicted, violent, and prone to running away, they constantly found new ways to frustrate Vurnice and the rest of the staff.
“I prayed, ‘God just take them,’” she recalls. “‘I’ve got to get these boys out of here.’ And God’s response? ‘Nope, these are YOUR boys. This is the type of kids you built this program for.’”
Vurnice explains how the “worst” of the three boys was so deeply addicted to drugs and alcohol that the staff had to hide hand sanitizer bottles or else he would drink them.
“He’d say to me, ‘Mrs. Maloney, I can’t help it,’” she recalls. “‘My mom started me on all this when I was 10.”
“I heard the Lord say to me, ‘He’s going to be a leader.’ And so, I shared with him, ‘God’s got a calling on your life. You are going to overcome this.’”
With a team of volunteers, Vurnice went to work writing a new drug prevention and recovery curriculum for the group home. She implemented new policies and protocols to address the boys’ physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.
“Wouldn’t you know it?” she reports with a smile. “Those three musketeers, they all got saved! They got baptized!”
She continues, “The one boy, the leader, has been in a rehabilitation program. He called me the other day, so excited. He said, ‘Mrs. Maloney, I’m clean! Four months!’ All I can say is, ‘Thank you, God!’”
The Joy of Generosity
Whether it’s through her time, energy or financial resources, Vurnice says generosity is a lifestyle that comes naturally.
“To me, it’s just a way of life when you accept Christ as your Savior,” she says. “Look at what Jesus did. Everywhere He went, He gave of Himself, He gave of His power. He could have been a king with all the accolades, but He didn’t.”
“Not only that, but he kept in touch with the Father,” she continues. “And when He would return from the mountain from praying, what did He do? He ministered to the needs of the people.”
Vurnice says it’s a joy to be generous and to live out the promise she made in the middle of that Mississippi cotton field.
“When God calls you, He prepares you. He protects you. He will make provisions.”
She looks back with gratitude and moves forward with crazy faith to wherever the Lord might lead her.
Heather Day
Heather M. Day is an author and communication specialist with more than 20 years of experience in the fields of marketing and nonprofit ministry. She is the author of Money and Spirit: Surrendering Our Finances to the Work of the Holy Spirit and the director of marketing for Barnabas Foundation, where she provides resources and consultation to more than 200 Christian ministries. Heather blogs regularly about life, motherhood, marriage, and faith-led leadership at HeatherDay.net.