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(Note: These are prepared remarks by The Rev. Maria A. Scates for the baccalaureate service held Saturday, May 14, in Memorial Chapel. The reverend is CEO and founder of Johnson Park Center, Utica, N.Y.)

First giving honor to God the Creator, to the various walks of faith that are represented here today, and on behalf of the Johnson Park Center, we thank you and are so grateful to the �°IJʿ������ president, members of the Board of Trustees, �°IJʿ������ faculty and staff, and friends, for extending this great opportunity to share about the wonderful things that the Lord is doing in Johnson Park.
It is an equally great honor to have been selected as an honorary degree recipient.

And to the 2011 �°IJʿ������ graduates, Congratulations!!

This is a great privilege to have been selected to give expressions of blessings and good wishes for your outstanding achievement of graduating from �°IJʿ������. Over the years, many �°IJʿ������ students have come to JPC and served as tutors, interns, and volunteers. Your contribution of volunteer service and giving of yourself has made, and continues to make, a big difference in our program participants’ lives, especially the children, and supports the revitalization of the Johnson Park-Cornhill community.

Once again thank you, for giving Johnson Park Center, and yours truly, the great honor to be at �°IJʿ������’s 190th commencement weekend and at this baccalaureate service to share God’s word: a word to strengthen and encourage you so you can go forth and enter this new phase and achieve your life goals, being empowered to bring positive change.

We will be considering God’s Strategic Plan for Positive Change.

It is and has always been that God had and has a plan for positive change for His people. The reading is out of the Holy Bible, New Living Translation,
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

To the 2011 �°IJʿ������ graduates, the Lord wants you to know today that He knows you personally. He has plans to prosper you and not to harm you. The Lord has plans that will allow you to find your hope and your future in Him. The Lord has an action plan with the intended goal or objective for you to be the agent of positive change that will transform not only your life but includes the people, places, and things that are a part of your life experience.

The Free Dictionary defines the following words:

Strategic
1. Important or essential in relation to a plan of action;
2. Highly important to an intended objective.
Plan
1. A scheme, program, or method worked out beforehand for the accomplishment of an objective;
2. A proposed or tentative project or course of action.
Positive
1. Characterized by or displaying certainty, acceptance, or affirmation;
2. Measured or moving forward or in a direction of increase and progress.
Change
1. To cause to be different;
2. To give a completely different form or appearance to, to transform.
Now, let us take a closer look at the four main points in Jeremiah 29:11, which are the key elements of God’s Strategic Plan for Positive Change.
The scripture states: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
1. The Lord declares, “For I”
• He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and Ruler of everything.
• He is Jehovah, Jireh, our provider.
2. “Plans to prosper you”
• A plan of peace, accord, agreement, unity, and understanding.
• A plan to prosper you to be successful spiritually, physically, and mentally, to thrive and to flourish.
• A plan for your welfare. The Lord is concerned and cares for your well being and your health.
3. “Plans not to harm you”
• A plan of no harm or evil.
• A plan that no calamity will overtake you.
4. “Plans to give you hope and a future”
• A plan of hope, desire, expectation, trust, confidence, reliance, reassurance, and promise.
• A plan of a future and an expected end with you being agent of positive change.

For God’s Strategic Plan for Positive Change to be real in your life you must have vision, dedication, commitment, and hard work. Today I am here to encourage you to write down the vision and the instructions that the Lord gives you.

As stated in the New King James Version of the Holy Bible Habakkuk 2:2-3

2:2 – “Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.”
2:3 – “For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. 

Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.”

The Free Dictionary defines “vision” as
1. The act or power of sensing with the eyes and with sight;
2. The act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be often under the influence of the Divine.

Before the foundations of the world, the Lord knew that each and every one of us would be here at �°IJʿ������ at this Commencement Weekend together in this beautiful Memorial Chapel. The promises of God are true. The Lord wants each of you to be an agent of positive change. And how does this happen?

For the foundation for positive change to work in your life, you must: be (A) Accountable for your actions, (B) set clear Boundaries, (C) be Committed and available, and — recently we added — (D) stand firm in the Decision to be a person who brings positive change.

To further explain I give an example from my own life, how the Lord prepares us to be a part of God’s Strategic Plan for Positive Change.

I am the daughter of a Baptist preacher/pastor, had employment that paid for me to travel throughout the United States, I served in the military as an Army recruiter, and I worked for the federal government. My goal was to work hard, to make a lot of money, and to buy a home on the waterfront in Virginia Beach, and praise the Lord with my good government job for the rest of my life.
When a government promotion/transfer became available, my father tried to convince me not to take the promotion, because the transfer was to New York City where the cost of living is so much higher than in Virginia. The pay increase would amount to less than what I was making because of the increased cost-of-living expenses. My father was also concerned about the dangers of living in New York City (especially in Harlem) and he did not want anything to happen to me.

But the Lord gave me this scripture in Deuteronomy 1:8 in the King James Version, which says: “Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land.”

Yes, what my father said to me was right. But the Lord revealed through series of circumstances — to include leaving the government job, being homeless and living on the streets, sleeping in abandoned buildings and couch surfing — the Lord reminded me of His promise in the Bible (Jeremiah 29:11): “He had a plan to prosper my life and not to harm me, He had a plan to give me hope and a future.”

And the Lord wants you to be strengthened and encouraged that He has a plan for you as well.

The Lord showed me what He meant by possessing the land. It happened when I went to a Thanksgiving program, thinking that I was going to meet the pastor to have my first exclusive listing to sell her buildings. Instead the Lord opened my eyes to see. I went into the church that was full of street people, the homeless, the poor and needy, and my heart was moved with compassion. I began to cry, and then I realized that I was there for a purpose greater than selling and buying buildings and land, or even finding a place for me to stay and live. It was about making a commitment to help others to find a home, to change their attitudes and to change their lives. That day I realized that there was something much more important to me than anything I had ever thought — and that was helping people to better their lives. From that day on, through vision, dedication, commitment and an incredible amount of hard work — and being a part of God’s Strategic Plan — positive change has taken place through changing properties, changing neighborhoods, changing attitudes, and most importantly changing lives.

Since 1985, yours truly has served as a full-time volunteer, not receiving any salary, to help the poor and needy, the less, the last, and the lost. The Lord gave me the privilege to help start and operate a shelter in Harlem, New York, for homeless men in a church basement, and we served as well at-risk women and children living in substandard housing. Homeless women with children asked if we could create a shelter and affordable, safe, and supportive housing programs for them.

In 1987, the Lord gave the vision and had me to write out the plans for the non-profit organization named the Holistic Outreach, to address the needs of homeless women and children. After that, I attended Biblical studies for three years, was ordained, went to Jamaica (the Island) for two years, and for one year to Russia (the country) to establish mission schools. In both places, we witnessed revitalization in communities, improvements in people’s homes and living conditions, and changed lives.

And then in September 1995, upon returning to New York from Russia, I asked people what was the worst area in the city of Utica. Everyone said Cornhill. It was known for drugs, crime and violence, murder; it was full of garbage, trash, and racial strife. So that’s where we decided to go. Eight years later the nonprofit organization and its mission became a reality in Utica with a new DBA called the Johnson Park Center — which also stands for Join Positive Change (JPC).

I still remember the first time being in Johnson Park. I saw the neighborhood as being beautiful. I had a vision of positive change for this community — that it would be beautiful, clean and safe. I went right to work with the cleanup of 26 Johnson Park, which is now our headquarters building, and by picking up the trash in the whole neighborhood. People would ask, especially the children, why are you doing this, when it is the city’s responsibility? I would share with them that this is the area where we live, this is our community and we have a responsibility to clean it up and take care of it.

Take a walk around Johnson Park today, and you will be able to see the positive change. From our humble beginnings, with the Lord speaking through our president of the JPC Board of Directors, Robert Polivka, with his wife, Wendy, in agreement in 1994, by sharing the great need for positive change in Utica. The Polivkas allowed me to stay in their home after I returned from Russia until we moved to Utica, because I was homeless with no home to go to.

In 1997, the Lord sent a Utica School District teacher, Ms. Nancy Wolfe, to our Lord Jesus Christ Tabernacle of David Church (JCTOD). When she saw some of her most troubled youth engaged in our youth programs, she started volunteering and is still actively involved with JPC.

The Lord added the Rev. Ursula Meier, a missionary from Switzerland, in 1998 to serve as the chief operations officer who is able to see and run with the vision. She is the founder of the Seed of Hope 12-Step Support Group ministry.

And the Lord sent Mr. and Mrs. Gerald and Karen Davis to assist with the Seed of Hope, JCTOD, and JPC. And I extend a very special thanks to Ms. Georgia Frank, who nominated me to be recognized as a part of this wonderful 2011 Commencement Weekend.

There are so many more people that helped to cause the vision to flourish, such as the JPC board of directors, staff, volunteers, program participants, and community residents, who I could name but due to time constraint I will not.

With much support, JPC developed a comprehensive strategy to effectively serve the community.

1. We have renovated 19 properties in Johnson Park with 23 housing units currently in operation. We will create eight more units for a total of 31 units in the Johnson Park Apartments low-income safe and supportive housing program called JPA. The program is for homeless mothers and their children and for chronically homeless single women without children who have special needs. Renovations of the new eight apartments will start in the summer of 2011 and the units will be Green LEED certified.

2. JPC started Oneida County’s first family shelter with 18 beds where traditional and non-traditional low-income, homeless families can stay together during a crisis, regardless of their composition.

3. We have the JPC Youth Program – Drop-In Enrichment Center, with a playground and basketball court that offerswholesome recreational and educational activities for neighborhood youth that provide the necessary discipline to enable youth to strive and achieve positive life goals.

4. The youth center offers leadership development training for youths age 9 to 14. The Youth Voice Initiative encourages and trains young people to speak up and be leaders and positive role models. The Youth Voice Initiative encourages other youth not to use tobacco, illegal drugs, or alcohol and to resist crime and youth violence.

5. Food/nutrition programs for youth, families and seniors are helping stop hunger and food insecurity in the inner city and provide the next step to self-sufficiency. The youth center served over 12,000 nutritious meals to children and adults each year.

6. At the JPC Food Pantry we average 180 families per month, handing out staple food for three days. Yearly, we sponsor a large free food give-a-way event in July with approximately 400 households present to receive additional food to ease the pain of poverty.

7. The JPC children and adults learn how to grow fruits and vegetables at the JPC Let’s Grow Community Garden, which has its annual garden wake up and harvest festival to top of the season. All participants can take home fresh vegetables and various teaching components are integrated to coach healthy eating habits.

8. We provide transportation services for youth and families.

9. We provide ongoing advocacy, mentoring/life coaching, and focus and support groups, for Cornhill community residents.

10. An on-site family specialist program reaches out to strengthen families, build home-living skills, and prevent family violence and neglect.

11. JPC played a key role in the revitalization of Johnson Park itself, and is an anchor for the Cornhill neighborhood. JPC has secured millions of dollars in grants from public and private sources, as well as in-kind support for its various projects. The agency has created strong partnerships with a wide range of government agencies, banks, foundations, and non-profit agencies to implement its community-based services and community development programs.

12. Parallel to the not-for-profit work, JCTOD Church was incorporated as the Lord Jesus Christ Tabernacle of David, Inc. with Seed of Hope Ministry as an Outreach Program.
All of the programs of JPC are long-term and will run continually on an annual basis.

Please remember 2011 �°IJʿ������ graduates: God’s Strategic Plan for Positive Change!

For this to be real in your life you must have: vision, dedication, commitment, and hard work. For the foundation of positive change to work in and through your life, you must (A) be accountable for your action, (B) set clear boundaries, (C) be committed and available, and (D) stand firm in the decision to be a person who brings positive change.

As I shared with you earlier, my goal was to work hard, to make a lot of money, to buy a home on the waterfront, and praise the Lord with my good government job for the rest of my life. Instead, I became homeless and have worked as a full-time volunteer.

The Lord touched the heart of the professional hockey player Mr. Rob Esche and his Save of the Day Foundation — along with an anonymous supporter, plus Mr. Chuck Tomaselli of CLT Architects and Mr. Jim Potrzeba serving as the contractor coordinator.

Together they raised the funds, and received donations and in-kind services through businesses and construction contractors and individual supporters. In August 2010, the contractors started to build a brand new home for me and for Rev. Meier.

God’s plan is perfect, as we will move into a beautiful, brand new, furnished home. What else can we say? Let us believe God’s Word.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Amen.