Home Staff Linda Jones

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Linda Jones
Public Relations Director & Volunteer Coordinator
Linda Jones was raised in a Navy family, one of 3 sisters with a Jewish mother and a Catholic stepfather. They settled in Connecticut when Linda was 15. Her parents didn't get along and fought constantly. She says, “My step-father was a nice guy but took very little interest in me. My mother worked and although she did her best we had little training. We moved every two years and I spent most of my life trying to fit in and be accepted.”

After High School she graduated from Syracuse Univ. where she met her husband. They married in 1971, and she began a career in the Insurance business. They had two sons, Eric, now married with two children living in MD and Brian, engaged and stationed in Germany with the Air Force. Unfortunately, her husband turned out to be an abusive alcoholic. She tried to keep her marriage together but lived with constant verbal abuse and later physical abuse. She says, “I wanted help but wanted more to believe his apologies and make my marriage work. It's hard to understand why women accept abuse until you've been there. When my sons were 7 and 4 I finally had enough and we divorced. I left the marriage feeling ugly, worthless, stupid and unwanted.” Although her family wanted her to move home to Ct., she was determined to stay in Virginia so her children would graduate from High School with the same friends they had gone to kindergarten with, something she had longed for in her own childhood. “If I couldn't give them a whole family with mother and father intact, at least I could give them some security.”

The next 18 years were hard. Her children in day care, she worked to support them, fighting to get child support from their father. Her life revolved around her sons, their activities became her social life. When her sons were with their father she went to bars with friends trying to meet someone to rescue her. She says, “I looked for love in all the wrong places. I was depressed and lonely. I got into debt, spending money on clothes and buying gifts so people would like me.” She was single for 18 years.

In 1987, one of Linda's co-workers was a Pastor's wife. They became friends. Linda says, “She radiated peace and contentment, something I longed for but didn't know how to get. My life was falling apart. I was tired of leaning on myself, doing it all alone. I felt I had no one who cared about me. The only thing that kept me from killing myself was I didn't want my sons to end up with their father. My self loathing was such that I felt worthless at not even having the courage to take my life. For several weeks I cried constantly. I could no longer function. Instinctively I went to my friend for help. She told me to give my troubles to God. I didn't know what that meant but I was willing to try.” She introduced Linda to another single woman who invited her to a church with a large singles ministry. She says, “I was insecure and shy but I went.”

Linda's first experience at the church was in a singles Sunday School class where she was given the job of "Greeter". She says, “It was the perfect job taking the focus off myself and reaching out to others. The people in that class became my family. For the first time in my life I felt accepted for who I was and not what I looked like.”

One Sunday as she sat next to a friend in church, she gazed at a stained glass window of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus, when the invitation was given and for the first time she knew what "giving it to God" meant. That Sunday she gave her life to Jesus and life began anew. She says, “I was still looking for Mr. Right but was starting to lean on God.” She got involved in a "Singles Coffeehouse" and remembers the first time she approached a man standing alone, sensing his loneliness. She had felt that way many times. “It was hard for me, because I rarely approached anyone without fearing rejection and had even left meetings early when so one spoke to me, but I got up my courage and welcomed him to the church. It was a new experience for me, reaching out to someone without wanting anything in return. It was a baby step in a long journey.”

Linda was involved in the singles ministry for 8 years, and gave her testimony for the first time in the church's "Singles Service". She says, “I was scared to death. I wrote out my testimony on cards, but started questioning my motives for giving the testimony. I prayed and asked Jesus for help and for Satan to leave me alone. I remember sitting in the church, my heart beating hard waiting for my turn. My name was called and I went to the podium with my knees shaking. As I stood there, an incredible peace came over me and I gave my testimony without once looking at my cards. I ended it saying, 'I spent my life saying I have so much to give, but no one wants it.' I found out something very important. God does and He wants you too.” She sat down to a standing ovation and after the service many single women came to her to tell her they had experienced the same things and her testimony gave them courage and hope. She gives God the glory for using her in that way. She says, “I had found my worth in Jesus.”

Linda decided that night if God wanted her to remain single it was OK. “As long as He could use me I would remain content in my singleness.” Shortly after that she met her husband, Jerry. She says, “When I stopped looking and gave it to Jesus, He gave me a wonderful Christian husband.”

Since that time, the Lord worked other miracles in her life. In 1996, she contacted her biological father who she had not seen since she was 4. “He said he had tried to find us 30 years before but didn't know my mother's new name or where to look” He had a sister in Newport News who he visited regularly and she met him a few months later. “It was a wonderfully healing time for him, and although I had felt I hadn't cared there was a lot of healing for me as well.” She has since met a new Aunt, two new sisters and is looking forward to meeting her brother in the future. Five years ago, she also met another sister and her family. Her mother called one day and told me about a child she had out of wedlock before and gave up for adoption. She had found her mother after looking for 30 years.

After 23 years in the Insurance business, she decided to change careers, but didn't know what to do. She had joined the Norfolk Kiwanis Club, and at one meeting they were giving out checks to various charities and she "happened" next to Rev. Ted Bashford, Director of Union Mission Ministries. Surprising herself, she asked him if he had any job openings. He told her to contact his daughter, Linda Vaughan. She called and Linda asked for her testimony. “Something I had never been asked for before in a job interview.” In 1997 she was hired as the Public Relations Director. She also serves the ministry as the Volunteer Coordinator, Camp Photographer, Newsletter Editor and “Whatever else the Lord calls me to do in this wonderful work. He had blessed me greatly.”

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