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DALLAS (SMU) – When Janet Collinsworth started classes part-time in 2005 at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology, she told ethics professor Rebekah Miles, “I am here for the knowledge. I’m not going into ministry.”

“You might want to rethink that,” her professor advised.

Twenty years later, Janet is well into her ministry helping homeless women and their children toward self-sufficiency. The nonprofit she started in 2013 just broke ground on a multi-family village in Wylie, Texas, providing affordable housing for women and children who have graduated from her Agape Resource & Assistance Center. Jericho Village will provide the first housing in Collin County with wrap around services and with sliding scale rent, meeting the needs of families challenged by the dramatic increase in rent since 2020.

Janet’s road to ministry began with a last-minute request to teach her 13-year-old daughter’s yearlong Methodist confirmation class. She shoehorned the teaching assignment into her already busy life as founder and CEO of a successful boutique forensic accounting firm. With 30 years of accounting experience, Janet was highly regarded as a forensic accountant focusing on litigation support and fraud investigation.

However, teaching young teens about the Methodist church and its beliefs sent Janet to SMU’s theology school, seeking more information.

“I felt like I was walking into a whole new world when I walked on campus,” she said. “I knew the Bible stories, but I didn’t know the theology. I began to learn about God all over again.”

On a 2006 trip to the Holy Land at the Jordan River, Janet felt the power of God.

“I knew He had something else for me to do,” Janet said. “In time I realized that I was called to the mission of connecting people inside the church with the outside world.”

Soon after her return from the Holy Land, she began the path to ordination as a deacon in the United Methodist Church. Within three years, Janet’s professor’s prediction became a reality. In 2009, then 52-year-old Janet, her newly earned Master of Theology diploma in hand, began to close her business and became missions coordinator at a United Methodist Church in Plano. A long-time entrepreneur, Janet used her skills to help launch the church’s first food pantry in one of the most affluent counties in the United States. The pantry now serves more than 5,300 families each month.

Collin County, north of Dallas, is home to the headquarters of Frito-Lay, JC Penney, Toyota USA and ExxonMobil, but 40 percent of students in Plano, its largest city, qualify for free and reduced-price lunches. There is no emergency shelter in Collin County and the few transitional housing agencies have beds for about 450 individuals, turning away more than 4,000 people each year, Janet said.

“I raised my children in Plano and had been blind to the need,” Janet said. “I began to see that hunger was a symptom of much larger problems in Collin County – evictions, lack of transportation, low-paying jobs, lack of childcare. Most of the food pantry clients were families led by women, many with children under 12-years--old.”

In 2010, she helped the church launch Project Hope, a mentoring program to help households, particularly those led by women, gain stability and resources.

Project Hope became the cornerstone for Agape Resource & Assistance Center,

the nonprofit Janet started in 2013, just four years after graduating from Perkins. Agape’s ministry focuses on helping women and their children overcome the barriers that opened Janet’s eyes – housing, education, transportation, child-care and health care. Each barrier is addressed in a practical way, beginning with housing in remodeled homes and repurposed office buildings in Plano. Women choose a vocation and begin training for a job with a living wage within their first 60 days in the program.

“We want women who have been earning $15 an hour to train for jobs that will pay $50 an hour to enable them to become self-sufficient,” Janet said.

Agape lends women cars, provides child-care and tutoring for children, teaches women to balance a budget and access resources. To date, more than 300 women and their children, more than 90 percent of whom are abuse survivors, have taken part in the Agape ministry, with 75 percent becoming self-sufficient.

The Agape ministry is guided by 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 a hope and a future. '”

“The focus of our nonprofit has always been helping others and making systemic changes for the good of all,” Janet said.

Agape just broke ground on its next initiative, Jericho Village, a 38-unit community of multiplex homes available at rental rates based on income. In addition, Jericho Village residents will have access to assistance with childcare, transportation, workforce training, financial literacy training and counseling.

The Biblical figure of Rahab, whose bravery enabled the Israelites to successfully conquer Jericho, inspired the name of Jericho Village. Her determination and perseverance, despite her reputation, saved her family and changed the history of Jericho and the Israelites.

“Like Rahab, women in the Agape program, and our neighbors who will find a home at Jericho Village, must overcome adversity to survive,” Janet said. “They work hard and step out on faith believing their sacrifices will result in a better future for themselves and their families. Yet, despite this faith, they are faced with seemingly impenetrable barriers and walls to achieving this goal. We, like the Israelites, must surround them with strength and help them bring down the walls that prevent them from fulfilling God’s purpose in their lives.”