In 1982, Pennye Anderson, a member of First Baptist Church, Andalusia, walked into Covington County Jail in Andalusia with a Bible in her hand and a servant’s heart on her sleeve.
In some ways, she never left.
Anderson — along with a revolving door of volunteers — has ministered to the jail’s female residents through lessons and songs for 24 years, long enough for the ministry to become something she is rather than just something she does.
Now, partnering with Covington Baptist Association, Anderson and her co-volunteers have begun the process of taking their ministry to the next level.
On that next level will sit Norma’s Nest, still just a vision but the type of vision that they hope will change lives. The nonprofit organization — funded through private donations — will be called a “transitional home” for women. It’s a technical term that belies the Christian motives behind it that Anderson said she sees as absolutely essential to her mission.
“I just began to hear God saying, ‘What you’re doing in jail is fine. You’re getting the Word to them.
You’re beginning to get them to study their Bible. Some of them have been saved but you’re dropping the ball — you’re losing them when they get out,’” Anderson said.
As women began expressing fear of returning to old drug friends, Anderson and others realized they needed a roof over their heads and a place to be safe and learn life skills.
“We see them loop back in (to the jail), and I’ll say to them, ‘Why are you back in here?,’” Anderson said. “They’ll say, ‘I didn’t have any place to go, and I went back with my boyfriend or my drug friends. I couldn’t resist the temptation. I wasn’t going to touch it but … .’”
The “it” is mostly methamphetamine, and while Norma’s Nest is not intended as a drug or alcohol recovery center, Anderson and fellow volunteers envision the home as a powerful weapon against the meth-fueled female recidivism crippling their pocket of Dixie.
“We just feel like there’s a huge need,” she said.
That need is en route to being met thanks to the formation of the board of directors for Norma’s Nest. The board first met in February.
“[Norma’s Nest] doesn’t have a 501(c)(3) (tax-exempt status) yet, and so we partnered with them through the association for that purpose — to keep an account of the donations that are coming in,” said Leroy Cole, church and community ministries director for Covington Association and vice president of the board of Norma’s Nest.
He said board members are currently looking at property and once they find that, they will decide how to build.
“We’re just getting started, though, talking to city groups and churches and individuals for donations,” Cole said. “It’s slow going but it’s coming together.”
The name Norma’s Nest was inspired by Anderson’s across-the-street neighbor Norma McLelland, a member of First, Andalusia, to whom Anderson credits her passion for jail ministry.
Norma’s Nest will be a place where women can readjust to society, learn hygiene, learn how to apply for and dress for a job and learn how to manage and plan finances.
“I think we really need to realize that everybody doesn’t live like we do,” said Anderson, who serves as president of the board of directors for Norma’s Nest. “They [may not] have the economic advantages or the educational advantages, but we see the potential there. We see spiritual growth and it’s exciting but they’ve got to have some help.
“Some will say that these women just need to pull themselves up by the bootstraps, but I say that their bootstraps are broken.”
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