New Community is a ministry that meets at Citylight Omaha's Midtown location on Monday nights. Its mission is to equip the church to share the gospel with women coming out of jail or prison and disciple them for the glory of God. Eunice Arant-Roos has led this ministry since 2016 along with a dedicated group of volunteers and the crucial support of area churches. Eunice shares her story and New Community’s story with our Church family.
Eunice grew up in the church, memorized many Bible verses as a child and knew the gospel, but did not experience a personal relationship with Christ until much later. After graduating from a small rural high school, she attended a large university and felt adrift in a sea of 28,000 students. As she explored many academic and social opportunities on a campus of that size, she became aware of a growing vacuum in her heart. She was surrounded by literally thousands of people with so much going on but felt completely detached from it all. After a series of events, she moved to Omaha where she encountered a group of Christian young people who were actively engaged in a nationwide spiritual revival that was referred to as the “Jesus Movement.” It consisted of college-aged people who experienced a spiritual awakening that some called a spiritual revolution.
Locally, the ministry was called the Christian Brotherhood. The ministry offered Bible studies every night of the week taught by the founder, as well as professors from Grace Bible Institute. The Bible studies were attended by a mixture of college students, hitch hikers passing through Omaha, and street people seeking spiritual help in recovery from addiction. This was the beginning of Eunice’s love for the Lord and her personal relationship with Him.
Eunice declared.
“I saw people living out their faith and talking to God as if He were actually there and He was! I grew immensely in this community of young believers. The scriptural teachings from my childhood came together like the pieces of a puzzle along with the application piece. It was so very exciting."
Eunice noticed two things: the void in her heart was gone and human beings, including herself, were created to live in community.
“Many of these people had been in the bondage of drugs and were now coming to clean living,” Eunice shared. “Those in addiction recovery were now my closest friends, I learned about addiction and how Christ could set you free. Right away I realized that people in recovery, serious about their relationship with God, are some of the deepest thinkers you can find. I loved that. I was drawn to that.
Eunice eventually met her husband and started a family. Some years later, the Lord opened the door to become a chaplain in the Douglas County Correctional Center, Eunice said.
“One of the chaplains in the jail knew I had been in women’s ministry and thought I might be a fit as female chaplain. Nationally, there were few women chaplains while the number of incarcerated women was on the increase. He invited me to come for a tour of the jail. I went in and he surprised me by asking me to speak to the women. ‘Tell them what Jesus means to you.’ All these women in orange, I thought they would laugh me out the door. I briefly shared my testimony, about the void in my heart as a college student. When I finished, the women gathered around me and said, ‘We are going to pray that you take this chaplain job because we need help in here.’”
Those words took her breath away. She looked at their faces, each precious woman, and saw that they were His image bearers, lacking the opportunities she had in life. God spoke to Eunice at that moment. Could this be His calling on her life? She soon started volunteering and after a number of months went through the training to become a jail chaplain under Good News Jail & Prison Ministry now renamed Good News Global.
“I experienced close relationships with women in addiction and they taught me so much. I believe the way to effectively help
women in addiction and reentry is building a community of women that supports each other, a peer ministry."
The fall of 2016 marked the launch of New Community with eight women in reentry who showed up the first night. Eunice served popcorn and apples and led a Bible study with them. Formerly incarcerated women began coming and it kept growing. By the winter of 2017, meals were being served to about 30 women along with Bible study. Transportation and childcare were provided by a growing team of volunteers. And then Covid came in 2020. That prompted the New Community team to make adjustments since they could not meet as a large group.
"Our reentering women were now in isolation,” Eunice exclaimed. “Isolation is the most harmful thing for a person battling addiction. When you use, you isolate. We sprang into action to figure out how to keep the ministry going in small groups instead of the large group dinners. We created small groups around the city. We did zoom meetings as well. We published videos on our FB page showing scriptural principles applied to substance abuse. That’s what kept it alive. The women did respond to that.”
Over the next few years, New Community reconvened with the big dinners. On a typical Monday night 100 women now come together at the Midtown location for a meal, Bible study, and childcare with transportation offered. Women are gathering to grow in faith in Christ, truth, and to offer one another peer support, encouragement, and reliance on Jesus Christ rather than illegal substances.
The tagline of New Community is “women in need of change helping women in need of change.”
"We are all equals. So, we have reentering women discipled by mature church members, getting involved with churches, building a community. One story is about a woman who had gone in and out of jail her entire adult life. She is one of several women who want to apply their skills and intelligence and the things they are learning to do legal things instead of illegal things. She went to school to learn medical coding and completed all the training and began working for a physician’s office. They knew about her record and thought they would give her a chance. At that office, was one of our volunteers. She took her under her wing, taught her policies and procedures, worked together, and this woman did well. She completed her certification there and after interviewing for other jobs and is a manager at a medical practice. Currently, she is going to school to get her certification as an addiction counselor, recently got married and is building a life together. Her record was long, but she was honest from the start.”
“Another story we are celebrating is a woman named “Samantha.” Samantha was in and out of jail for years, sold drugs, and ended up going to prison for three years. While in prison, she was determined to spend her time in the Word of God. As a child, she asked Jesus in her heart, and yet not followed Him. When she got out of prison, she was filled with the knowledge of God and had a deep relationship with Him. After meeting a Good News volunteer, they became friends and invited her to New Community. Samantha got a job at a restaurant but took Monday nights off and she did that for six years. I saw in her such discipline. She helped other women, she drove and invited other women to New Community. I said to her, "Have you considered becoming a chaplain?" Today, she got her degree from a Bible College and is now co-chaplain.”
There are many more stories that reflect women becoming leaders and teachers and servants. The harvest at New Community is plentiful and the need is great. Eunice concluded with an invitation to Citylight and to all believers,
“Would you pray for the women? Against the pull of addiction? Addiction is cunning and baffling and powerful. Anyone who has gone to AA has heard that before. It goes beyond any power on this earth. We pray that our women would be set free of bondage of drugs and addiction and lovingly accepted into the New Community. For new friends, new encouragement, and to live differently. Also pray for more workers. Volunteers who are available on a Monday night who will have dinner with our women, leaders for small groups, table hosts, Bible study leaders, child care workers, drivers to pick up women who don’t have transportation. We already have a lot of people doing this but as the group grows, we need more. And would you pray for me, personally? I need clarity and focus. I need to be able to see the giftings in people and where they would be the most effective. I want to do Gallup’s Strength Finder with the women and would like to find someone who could implement this.”
We are all people in need of Jesus. For Eunice, Christ took away her deep darkness and loneliness. For others, it’s for Christ to quench the dire thirst of addiction. We are all equals for God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness. If you are a person in need of change, would you be willing to help another person in need of change? It will change your life.