Welcome to “Making a Difference!” Step into the inspiring world of business owners who are making a tangible difference in their communities. Join us as we spotlight passionate entrepreneurs who go beyond profit, dedicating their time, resources, and innovative ideas to create positive social impact. Today our hosts, Greg Chapman, spoke with Joanne Hickox.
Joanne Hickox
CEO of The G3 Foundation
Website Address: g3.foundation
Short company description:
We build affordable independent housing for modest to moderate income seniors.
What is a tip for success that you would provide someone in your same industry?
Trust God in all aspects.
What volunteer experience has impacted you the most?
Seniors on A Mission.
What’s one cause you’re passionate about?
Addressing Senior Challenges.
How do you encourage your team to make a difference?
Prayer groups.
Transcript:
Greg:
Hi. Welcome to Making a Difference. I’m your host, Greg Chapman. Today we have with us Joanne from G3 Village.
Joanne:
Thank you. Greg. Well, I have been in ministry for 27 years here in town with an organization called seniors on a mission.
And the joy of the last 27 years has been watching older adults give up their time every week to support hundreds of local nonprofit organizations here in town. And G3 village is kind of an outgrowth of seniors on a mission. G3 village is giving God glory, and it is a place for senior and older adults 50 and older, to live on a 20 acre farm.
There’ll be 40 units of housing. 28 of them are under one roof. So they don’t have kitchens and all that sort of stuff. There’s 12 cottages, but the really cool thing is, there’s 40 units, ten of which are for 50 year olds, ten for 60, ten for 70, and ten for 80 plus. Wow. And the concept is inter inter age groups working together.
Now the other thing is it’s a rental community. And everyone who rents there has the opportunity to give ten hours of service every week, whether it’s milking the cow or feeding the pigs, or collecting the eggs, or working in the kitchen or answering the phone, whatever is comfortable for that person and what they desire to do will be their opportunity to serve.
Greg:
That’s exciting. Especially for a younger guy, comparatively speaking, to our friends at G3 village. Jesus says, authority has been given to him to go make disciples. And as many times as I’ve read that and for as long as I’ve been in ministry, I can tell you that never seen an expiration date on that. I don’t think that is something that you retire from.
Like you don’t just like our careers, you can retire from a career, but you can’t retire from the call on your life. Yeah. To continually make disciples who make disciples. And so how does The G3 Village encourage their, their residents, their participants to continue to be people who make disciples?
Joanne:
Well, first of all, we’ve got to disciple the ones that are there.
So, every quarter there will be opportunities for growth, whether that’s intellectually, spiritually, who they, you know, knowing who they are in Christ. And also, what they call traditional skills. Yeah. Do you want to know how to make cheese? Do you want to. So there’s there’s learning is a part of everything but spiritual learning is is a core tenet of what we are.
And it’s not just now understand there are older adults that have had church hurt or that have been abused in life, and, I’ve had some seniors say to me that they’re damaged goods and I’m like, sweetheart, you’re not. You’re precious. You’re made in the image of God. But those things have to be walked through and it takes someone who loves them to walk them through that pain and that agony to where they come out discipled on the other side, knowing who they are, knowing.
And it’s that’s a that’s incredible. But healed people can minister to others and disciple others. So the really cool thing about G3 Village is it’s kind of built a third, a third and a third. The front third is open to the public. All right. And there are all kinds of public things going on there, including places for school busses to park so that they can drop off, kids that go on a field trip and go through the entire farm area and discover that peas are not, you know, found in a can think they actually grow from the ground frozen and exactly.
But along the pathway of what they’re going through, there are little stations where they can sit beside an older person and just talk. Yeah. And that person can answer questions that a young person might have. And, you know, God is in the watering. Yeah. And we might have the opportunity to see the bloom of that desire to accept Christ as their Savior.
But they got to be loved and they got to know their love before sometimes that happened.
Greg:
Yeah. When I was still in church ministry, before I joined the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, I led a small group at our church, and we did a marriage series, and we had some senior adults who had been married for almost 60 years.
And I asked them to come visit our small group as the marriage experts. And they are like, we are not experts on this. We’re still figuring it out yet. For real. And I’m like, you’ve been married 65 years. You know something about this that I don’t? I, I said at some point we all want to live long enough to be senior adults.
We all want to be married long enough to see 65 years. And so for those who are out there who think they are not qualified just because of their age. Yeah. How would you encourage them? Now, as we wrap up, to not let your age be an excuse?
Joanne:
Well, to me, this is the best season of our life.
This is the opportunity and older adults have so much to give, so much to share. And although our country really kind of shoves senior adults off to the side and, and warehouses them and separates them, I believe that senior adults have what it takes to educate and nurture the next generation.
Greg:
Yeah, I would agree. Thank you for all that you do with G3 Village for joining us today and for the rest of you, thanks for tuning in to Making a Difference.
I’m your host, Greg Chapman. We’ll be back again next week.
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