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Meet Our Volunteers
Meet the wonderful team who makes
this ministry work. They work tirelessly and without complaint.
If you
would like to join this team please see our Volunteer Opportunities by
clicking here.
Web Designer and
Newsletter Writer (Co-founder)
Patty Benton
www.moretime4u.org
www.virtualvacoach.com
Volunteer Since 12-1-05
Patty Benton
graduated in 1997 with a BA from Wartburg College in Waverly, IA. Upon
graduation she left the state she grew up in to move to Colorado. A year
later she met her husband, Jerome and married him in 2000. In 2002 they
welcomed their first daughter into the world and in 2005 they welcomed
their second daughter. In addition, Jerome had 2 sons from a previous
marriage. Before having her children, Patty taught 4th and 5th grade, but
upon the arrival of her first daughter, Patty decided to become a work
from home mom. From the first day, she knew that God was directing this
for her, and she placed all her faith in His hands. He has not failed her
yet.
In 1998, Patty and
her husband started JERPAT Web Designs together. In October 2003, Patty
decided to add virtual assistance to the business. She established JERPAT
Virtual Assistants as a partnering branch. In 2004, Patty informally began
coaching other virtual assistants into their own businesses. By May 2005,
Patty had created JERPAT VA Coaching and created a virtual assistance team
that is more skilled than any other she knows of. Patty and her husband
also decided to partner with the company that had been hosting them since
1998 to offer reliable hosting to other businesses.
She continues to
use God as the focus of her businesses, knowing that without Him, she
would not have her business nor be able to stay home with her children.
After much persecution about her openness in her belief and that she ran
her business based on Christ, she partnered with a member of her team,
Dolly Norris-Hooker, to create a support system for Christians in
business, and the work force in general, to come together and support one
another in handling reconciling their faith with their jobs. Not only
that, but they also want to help support Christians to take a stand for
Christ at work and stop hiding their beliefs. Patty requests prayer from
all visitors that she, along with Dolly, will be able to guide
Acknowledging
Christ Together
(ACT) at Work to be a ministry that brings Glory to God!
Newsletter
Editor
and
Newsletter Writer (Co-founder)
Dolly Norris-Hooker
www.actatwork.com
Volunteer Since 12-1-05
Dolly Norris Hooker resides in
Florida with Larry, her husband of 23 years. Together they have 4 children
ranging in age from 35 to 6 years. Dolly was a preschool teacher in a
public daycare before opening her own in home daycare. After the birth of
their youngest child, Dolly decided to close her daycare to focus her
energy on her family. |
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Today Dolly is a work from home, homeschooling mom, where she believes God
wants her to be. She is also active in her local church where she teaches
a ladies’ Sunday School class.
After several negative comments about including God in her business, Dolly
partnered with Patty Benton, her business coach & mentor, to form A.C.T.
at Work. Together they have formed a friendship based on their beliefs in
God and are not ashamed to speak out for Christ. Dolly strongly believes
everything she has is because of the grace and goodness of God; this
includes her family and her business.
Web Designer
Jerome Benton
www.jerpat.org
Volunteer Since 12-1-05
Jerome Benton graduated from Screven County
High School in Sylvania, GA in 1985 and then joined the United States Air
Force. He served in the military until 1989 and then became employed with
Lockheed Martin as an Administrative Specialist. While in the military,
Jerome was blessed with two wonderful sons who are now 15 and 13.
They are currently living in Phoenix, AZ with his ex-wife. He is now a
Hardware, Firmware, COTS (Commercial Off-the-Shelf) Baseline Manager with
Lockheed Martin of 16yrs. He is currently pursuing his Bachelors of
Science degree in Information Technology. Jerome is now happily
married to his wonderful wife Patty since 2000 and they have been blessed
with two lovely daughters who are 3yrs old and 1yr old. He is a devout
Christian, who has a big heart for helping others.
Jerome Benton is the owner of JERPAT Web Designs and JERPAT Web Hosting
and the co-owner with his wife Patty Benton of JERPAT Virtual Assistants.
Jerome and Patty opened JERPAT Web Designs in 1998. He was intrigued by
the way web pages magically appeared on this thing called the World Wide
Web. He picked up a Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) book and learned how
to design websites on his own.
He is a father who tries to integrate his Christian beliefs into this
business and to anyone who comes into contact with. He is also raising his
children to have these beliefs as well. God has blessed Jerome and his
family so much, he hopes to continue blessing others.
Newsletter Writer
Larry Hooker
www.actatwork.com
Volunteer Since 3-27-05
Larry Hooker has been in & out of church most of his
life, but never fully surrendered his life to God until he hit rock
bottom. “I was addicted to drugs and alcohol”, Larry says. “I allowed my
addiction to rule my life. It had destroyed many relationships with
family & friends in the past and it was getting ready to destroy the
only real things that ever matter. I’ll never forget, my wife, Dolly,
looking at me through tears of hurt and disappointment telling me I had
to leave, that she could no longer watch me kill myself nor did she want
our children exposed to my behavior. I was madly in love with this woman
and had hurt her so many times with broken promises. God knew this was
the wake-up call I needed and I knew only God could take this mess of a
man, restore me, my marriage and my family.” Larry called out to God for
help and God immediately took away all desire for the alcohol and drugs.
Larry has been sober for more than eleven years.
While Larry is not proud of his past, he shares his story to show others
there is hope and that hope can only be found in Jesus.
Larry & Dolly will be celebrating 25 years of marriage this year by
renewing their commitment to one another and to God. They have 4
children and currently reside on the West Coast of Florida.
Assistant Web Designer and
Newsletter Writer
Paula Dodds
www.PSDodds.com
Volunteer Since 1-7-06
Paula Dodds was raised as a Catholic and currently attends a
non-denominational church. She runs two home-based businesses,
www.psdodds.com and
www.TheCoffeeNut.com. She has two wonderful daughters,
her own personal gifts from God, and is blessed with a very supportive
husband.
Paula was recruited as a volunteer by Patty & Dolly – she loves to pitch
in with whatever administrative tasks or writing is needed for the ACT
site.
Director of Memberships
Karen Marino
www.mkcashflow.com
Volunteer Since 3-13-07
Director of
Resources and Newsletter Writer
Jana Wegelin
www.pikespeakvagroup.com
Volunteer Since 3-20-07
A.C.T. at Work's Official Printer
Lesa Witherington of Print Design Studio
http://www.print-design-studio.com
Volunteer Since 2-8-06
Lesa was born and raised in Mobile, AL. After graduating high school in
1987, she attended Judson College where she met and married her fist
husband Robert Holladay. After the birth of their daughter Brandi in 1989,
she returned to Judson to complete the requirements for her BA in English
in 1992. Shortly thereafter she and her husband divorced and she returned
to Mobile with her daughter. Since that time she has held a variety of
jobs in a number of fields, everything from secretary and administrative
assistant to welding trainee in a ship yard. She was also a dealer in a
casino on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for a number of years. While there
she gave birth to her second child Dustin in 1995. In 2000 she completely
gave herself to Christ and was baptized along with her children. At this
time she also met her second husband Marty Witherington. Unfortunately,
she misinterpreted the direction God was sending her. She found out after
their marriage that he was a pathological liar. She did her best to make
the marriage work, for the sake of their child Kenny, but it was a losing
battle as it takes two people to make a marriage. It was after their
separation that God intervened in her life to give her a way to take care
of her children and to provide for them. She inherited a house from her
Great Aunt who passed away a month after the separation. She was able to
find the money to replace the business printer that had been kept by her
ex-business partner and to start her new printing business Print Design
Studio. She also found 15.Net, International and joined them. She loves
the mission of ACT at Work and is proud to be able to provide all the
printing for this wonderful cause!
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