Stafford Retires From CCS

It takes a lot of faith to do what Jim Stafford is doing, but then faith is something he has in abundance.

Stafford, 51, recently resigned as assistant director and assistance coordinator of Combined Community Services. The catch is, he has no idea what he is going to do next.

"Sometimes you have to act upon faith and trust the Lord to lead the way," he said last week. "I feel very much at peace about the decision that's been made and I expect the Lord to guide my way. ... He will open that door to whatever new adventure he would like to have me in."

This is not the first time the Iowa native has relied on his faith to show him the way. After completing his education in his home state, he attended graduate school in Missouri and stayed on in St. James, Mo., for 13 years to teach.

He said he had a comfortable life there, with a home in the country, but he suddenly felt called to leave. He moved to Indiana because his church had a college in Anderson, and attended the seminary there.

Stafford moved to the Warsaw area in 1989 and taught school here for one year before joining CCS in October 1990.

"This has been a position that the Lord has redirected me into," he said. "I have a real strong desire to help people, and to be in a position to do it through an agency like this has been an answer to a prayer."

The CCS staff is quite close, Stafford said, and those are the people he will miss the most.

"We're here as a team, to lift each other up when we need to," he said. He also will miss his relationships with clients.

Marty Courtney, director of CCS, said she and Stafford started at the agency almost at the same time.

"It's like losing part of your family," she said of Stafford's leaving. "It's sad to be losing him, but it's also exciting to be getting some new blood and a new perspective."

He has nothing but praise for CCS and its mission.

"The work here is a vital part of the help that's within this community. We're very blessed to be in a community with a lot of very giving individuals," he said.

Stafford said he would like a position at a church, school or another social service agency. He would like to stay in this area, though, since he is single, a move wouldn't be out of the question: "If I have to, I will."

He promised Courtney he would stay on until his replacement was hired and trained, and expects that to be sometime in March. As far as looking for a new job is concerned, he hasn't yet actively begun.

"I really don't know where to start. But I need to put feet to my prayers because I don't think the Lord is going to just hand it to me," he said.

"I'm looking for some type of ministry area like what I'm doing now. It doesn't make sense to me, but sometimes in one's faith journey you don't always know ahead of time."