ABOUT ME

Really, truly, my name is Faith! (I’ve had several people ask about that already.) But that’s another story.

A number of years ago, I thought I had figured out exactly God’s purpose for my life. Now the rest of my life would be neatly organized! (Ah, the blissful ignorance of youth!) At every step that God lead me in a direction away from that tidy plan, I scratched my head and second guessed myself: “God, I thought You wanted me to go that-a-way. Why are you now leading this-a-way?” And yet, at each step I had solid assurance that God indeed was leading. What took me so long to understand that God does indeed light the entire way, but that He does it step by step and not all at once?!

In May 2006, my husband and I sensed God’s leading for me again, and in a direction we had not expected. Looking back over the years, however, we can see how steps that appeared to be “off track” precisely prepared me for what was "around the bend."

I know this page is “About Me,” but I am not “me” on my own! But for the grace of God and love of my family, I wouldn’t be where I am today. So I can’t resist giving you some background info.

My parents were LaDette & Miriam Cooley. You may have known Dad during his 22 years of pastoring, or his 7 years as teacher and music director at Penn View Bible Institute. (Interestingly, the dream for this business/ministry began waaaaay back when I was a teenager helping Dad with his pastoral and conference paperwork. He instilled in me how important it was that the work was done carefully, neatly, and with attention to detail because I wasn’t just working for him—I was working for God!) Mom was proud to be the wife of LaDette Cooley and the mother of his children. She was a dedicated homemaker for her family. (Dad passed away in 1984, Mom in 1990.)

My older brother, Dr. Timothy Cooley, may be familiar to you as a pastor or Christian educator. He’s been a pastor for 32 years and has been the Academic Dean at Penn View Bible Institute for the last 28 years (since July 1983!). It’s worth going to college there just to have him as your academic dean! (Don't do the math; he’s not that old. LoL He’s been pastor and academic dean simultaneously for a number of years.)

My older sister, Rebekah Stence, has been involved in Christian education in both the USA and South America. Most recently you may have read about her in the RopeHolders newsletters (with Mission Helps organization), or she perhaps has spoken in your church of her medical and mission work on the Amazon River in Colombia, South America. If you haven’t heard her, you should! She's an amazing lady.

You may have crossed paths with my next-older brother, Andrew Cooley, while he was pastoring for 28 years, or tuning pianos for 32 years, or doing public relations work for Penn View Bible Institute for 5 years, or driving bus for Cooley Coach & Charter for the past several years. He is definitely a “people” person!

Then there’s me. Finally! I attended Penn View Bible Institute & Christian Academy (Penns Creek, PA) for second grade through my college freshman year, then Kansas City College & Bible School (Overland Park, KS) for my sophomore year, before enrolling in the International Institute of Accelerated Christian Education (A.C.E.) (now School of Tomorrow; Lewisville, TX) for five years. I graduated with a Master’s degree in 1989; my major, Christian Education, my minors, Bible and English. No surprises there.

During my college years, I gained experience working in the learning centers of Penns Valley Christian Academy (Spring Mills, PA) for two years, proofreading and editing in both Quality Control and Curriculum Development of A.C.E. (Lewisville , TX) for five years, and supervising in the extension learning center of Evangelical Wesleyan Mission Christian Academy (Taipei, Taiwan) for two years.

Upon completion of my post-grad studies, I was employed by Penn View Bible Institute & Christian Academy (Penns Creek, PA) primarily to teach English (high school for two years, college for one). I also enjoyed being the yearbook advisor and coordinating two Christmas dramas. My greatest reward for teaching, however, has been the lifetime relationships with my students.

Following my marriage to Ken Young, for three years I independently contracted with Barbour Books (now Barbour Publishing; Uhrichsville, OH) to edit and proofread books from my home office. At that time, the internet and data transfer was still developing, so whether the book was on paper or contained on a diskette, everything was transported by FedEx.

God used my niece, Tabitha Cooley, who was working in a learning center at Foothills Christian Academy (Friendsville, TN), to make us aware of a vacancy in the school office. A series of mini-miracles confirmed to us that this was God’s direction. My duties involved such things as scheduling, composing letters and reports, editing the student handbook, record keeping and bookkeeping, publishing a weekly newsletter, webmastering the school’s website, and inventory management. Operating a school takes on a whole new perspective from behind the secretary’s desk instead of from behind a teacher’s desk, but four years of working with the students and parents as well as Pastor Paul Covert, Principal Ronald Coleman, and later, Pastor Doug Eads was a rewarding experience.

From the school office, I went to the corporate office of Market Distribution Specialists (MDS) (Knoxville, TN) for four years. This company delivers phone directories across the USA. My first job there was in the quality control call center verifying telephone book deliveries. Very quickly I had to overcome my hesitation about picking up the phone and calling a complete stranger!

From the call center, I moved on to Client Relations / Customer Care. Initially, most of my time was spent in client relations, calling bulk users (businesses, hotels, apartments, etc. that use more than fifteen books) so the publishing client could more accurately estimate the number of directories to be printed. Little by little, however, customer care issues demanded more and more of my attention, so another person was hired to take over calling bulk users.

Since most of the customer care work was not automated at that time, the paperwork literally towered over us.  I organized the papers and designed and maintained a tracking system using linked Excel spreadsheets to quickly retrieve details on any current or past job. I also developed and maintained another spreadsheet system to track and resolve concerns with priority customers, the yellow pages advertisers. Both of these systems were used extensively as I virtually assisted the 20-25 managers in the field using phone, email and fax to alert them about complaints and non-deliveries.

By the time Spreading the Faith Virtual Assistance & Christian Resources was launched on June 1, 2006, I felt more like I had come full circle than headed in a new direction because Spreading the Faith draws from experiences gained from every other step of the way: understanding ministry, loving English (just in case you didn’t pick that up already!), teaching, proofreading and editing, learning various software programs, operating an office, resolving issues with customers, and interacting with multiple field managers simultaneously. 

Countless times over the years, I had heard Christian workers saying they wish they could do more for God, but they are hampered by many of the little everyday necessary tasks to which they must attend. I wished every time that I could somehow be there to take care of whatever I could, and now I have been doing just that for more than five years. I am so excited that God can use virtual assistance to help those doing His work!

Serving Him with gladness,

Faith  =)