Ray & Paula Raines Share

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Ray and Paula Raines, orig­i­nal­ly from Penn­syl­va­nia, had been serv­ing the Delaware Coun­ty com­mu­ni­ty for 30 years help­ing those deal­ing with hunger, home­less­ness, abuse and addic­tion under the umbrel­la of the Asso­ci­a­tion of Gospel Res­cue Mis­sions. They both retired from their exec­u­tive lead­er­ship roles with Muncie Mis­sion Min­istries in 2014.

In May of 2016, they were con­tact­ed by a board mem­ber of the Grant Coun­ty Res­cue Mis­sion in Mar­i­on short­ly after an inves­ti­ga­tion revealed mul­ti­ple acts of mis­man­age­ment with­in the local orga­ni­za­tion. They were in search of new lead­er­ship to bring order to the disorder.

“My wife and I have near­ly 49 years of expe­ri­ence, and we want­ed to assist to get them back on track again.”

Ray accept­ed the role of inter­im direc­tor, and his wife took on human resources and office man­age­ment respon­si­bil­i­ties. Ray said dur­ing the 6 – 7 months they served the Marion/​Grant Coun­ty char­i­ty, they got facil­i­ties up to code for safe­ty and health, and many oth­er vio­la­tions were rec­ti­fied. Paula worked with the board to cor­rect HR vio­la­tions, hired an accoun­tant and donor & human rela­tions coor­di­na­tor, and reestab­lished con­nec­tions with the nation­wide Asso­ci­a­tion of Gospel Res­cue Missions.

Ray report­ed after their inter­im tenure, ​“With the changes put in place, new staff and orga­nized prac­tices, we have high hopes for this organization.”

Ray and Paula vol­un­teered the first two weeks before accept­ing pay­ment for their tem­po­rary ser­vices. They also ded­i­cat­ed an aver­age of 50 – 60 hours per week to the local orga­ni­za­tion for the Marion/​Grant Coun­ty community.

Ray was asked why he stepped into the role. Reflect­ing back, he said ​“It has to do with the clients. I hate for them to be neglect­ed. (The mal­prac­tice) affects those clients who are very pre­cious to us. It was a hor­ri­ble cir­cum­stance, and we felt a pas­sion to get things going again.”

Grant Coun­ty Res­cue Mis­sion Board Pres­i­dent, Janet Pear­son, said, ​“The Lord brought Ray and Paula Raines to the Res­cue Mis­sion, using their many years of exper­tise in assist­ing the board and the folks that we serve. One thing they did was help restore trust in our com­mu­ni­ty. Ray helped restore the main­te­nance of the main build­ing and recruit­ed vol­un­teers to assist the mis­sion. Paula’s expe­ri­ence in human resources was a help in hir­ing new staff to replace the few that had resigned. We are thank­ful for their com­mit­ment and lead­er­ship in the transition.”