Fears answers the call to serve with care, generosity

Feeling led by God to do something to help others as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the area in March, Jenny Fears asked, “What can I do to help?”

That question led to Fears heading up a county’s faith-based initiative called Deliver Hope, which provided food to those 60 and over who couldn’t leave their homes during the pandemic.

When Fears asked that question, she said, she didn’t realize she was volunteering to lead the initiative, “but I had.”

What sparked Fears’ request came while speaking with a friend.

“We felt like God was telling us you need to do something, and we just prayed about it,” Fears explained.

Two minutes later, Butler County Emergency Management Agency Director Robbie Myers walked by at Fellowship General Baptist Church, where both he and Fears attend.

“I asked Robbie what can I do to help,” further saying to Myers she felt “hopeless” because everything was shutting down and people were in need after losing their jobs or getting laid off.

Myers asked Fears to meet him the following day at the Emergency Operations Center at the Poplar Bluff Police Department.

As Myers introduced Fears, she said, he told the others she had “graciously volunteered to head up” the faith-based initiative.

Fears, whose husband is a youth pastor, sent “out feelers” asking for help from area churches.

Deliver Hope, Fears said, partnered with the Northside Nutrition Center to help grow its customers for its meals-on-wheels program. They also worked with the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program and its Building Bonds program.

Canned goods and other items also were collected and distributed to the elderly.

The community coming together to support the initiative was “definitely a God thing,” said Fears. “… It was incredible to see so many come together and pitch in to deliver meals or raising funds for canned goods or bringing in canned goods.”

The initiative provided an opportunity to “really bless a lot of different groups of people,” said Fears, who indicated this was her first “major undertaking,” having previously volunteered and served on boards, such as Haven House.

Fears’ work on that initiative was among the attributes which led Matt and Jenna Whitworth to nominate her as a Difference Maker.

“She is just the most thoughtful and caring person I truly have ever met,” Jenna Whitworth said. “She gives so much of her time to make sure other people are taken care of that she forgets to take care of herself half the time.”

Matt Whitworth described Fears as a positive person, who “always has time for the people in her life. Her time is your time. She gives so much of herself.”

Fears is someone she looks up to and aspires to be, Jenna Whitworth said.

“I don’t know how she does it,” Jenna Whitworth said.

With Deliver Hope, Fears emphasized it wasn’t just her, but hundreds of people coming together.

While grateful for her nomination, Fears said, she is humbled by it.

“My parents have always instilled a good work ethic in me,” she said. “My mom has always taught me to be assertive. If you think something is right, and you feel like that’s God calling you to do it, then do it.

“Act on it; don’t wait and make sure you do it right the first time.”

Part of the reason Fears does “what I do is I want my children to see the importance of having compassion and giving to others...

“ … I want my kids to see that giving to others is much more important than taking for yourself.”