Meet Your Regional Connector Becky Jones!

Becky’s Region: Canada East

Becky Jones is our Thrive regional connector for Canada East. She shifted into this role, which was previously held by Lesli van Milligen, when Thrive was launched in June of 2023. Becky has been working for the CRCNA since 2019 where she worked within the areas of abuse prevention and disability access As a regional connector, Becky connects with 7 classes that fall under the umbrella of Canada East: Eastern Canada, Quinte, Toronto, Niagara, Hamilton, Huron and  Ontario South West. 

Area of Passion: Volunteerism

Prior to working for the CRCNA, Becky worked at an art gallery, overseeing over 500 volunteers. The world of volunteering has always been a big passion for Becky, as she believes volunteering is a way to connect to the community, develop deep relationships, and pursue an interest that provides great joy. Within a faith based setting, volunteering often speaks to how someone may feel led to serve God in a tangible way. 

Becky has developed and led workshops on volunteering over the past year for churches and classes interested in gaining insights into developing or sustaining their volunteer programs. Volunteerism has been impacted significantly by COVID-19. Often Becky will hear of churches that are frustrated with the inability to run programing in the same way they did pre-COVID due to the decline in volunteer numbers. This is a reality not just within churches, but across the board in the volunteer community. It takes a great deal of creativity and discernment as a church community to know how to manage the challenges that are facing many churches regarding volunteer participation.

Kaptein of Clinton CRC to provide a workshop on volunteering for five of their area churches. This year the focus was on volunteering. The value in this type of event is that there is an opportunity to learn from each other, to listen to how others have navigated challenges, and to explore creative ways to work with the existing resources and volunteers.

A few weeks later, Becky was able to reconnect with Michelle and her mom Angela, both key leaders within their church. Angela shared with Becky a creative idea their team had come up with to recognize, encourage, and support their volunteers in a small, tangible way this year as a result of the event:

“[We plan to] purchase thank you cards and write a personal note to the volunteers in our Worship Ministry. In the note, we’ll mention that if you’d like to take a break, just let us know and we’ll make it happen.” 

Angela shared that the note will be attached to a KitKat bar, picking up on the chocolate bar’s famous slogan of “you deserve a break - have a KitKat”! She went on to say: “We’ll continue to look for ways to support our current volunteers and offer that “KitKat Break”. Sometimes I wonder if we need to just scale back – less might be more.”   The current reality is that in many congregations, families are involved in many areas - sports, the arts, school events and, of course, church! It is important to also make time to rest and practice sabbath. As congregations that come together to care for each other, it is so important to have open and honest conversations about what our volunteer capacity is, and how we can continue to encourage and support one another. 

For all churches that are located in Canada East, Becky is excited to connect and support you in whatever way you need!