Vanessa Tyus

I don't take any credit for what I've done. I give God the credit, because I had to follow His direction. God gave it to me, and when He gave it to me, He showed me and made it comfortable for me to do what I needed to do. My biggest mentor is God. I've always had the heart to serve, which came from seeing what my mother went through as a single mom. I also credit my daughter, even though she is a lot younger, as one of my mentors, along with Missionary Ann Berries, the late Missionary Tilney Holmes, and Mother Williams. The best career advice I ever received was 'no dream is too small,' which came from my daughter, my mother, and one of the first ladies at the church. That advice has stayed with me and drives me to keep going in spite of whatever obstacles I face.

The best career advice I've ever received is 'no dream is too small.' This came from my daughter, my mother, and one of the first ladies at the church. It's a very impactful statement that has guided me throughout my journey. It reminds me that every dream matters and is worth pursuing, no matter how small it might seem to others.

Be true. Be true to whatever God or whoever gave you, be true to that. And do it full-heartedly. Be committed into what you are doing. I think the most important thing is when we forget about ourself and focus on serving others. Self-care is so important because if I can't take care of myself, how can I help others? Even right now, I'm almost literally homeless because of my situation, but I'm still able to pour into people. I have three young girls right now through the foster care agencies, and I have to forget about the situation that I'm in right now and think about them. Some days it gets tough. Some days you might fall, but you gotta pick yourself back up. That's what matters.

The biggest challenge is services - the lack of services for people and the knowledge of how to access services like Section 8. I'm equipped because God gave me that and I'm an advocate, but what about those people that are not in their right mind, that don't know how to go about getting services, and they fall through the cracks? I'm going through challenges right now myself, and I'm a strong woman, but if I wasn't, I'd probably be literally homeless. People don't know where to go. I see this every day. A woman came in that was 70, and Section 8 told her to go do the application on the computer, and she's looking at them saying 'I don't know nothing about the computer.' Then they told her to go to the library. We need to open up places where people can go in and get services that are personal. People are slipping through these cracks, and it's not of our own fault, it's the lack of services for people.

The most important value to me is that whatever I speak, I'm living it. Whatever I preach, it comes to me, it comes to the pastor, the one that's bringing the Word, it comes to you first. A lot of people don't go to churches or different places because we are not walking in what we are preaching or talking about or teaching about. I got hurt in a church because people preach one thing or teach one thing, but we're not living it. We can't be in church on Sunday and be all this, and then Monday through Saturday, we're living something totally different. You have to let your light shine. When they see me in church, it's this way, and when they see me out of church, it's gonna be the same way. People need to be reminded that people are watching, and we can't judge. I think that's one of my biggest things. We can't judge people. We don't know what that person's going through.