People Profile–Brown’s SITGAP goals: Helping others, inspiring lives
Gap’ will be there for you.”
Born in little Troup, Texas, and raised mostly in Plainview after age two, Jernetta Brown moved back to her home state from California - and, specifically, to Brenham in 1996 - where she authored this featured slogan for Standing in the Gap Ministries, an entity which she registered as a Texas business activity back in 2005. …
Except while most time-consuming business ventures have the primary goal of at least a worthwhile profit for its founder and director, Jernetta has instead approached the project she fondly calls SITGAP as essentially “My Outreach Ministry” and often finds herself as the major supporter for its works; now including two inspirational radio shows.
To make what could be a long story manageable in length, Jernetta obviously feels a strong pull - as one project seems to be financially viable - to launch still another undertaking based on “(the several) ministries that God placed on my heart a long time ago.”
It seems that with financial resources based heavily on her long hours of work as a caregiver for elderly and sick local area residents - at times working directly for clients and other times employed through a home health agency - she would initiate, now a full five years ago, SITGAP’s Phase 1 with this stated philosophy at its charter’s heart:
“Standing in the Gap reaches out to all kinds of people, to people of all nations, creeds and color.
“If we can, we’ll reach out with food, clothes, shelter and jobs to help the hungry, the shut-in, the one who is having a hard time, or going through a difficult area in their life
“(SITGAP) is simply your distributor. You may give food, furniture or other useful items.
“We know who is in need and what they need. We are around people and we give to them.
“We love them, and we love you.
“We have a pick-up service if you are not able to transport the items you want to donate to this ministry.
“Your trash is (often) a poor man’s treasure!” (The office phone locally is 836-4480).
Her ‘Morning Ministry’
As this phase of SITGAP’s ministry grew, always advancing - though perhaps frustratingly slow at time for its extremely busy founder - Jernetta, often working long nights as a caregiver to be certain “the work” continued, would take a huge leap of faith with the Fall 2007’s introduction of a 15-minute radio ministry each week.
At 10:45 a.m. every Sunday, in most instances Jernetta would serve essentially as “a radio host” leading into a motivational talk by a variety of effective spiritual speakers she had arranged.
But, of course, there was a single common thread in this weekly KWHI program: It would always be geared to a message involving “spreading the Gospel to all nations” - ideally, inspiring many others to be similarly motivated.
On appropriate occasions as the program’s host, Jernetta would tie in a central theme of her SITGAP Ministries charter noting such examples as - in her own life - she had a friend “who was like a sister to me” and who after suffering a stroke (far away in another state) could no longer function on her own.
Fortunately, Jernetta reports that another good friend lived near this disabled “sister” - and while Jernetta was unable to go to her, and do things she would have loved to have been able to do, this friend who was so fortunately much closer by was generally able “to stand in the gap for me” - thus bringing God’s blessings to all these women.
This soon-to-be three years of what Jernetta calls her “Morning Ministry” has now been joined - with the recent March 7 debut of the New Artists Christian Showcase - by this one-hour (Sunday, 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.) weekly program airing on KLTR 94.1 FM radio in Brenham.
While likely her own longtime background as a Christian music vocalist inspired this new venture on Jernetta’s part, she is seeking out a wide variety of young talent to help spread God’s word, inviting those who perform instrumental music, poetry, short sermons/storytelling, testimonies and Christian rap or comedy to contact her with demos.
‘Showcase’ venture
Jernetta opens a recent letter sent out to prospective participants with, “I am so excited about this (Christian Showcase) and just know you’re going to get excited about it, too!”
She then adds: “God placed this ministry upon my heart a long time ago. I grew up in a small (Texas) town. In my third grade year, at the end of each class, my teacher let any of the students get up and express themselves with whatever talent they though they had.
“I would sing - yes, I would sing from that day on. I started singing in choir group, inner city churches and traveled with the preacher and his wife to represent our church.
” Later, after high school, I sang with bands, going to different events to sing. In prisons, at Air Force bases, for different kinds of causes. I knew this was what I wanted to do one day, and now I give thanks to God.
“I am living my dream and reaching my goals. Praise God!”
For nearly a decade after graduation from Plainview High School - in addition to “preparing for life” by going to business school and also training as a nursing assistant along the way - Jernetta would pursue that dream she had since childhood to become a professional vocalist/actor and headed out to Los Angeles to chase this lofty goal.
During one point rather early in Jernetta’s California years, she was teamed with future star Aretha Franklin in a stage presentation titled “Just Imagine.”
At that point, Jernetta was performing under the name of Faye Ross.
For several years, she also taught in a daycare center owned by her sister and one most enjoyable experience in those California years was being a drama instructor for children/teens at King’s Park Culture Center in Long Beach.
Back ‘home’ to Texas
Then there would be a return back near her West Texas roots as Jernetta and her daughter Sharae Bonae Belton, age 9 at the time she became a Texan, settled down for a while in Lubbock, 1991-95.
There, Jernetta operated the “Quick Lunch” cafe for much of this five-year Texas Panhandle area stay.
On January 1, 1996, there was a full-fledged - and, hopefully, permanent - move to Brenham which included bringing her elderly mother here to be closer to several of her children located in the Houston/Gulf Coast area.
Jernetta’s mother would pass away in 2000 at age 88, having enjoyed several years much nearer to her kids.
In that same year, daughter Sharay graduated from Brenham High School and, in the rather recent past, she has become an AMA Home Care employee here. Prior to that, she worked for eight years with the J.C. Penney Co.
Jernetta also especially enjoys cooking - at times in the past, being asked to cater small parties with her favorite “soul food” recipes - but the primary driving forces in this busy/determined woman’s life revolve around her “helping others” in all of the important ways listed in the charter she authored for Standing in the Gap.
Certainly, it is a wonderful time for Jernetta when she has the opportunity to provide a birthday party, or another meaningful celebration, in behalf of a relative “who simply couldn’t be there for a loved one’s special day.”
It is Jernetta Brown’s philosophy, as a woman of faith, to work toward everyone understanding several important things: “God created us all. We need to live in unity. And never let anybody just be thrown away.