Tena Hauk of Carlisle knew she wanted to make a difference in the lives of people who were in trouble with the legal system.
For 17 years, she was a counselor for Arkansas jail and prison inmates, working first for Arkansas Community Correction, then for Prison Fellowship Ministries. When that company pulled out of Arkansas in June 2011, Hauk was looking for a way to continue her work inside the justice system.
She started New Hearts Ministries of Arkansas later that year with the intention of still being able to help those in need.
“I started searching and praying to see what the Lord was going to have me do next,” Hauk said. “It’s really hard to go back to the secular workforce after working for six years in a faith-based ministry. In October 2011, the Lord just laid it on my heart to start a nonprofit and to continue. At that time, he told me to do what I was doing, but I was going to do it on the outside.”
Hauk opened an office in Lonoke for her ministry after getting it nonprofit status.
“I partnered with local jails, the Lonoke County Probation Office and the Department of Human Services,” she said. “I was offering classes for girls and sometimes couples to come into my office. I was teaching anger management, emotions, all those different classes I was teaching in the prison.”
Luckily, Hauk said, she didn’t have to purchase materials for her classes.
“When Prison Fellowship Ministries left Arkansas, they left all their materials,” she said “My director at the time gave me all that stuff.”
Until May 2018, New Hearts Ministries continued in a similar pattern to what Prison Fellowship did.
“I was going into the jails and prisons and teaching classes on the inside and the outside,” Hauk said. “In the middle of that, what I learned was that there were a lot of people recycling themselves through prison and jail. It was a revolving door. I started doing more research about why that is and what could be done so the recycle process could be stopped.”
Hauk said God started changing things for her.
“I needed a program to do on the outside, like a recovery home,” she said. “God put that on my heart and told me that was going to come.”
Hauk did have to put her work on hold while caring for her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease.
“Once my mom got situated, I started searching for an office and getting back with the jail in Lonoke County,” she said.
Hauk approached the Carolina Baptist Association in Lonoke in May 2018, looking for a new office.
“They have a conference room in the back,” she said. “I told them I wanted to be partnered with the probation office and the courts again.”
Hauk said she spoke with Brother Jerry Miller with the association.
“He asked me about my long-term goals for New Hearts. He didn’t see a problem with giving me an office. He had to check with the board,” she said.
“I told him I had been looking at a place to do a recovering home for women in addiction,” Hauk said. “At first, I thought it was going to be a transitional home for women coming out of prison, but that takes a lot of approval from the state. You have to go before communities to do this stuff. Sometimes, the communities don’t want that in their backyard.
“Then I started looking, thinking I was still going to do transitional living out in the country,” she said. “You don’t have to have as many things in place like you do in the city.”
Hauk said she started teaching at a recovery home in Conway.
“I started getting into the recovery issues,” she said. “That is the prelude into going into prison,” she said. “The people may have been to jail. It’s before going to prison.”
“We don’t have anything like that here in Lonoke County,” she said. “I knew it was time to change Lonoke County.”
She shared all of her long-term goals for New Hearts with Miller and the board at the Carolina Baptist Association on May 6, 2018.
Hauk said she wanted to start the recovery home in Lonoke County because this is her home area.
Hauk said Pastor Bob Courson of Caney Creek Baptist Church, south of Lonoke on Arkansas 31, said he would have to speak with his congregation, but he wanted to donate some land for New Hearts.
“We are a small church,” he said. “We just have a heart for trying to help folks. We’ve got some in our church who have gone through addiction recovery. When I found out about Tena and her ministry and I shared it with the church, we had her come out and share with us. The folks were enthused and excited about it
“We waited a few weeks, then brought it before the church, and the church voted 100 percent to put the home on our property. It just began from there.”
“On June 3, I spoke to the church, and they voted 100 percent to give me 2 acres,” she said. “In the middle of that, Pastor Bob had a friend in Beebe who owned a mobile-home park. He made a phone call to see if they had any [mobile homes] to donate or get rid of.
“They donated a mobile home. On June 3, 2018, I gained 2 acres and a mobile home.”
Hauk hopes to have the recovery home in operation in July.
“We’ve been working for a year to get the mobile home moved, a septic tank installed, electricity and plumbing installed,” she said. “It was put on land with none of that there. We’ve repainted the mobile home. A store in Conway furnished all new flooring. I found some men at a recovery home in Wilburn to install the floor. We had paint donated. With everything so far, we’ve spent quite a bit of money.”
Once the New Hearts Ministries program starts, it will be a nine-month process, Hauk said.
“We can only house four women at a time, along with the program/house director,” she said. “The first six months will be classes and community work, maybe cleaning houses, landscaping, cleaning people’s yards. The last three months, we’ll partner with people around here in Lonoke County. Hopefully, we’ll get a van and transport [the residents] to work and teach them how to budget, have a work ethic, how to build a resume and, hopefully, partner with different people in Lonoke County businesses to put these girls to work after they do their initial six months in the program.”
Hauk said the goal after nine months is to help the clients stay sober.
“Hopefully, you’ve helped a person change from drugs and alcohol and abuse,” she said. “That’s probably all they’ve known. Hopefully, we’ve given them a life and are helping them to do life. Hopefully, at the end of the final three months, they’ve saved money, and we can help them get a car or an apartment and be able to do life and not continue to be in this dark, revolving door of jail and drugs.
“That’s the purpose of this program.”
Assisting Hauk as the program director is Mandi Tanner of Greenbrier.
“She’s been in prison, but she’s been clean for six years,” Hauk said. “She also went through a similar program. She worked at Harbor Home in Conway. She’s coming here now.”
Hauk said New Hearts Ministries is her full-time job, but she won’t be paid for the first year.
“I do have a part-time job,” she said. “I deliver auto parts. Mandi and I will be full time. I’ve elected not to take a salary for the first year. Mandi is a vital key to the success of this.”
Tanner said she was addicted to drugs for 27 years.
“I’ve had a life of addiction,” she said. “I was incarcerated twice. That is when the Lord started working on me. I helped get the Harbor Home in Conway started. I did that for four years. I felt like the Lord was calling me to do something more.”
Tanner is already working with Hauk in getting the recovery home ready.
Tanner said she and Hauk have been friends for years because of Hauk’s previous work with people with addiction.
“She has been a spiritual mother for me,” Tanner said of Hauk. “Whenever this all came about, Tena offered me the opportunity to be the program director. I said absolutely. I just felt like God was calling me to do something more than what I had been doing with the Harbor Home.”
Right now, New Hearts is being run strictly by donations.
“We’ll fundraise,” Hauk said. “We just had a car show, which was a family event. We’ll partner with churches and individuals. We need to have those donors in place on a monthly basis throughout the year. It’s going to take us about $5,500 a month.”
“I’m hoping to become one of those programs where we only fundraise three or four times a year and can get the money. I don’t want to fundraise every other month.”
For more information about New Hearts Ministries, search for it on Facebook or email Hauk at tena.newhearts@gmail.com.
Staff writer Mark Buffalo can be reached at (501) 399-3676 or mbuffalo@arkansasonline.com.