Redemptive community, building a new life together in Christ…

New Community promotes spiritual and social renewal among women in Omaha who are re-entering society after incarceration. In addition to a weekly gathering that includes

a meal and Bible study, we provide the missing link for successful re-entry by creating a healthy, redemptive community.

About Eunice

DIRECTOR & FOUNDER, NEW COMMUNITY

Eunice Arant-Roos began her ministry in 2001 as a chaplain based at the Douglas County Correctional Center. While on a tour of the jail, she had the opportunity to talk to a group of incarcerated women. One of them said, “I hope you consider this chaplaincy position because we need help in here.” Eunice did just that. She had been actively involved in her church throughout her adult life. Now God was calling her to walk beside justice-involved women who needed God in their traumatized lives after experiencing so much pain, abandonment and abuse. In 2016 a new, pioneering program to serve women reentering society was established in Omaha by Good News Global. Called New Community, this ministry has been led by Eunice and a dedicated group of volunteers with the crucial support of area churches.

Eunice is the mother of four grown daughters. She and her husband, Jonathan, live in Omaha.

Our Story

The worst form of poverty among the incarcerated is their lack of friends, their paucity of healthy relationships. All of us are the product of our earliest relationships, starting with our primary community which is our family. The family holds the potential to profoundly influence the attachment patterns and levels of intimacy that play out in adulthood.

When early attachment and intimacy are disrupted by abuse and abandonment, a person is sorely lacking in the basic building blocks of a normal life.

Many people in this situation may turn to illegal substances to dull the pain of loneliness, isolation and unmet childhood needs. Addiction can lead to shoplifting and other forms of theft (see graphs below as a visual reference).

Since September of 2016, New Community has been about the business of training people from churches to mentor women coming out of jail or prison. The mission is to help reentering women forge healthy new relationships, which is key to making a successful transition into society.

New Community sets out to create a safe environment in which reentering women can meet new friends and forge a lasting connection with people who are active in churches and striving to deepen their own relationship with Jesus Christ.

The volunteers of New Community thus have the opportunity to grow spiritually along with the women they are mentoring, by engaging in relationships in more life-giving ways.

That’s why the motto of New Community is “Women in need of change helping women in need of change.”

Women exiting jail typically do not feel comfortable entering a church, and yet the church has the resources so needed to help them.

With the invaluable help of volunteers from area churches, New Community initially brought women in reentry together for weekly dinner gatherings of 50 to 70 people. In the winter of 2020, during the first months of the pandemic, New Community made the transition to on-line Bible study meetings and Zoom support sessions to keep the connections strong.

Since then, the ministry has shifted to small group meetings at which women in reentry study the Bible, share their personal stories and pray together. In this way, new friendships are being formed and many of the women are coming to know Christ as their personal savior. These adjustment to Covid-19 have created new paths of ministry that, because of their success, will be used into the future of New Community.

God is rewriting stories of redemption…

It’s no surprise that there are many dark stories, histories, and trauma that mark the lives of those coming out of incarceration. Yet, there is no story too dark for God’s love and redemption! Here is a brief overview of some common statistics of women in jail:

Prevalence of health problems
among women in jail

Percentage of women in jail who
in their lifetimes experienced…

*Source: Shannon M. Lynch et al., Women’s Pathways to Jail: The Roles and Intersections of Serious Mental Illness and Trauma (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2012)

Mission Statement

Equipping people to follow Jesus, share the gospel, and disciple women coming out of jail/prison for the glory of God

About Good News Global

New Community is an extension of Good News Global. Its vision is to meet the spiritual needs of both inmates and staff through ministry that includes evangelism, discipleship, and pastoral attention, while facilitating other religious faiths within the guidelines established by law and the individual correctional facility. Read more about Good News Global here:

Learn More

Statement of Faith

As an extension of Good News Global, New Community shares the same statement of faith:

The Scriptures: We believe that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God,” by which we understand that the whole Bible is inspired in that holy men of God were “moved by the Holy Spirit” to write the very words of God. We believe that this divine inspiration extends equally to all parts of the writings as they appeared in the original manuscripts.

The Godhead: We believe that the Godhead eternally exists in three Persons – The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit – and that these three are one God; co-equal and co-existent.

Man: We believe that man was originally created in innocency and that he fell through sin and, as a consequence of his sin, lost his spiritual life, becoming dead in trespasses and sins.

Christ’s Advent: We believe that the eternal Son of God came into this world that He might manifest God to men, fulfill prophecy, and become the Redeemer of a lost world. He was born of a virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit, received a human body and a sinless human nature.

Salvation: We believe that, owing to death through sin, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless born again. This redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who was made to be sin, dying in our stead, and that he was bodily and physically raised from the dead for our justification. We believe that the new birth of the believer is an act of God the Spirit and comes only through individual faith in Christ.

The Holy Spirit: We believe that the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the blessed Trinity, though omnipresent from all eternity, indwells every believer since the day of Pentecost, and by His baptism unites all of Christ’s own into one body. He is the source of all power and all acceptable worship and service.

The Church: We believe that God has ordained that through the local church the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to be spread and that it is the duty of everyone who is born again, to seek out a local fellowship for the furtherance of the Gospel and his own edification.

We believe in the literal resurrection of the body, the everlasting blessedness of the saved and the everlasting punishment of the lost. We believe that the supreme mission of God’s people in this age is to preach the Gospel to every creature, and we believe in the second coming of Christ according to the Scriptures.