"I was at a point in my life where my kids were leaving the home and going on to make their own lives and I was trying to figure out where my purpose was. I prayed a lot about where God wanted me to be."

Terrie says it didn't take long to get an answer. A short time later the former public school teacher had two opportunities to work with kids.

The first was at the Hope House of Colorado. Terrie took a tour and fell in love with the home, which provides teenage mothers with a safe place to learn life, parenting and employment skills.

"I saw what a wonderful job that they were doing with girls who had virtually no hope in life. They came from very, very dysfunctional backgrounds. Some of them were 15 years old and had small children that they were trying to raise and had no idea how to do that."

She jumped at the chance to join the board and since then has been helping the program to grow strategically. "She and her husband have been involved in helping us grow," explained Lisa Steven, the co-founder and Executive Director of Hope House. "The vision of Hope House is for there to be more than one home."

Terrie added, "A goal for the program is to extend this home into our sister cities and possibly other states. That's been one of our goals since the inception of this program."

While Terrie is passionate about her work with the Hope House, it's the two Sudanese families that she's "adopted" that are closest to her heart. Five years ago the families came to the United States as refugees, fleeing religious persecution. "In Sudan they were persecuted by the Muslim society, because of their faith," explained Terrie. "One of the (Sudanese) moms shared with me about how her father died. His throat was slashed."

The continuing genocide in their homeland means that the families can't return to Sudan. "I asked (one of the Sudanese mothers) at one point, 'if you ever had a chance to go back and live in Sudan do you want to do that. She said, 'Oh no Terrie," She said, 'I like it here in America and my mother never wants me to come back, because she said if I come back to Sudan I would die."

Terrie's sister introduced her to the families a short time after they arrived in the country. Initially, she had only volunteered to help teach one of the women English. "I thought it was going to be a one hour, one day a week task."

She soon realized that the families needed a lot more help. "They were coming to me for their needs and their wants. I saw that these people were not going to make it unless they had help. They spoke very little English; their children were struggling in school."

Terrie now helps the family with everything from day to day tasks to helping to provide them with shelter, food, clothing, and even helping to them find employment. Terrie helped one of the women get a job at Lowes, first accompanying her to job fairs and eventually to job training. "Who goes and works for three weeks at Lowe's hardware store with someone just to get them through their orientation period at the hardware stores?" asked Lisa Steven? "She spends countless hours with her Sudanese kids."

"There's never a time when she's not thinking of someone else. It's the Hope House or the Sudanese kids or it's something at church. She's always giving, always sharing from the heart."

It's Terrie's hope that through her work both the Sudanese families and the young mothers at the Hope House will be able to one-day become self sufficient and productive members of society. 

Please join 9NEWS and Regis University in congratulating Terrie Ideker, the December 2007 winner of the 9Who Care Award.