Community Spotlight · Jim Hunter & Second Half
Jim Hunter & Second Half | Five Decades of Faithfulness
If you've had the privilege of meeting Jim Hunter, you're well aware what a warm, friendly person he is and how easy it is to engage in conversation with him. What a joy it was to sit down and chat about his long standing history with Needle's Eye and all of the seasons he has walked through with us!
Jim grew up in Natural Bridge, Virginia. After college, he was set to ship out to Vietnam when he ended up in the Virginia Militia instead. He'll tell you this was one of the first of many times in his life where the path he expected wasn't the one he walked. Today, Jim and his wife Kay have three sons and six grandchildren, and a legacy at Needle's Eye that spans more than five decades.
Jim first came to Needle's Eye in the late 1970s, not long after the organization started. He went to college at Randolph-Macon with and was a close friend to Needle's Eye's founder, Buddy Childress. He's been part of this community ever since. Along the way, he's helped build and lead groups for people navigating some of life's hardest transitions, leaving a mark that's carried through more than 30 years and counting.
In 1995, Buddy asked him to help start a career transition group, a support group for men and women who had lost their jobs. Jim knew that world well. His own career in the forest products industry had taken him through six different companies, not because he kept leaving, but because the industry kept merging around him. "When God calls, God prepares," Jim says of that season, and it turned out his own career had prepared him for exactly the work ahead.
That first group started with 25 people. Once they found new jobs, the group disbanded for a season, as its purpose was done. But when the job market turned again in 2000, they brought it back, this time with 15 to 20 men. By the recession in 2008, it had grown to 50 people across three separate groups. Over the life of this group, it was able to impact several hundred people’s lives.
From the beginning, Jim was clear that this wasn't just a networking group or a place to swap job leads. He built it around spiritual gift surveys, helping anyone who was involved to understand not just their skills, but who God made them to be. Jim helped build a place to help men and women determine where the Lord wants them, and to follow His path forward, not just find their next paycheck. Over the years, the group didn't just talk, they served the community together too, taking on service projects like painting the Needle's Eye Ministries building.
After the many years leading the career transition group, Jim's role shifted. When Gordon, a retired dentist, started the Second Half group, he asked Jim to train the facilitators. Second Half is built around plugging retired men into their own gifts and into each other, whether that's being in community with each other, coming alongside someone who can no longer keep up with their own yard work, visiting hospitals, or partnering with local retirement homes.
Among many other things in his retirement, Jim has mentored many young men, and his ability to connect with and uplift the next generation stands out as one of his greatest gifts. Just a few months ago, Jim struck up a conversation with a man named Jeremiah, who was working at a golf course he was playing at. Jim simply asked him if he had a church home. That Sunday, Jeremiah joined Jim at his home church and they are keeping in touch.
Five decades at Needle's Eye. Two groups built from the ground up. Countless men and women who found not just their next job, but their next step with God. That's Jim Hunter's story, and it's still being written today. Thank you for sharing your heart and your history with Needle’s Eye with us, Jim!
Curious what a Second Half group looks like? Come visit a group! There’s a seat waiting for you. Check out more info here.