February 12, 2025
Oakdale entrepreneur Jordan receives ‘Inspire Her Award’

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One never really knows which direction life will take you. In the case of Kendra Harris Jordan, a local business owner and entrepreneur extraordinary, this couldn’t be more true.

Jordan was recently honored as the recipient of the “Inspire Her Award” as a Woman Excel Awardee presented by the Pretty Powerful Organization.

“I know him because I actually work with him. We all pastor each other’s churches and support each other,” Jordan said of the Bay Area-based organization. He said the nomination was a completely unexpected blow.

It was through the help and coordination of her husband, Lorenzo Jordan, that the organization, which is partnered with the NAACP, came out during a church service to offer her the nomination.

Both Kendra and her husband serve as pastors at River of Jordan Ministries, a church in Oakdale.

The recipient said upon learning of the nomination, “It was heartwarming for me, because I do nothing to get back to mankind, as God told us to expect things from him.”

According to the honoree, Pretty Powerful is an organization of women who inspire other women and recognize those who inspire.

“Of course I cried. I tried to keep it together,” Jordan continued. “It was completely unexpected. I had no idea I would get this award.”

Upon the nominations being presented, Jordan told the presenter that Oakdale is not the picture that is painted of the community. If he and his family can live and thrive in Oakdale, so can anyone.

The business owner shared, “She said we set a good example for all people to see that not all African Americans are stereotypical.” “She said it goes both ways, African Americans are not just people who can destroy your city, they can contribute to your city.”

While receiving the award shared by Jordan she was told that she was the first African American woman to own multiple businesses in Oakdale and they wanted to acknowledge her for it. Sharing that they were inspired by her doing this and that it made them feel like they could go out and put their feet on the soil, where they must have also felt despair.

But it didn’t start there for the owners of several Oakdale businesses, including: Gemini’s Creations and KLH Enterprises LLC through various others.

“I started an organization in 2005 as a single mom on wellness,” Jordan shared. “It was called Miscellaneous Family Services. With that organization, my children and I sacrificed Christmas to make Christmas possible for other children and families.”

A small idea that initially helped five families, has grown to help 500 families by 2015. A feat that got a boost thanks to Divas au Naturel, a women’s motorcycle club started by Jordan.

She said of other women through the motorcycle club, “It was always about inspiring and encouraging them.”

“To be in the motorcycle club, women had to do community service. So we provided community service through a variety of family services,” she added, which led to an increase in Christmas gifts.

Jordan shared, “It put me in a leadership position for women who had had children and it gave me the opportunity to point them in the right direction.” Miscellaneous and Motorcycle Club.

However, by 2015, Jordan and her husband found themselves in new circumstances. Upon relocating from Oakland to Patterson in search of a better life for her children, things changed drastically.

He shared, “We were victims of housing scams, where you rent a house and it wasn’t actually their house.” “So we ended up homeless because of that.”

As Jordan and his family settle into their new living situation and temporarily call a hotel home, the Christmas program is put on the backburner.

Contacted by an annual donor, Jordan shared her story and circumstance. As a result and without her knowledge, the donor paid for two additional weeks at the hotel they were staying in.

She said, “God is really good, because even in the middle of it I was struggling with whether I was going to do it all again.” “I felt like I had lost my place in life. How do I go from being the person who helps everyone to being the person who needs help?

In time the couple found Oakdale and a landlord who continued the generosity they had begun to experience.

Everything continued. It was just like it was put on hold a little bit,” she said about coming to Oakdale and launching her first business, Gemini’s Creations, in the city.

“I am still stuck. I am still trying to figure out why I got the award because whatever I do, I do it from my heart,” she said. “It should not be rewarded by man, for I believe that God will always reward me for my works.”

And while she’s honored to be a recipient, the bigger picture for Jordan is both God and the company she keeps.

“Everyone who has come into my life. My trials, my hardships,” she shared, “everything I’ve gone through has led me to where I am now.

“It is very difficult to obtain. It’s easy for me to give. It’s hard to get.”

Source: www.oakdaleleader.com

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