by Rev. Antoinette Robinson, Peace Lutheran Church, Memphis

Peace Lutheran Church, Memphis, formed Trinity Ministries in partnership with two other local churches to serve the Great Commission of God: To go out serve the Lord in the community, taking God’s love, through Jesus Christ, to bring hope, joy and love to people who have fallen into the pits of life and whom the world has discarded.

It was through Trinity Ministries, more than 10 years ago, that Peace Lutheran Church joined hands with Carpenter’s House, of Room in the Inn – Memphis, an ecumenical ministry that serves people experiencing homelessness. Room in the Inn partners with churches all over the city to provide hot meals, warm beds, showers, clean underwear, T-shirts and clothes, as needed. Through this partnership, Peace Lutheran Church provides overnight shelter for more than a dozen people one night per week from November through March.

Serving up encouragement

Keith found hope through the ministries of Peace Lutheran Church, Memphis.

We met Keith one night. He was homeless and hopeless. He had given up on himself. He was invited — along with all the guests that night — to join us at Monday / Wednesday Lunches being served each week at Peace Lutheran. Keith said he was encouraged to come to the lunch because of how the people treated him during his overnight stay at Peace Lutheran.

Keith continued to sign up for “room in the inn” through Carpenter’s House, requesting to come back to Peace Lutheran Church every Friday during the winter season. Keith said, “I was encouraged not to give up on myself, to see that God has greater things for me to do with my life. God’s love for me was shared every time I came to eat lunch with the community.”

Keith got a job working at night, so he would come to lunch every Monday and Wednesday so we could fix him a take-out lunch for dinner that night at work. From there he was given housing through Carpenter’s House. He continued to come and volunteer to clean up and do whatever Peace Lutheran needed to be done. Keith started donating to the ministry by works, and funds, as available. Keith is in his twenties and looks forward to living a life with his wife and daughter.

Spreading God’s love, reviving hope in Memphis

Trinity Ministries continues to spread the love of God throughout the community. Just 10 years ago, people in the neighborhoods around Peace Lutheran Church didn’t know what being Lutheran means. Now Lutherans are known as Christians doing God’s will – reviving hope – in the community of Memphis. We serve with the support of all the Lutheran churches around the Memphis area as well as Methodist, Presbyterian and nondenominational churches; the Vollintine Evergreen Community Association neighborhood organization; Girl Scouts; and a host of individuals.

Future programs will be children’s church on Tuesday afternoons for the children to enjoy story time, crafts, and dinner, and to explore their God-given talents. Trinity Ministries is needed in the community to continue to lift Christ’s love and acceptance.

The Rev. Antoinette (“Tonie”) Robinson is pastor at Peace Lutheran Church, Memphis. She is also a leader of the Homeless and Justice Ministries Network of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. This network provides strategic leadership and resources to ministries across the country to walk with the marginalized — those who struggle with homelessness, poverty, mental illness, reentry and addiction — to share the good news of Jesus Christ with people wherever they are. Learn more about Peace Lutheran Church’s outreach ministries. Learn more about the Homeless and Justice Network of the ELCA.

edited by Kris A. Mainellis, Program Director for Communication and Events, Congregational Vitality

As a high school student in Tacoma, a young man was at odds with his mom, and he no longer felt welcome to live at home. He found support at Peace Lutheran Church and through the church’s tutoring program, eventually living with a family of the church for a few years. Now he has taken some college classes, finished an internship at Peace Lutheran Church and Peace Community Center, and is moving forward in life. His name is Juwan, and here is his story, in his own words. — Pastor John Stroeh

Like most Tacoma kids, my life started out as a struggle. But like a resilient underdog, I was determined to change the hand I was dealt into a royal flush. Know that I am a young man who loves to smile. But in my smile I hide a lot: years of pain and strain, of abandonment, lonely nights and heartache.

Years ago, I felt alone, empty, worthless.

You see, my mother and I started off like any loving relationship. She was my teacher, my madre and my best friend. She taught me wrong from right, how to tie my shoe and ride a bike (although it took me longer than most kids). She just stood with me. And picked me up when I fell down.

In the beginning of my junior year, my mother, the woman I love and care for with all the love that I have, began to go through a huge depression. The loss of her father, my grandpa, and the separation and ultimate divorce from the second man who promised he’d be there for her, no matter what, had devastated the loving and nurturing woman she was throughout my childhood. There were times when I saw her cry so many tears, from years of pain she had hidden away.

Depression, as we all know, is a tough issue to deal with. Over time she began to lash out and her sadness transformed into an uncontrollable anger. This anger turned into a beast that caused fights and turmoil in our household, and ultimately, in our mother-and-son relationship.

We began to fight. It started with verbal arguments, which turned into verbal punches to my heart and psyche. Things that I would never have thought would have been said began to come off her tongue like poisonous venom. Things like, “you’re not my son,” or “you’re never gonna be anything,” began to repeatedly spill from her tongue. “Hurt” and “confused” were simple words expressing the way I felt. Now I have these words to express my feelings in those times and in those circumstances:

Never in a million years would I have thought that things would’ve changed —

too fast did her love become pain.

 

Never did I imagine I would be sharing this story, but I’ll never put my mother down.

I used to think our past gave me the right — all those silly games we used to play transformed into horrific fights.

 

No longer was it lessons of wrong or right; no, it became, I was wrong and she always was right,

staying up at night praying that I might see a glimmer of God’s light.

 

You see, it started, I wanna say my junior year; yes, my junior year when I shed the most amount of tears (and she did too).

 

My grandfather was taken from this world while his baby girl held on;

saddest words ever when the doc said, “ma’am, your dad is gone.”

Same day I saw the life leave him, was the same day I saw life leave her.

 

Depression, we all know, is a furious beast and sometimes those who suffer from it lose themselves in its mitts.

 

Night after night, tears began to roll off her beautiful face;

oh, the beautiful face that raised six boys and one girl on her own.

Proud of momma for standing strong, even if she was alone.

 

The tears of sadness

turned to tears of madness as she lashed out on my siblings and me.

Childish arguments fueled with depression and heartache

left me alone, kicked out on the streets.

 

And the first time

was the worst time.

It broke my family apart.

I was me and they were them

and I had nowhere to go but to the church I called home.

 

And then it became the church against her.

But through the church I found my family again;

my family with God and the community.

 

Though we are not biological, me and my church family create a perfect unity.

They put me in a place to lay my head, put the smile back into my face;

and to a child all alone, they told me I would always have a place.

I’ve been on my own since the age of sixteen. Well, to say “on my own” would be a lie; through God’s mercy and love I’ve done things that can only be called a miracle. I’ve learned so many things through the church and the community. Things about love, life and happiness. Without the church and the community I can only say I don’t know the person I would’ve become or where I might have ended up. Thank God for being in my life, and the changes God’s continually making each day.

I’m a college student I will proudly say, who has had a bad past, lying in parks, cold nights in the dark. Who knew that with God and faith, anything is possible? My circumstances have helped mold me into the man I am, but they do not define me. No, what defines me is the faith I have in God because of the things in my past.

I would like to thank Peace Community Center and Peace Lutheran Church for always staying by me — sticking with me through the ups and downs, the battle with my mother — and the love they’ve helped me to find in myself. I thank God for putting the people there in my life, to help me take my life by the reins and flip the circumstances I was handed; flip them like an Olympic gymnast, into eventual accomplished dreams and fairy-tale endings. God, the church and community center have helped me to become the man I am today; the man that I am continually changing into. The man that God best sees fit.

The Rev. John Stroeh is pastor at Peace Lutheran Church, Tacoma. He is also a leader of the Homeless and Justice Ministries Network of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. This network provides strategic leadership and resources to ministries across the country to walk with the marginalized — those who struggle with homelessness, poverty, mental illness, reentry and addiction — to share the good news of Jesus Christ with people wherever they are. Learn more about the ministries of Peace Lutheran Church and visit the church’s website. Learn more about the Homeless and Justice Network of the ELCA.

edited by Kris A. Mainellis, Program Director for Communication and Events, Congregational Vitality