wfn.org | Homeless women's church in Seattle brings hope to the asphalt

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Note #5921 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

jungle
31-May-2000
00219

	Homeless women's church in Seattle 	brings hope to the asphalt jungle

	Church founded by Presbyterian makes participants feel like ‘new women'

	by Evan Silverstein

SEATTLE - For homeless women attending the Church of Mary Magdalene, the
morning begins with a hot breakfast, a warm communal greeting and lots of
tender care.

	"That's one thing this place gives - (the sense) that we are somebody,"
Shirley says during a gathering at the church for homeless women in downtown
Seattle. She says she has spent the past 10 years in and out of
homelessness. "We are able to come here and cry amongst each other without
feeling ashamed," she says. "I am grateful for that."
     
	 The Presbyterian-founded non-denominational congregation, along with its
weekday Mary's Place program, is a haven for homeless women that offers
respite from the asphalt jungle five days a week. It's a place where they
can face their common plight together, worship together, comfort each other
and draw strength from each other.

	"When you're homeless on the street you get a sense of being extremely
lonely and sad, and no one cares," says Linda, who's on hand for the meeting
at Mary Magdalene, which is in the basement of First United Methodist
Church. "Mary's Place has been really good to us. If you come here, you have
the feeling of being around people that understand you. You don't have to
feel alone and left out. ... It just helps. It's a neat place."

	Help with basic physical needs is a big part of the Mary Magdalene and
Mary's Place ministries. Many of the homeless women who come here are
victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse, or have histories of mental
illness, drug abuse or alcoholism.

	Nourishing food, emergency aid, laundry services and help with housing are
among the ministries the program provides to the women. Other services found
at the "Women's Empowerment Center" range from Alcoholics Anonymous
meetings, twice-a-week Bible study, medical assistance and worship to arts
and crafts, facial make-overs and manicures.

	"Those things that make us feel like new women again," Marty Hartman, the
director of Mary's Place, says in reference to the facials and manicures.
She says the program is intended to offer "one-stop shopping" for homeless
women in need.

	The Mary Magdalene church, which has grown steadily in nine years thanks to
strong community support and volunteers, recently made welcome a national
delegation from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) led by General Assembly
Moderator Freda Gardner and the Rev. Floyd Rhodes, her vice moderator. The
May 8 visit was part of a four-state tour of  Presbyterian-related ministry
and mission sites in the Pacific Northwest.

	"One of the things that's beautiful about this church is that the women who
have been here for a while welcome the ones who are new," the Rev. Pat
Simpson, a United Methodist minister who is pastor at Mary Magdalene, told
the visitors. "They try to coach them along and hand down their experience.
They educate each other, and care for each other."

	In addition to meeting staff, volunteers, board members and some of the
homeless women of Mary Magdalene and Mary's Place, the PC(USA) delegation
heard from representatives of other Presbyterian churches that provide
ministries to the homeless in the Seattle area, where officials have
estimated that up 15 percent of the 5,500 homeless in King County are
female.

        "I almost don't have any words," Gardner said as members of the
delegation donned purple sweatshirts that said: "End Homelessness for All
Women" and "End Homelessness for All People." "I am incredibly moved by ...
the courage and the dignity of those of you who make your home here during
the week, and those of you who volunteer."

	The 1997 and 1998 General Assemblies of the PC(USA) adopted "ending
homelessness for all women and children" as a goal and encouraged
Presbyterian congregations to take action against homelessness. The U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services estimates that as many as 600,000
men, women and children in the United States are homeless.

	Many PC(USA) congregations and entities are doing their part in reaching
out to the homeless, according to those visiting the shelter.

	"The Presbytery of Seattle churches are very active," said the Rev. Jim
Christensen, pastor of Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, whose congregation
operates a soup kitchen and homeless women's shelter. "Most of the churches
are doing something to help with this problem." Christensen said programs
have to be designed to meet the unique needs of the homeless people of their
particular areas, not based on some generic model.

	"You can't bottle this," he said. "You can't capture this. You can't reduce
it to a manual or a ‘how-to' or a program that can be duplicated somewhere
else."

	The Rev. Jean Kim, who founded the Church of Mary Magdalene in 1991, said
Presbyterian churches are involved in mission to the homeless, but more work
is needed.

         "I have seen many wonderful programs," said Kim, an associate for
Ending Homelessness of Women in the PC(USA) Women's Ministries program area.
"I challenge churches to do more. I was so grateful to see so many, many
churches - Presbyterian churches and other churches - doing wonderful
programs ... from small shelters to a grand level of programing."

	Kim said a pastoral counselor from the Presbyterian Counseling Service has
been hired, thanks to the generosity of Magdalene church donors and a
private foundation, and a grant from the Synod of Alaska Northwest, which
includes Seattle, paved the way for Magdalene officials to furnish its
private counseling area.

	Hartman said officials try to help participants develop tangible skills
with which they can begin to work their way out of destitution.
			
	"We hope the women who come in here ... will be able to fill out housing
applications (and) listen to speakers present different housing
opportunities as well as employment opportunities," she said. "We have
several agencies from around the community that have just embraced us, and
come and offer their services and communicate to the women what is available
for them out there."

	The moderator's group later visited First Presbyterian Church, which also
offers services to the homeless in Seattle, and Lake Burien Presbyterian
Church, whose members are trying to establish a homeless shelter for women
in cooperation with other area churches of various denominations. The
delegation's tour, sponsored by PC(USA)'s National Ministries Division, also
included stops in Alaska, Idaho and California.

	Kim, who retired from Mary Magdalene in 1997, said she established the
church as a "safe place" for homeless women after learning through her work
as an outreach social worker that there was a desperate need for a "safe and
nurturing spiritual home" for homeless women.

	She said God called her in a dream to "plant the cross" for homeless women
in Seattle, whereupon she quickly gathered a multi-racial group for weekly
worship, preaching the Christian gospel of acceptance, forgiveness and hope.

	"I experienced some sense of call from God," said Kim, who in June will
leave her position with Women's Ministries and become a consultant to the
Presbyterian Hunger Program. "God wouldn't leave me alone," she said. "He
showed up to me in many different ways. To make a long story short, I had to
say ‘Yes, yes, yes, I'll do it.' It's God's very urgent issue."

	Starting in January 1991 in a small room in the United Methodist Church,
Kim held worship services, initially attracting a handful of women. Over the
next seven years she served the Church of Mary Magdalene, becoming well
known among the city's street people.

	"The Holy Spirit carried me onto the streets day and night, visiting with
the homeless," said Kim, who is writing a book on her experiences.

	A dedicated group of volunteers, board members and donors soon joined in to
help the ministry grow. The church added the Mary's Place program last
November, expanding services to both women and children who need a place of
refuge during the day. The ministry continues with support from churches of
many denominations, including a number of PC(USA) congregations, serving
homeless and impoverished women "in the name of Christ."

	"The board has done a great job, and the whole community has been
involved," Kim said. "This is a great witness to what God can do - what the
Holy Spirit can do."

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