January 15, 2019  · CALLIE STEVENS

On a Friday morning, a group of women sits around a circular table, listening to a presentation on nutrition. They chat about eating habits that are both nutritious and economical. Later, they will make tuna salad together in a new commercial kitchen.  

The class participants, most of whom are without homes, are there for True Light Family Resource Center’s day shelter, a place to learn, to rest, and to be. True Light FRC has been ministering to people in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, since 2002. That’s when Pastor Alice Piggee-Wallack and the church she leads, True Light Church of the Nazarene, opened their doors to meet needs in an area downtown where approximately 30 percent of the population live below the poverty level. 

“We definitely wanted to create a safe space for women and children,” Piggee-Wallack says. “The first thing I know about the day shelter is that it wasn’t planned. I believe that God brought it about.”

The idea for a ministry was born when Piggee-Wallack drove to a homeless shelter to pick up a friend for some volunteer work at the church. When she arrived, the shelter’s doors were locked. Six women sitting on the building’s front steps caught her attention; one was caring for two babies. Curious, she introduced herself and discovered that shelter offered services overnight only, and the women had nowhere to go during the day.

“So I said, ‘Get in the car!’” she remembers. Two trips later, all of the women were with Piggee-Wallack at True Light Church of the Nazarene’s offices.

Pastor Alice of True Light Community Church of the Nazarene, Kansas City, MO

As she spent the day with them, the pastor says their fortitude struck her. They used their time to look for jobs and housing. They looked after one another and helped care for the babies.  

In the following weeks, more groups came by. Realizing this was a problem without an easy solution, Piggee-Wallack sat down with church members to discuss what a day shelter would look like and pray for its creation. Emancipation Station—a day shelter for women—was born. 

In the decade and a half since its inception, True Light has grown dramatically. The sheer scope of the center’s programs is impressive. In addition to Emancipation Station, they run a short-term residence for women called Freedom House. Men are also welcome at a number of other ministries, including a computer center, clothing closet, diaper distribution center, and at community breakfasts—all there to help people change their stories.

Emancipation Station is, at its core, a safe space. Once the night shelters close in the morning, there are few safe places for women to spend the intervening hours until the shelters open again around 6:15 p.m. In Kansas City, where both heat and cold are extreme, a comfortable, dry spot is a haven from the elements. 

Women of all backgrounds and experiences are welcome, as are women in all stages of life; some of the women are in and out of homelessness or live in other forms of housing. “We don’t care where a person is, we don’t care what they’ve done, where they’ve been,” says Piggee-Wallack. “The only thing we care about is where they’re going. God loves you, and He has plans for you. Now if you can accept that, you’re welcome here.”

The Freedom House is next door to the shelter in a well-decorated, two-story home, the first in a line of historic clapboard houses stretching for blocks. Up to five women can live there at a time, following an application and interview process. The program starts at 90 days, but women can stay up to a year if they’re making good progress.

At Freedom House, each resident is assigned a social worker, who helps them set their own goals along with a plan for accomplishing them.

Freedom House becomes a way station during periods of transition and change.

“Going over there, it’s not a shelter,” says resident Ginellis Thurman. “It’s your home.”

It’s easy to see that if you go in. Downstairs, leather couches and armchairs overflow with throw pillows.

Upstairs, each room is tidy and unique to the woman who lives in it. A Bible lies open on a bedside table, the text almost entirely highlighted.

“This is a safe haven for ladies,” Thurman adds.

A bedroom in Freedom House, part of True Light FRC

A single-night, nationwide count of both sheltered and unsheltered homeless people in 2017 revealed a total of 2,287 people experiencing homelessness in Kansas. About 85 percent were people who were sheltered in emergency shelters, transitional housing programs, or safe havens. But, as Piggee-Wallack discovered, those shelters aren’t always able to provide the necessary resources and protection.

 Some of the women who come to Emancipation Station are survivors of abuse, both past and current. For them, the shelter is a haven for many reasons. Others, like Crouch, come for the community. Sometimes, it’s the only place where women can rest. But every person who walks through the door will know one thing: they are valued.

“Regardless of our race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, we share so much in common,” says Piggee-Wallack. “And when we can actually see that, it makes it easier to be able to care for each other and to worship together.”

 - Adapted from the Winter 2018 edition of NCM Magazine. To read more about True Light or to subscribe, visit ncm.org/magazine.