At the Foot of the Cross

“They told me to cut down a tree they said was gone. Everyone said it was dead. I left it and then one day I saw a shoot coming out and now it is alive again!”

This was a story a woman had shared at Christ Kitchen during a Bible study on Isaiah 11: 1-9 “The Branch from Jesse”. Although this passage is referring to Jesus’ arrival and the new life He brought with Him, this image was symbolic to these women as well. People had given up on them. Society had given up on them. They had given up on themselves. They were seen as “dead”, like the tree in the passage, with no hope of coming alive again. But as they walk through the doors of CK, a life-giving stream in the midst of the inner city, His waters begin seeping into the roots of those thought to be “dead”.  Then, out of His nourishing waters that come from the love at CK, there is new life and the women begin to flourish as never before. A picture of beauty as they embrace each other  through their pain and joy and then offering encouragement to take with them as they step back out the doors into their world. The encouragement and the scripture they receive at CK, help them stand up against the voices which once said they were “dead” and instead show their world, a dark world often filled with fear and violence, a new life in them.

Each Thursday morning the women have Bible study before they begin their work for the day. This was the day I arrived and walked into a room bright, not just by the light coming through the windows covering the walls, but the light coming from the women. I was greeted, as each woman is when she walks through the door, with open arms and a genuine love flowing from the other women. A joy which says, “I’m so glad to see you today”. This was the prayer of Jan Martinez who began CK, a prayer for each woman to feel loved and to know the Lord. 

In Jan’s book, “Christ Kitchen: Loving Women Out of Poverty”, Jan eloquently tells the story of the Samaritan woman who encounters Jesus at the well and compares her life to the life of many of the women she ministers to. “She is tough and street-smart, funny and caring, deeply wounded and disconcertingly honest. She is bright and talented, but often conceals her gifts behind layers of suspicion, guilt and suffering. Above all, she longs to love and be loved.” 

As you drive through your community or take time to explore beyond your daily route, I pray your eyes are opened to sights you may not have seen before or perhaps chose not to see.  Jesus walked through those areas which others choose to journey around.  He did not rush his time with the Samaritan woman but had patience and showed her love. He showed her that her life was not dead, like those of her community believed, but that new life could spring out of her through Him. Jan’s pray, for the readers of her book, is that they will fall in love with her, the Samaritan outcast in each of our towns, just as Jesus did so many years ago and continues to do today. 

JBU:

When you sat down to write your book, what was your heart’s intention?

Jan: I wanted to tell the story of what God is doing among the women I get to work with. It’s a story of miracles! Women from local churches tell me, “We don’t get to hear those stories very often. We need to hear them. We need to hear how alive God is.” I also wrote the book to shine a light on the misconceptions of poverty we have in the United States.  We don’t like our poor. We don’t have compassion for them. We do for the poor in other countries but the American assumption is that our poor are the undeserving poor. Because there is so much available in the US, we wonder, “Why don’t they take advantage of our opportunities?” The next assumption is “It must be laziness”. I wanted to help people understand the results of violence and family pathology that these women have lived through.  Mostly I wanted to woo believers into loving the poor because Jesus loves them. I pray women in the pews might become inspired and equipped to minister to their sisters in the back alleys of their towns.

JBU:

Tell me about the work that is done in Christ’s Kitchen.

Jan:  The literal business is creating delicious food and gourmet mixes. We have 37 different mixes that we sell in our shop and online around the country. We also have a restaurant and catering business.  We employ the women to create the products and prepare the products for those 3 avenues of income.

JBU:

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced with this ministry?

Jan: It’s challenging working within the foreign country of American poverty. We created a business that strives to accommodate the issues that our women bring in without catering to them. We’re a business that works with broken people. Our business and our ministry hold a unique tension. 

JBU:

What feel do you want Christ Kitchen to have?

Jan: When I’d go back home my father would always come to the door, open it wide and say “Jannie!” and I would just fall into his arms. That’s always how he welcomed me home and that is what I want people to feel when they come in the door of CK. I want them to feel loved. We may not even know you yet but we’re going to love you. My dad was so gentle and loving when he welcomed me. That’s the sense I want the women to have. And, because we are working with all these class issues, I want everyone to receive the exact same treatment and respect. We work hard to have a place where you don’t automatically know each other’s background. Christ Kitchen has become a place that transcends barriers of class, race, or opportunity, where those issues don’t contend for power. We are just here to serve the Lord. It doesn’t matter where you’ve come from, we are all being healed by God so we can come together and serve. We are like the Luke 8:3 women: having been healed by Christ, we’re on the road with Him, serving and working together.

JBU:

Share a little bit about the women you minister to.

Jan: The byline on our logo says:  “Hope for women living in poverty”. We say “living in poverty” because financial poverty is a temporary condition and it clarifies who we minister to.  Many of our women, after they have been transformed will say, “I am not poor!” Ironically, they have no money, but they are saying they are not impoverished spiritually. They describe themselves as “rich in the Lord.” Financial poverty really becomes a secondary issue. We are all in the process of becoming stable and Christ dependent no matter what our bank accounts say. 

Most of the women we hire have lived through incredible violence. It seems to be the difference between American poverty and poverty in other countries. The level of violence in American homes is so severe and covered up that you don’t see it very often. We hear about violence on the news, but few understand the extent of what of what these ladies have lived through.  

JBU:

What was your plan when you started this mission?

Jan: I did not have a plan. I was a therapist at Christ Clinic and I just wanted to have a Bible study for women who felt unworthy to walk into a church. Never did I think I was starting a business. God had to keep that little detail a secret for a while because He knew what I would have thought of it – “like, are you kidding, God?”  But, when I realized that money and work was the only thing that brought the women in, we started making a whole line of gourmet mixes. Sometimes I still say to God, “I am a therapist. What am I doing selling beans?” But He knew that in our little business of selling beans, He was doing His big business of saving lives.

JBU:

What kept so many of these women, in the past, from stepping into a church?

Jan:  The women say, “I am not worthy to be around people like you.” They seem to have a rather pure view of Christians as being all good and right. Many of them were very hurt as children. When they became 12 or 13 years old, they began dampening their pain with drugs or alcohol or men. By the time we see the women they concentrate on their guilt more than their pain. They don’t feel like they could measure up to church-people  

JBU:

What kind of misconceptions do you believe people have of the poor?

Jan: I think the main one is that the poor are lazy and that’s why they are in the state they are in. It’s their fault. They have created this world that they live in.  

JBU:

If that is a misconception, then what is the truth?

Jan: They are the most unlazy women I’ve ever been around!  At Christ Kitchen we help women become stable, healthy, fully-functioning people ready to serve the Kingdom. Many women just need the space, love and encouragement to become what they were made to be. We use work and job-training to provide the opportunity for discipleship and mentoring. Bible study and ongoing prayer undergirds everything we do. We see women who think they are worthless and unemployable begin to believe they really are loved and valued. This enables them to heal from past traumas and dramas and begin to turn their lives around. We see them reuniting with their children, leaving abusive relationships, becoming clean and sober, and becoming productive citizens. We know it takes a long time to restore dignity so we’re in it with them for the long haul. 

Sometimes our misconceptions about the poor actually keep us from attending to God’s word. When you begin reading Scripture with an eye towards God’s love for the poor, it almost seems like He is biased toward the poor. Deuteronomy 15:7-8 says, “If anyone is poor …do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them.  Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need.”  Some worry if you do this you will be taken advantage of, but God is not worried about that. He’s worried about our hearts. We need to be open handed. 

JBU: 

What are your thoughts when encountering those who have negative opinions of those who are poor?

Jan:  I know they don’t know God’s heart. God wants us to be obedient to His plan. There are over 2,000 verses about poverty in the Bible and how it relates to justice. We are accountable to His Work, even if we don’t hear about it from the pulpit. “Pure, undefiled religion,” says James, “is to care for the widow and orphan.” Jesus’ first words as Savior was, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” When the apostles commissioned Barnabus and Paul, all that they asked was that they should remember the poor. Faith in the one true God has always been about caring for the needy.  If you ascribe to a sloppy theology, you might miss this.

JBU:

What specific steps do you take to help these women move out of poverty and become more self-sufficient?

Jan: The first phase, “On your feet” works on stability and Christ dependency. We do that through Bible study and discipleship.  There is no specific plan. There is a clear structure to our work day within which the Word is proclaimed. Prayer and working out the Word through discipleship is a constant. So it may look like we are just tying bows or mixing ingredients, but other issues are always being attended to:  “How are they getting along with the other women at the table?” “How productive are they?” “How are they following the rules?” There is a lot of flexibility with the schedule but we tell them, “You know a good employee isn’t going to make their doctor appointment when they are supposed to be at work because then you don’t get paid.” Job training is always going on. We have a lot of grace with new women and then we mentor and let natural consequences live out.

When the women first come in, they really have a sense that they can’t work. It’s like their whole sense of self is destroyed. They literally walk in the door and feel incapable. We simply ask if they can do something simple, like “can you put these stickers on here?” And they do. Then they move to the next table or into the food kitchen.  Stability increases by adding a little more stress and see how they do. Many of them are surprised. They say, “Hey, I am good at this!” I believed it the first day they walked in, but their concept of themselves is that they are “bad” or unworthy. So we just keep praising their competence. Incompetent or negative behavior is dealt with gently at first and then we confront and hold accountable. So that is discipleship. That is job training. At another job they would be fired but we know what their life is like so we just start small. We have learned how to encourage them.  

The second phase is “On your way” which is our study using “Jobs for Life” curriculum. It’s a 16 week course/Bible study at the end of which the person has a job. This involves many mentors who walk through the course with them. 

JBU:

Share with me an example of the ladies “moving on”. 

Jan: There is a woman named “Laura” who said, “My mother screwed me up and I screwed up my kids but I’m not going to screw up my grandkids!  I have my grandkids come over for snack after school. They do their homework and then we do Bible study. That is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life.”  That is the definition of “moving on.” “Laura” is in a wheelchair now and dying of multiple sclerosis but her life has meaning now. She just glows! She is bringing the Lord to her grandkids, which have started influencing her kids, so that they will not to be “on the system” as the next generation. That is moving on!

JBU:

How do you start up a ministry such as this?

Jan: I wrote the book with that question in mind. I explain both ministry and business principles that would guide the reader into starting something similar.  My desire was to simply offer a Bible study to women living in poverty who never attended church. I had to come up with a viable means of creating income in order to pay their wages. Christ Kitchen has grown into a successful business, but our underlying motivation always will be, to bring the Word to a hurting world. I’m sure that is the reason God has blessed the business.

We are currently organizing a foundation with which to help new projects like Christ Kitchen get started. Proceeds from book sales and donations will fund small grants to offer seed money to creative, Godly, thoughtfully-designed projects.

JBU:

How many have used your model and branched off of it?

Jan: I know of 4 projects that have started CK-type projects. In Casper, WY, CrossRoads Kitchen makes stationary. At Benevolent Baskets in Baltimore, they buy products to make baskets and then sell them. In Panama City, a woman hires her neighbors to make silk pillow cases and woven placemats out of plastic bags. In Guatemala City, women in prison knit scarves and headbands to make money as a means to buy food for themselves while in prison. Their handmade goods are now sold in a shop in Minnesota.  These are not exact replicas of Christ Kitchen but they use the concept within an indigenous context. 

JBU:

For the readers who feel a call to starting similar ministries, what words of encouragement can you give?

Jan: Pray. God will just put the next step in front of you. He just does when our prayers are honest. The doors open and often they are doors you didn’t even think would open. If you are open to whatever He has it just starts miraculously taking place. It’s all about prayer. 

JBU:

What are some ways to begin researching where the needs are in a community?

Jan: In every big city there are going to be food pantries and shelter ministries. The missionaries in those settings are knowledgeable people who can offer their expertise. There was a man, working with the poor who said, (paraphrased) “When I go into a neighborhood I don’t come in and say, ‘here’s a program and you should do it this way.” He comes in and says “tell me the signs of hope in your neighborhood.” So the question is not “what’s wrong?” but instead, “Tell me what are the signs of hope?” He asks the pastors, the mailman, the people in the neighborhood houses and they know what works. They know what’s good and they build from there. Asset based mission is where you use the assets of the people to further the mission. It is not coming in with something new and saying, “we are going to do it this way.”

JBU:

What has working with the women taught you about love?

Jan: The women have taught me a depth and breadth of love I never knew before - That I can love without parameters. Their love for the Lord is all encompassing, likely because they have little to distract them from Him. It reminds me of the story Jesus told the Pharisee about 'who loves me more?' - the one with a huge debt canceled or the one with a smaller debt.

JBU:

“Let patience have its perfect work”. How does that quote apply to the journey of Christ Kitchen?

Jan: I just cling to the Lord knowing He’s going to do something and I just have to hold on as He does. It’s not like I have a plan that I’m patiently waiting for the Lord to work out. Those usually fail. When it comes to the individual women’s lives, we must exercise a lot of patience because they are so fractured. You see women take a step forward and then two steps back. We patiently watch the Lord’s work in their lives and in our own as we work with them. For me looking at the kitchen as a whole, my word is “obedient”.  I just have to stay obedient.  It’s very hard sometimes because I think I know how or where it should go. And that, to me, is not obedience. If I am praying and open to direction, I just trust that our ministry will thrive.

~ By Rebecca Hansen