From Shelter to Service

Seventeen years ago, on Good Friday, Metro Nashville police officers brought my ten children and me to Morning Star Sanctuary. My children ranged in age from ten months to ten years old. We arrived wearing our pajamas, with just one change of clothes between the eleven of us.

Just hours earlier, my husband had threatened to kill me.

And then he tried. 

At Morning Star Sanctuary, I found more than safety. I found kindness, support, and hope. Two days later, on Easter Sunday, volunteers filled our rooms with bags of clothing for my children and me. During my stay, support groups and mentors helped me begin the long journey of rebuilding our lives.

Years later, I returned as a volunteer mentor. Then, in 2025, God opened the door for me to join the AGAPE team, coordinating the same mentoring program that once helped carry me through one of the darkest seasons of my life.

Today, my office is in the same transitional house where my children and I once lived. Every morning, I am reminded that God redeems stories.

When I think of AGAPE, I don't think first about programs or buildings. I think about a family of eleven arriving late on a Good Friday night with nowhere else to go. We needed safety.

We needed hope.

We needed someone to meet us with the healing love of Christ.

Someone did.