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The Rev. Thulie Beresford — Families with Children Category
by Tara Perre
Photography by Dave Kaphingst
The Rev. Thulie Beresford (Flint, Michigan)
Salem Lutheran Church; Genesee County Chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
Motivation: Mark 10:45, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve..." When you see the hope that people have in a world where there isn't always hope, it's so inspiring.
Favorite volunteer activity: Garden of Hope. Every Thursday we go to the neighborhood garden. It was an empty lot where people dumped trash. We cleaned it up and made it into a garden. We are giving people hope. Kids and adults come and work together. It brings a different flavor to our neighborhood. We are the light in our community.
Volunteer involvement: Garden of Hope, Joyful Noise offerings, King Coalition Summer Program, The Gift of Time after-school program, food and clothing drives, neighborhood health fair, Great Lakes Script, Lutheran World Relief and cooking lunch at church every Sunday for the congregation.
Grant awarded to: 17 different organizations in the Flint area and various Lutheran organizations.
Family: Husband, Charles; daughter, Khabonina, 8; and son, Charles Ndelu, 3.
First involved in volunteering: In choir at age of 6. My father was a lay preacher. He was one of the people that translated part of the Bible into Zulu in South Africa. My mother was a teacher, and she was always involved. Faith was always part of me. I wanted to serve others.
Time spent in volunteer service: Every week do at least 30 hours of volunteering.
Most money raised at a single event: Last year we raised about $8,000 for a stair chair with coffee hours and Joyful Noise offerings. Plus, Thrivent Financial supplemented with $1,300.
Favorite organization helped: It’s too hard to pick one. In every organization I work with, I always raise the question, “What about the voiceless?” My mission is to help the voiceless in our society and not forget them. You may have all these grand ideas, but unless you go to the grassroots, go to where the people are, you won’t reach them. Jesus is able to minister to people because He meets them where they are.
Other activites: At my church, Salem Lutheran, the church is the center for hope for our neighborhood and for our members. Flint was named one of the most racially divided cities of the world. Our church is in the inner city. The neighborhood is mostly African-American, but we still have about 60 percent white members that come in from the suburbs. We do a lot to reach-out to the neighborhood. The kids don’t have much to do, so we have programs for them. In the summertime, we reach out to the kids. We start at 10 a.m. and feed them breakfast, have Bible time, lunch and play time. Through this, we get a lot of neighborhood kids that come to church. It’s been so exciting for me to see these kids come. God is good. We’re showing them the family of Christ. We’ve never met you, we don’t know you, but through Christ we are one.
I also started cooking meals because some of the kids don’t have much to eat. Since we have the kids and a lot of widows, I decided, let’s have a meal. So now every week we feed about 60. They come and eat, people that live alone. They are here to chat with each other, share great stories and compassion. People are mingling, and they get to know each other and minister to each other.
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