Marion's Luke 3:11 Ministries providing 'a little bit of hope' through food, clothes

"Sometimes people just need to see a little bit of hope, and see people will come help them and there is help available and they just need to look up and look for it," Amy Parker said.

Passionate about filling in gaps in the community, Parker, founder and director of Luke 3:11 Ministries in Marion, runs the nonprofit ministry with her husband, Brock Parker, atop her full-time job.

Led by the verses, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same," the husband-and-wife duo practice what they preach.

Seeing Marion's beloved Peanut Butter and Jelly Truck rise to success has just been half of the organization's mission to provide clothes and food to the community: the ministry also collects empty laundry detergent jugs and refills them with homemade detergent to distribute for free to Marion’s needy.

The program, called Lumpy Loads of Laundry, was the ministry's first service, which stemmed out of Parker learning to make the soap by herself with her daughter in their kitchen in 2019. She soon realized she could take this new skill and use it to serve her community.

The ministry soon grew to friends and volunteers helping make the laundry soap to bring to organizations in town and then refilling the empty bottles when they're finished.

"It’s a super honor to get to do God’s work. We’re driven by a Bible verse Luke 3:11, and it’s the story in the Bible where some people had asked John the Baptist if they needed to just get baptized to be a Christian or what, and John the Baptist answered, ‘If you have an extra shirt, give it to one who has none and if you have extra food, do the same thing.’ Food and clothes we know are very important, so those are the two things we just feel called to do,” Parker said.

Serving organizations like the Heart of Ohio Homeless Shelter, Leapin’ Outreach, Turning Point and the Salvation Army, Lumpy Loads works to fill in a gap in services to the community. Many organizations provide clothes at a discounted rate, Parker explained, but what other service helps people care for the ones they already have?

“It feels really exciting to provide unduplicated services in town, and it’s really an honor to have all the really cool people that I get to work with,” Parker said.

Parker said she needed to hand directly overseeing the laundry service to a volunteer when the Peanut Butter and Jelly Truck took off, but the organization is still growing its laundry services. For some clients who are referred by agencies, many of whom have disabilities, the ministry is building a "mobile laundry" service, where volunteers pick up dirty laundry, wash it and return it clean.

The ministry is also planning a trial run of a free laundry night at a local laundromat, where the team will pay for laundry services for anyone who needs it.

The team discovered the idea when helping a local family battling lice whose home was running on a generator, so the washer or dryer couldn't be used.

“We went in there one night, took all their fabric items in bags, and someone went in and treated all the little girls when we were gone. We took all their things to the laundromat, did all their laundry and then took it back. It was 65 pounds of laundry," Parker reflected.

“We realized that we could easily go spend an evening there and pay for everybody’s laundry and that would meet a big need, so we’re going to run a trial of a laundry night, a free laundry, and we’re going to advertise it and use that to collect some data about what the need is," she said.

The nonprofit's hopes to find a greater picture of the need for such a laundry night and potentially seek out grant funding to be able to make free laundry nights happen more often.

"A little bit of help from us might encourage them to take advantage of some of the other resources that are available until they can get back on their feet,” she said.

Passion for developmentally disabled community

Beyond the service to the community, the ministry is giving members of the community a purpose.

With a wide range of volunteers on both the Peanut Butter and Jelly Truck and Lumpy Loads, the ministry does its work with many volunteers with developmental disabilities.

Lumpy Loads announced its official partnership with MARCA Industries, Inc. on Nov. 23. MARCA is a nonprofit that helps individuals with developmental disabilities receive habilitation services, perform jobs, learn job skills and connect with their community.

The organization also has volunteers who are served through the Marion County Board of Developmental Disabilities (MCBDD) and local churches.

MCBDD Director of Communications Nicole Workman said pride isn't the right word to describe seeing the people the county board serves getting involved with the community because she believes in their abilities. She said she is proud of the community and partnerships like Luke 3:11 Ministries for seeing and celebrating those abilities.

“I just love to see our providers getting so involved in the community. It is so critical not only to our success but to the success of the people that we serve," Workman said.

"Those of us who work with them on a regular basis know they’re capable of doing all kinds of really cool things, so it’s just neat,” she continued later.

Parker said a big goal for her is to celebrate the abilities of her volunteers because she was a special education teacher for many years.

“My focus with the folks at MARCA, the board of DD and some of my team leaders with them all having developmental disabilities is I was a teacher for 18 years, and that was my specialty,” Parker said.

“It’s a natural partnership for me now as a nonprofit leader to work with that population, because I know they have abilities to make a meaningful contribution, and they just need the opportunity to do it. It’s thrilling for me to be able to provide that opportunity."

Through the new partnership, volunteers are able to make the Lumpy Loads laundry soap onsite at MARCA.

Sharon Messenger is a direct support professional with MARCA who takes developmentally disabled volunteers to the onsite location to make the soap.

After a month-and-a-half of the program, she said it was overwhelming at first, but it was becoming a good fit for the people she worked with once they got into it. Messenger said they are enjoying the work and proud to be able to give back to the community.

"It’s really good actually, and what’s really awesome about it is I tell the guys and the girls that go with me that we make it and give it to the community, and we always really like to volunteer for the community anyway. It just makes them feel good about it,” she said.

Messenger explained the opportunity to make a positive difference for some of the people the organization serves who are unable to have a paying job, and Lumpy Loads allows them to still work in the community.

“Even if they’re not able to work and get paid for what they’re doing, they can still get satisfaction doing what they’re doing, and for me on a personal [note], that’s really good too,” she said.

Luke 3:11 Ministries is looking for volunteers who can commit one day per week to driving a Peanut Butter and Jelly Truck and volunteers for Lumpy Loads where they would commit three to four sessions per month on their own schedule. For more information, visit the nonprofit ministry's website.

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Luke 3:11 Ministries providing 'a little bit of hope' to Marion