FIVE QUESTIONS - Building church, community

Posted on Sun, Sep. 03, 2006 The Miami Herald

Pastor Linda Freeman has been lauded by President Bush for her work as executive director of Peacemakers Family Services Center, a ministry of Trinity Church in North Miami.

Q. How did Peacemakers start?

A. When I moved to Florida, I took a position at Trinity Church that was somewhat undefined. Pastors Rich and Robyn Wilkerson had taken over as senior pastors in 1998 and hired me the next year. They were rebuilding a church -- not the bricks and mortar, but the ministry. One of the visions was to reach the community. They said to me, we want you to help the poor. But I didn't know anything about it. That's when Peacemakers started. I'm not a social worker. We just looked for what was needed and partnered with other community agencies.

Q. How did you learn social work on the job?

A. When I started, people would just come to church and say, ''I need food, I need money, I'm sick.'' I would be exhausted trying to help people. It was emotionally draining. I realized that this piecemeal help was not effective. The idea now is, if a person walks in and says ''I don't have food,'' to try to find the root cause. You can get some food from our warehouse, also let's see if we can get you a job. We try to build it into a holistic approach. When we got involved in this around 1999, the federal government started talking about faith-based initiatives. Now as a church, we compete for government grants.

Q. What kinds of help does Peacemakers offer?

A. In a week, about 1,000 people come to participate in a social service, a parenting class, say, or Esperanza Trabajando, a Department of Labor funded program for the chronically unemployed. So we do a lot of job-development work. We have a medical clinic, day-care center, out-of-school programs. We also have an important partnership with Farmshare, in Homestead. It's a food recovery nonprofit, which works out of a warehouse.

Last Sunday, about 2,000 people came to Trinity. When I arrived, we would get 300 people. Now, when you come to Trinity, you can come to church. Spiritually, there's a lot we offer. But people also come to be a part of community work that's part of their spiritual life.

Q. How did you become a pastor?

A. In my former job I was an engineer. Then I became a pastor. That was a change. I just felt that there was something else that I needed to be doing. I had already started the process of becoming a minister when someone suggested to Pastor Wilkerson that he consider me for the staff here. I have a son, now 17, and a daughter, 15. When we first moved they wanted to go back to Illinois. They were born there, part of the church and school there. That was their life. My son used to play ice hockey. It was a hard transition. But it has been wonderful. Just saying, ''I know this is what God wants me to do,'' doesn't make it easy. Sometimes the hard thing gives you the greatest returns.

Q. What are your greatest returns?

A. My kids adjusted, and they are great. I have a great husband. We've all grown. We wouldn't be the people we are now if we had stayed in Illinois. At Trinity, we have shown that you can open your doors to the community and ask, How can we help? We've shown that when working collaboratively, you bring out the best in your organization as well as in your partner. Then there is greater potential for helping people in need who can then become an asset to the community. They can give back. That's the long-term goal.

Editorial Board member Susana Barciela prepared this report.