Mark Labberton:
What an honor it is today to have Megan Katerjian as our guest on Conversing. Megan is someone who, for over 20 years, has been deeply involved in the intersection between Christian faith and justice. She’s given herself to that in her studies, having two master’s degrees from Fuller Seminary and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell. And she has been a person who has served both nonprofit leadership and pastoral leadership.
She currently leads a ministry in Pasadena, California called Door of Hope. It’s a ministry that focuses on families who are homeless, and her work there has made considerable headway and been able to bring about substantial life change for those who’ve gone through the program. Her own life circumstances took a dramatic turn when the fire in Altadena burst into flame and when her own story, her family’s story, and the work that she does with Door of Hope all suddenly converged. It’s that conversation that we’re going to have today. Welcome, Megan. I’m just so glad to have you on Conversing.
Megan Katerjian:
It’s great to be with you, Mark.
Mark Labberton:
We’re having this conversation not just for any reason, but because of the crisis that’s unfolding and continuing to take place in Los Angeles with all the fires. And you are one of the people both directly affected by the fires yourself, as well as a person that’s leading a ministry that was already responding to the crisis of homelessness in the greater LA area and in Pasadena in particular. But now it’s literally inflamed even more by the devastation that’s unfolded in January. Where are you? And what is that brief story that you’ve been facing this month?
Megan Katerjian:
Yeah. Well, where I am in this particular moment is in temporary housing. And I’m moving in a few weeks, hopefully, into transitional housing for six plus months. And that puts me right in this space of all the clients that I have served for years, and it’s a really surreal experience. But I’m one of the thousands and thousands of people in Altadena who have lost our homes to the fire and are trying to pick up the pieces and find out what to do next.
Mark Labberton:
Your life and work has been an inspiration and a challenge or an encouragement to me over quite a number of years now. And we first met at a much earlier time in your life, and so much has happened. Eventually, you finish seminary, you eventually are a pastor. You’re also eventually the CEO of Door of Hope, which is a really quite remarkable holistic approach to homelessness that you’ve been leading now for a number of years. I wonder if you could just take our listeners on a little bit of your journey to set the context for who you are, how your faith has been shaped and formed, and how you’ve come to this particular role at Door of Hope.
Megan Katerjian:
Yeah, thanks, Mark. Well, when we met in Berkeley, I was researching churches across the country that were doing a really amazing job integrating justice and Jesus. And I have always really admired the way that you have integrated that in your ministry. So that’s always been a passion of mine and there are joys in that, there are struggles in that, and I was trying to integrate all of those things in seminary.
So when I became a pastor, I was always a missions pastor kind of person and always looking for how the church could really engage in the community, serving the poor in particular, and just finding Jesus in those places, bringing the light of Christ to those places or discovering that it’s already there and just coming, jumping in, and that has been my life’s work really.
So after about six years of being a pastor in a traditional church setting, I went to Door of Hope because every time I was in the local mission role, my heart just was enlivened and I loved seeing how close God is when people are broken and in desperate need and need practical support, emotional support, and spiritual support. And the kind of transformation that I get to see every day at Door of Hope is just really holy ground that I get to walk every day.
So Door of Hope empowers families facing homelessness to transform their lives. We do that work in Jesus’ name and we provide transitional housing and homelessness prevention services to the lowest income families who have lost everything or are on the brink of losing everything. And we make sure they have a stable home. And then we provide relationships, care, all of the softer elements of healing, and that’s what we’re all about.
Mark Labberton:
Right. It’s an amazing thing in LA, as you know better than I do, but both of us are very aware of what a huge crisis homelessness in the greater LA area actually is. And the kind of comprehensiveness and emphasis on transformation has been a key theme of Door of Hope, especially under your leadership. And statistically, you’ve had very significant headway in helping families get out of homelessness and into a stabilized housing situation, an income earning context, et cetera. What do you think are some of the key ingredients, maybe even surprises that you’ve discovered along the way about how that process that you are working at Door of Hope actually takes hold in such a significant way?
Megan Katerjian:
Yeah, a couple of things are, what I might say is our secret sauce. One is the holistic services are absolutely essential and that most of those services can be accessed onsite. So when families come, they’re getting case management to work on all the practical things, public benefits navigation. We have financial coaching, we have housing navigation, we have therapy, and all of that is… We have a children’s program at night while the parents are receiving services. So when you are a parent with young kids trying to schlep your kids around and figure out what to do, and especially as a single parent, it really creates a huge barrier to have to go out and try to access all of those services. So we can wrap those services around a family that is living with us.
I think the other big thing is that our homes do not feel like homeless shelters. They feel like home and they are immediately calming and a kind of healing sanctuary when you walk in the doors. And I think that just helps people to relax and get their brain out of this trauma, highly agitated and anxious state that they are living in, if they’re living in their cars or if they’re on cots or if they don’t know where they’re going to sleep that night. So our average stay is 10 months, and that’s a good amount of time to really see transformation and to partner with those families.
Mark Labberton:
Can you just give us maybe a couple of examples of families recently that you’ve worked with, where you’ve seen that arc? What some of their specific challenges were, and then how you helped them try to work through that?
Megan Katerjian:
Yeah, so the story off the top of my head that comes to mind is a mother named Lily, and she has three sons and came to us as a domestic violence survivor. She had to leave her home and had no money, no resources, and really nothing on her resume, which is kind of common in domestic violence situations especially, where the power and control cycle, it’s often not to the abuser’s interest and advantage for the mother, in this instance, to be independent and earning her own income.
So she really didn’t have any resources. We do work with families and actually require families to find employment during their stay with us. And she was daunted by that task. And one day she saw another mom living in the house come home in scrubs and was really just intrigued by that and started working with her case manager and brainstorming what she wanted to do. And she has a real helper’s heart.
And because we have those holistic services, we scholarshiped her to get her phlebotomy and medical assistant and CNA licenses. She got a job at a hospital, she got her boys in school, she worked with our housing navigator and she got a voucher. So now she is housed in affordable housing, she’s continuing her education, she’s working up the professional ladder so that she can go from earning $20 an hour to 25 to 30 and on up.
So that’s the kind of thing that is so practical. But on the emotional side, she came in so broken and with no self-esteem and with no hope. And now she is providing for her boys and empowered to be the head of household. And her face says it all. It’s just night and day difference between just hiding and feeling so broken and now empowered and really having hope.
Mark Labberton:
Right. It’s a beautiful story. Megan, one of the things that has happened, of course, has been that with some kind of irony, you now find yourself homeless because of the firestorms, because of your house being burned down, that you and your children are now in a situation where yourselves are without stable housing and you’re trying to do all of that early work. So let’s now add to this amazing layer that was already present in your work of Door of Hope in the greater LA area, in Pasadena in particular where Door of Hope is located. And now, suddenly a large part of Altadena is completely wiped out, a large part of surrounding areas are also wiped out. There’s already a massive shortage of housing, now there’s even more shortage of housing. Now Door of Hope, and you yourself are going through a process of facing homelessness for the first time and trying to understand and enter into some of the disorientation and enormous challenges that brings.
I wonder if you could first just tell your story of your own home and then what it has meant for your family. And then I want to have you talk about what you’re seeing more on a broader scale in the Pasadena, Altadena area.
Megan Katerjian:
Yeah, yeah. Well, I’m thinking a lot about home and what that means. And I’m very aware that everyone, including me, who lost our home, it’s about the meaning of that home more than or as much as the actual physical safe space.
So I had just moved into this home in July, and it was what I thought was the perfect home. I love Altadena so much. I love Altadena. Every morning at Fuller, I hiked. I used to hike most mornings at Fuller. When I was a student there, I used to hike the Mount Lowe Trail all the way north on Lake and had always dreamed of being in walking distance from that trail.
And our kids went to school in Northwest Altadena. All of our friends, our people were in Northwest Altadena. Our old home was in Northwest Altadena. So when I was in the market for a new home, it was one of those places where the price per square foot is the lowest you’re going to find in the entire area, and that’s my neighborhood, and so why would I look anywhere else?
And I just found this great lovely home that was the perfect size. It even had a little fourth bedroom where I could have my parents or whoever come and stay. So I’ve spent the last six months turning this little home into my sanctuary, and decorating the kids’ bedrooms just the way they wanted it, and having my quiet time space and choosing and curating all of the things that would bring me a sense of calm. And I know a lot about decorating that space to create that sense because we design all of our shelters with what’s called trauma-informed design, where I know exactly the colors and the textures that bring that sense of safety and comfort and coziness, and that’s really important to me.
So I had spent really, truly the last six months to the extent that the day before the fire, I got a gas line installed in my fireplace. I was about to have a working fireplace in my little quiet time living room. I got a new HVAC installed. I had gotten new gutters the week before. And that was it, those were my last projects. Those were my last projects.
So Monday night, the wind started and I got terrible sleep that night. And Tuesday night, I was really sleep-deprived and I had a friend offer for me to join her, just use a spare bedroom because the fire had broken out in the Eaton Canyon area. And friends were texting me pictures and they were concerned, and were starting to leave, no evacuation order yet. But I was praying for their homes right by Eaton Canyon and never imagined that the fire would spread all the way toward me.
Mark Labberton:
What is that distance, Megan? Just to give people-
Megan Katerjian:
It is probably three miles, two and a half miles.
Mark Labberton:
Wow.
Megan Katerjian:
Yeah. And there are so many big streets that would be like the, “Oh, it won’t pass Hill. Oh, it won’t pass Lake. Oh, it won’t pass…” So I just wanted a good night’s sleep, and I was also worried about sleeping through an evacuation order. So I decided to pack up some things and head to my friend’s house. And I packed with the foresight that I’m going to be displaced from my home, maybe for four days. I’m going to need to go into the office. So I packed four days worth of work clothes and a couple of workout clothes, and that was it.
And then at the last minute, I was like, “Okay, well, I don’t want to be stupid about this. I’m going to grab my important documents folder. I’m going to grab the few pieces of expensive jewelry I have around.” I went into the kids’ rooms and thought, “Should I grab anything here?” And there were a couple of things where I thought, “No.” And I did grab the photo albums, but that was it.
So I went to my friend’s house and decided that I was just going to go to sleep and hope for the best the next morning. I can’t control the situation, so instead of staying up all night and stressing about it, I’m just going to sleep. So the next morning, I woke up and there was another family in my neighborhood, also a co-worker. I actually went to a co-worker’s house, another family worker lived in my neighborhood. She was there as well.
And then sometime in the morning, we were figuring out if Door of Hope was in danger. We were figuring out, gosh, what are we going to do tonight? Do our residents need to be evacuated? So just putting all those plans into action, I had no idea what was happening with my home. I heard through the grapevine that there were fires on Wapello, my street. But then I texted my neighbor, two of my neighbors and finally heard, “Megan, your home is gone.” It was awful. I don’t think I’ve ever sobbed that hard in my life.
Mark Labberton:
Wow. Wow.
Megan Katerjian:
Just thinking about all of… I couldn’t believe it. I was in absolute shock and just sat right there with my co-workers and wailed, and it was horrible. Yeah.
Mark Labberton:
It’s just so breathtaking to try to imagine absorbing all that. And I think what you’ve said about the meaning of the home being the most devastating rather than simply the existence of a building. But really knowing you and knowing the kind of TLC that you had given to your family and to the house in order to create this environment that was going to be this life-giving environment of peace and of comfort and of safety and of beauty, all of that would be a part of your setting. And knowing the tender time that this is in your life and the significance of your own children’s experiences and ages and so forth, it really has just been overwhelming to me.
I’ve kept the picture of your burned house prominently on a desktop that I have, and just used it as a symbol of how to pray for the devastation and the fact that natural disasters like this are always piled onto all the other realities that are already going on in people’s lives. And then suddenly comes something that is consuming to all of that and overwhelms all that, even though all that still remains and was such devastating for us. Thank you for letting us have that window into your own experience.
Yeah, I know that you’ve been doing it. I know that other people are trying to do this for themselves too, but what have you done to try to do some degree of self-care that just attends to all the agonies and perplexities of this?
Megan Katerjian:
Yeah, not watch the news. I can’t watch the news right now for many reasons, but just the fire coverage is really triggering. I just got back from a week in Goleta. And to back up for a second, in the lowest points, those two to three days after this happened, I very quickly recognized that there was no way that I could lead Door of Hope at that particular moment.
And the same day, honestly within hours of finding out my house had burned down, I was also managing where we were going to evacuate residents and finding a church in South Pasadena who would take our residents, and making sure we had sufficient coverage and all of those things. And I just recognized that there was no way I could do that.
So I called our COO and asked him if he would be willing to step in as acting CEO for a time. And I called our board chair, after I got his permission, and then asked the board chair for a week, a week and a half, I think, through the end of the following week. And he said, “Megan, please just why don’t you think about the end of the month and then let’s circle back.” So that was a really important thing to even allow self-care to occur.
Mark Labberton:
Yes, absolutely.
Megan Katerjian:
And in the first couple days, it was about being with people who had gone through the same trauma I had just gone through. So my friend Beth Paz, a pastor over at Lake Avenue Church, had lost her home. We were new neighbors, and so we have to go to the convention center, we’re going to do that together. We have to camp out on a couch and figure out what’s next, we’re going to do that together. So I think to be around other people was really important in the first couple days.
And then leaving town was the next thing. So my realtor had been approached by a friend who was a Christian couple that had really prayed over their Airbnb that was not yet listed being a place of sanctuary and refuge and was looking for a family to bless. So I got to go there with my kids for the week, and I got to invite up two other families, one of whom lost their home, one of whom is going to be displaced for the next six months. And they each have kids my kids’ ages, and so it was instant play buddies. I’m just very close with the moms already.
So again, it was leaving town, being with people who are going through the same crisis, not doing this alone. And I walked the beach every day and just talked to God, very distracted conversations in the midst of 1,000, a million details swimming around in my head. And at the beach, the sun rises and sets every day, and God is present every day. And just that steadiness and that calm and that reminder was really important for me.
Mark Labberton:
I’m Mark Labberton. Thanks for listening with me.
Yes. Now I know just because of knowing who you are and because of having spoken a bit with you about this, that this has also been a fascinating way of continuing to expand your own empathy and understanding of homelessness. Even though you live and work every day so close to the reality of homelessness, suddenly you, yourself, become the homeless CEO of a homeless shelter. So tell us some of the things that have just become clearer to you, even though you may have seen them before, this direct experience obviously sharpens the mind.
Megan Katerjian:
Yeah. I haven’t started journaling about this, but I have this kind of tally of lessons about homelessness that I am learning in my mind, I think the first early on lesson was about the impact of trauma brain on my ability to make good decisions and process information. It is immediately overwhelming to me even to go on the Facebook groups that are sharing resources and, “Are you thinking about this? Are you thinking about this? Are you thinking about this?” And just my brain is processing slower.
And then I’m rethinking and re-experiencing all of the things that my social work team at Door of Hope has taught me about the impact of trauma on decision making and what sometimes the world, or maybe even me personally, would interpret as a bad choice or as a lack of motivation can actually just be trauma and inability to act quickly or act on all of the hundreds of things that you need to take care of when you’re homeless. So that’s been a big awareness for me.
And the second thing for me is that I’m now directly encountering and so frustrated and overwhelmed by what we call the social service shuffle, where a lot of different people are trying to help you and giving you this number and that number and this resource and that resource. And some of them are good leads and some of them are bad leads. And if you follow a bad lead, it’s then taken two or three hours out of your day that you didn’t have and has made me feel helpless and frustrated and more overwhelmed.
But the morning that I found out about my house burning down, I heard that FEMA was at the convention center, and there was this thing on Facebook and Instagram floating around that FEMA is going to cover 90% of rent for up to three years, and they’re giving vouchers. And I think it was probably completely bogus, just bad false information. But I went and saw this sea of cots. And just again, got completely overwhelmed at this massive need out there who didn’t have friends calling them up and saying, “Come, I have an extra bedroom.”
So yeah, so the trauma brain, the social service shuffle, and then I’m also now realizing how much money I’m spending out of my own pocket, with the hope and vague promise that my insurance company is going to pay for it eventually, or that FEMA’s going to release the money. And if I had nothing in my bank account and didn’t have a friend who had set up a GoFundMe page, I would be panicking right now. I’m already panicking, but I would not only be panicking, I wouldn’t be eating, I wouldn’t be… So there’s that, when there’s no margin, You have very few options.
And then the other thing I’m thinking a lot about is that homelessness is not just about financial poverty, it’s also about relational poverty. So part of the reason that I will never be homeless because of this is because I have that GoFundMe account, I had a little savings when this all began. But it’s also because I have parents that would never let me be homeless. I have multiple offers from multiple friends saying, “I have an extra bedroom. I have two extra bedrooms. Your kids could have their own…” And what can I do to help?
Mark Labberton:
Right. A thick social safety network.
Megan Katerjian:
For sure, yeah. So I think that’s been the big aha in all this for me, is that it’s not just about financial poverty, it’s about relational poverty.
Mark Labberton:
Right. Right. What’s going on in LA, I think for people that are not in the region, is so much greater and so much more consuming to the whole region than I think people can fully understand. I walked fairly closely with a friend who’s a pastor in Asheville, North Carolina, who experienced absolutely the devastation of the storm that just decimated Asheville. And of course, as a community, now it seems for many forgotten by the next crisis, which at the moment happens to be the fire in LA. But in both cases, this overwhelming, protracted, long-term sense of consequences.
I remember even in the context in Berkeley where there had been an Oakland firestorm that had burned 2,800 homes to the ground, and 45 families that were part of that that were part of the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley where I was the pastor, I was going to be the pastor, had lost everything. So the impact of that conflation of circumstances and then the protracted length by which all of this unfolds is… Just can’t be absorbed and you better not even necessarily dwell on it.
I think what you’ve been doing, Megan, that is just so wise, despite your trauma brain, is really good daily decision-making about things that you can actually control, that you can actually do today, that can actually not only, in your case, protect you and your family, but also wise decisions about what to do about Door of Hope residents and so forth. But I think anyone that comes to LA over the next decade is going to be seeing vivid, vivid signs of the presence of a devastation mentally, culturally, emotionally, economically, that is just really beyond words in so many different ways.
Megan Katerjian:
Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. Well, and even when the fire is cleaned up, I think first, there’s going to be a lot of fear. I don’t know if I have the risk tolerance to live two blocks south of the mountains after this. But there’s going to also be the impact on the housing market. I’m terrified of what rental prices are going to be when I decide it’s time for a more long-term rental while I figure out what’s next. I wonder about what house home prices are going to look like in Pasadena if people are trying to leave Altadena and move into Pasadena, but yeah.
And that’s in a middle income bracket. Low income, I think about the people that we know about who are graduates of our program, so went through, were rehoused and had a Section 8 voucher and landlords in apartment buildings that burned. So now they still have that voucher, but the chances of them finding a landlord who is willing to take a Section 8 voucher, when everyone in our community is willing to pay top dollar for rent because there’s no other options, is really alarming.
Mark Labberton:
Really alarming. Yeah. Yeah.
Megan Katerjian:
Yeah. So I think it’s, just to jump back to my week up in Goleta and knowing I needed to take care of myself in all of this. I wasn’t getting great sleep for a number of reasons, but usually that was anxious thoughts and it was about my own situation. But then there were a couple mornings where I kept getting woken up with this just urgency. And it wasn’t anxiety. It felt different. It felt different in my mind, it felt different in my body. It was just this urgency and thinking about this entire pocket of Northwest Altadena from Woodbury to Altadena Drive and from Fair Oaks to Lincoln. And those aren’t the exact coordinates, it’s broader than this, but that little pocket where there are multi-generation Black homeowner families.
And that’s actually the origin of Altadena, where Black families were encountering redlining in Pasadena and in surrounding communities. And Altadena was this safe and affordable space where they could invest in their community. So now some of those have, and I have three, I know one family of four generations living in that home, and that’s not an atypical story in that neighborhood. And then also low income or affordable, affordable-ish, all relative in LA, rental properties and a lot of little multifamily people building ADUs and it’s very quirky, but has these pockets of low income or low to middle income communities.
And anyway, so I kept thinking about them, I kept thinking about them, and then I kept… Seeing all these GoFundMe pages pop up, and I have a relatively diverse social network and friendship circle, maybe more than most even, but just was so mindful of all of… I would see a lot of white families and white faces pop up with their Facebook with their GoFundMe that friends had started. And I just started wondering, what are the supports? What does a GoFundMe page look like when your entire neighborhood has been wiped out?
And when you have been a longtime member at First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Pasadena, and 48 people in that church have lost their homes. This historically Black church in Pasadena where the economics look a little bit different. One of our former case managers is a perfect example of this kind of community where one generation owned the house, the younger generation had just spent years building an ADU on the same property and had just finished it perfectly and were so proud of their home.
Actually, the husband was my landscaper, had a landscape business. So all of his equipment was there, and their particular direct immediate family is four. They have two kids, husband, wife, but their family living on that property is like 12 people. It’s three families. So what does their social safety net look like? What does their support net look like?
So that is who is in my heart. And I just kept thinking about them and thinking about them. And in some ways, Door of Hope shouldn’t pivot, we should just do what we’ve always done. The homelessness crisis is here, it’s not changing. It’s getting worse, if anything, and so we just need to keep doing what we’re doing. But then I just kept thinking we have what everyone needs right now.
We know how to find housing. It’s hard, don’t get me wrong, but we do it and we know how to help people access public benefits. We know how to help people who have lost everything, rebuild their lives. That’s what we do. And it’s right here, right? There’s no one else like us right here.
So if we’re not going to pivot and if we’re not going to ramp up and if we’re not going to launch something new to address this crisis, then how can… It can’t only be us, but if we’re not going to be part of it, how can we expect anyone else to be part of it? So that was just burning, and I was on leave and was headed up to Goleta, and I just called our COO who was operating as acting CEO, and I said, “Jim, I’m going up to Goleta tonight, but can I just come in? And we need to brainstorm how we’re going to pivot.”
And I had this plan in my mind, but I don’t like to lead like that. I like to start with a whiteboard. And I may have a plan in my mind, and then it gets better and we all chime in. So I had this plan that I thought we should pursue, but I’m like, “Here’s the plan, guys. See you.” Right?
Mark Labberton:
Right, right.
Megan Katerjian:
I can’t do that to my poor team, they’re already understaffed and overwhelmed. So anyway, we just put a bunch of blank post-it notes up and put our two programs out there and how we’re going to pivot and then this new other column. And within two hours, we had a plan.
Mark Labberton:
Wow.
Megan Katerjian:
That there was full consensus on, excitement and anxiety about. But I think going through COVID had taught me already this really important lesson that money follows vision. So you have to be really clear on your vision, and that vision needs to be led by the Holy Spirit, and that vision needs to be collaborative and then really well communicated. So that’s why Door of Hope is now launching, has launched, within less than two weeks of this crisis, we had launched the Eaton Fire Housing Assistance Program.
Mark Labberton:
Wow. And what services will it provide?
Megan Katerjian:
The first part is just a pivot, where we have four shelters in the LA County area. Our two Pasadena shelters are going to, and any vacancies are going to be set aside for very low income fire victims who have nowhere else to go. So we expect to have about eight vacancies through the course of this year, that will be for them.
And the prayer is just that otherwise families who are coming out of the area into Pasadena, our prayer is, yes, those families need help. And yes, we’re going to just pray that other family shelters can take them, because the value of staying in Pasadena where you’ve lost your housing and can remain as just so paramount, schools and all that.
Mark Labberton:
Yes. Yes.
Megan Katerjian:
The second is a brand new program where 50 families that were nowhere on our radar and nowhere in our budget this year are going to be served. They’re going to get a case manager to help them navigate all of the FEMA if they had insurance. And then there’s all these other pockets of direct financial assistance or all these churches that want to give in-kind donations, all these groups. So basically, to access all of that, to access resources and then to work with our housing navigation team to discern what’s the best immediate, interim, and long-term housing solution for you and get them into housing as soon as possible.
We want to be able to reach into Door of Hope’s own pockets to give some of that rental assistance, but we don’t want to duplicate anything that FEMA’s to cover or that insurance is going to cover. So basically, we’re just going to be really flexible about those dollars and fill in the gaps as needed and then see what other resources are out there.
And actually, my prayer is I think this is such a cool opportunity for the Church, capital C, because I’ve been adopted by a couple of churches and I’m part of their care lists, so I’m receiving some additional financial assistance. But more importantly, “Hey, come through our goods and take what you need. And what is your list? And let me farm that out to my life group.” And I have a church group coming over to paint this little apartment that I’m going to be moving into and to do some fixings. So could we provide that family of care and support and love in those really practical ways? Could we assign every one of those 50 clients, what I maybe call like an assistant case management team?
Mark Labberton:
Right. Right. It’s wonderful.
Megan Katerjian:
Case managers can work on the big stuff. Those church groups or those community groups can work on the small stuff of getting glasses and dishware and you name it, they need it. I need it.
Mark Labberton:
Right.
Megan Katerjian:
So I’m pretty excited about that.
Mark Labberton:
Yeah. Oh, that’s wonderful. We do want to list in the show notes, both Door of Hope and a couple of other enterprises that we know are trying to respond to the crisis. But I’m very, very glad that you shared all that, Megan. And as an example, really, of the gift of restoration, the fact that you could at least breathe some clean air and walk on a beach and be with friends in similar trauma is part of what allowed, in my view, your capacity to even begin to enter into the kind of imaginative strategy building work that can now help Door of Hope move forward. It’s just exactly the story of what good self-care can actually do, which is not selfish, but is actually restorative so that you can then move forward.
And I just want to say, on behalf of anyone who’s listening, how grateful I am for you and for your leadership over the years, Megan, in Door of Hope, which has just been so exemplary in the Pasadena area, and feels like a ministry for exactly a time such as this, as you said. And to be able to lean into it as deeply and wisely as you can just is an exemplary story. So thank you very, very much for integrating and living the faith that you proclaim and that you seek to live under ordinary time as well as in these extraordinary times. It’s a great gift to have you today, and I will certainly be continuing to pray for you, for the work of Door of Hope, and all who are in the Pasadena area.
As a person who lived in Pasadena for a decade and more in the past, it’s just a place of such importance to me, to Fuller Seminary, to so many citizens, those directly related in one way or another to Fuller, but also the wider community, which is just such an amazing and wonderful place, but now filled with such huge challenges. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much for being a guest and know my and our support, and I encourage any who are listening to make some kind of response to this crisis if you’re possibly able to do so, whether it’s through the links that we provide or whether it’s through some other channels that you decide to act, please act and know that this is going to be a long-term crisis. So it’s not just acting now, but it’s acting in another month, another six months, another year. And this is true in Asheville, it’s true in all these places that are having such devastating natural disasters, and your action can make a world of difference to people.
Megan Katerjian:
Absolutely.
Mark Labberton:
Thank you, Megan.
Megan Katerjian:
Thanks for highlighting that. Thanks for highlighting the long-term journey we’re on too. It’s important.
