Where community meets hope

For single mom Rachel Gallo, the road of life had been especially bumpy. But in fall 2023, her journey led her to a life-changing destination in the form of a Lutheran community center.

“I got a hold of them and, right out of the gate, they said, ‘We’ll help you any way we can,’” Gallo said of the Apple Tree Center in Kendallville, Ind. “They’re genuine, and they understand that with a single income, child care is not affordable. They helped me get a scholarship that made it affordable.”

The Apple Tree Center is a ministry of Mount Pleasant Lutheran, a congregation of about 50 that’s one of the oldest in the Indiana-Kentucky Synod. For 176 years, Mount Pleasant has been in a partnership, including sharing a pastor, with St. Mark Lutheran Church in nearby Albion, Ind.

“Even though Mount Pleasant is a very small congregation, the members are very active in volunteering at the Apple Tree Center,” said John Roberts, the churches’ pastor. “It’s just a blessing to be able to serve the community.”

“We’d get together and pray, ‘Is this what you want for us? And if so, guide us.’”

Kendallville is a city of about 10,000 people in an area known for both agriculture and manufacturing. Mount Pleasant sits a few miles from the center of town.

“We’re a small, rural, Lutheran church in the cornfields,” said Cindy Clark, a member of Mount Pleasant who has spent most of her life in Kendallville. “One-hundred-plus years ago, that was great—the farmers could reach us easily—but now that’s not so true” because the town has grown as farming has decreased, she said. As a result of that change, “We were not reaching the community, we were not doing what God wants us to do.”

A little over a decade ago, the congregation began mulling over the possibility of acquiring a long-shuttered Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod building, one block from the heart of Kendallville, and establishing a second footprint.

“I said, ‘We don’t have any money, we can’t do that,’” Clark recalled. “But then I decided maybe God was leading us. We had a group that met every Wednesday, and we’d get together and pray, ‘Is this what you want for us? And if so, guide us.’”

“We don’t feel alone”

The asking price for the aging, in-disrepair building and all of its contents was $86,000—for Mount Pleasant an astronomical sum. The good news was the owner accepted the congregation’s offer of $10,000; the bad news was that they didn’t have $10,000 either.

Thanks to assistance from the Dekko Foundation, a Kendallville-based group that focuses on education, childhood development and community development; the Lutheran Foundation, which seeks to demonstrate Jesus’ compassion through initiatives that enhance quality of life in northeast Indiana; and an anonymous donor, the purchase was made, and in 2015 the Apple Tree Center was born.

The name comes from a quotation, perhaps apocryphal, that is attributed to Martin Luther and interpreted to be about both environmental stewardship and optimism in the face of long odds (for the community center, both are appropriate): “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” The center’s tagline is “Where community meets hope.”

“People feel the need to belong and find a place where they feel safe and heard,” said Clark, an Apple Tree board member who formerly served as its executive director. “We don’t have all the answers or all the resources by any means, but people find out through us that they’re not alone.”

“People feel the need to belong and find a place where they feel safe and heard.”

At first the repurposed church building enabled Mount Pleasant to have more space for its preschool. From there additional programs followed, including before- and after-school child care and a weekly community meal, Charlotte’s Table, regularly attended by about 50 people.

“Each week when we do our meal, people come in early,” Clark said. “There are the volunteers, about 10 of them, but we also invite folks in early so they can talk and share. The more they come, the more comfortable they become. They trust us, we trust them, we become friends. They come for all kinds of reasons. Some are homeless, some are working but living paycheck to paycheck, and some are there just because they don’t want to be alone all the time.

“We have devotions before the meal, we do prayer requests, we share faith with one another and don’t feel alone in addressing problems.”

The long-term effect

As the Apple Tree Center expanded its suite of services, the ministry also secured additional funding in the form of a partnership with the Indiana-Kentucky Synod and the ELCA Christian Community and Leadership’s New Ministry and Evangelism Team.

The team’s role is to join forces with synods, bishops and congregations to recruit, train and deploy leaders who can help establish and grow Christian communities.

Anna-Kari Johnson, new ministry development and evangelism program manager for the ELCA, hopes congregations can view the Apple Tree Center as an example of what’s possible.

“This is a longer-time church demonstrating the abounding love of Christ, wanting people to be embraced by the loving presence of Christ,” she said. “This was a need in the community and a way to weave together all of these leaders’ creativity and gifts.”

“It’s been a big stepping stone in my kids’ lives.”

At the Apple Tree Center, part of the creative fabric is a chicken-raising operation. Every day the center hosts about 40 children, who help care for the eight birds, gather their eggs, help cook the eggs for breakfast and “run around our backyard with their feathered friends,” Clark said.

“We are increasingly focused on involving and teaching the children about nature and their role in caring for the earth entrusted to our care,” she added. “Like our mission statement says, we are inspired by the life of Jesus, creating a sense of belonging and community, restoring the promise of hope and teaching the significance of service to others.”

For Gallo and her two sons, 4-year-old Atlas and 2-year-old Illium, becoming part of the Apple Tree Center family has been “monumental.” “It’s been huge for me and my boys,” she said. “They really do care, they help you out any way they can, and they’re very open to the idea of working with traumatized kids. they’re helpful and patient and understanding about where kids come from and what they’ve seen.

“My 4-year-old, going there has really brought him out of his shell, and my 2-year-old, since he’s been going to Apple Tree, he’ll sit there and have a conversation with you, he knows his ABCs, he counts to 10. It’s been a big stepping stone in my kids’ lives, and the long-term effect on my kids’ lives is going to be huge.”

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