Today in the Mission Yearbook - Second Presbyterian Church in Roanoke, Virginia, hosts an emotional and ecumenical dedication service

Newly renovated Alexa House and an accompanying playground will serve families experiencing homelessness

July 25, 2024

An ecumenical dedication service held on Mother’s Day at 

Second Presbyterian Church in Roanoke, Virginia, celebrated 

the renovation of Alexa House. Here’s a shot of the interior. 

(Photo courtesy of Second Presbyterian Church)

Second Presbyterian Church in Roanoke, Virginia, recently hosted a moving and joyous ecumenical service, dedicating a newly renovated Alexa House for hosting families being served by Family Promise of Greater Roanoke. Watch the hourlong service here.

Much of the funding for the more than $700,000 renovation came in response to three tragedies, the first two with connections to the church:

• Dan Yardley was killed in an automobile accident on Thanksgiving in 2017. An amazing father and husband who left behind three children, renovation to Alexa House was done in his memory.
• Alexa Cannon, a student at Radford University, was killed in a violent attack on Jan. 24, 2019. To honor her spirit and heart for others, contributions by her family, friends and community were given, and the house renamed in her honor. The interior design of the house reflects her love of art and photography.
• Rita Magnus was killed as a young girl during the Shoah, the mass murder of Jewish people under the German Nazi regime. Her two sisters, who survived the Holocaust, provided the major funding for constructing the Rita Magnus Memorial Playground behind Alexa House.

“The renovation of Alexa House is the result of the entire community responding to tragedies in a way that will help prevent tragedy in others’ lives,” said Second Presbyterian Church’s senior pastor, the Rev. Dr. George Anderson. “A tragedy can dominate one’s view of life if one were trapped into looking back. Today, we look forward, largely because family and friends of those who died are committed not to dwell in the past, but rather on a better future. This is a service that will witness to love and life and hope.”

In partnership with Family Promise of Greater Roanoke, Alexa 

House helps serve families experiencing homelessness. (Photo 

courtesy of Second Presbyterian Church)

Rabbi Dr. Kathy Cohen of Temple Emanuel Synagogue offered a prayer. “May the doors of Alexa House be wide enough to receive all who hunger for love, all who are lonely for friendship,” Cohen said. “May it provide families with a shelter from the harshness of experiencing homelessness and be a refuge to those in need. May the doors of this house be narrow enough to shut out pettiness and pride, envy and enmity. May its threshold be no stumbling block to young or strained feet. May the children who stay here feel God’s love and God’s goodness. May this house be for all who enter, the doorway to a richer and more meaningful life.”

Marie Muddiman Beebe, executive director of Family Promise of Greater Roanoke, said that between 2022 and 2023, the Roanoke Valley experienced a 200% increase in family homelessness.

“We are grateful to the many, many people who have helped to renovate Alexa House to be used for sheltering families experiencing homelessness,” she said. “The memories of Alexa Cannon, Dan Yardley and Rita Magnus will be kept alive through the families that receive a soft, warm place to lay their head, a nice hot meal to fill their stomachs, and a loving volunteer to give them hope.”

Helga Morrow, Rita Magnus’ sister, said Rita was the youngest of five children spirited away late one night in 1942 from their home in Holland when the family learned the Nazis were preparing to take the Jewish family to one of the death camps.

“That night, we all changed our names, and through the help of the Underground, dispersed to different families” throughout the country, Morrow recounted.

Rita, then 2, was taken to a small place “with a Catholic family who adored her,” but she contracted a terrible case of diphtheria. “Because she was a hidden child, she couldn’t get medical help,” Morrow said. “My mother traveled to where she was to be with her dying daughter.” When Rita saw her mother, she cried. “I don’t want this mommy,” she said. “I want my new mommy.” She died in that woman’s arms.

Many years later, “it came to me that with Alexa House in progress and the synagogue having a piece of land, wouldn’t it be wonderful if children had a place to play, a place children can be happy and share their good fortune with others,” Morrow said. “I see children from Alexa House and children from the synagogue playing together, being happy with that they have.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Alexa House to host families experiencing homelessness

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Carol McGinn, Executive Business Administrator, Facilities, Board of Pensions  
Shani McIlwain, Communications Strategist, Communications Ministry, Presbyterian Church (USA)

Let us pray

Merciful God, thank you for loving us and calling each of us by name. Help us to see each person we encounter as your beloved creation. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Congregation helps homeless by providing a ‘Room in the Inn’

Community and church now working together to ease crisis

July 19, 2021

Inside Room in the Inn. Courtesy of Room in the Inn

When the Rev. Jeff Kane and his wife moved from Colorado to Tennessee in 2013 to be closer to their grandchildren, Kane reached out to Middle Tennessee Presbytery to find a church to serve. The only prospect was a congregation of 15 or so older members, which put them in the precarious category of a “dying church.” What Kane found, though, were 15 people who made the decision to trust God — completely. They were no longer going to protect the endowment, but rather spend it on a full-time pastor rather than part-time. “They made a decision to be faithful to the gospel and got to work,” said Kane.

Part of that work was realizing that their campus — where the classrooms had long become ghost towns — was “not theirs but God’s.” A shifting perspective brought with it the openness to opportunities such as welcoming a 700-member Baptist church undergoing renovations. In the “sharing of their pews and parking spaces,” the Presbyterians felt energy returning. After the Baptists left, the Pentecostals came when they needed a temporary space.  “All of a sudden, we had diversity among us,” said Kane. Diversity sparked new conversations on what the groups could do together to help the homeless in the area. In the winter of 2016, the Presbyterians and the Pentecostals threw mattresses on the floor in Westminster Presbyterian Church’s basement in Columbia, Tennessee. Few came, but the congregation remained committed to the mission. Then, during Memorial Day weekend, the Presbyterians’ “praying and searching” for a purpose came. A couple came looking for a place to stay. They asked, “Is there room in the inn?” With those words, the basement sleeping accommodations expanded to the long-empty classrooms. The ministry was named “Room in the Inn,” after a Nashville nonprofit Kane was familiar with some 30 years ago when he was a pastor in the area.

Westminster began enlisting the expertise in the community to help those coming to the “inn” with addictions, job searching and other challenges that perpetuated homelessness. Guests joined the congregation in worship, which made the energy among the congregation “bubble more,” said Kane. “We thought we were dead, but now we had silver-haired Presbyterians sitting next to purple-haired teens.”

The congregation grew not just in number, but in diversity and love. What was happening inside the church walls was getting noticed in the community. The Rotary Club even installed showers in the church.

In 2019, Room in the Inn was shut down due to the church campus not meeting fire codes. A local motel stepped up and provided the church with a block of rooms. Room in the Inn is now a nonprofit with its own volunteer staff. And Westminster? It’s a 70-plus member congregation who is still committed to being faithful to the gospel. When the congregation became a Matthew 25 church, Kane said it was a natural progression of the Holy Spirit. What the Matthew 25 designation did do is keep that mission front and center, said Kane. “I give this congregation credit, and God all the glory, because never once did I hear them say ‘we need children’ or ‘we need to fill the pews,’” said Kane. Survival was never about attendance numbers or money. It was about living out the Matthew 25 gospel and trusting always that “Jesus is Lord.”

 Donna Frischknecht Jackson, Editor, Presbyterians Today

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Sean Payne, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Tabatha Peach, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

Creator God, you send us miracles that help us know that in you everything is possible. When we work together and gladly serve one another, great things happen. We are grateful for anyone who takes the equivalent of loaves and fishes and generously feeds others. Amen.