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Pastor Deb Rensink,
2019 Addink Community Service
Award Honore
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SIOUX CENTER, IOWA - Promise Community Health Center is pleased to announce that
their 2019 Addink Community Service Award will be presented to Pastor Deb
Rensink of Whispers of Love, Hope and Joy. This award, which recognizes and
honors an exceptional individual or family that makes volunteerism and
community service a way of life, will be presented to Deb at the annual Promise
Community Health Center’s “An Evening of Promise” Celebration and Fundraiser on
Thursday, Oct. 17, at Terrace View Event Center in Sioux Center.
Rensink is passionate about people. A former RN, Deb felt
called to ministry, and completed her Master of Divinity with RCA from Western
Seminary in 2014. Unsure of which way God was calling her, she waited on Him
and prayed for direction. In June of
2016 three encounters helped make her decision. “The first week, (husband) Mark
and I went to a fundraiser in Alton,” Deb explained. “A woman attending found
out I was a pastor, and started sharing with me about emotional abuse she had
suffered. She had spent time with her pastor, but felt that she hadn’t been
heard. She really felt injured from that encounter. A week later, Mark and I
had gone on a bike ride and were putting away our bikes when a woman walking
down the sidewalk stopped to talk with us. She shared about a family member who
had been abused. She told me she didn’t know how to navigate through what had
happened, or how to find healing for the family member and herself. The third
week we had gone out with two other couples. One began to share about a family
member in an abusive relationship. Because they felt unheard and unsupported by
their pastor, they had started to back off of their church. I knew God was
calling me to work with abuse. But I didn’t know anything about it! I grew up
in a warm, loving home and always felt supported. I decided to see where it
would go, and just trust.”
In May of 2017, Deb stepped into a volunteer pastor role with
the Family Crisis Center, working through the non-profit she developed,
Whispers of Love, Hope and Joy, which allows Deb to go in as a volunteer and
work with abused people. “I felt very
inadequate!” She laughed ruefully, “I wasn’t sure what my job was going to look
like but I felt strongly convicted that this is where I was called to be.”
Besides being trained as a domestic violence advocate, Deb has completed iPEC
training (Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching), and is a
Certified professional coach, as well as a master practitioner as an Energy
Leadership Index: a way of measuring how we engage in our day to day lives and
how we react to stress. All of that training has helped her understand that the
greatest need that abused people have is to believe their story, because that
is the beginning of healing.
Deb goes in sometimes to just be present with the people she
works with, and provides a safe, calm, healing and prayerful presence. “I just
allow them to speak,” Deb explained, “because for some of them they HAVEN’T
been allowed to talk, and they need to find their voice again. I don’t try to
fix the problem: that’s often not what they need from me. I’m just present with
them wherever I find them.” She holds to
the guiding principles she has developed: offering compassion to the
broken-hearted, healing for the hurting, dignity in the darkness, and hope for
the hopeless.
Because the Family Crisis Center covers seventeen counties,
Deb does a lot of driving, providing rides to the women in the program, who
often don’t have vehicles, or whose vehicles need repair. That need is what
brought her to her latest venture.
“A few years ago, I was approached by Brad Vermeer, who is
in an area Men’s Bible Study, about doing maintenance on vehicles for women who
need help,” explained Rensink. “The timing was wrong. But last year I was
struggling with how to help the abused women I work with, and remembered their
offer. I reached out to them, and they agreed to help with the project.”
Last year was the first time Whispers of LHJ, Atlas and the
men’s Bible study group put on the event. Twenty-two vehicles were serviced at
Rensink’s farm, while the women were given a tutorial by Bob Bruxvoort on how
to take care of their vehicles. Vice-President Ashley Schuiteman was on hand
for the event. “We wanted the women to feel empowered when they left us, and
know that they would be safe in their vehicles,” she said. “It was very
humbling to see some of the cars. We realized how blessed we are to have men in
our lives who aren’t abusive and make sure our vehicles are in good shape.”
October 12 is the day designated for the event this year.
The group is looking forward to servicing twenty-four vehicles. Thanks to
donations of oil from Co-op Gas and Oil, and oil filters donated by Arnold
Motor Supply, and a $2,500 grant from America’s Farmers Grow Communities
(sponsored by the Bayer Fund), the money from the grant will be used to provide
winter survival kits to the survivors of abuse. “It’s great to see the way
survivors have connected and how people are engaging with each other through
this event and others,” Rensink said. “We can’t do life in isolation. When
women leave a bad situation, they often lose their support network and need to
find a new community. Even though what they go through is so horrific, they
need to know God knows their heart, and all of the pain will pass. With God’s
help, we can help them build a better life.”
Rensink was nominated for the award by Kelsey Vande Berg
of the Family Crisis Center. Vande Berg is grateful for the support she
provides to their clients and staff. “Pastor Deb frequently hosts dinners at her home for holidays,
since many of our clients may not have somewhere to go. She answers phones at
our main office weekly, which is a huge need we have right now! She helps
clients move out of housing when they're ready to go, tapping into her
connections in the community to get trailers, moving companies, or just more
people to help them move. Pastor Deb has even opened up her home to clients
when needed. Pastor Deb fills so many roles that our staff are not always able to
fill, due to time or budgetary restraints. She is an integral part of our team,
and it's hard to believe it's largely volunteer work!”
“Volunteers bring together communities and enrich the
organization and people they serve,” said Amy Kleinhesselink, co-CEO for
Promise. “Promise Community Health Center recognizes a volunteer each year with
the Addink award as a way to express our gratitude and honor to all those who
give their time.”
The Addink Community Service Award was created in 2012 to
recognize one individual or family who has made a positive impact on the
community through volunteerism. The award is named after Ken and Barb Addink of
Sioux Center in recognition of their lifetime of involvement in community
activities, including the establishment of dental services as Promise.
PAST ADDINK AWARD HONOREES:
Here are the past Addink Community Service Award honorees:
Here are the past Addink Community Service Award honorees:
·
Ken and Barb Addink – 2012;
·
Tom and Marlene Van Holland – 2013;
·
Jean Ellis – 2014;
·
Rob and Sharon Schelling – 2015;
·
Rod and Jayne Hofmeyer – 2016;
·
Barbara Top 2017;
·
Judy Hauswald – 2018.
Promise Community Health Center of Sioux
Center is a Federally Qualified Health Center serving the northwest corner of
Iowa. Promise provides medical, prenatal, dental, vision, behavioral health and
family planning services. To learn more, visit www.promisechc.org and
watch this video. To read more Promise news, visit promisechcnews.blogspot.com.
