Beef with mother leads daughter to help the homeless

The relationship between mothers and daughters can become quite contentious and fragile sometimes. In some cases, the relationship may languish beyond repair.

 “Today’s mother and daughter relationships are the most turbulent in existence,” said Timishia Ortiz, who is hosting a “Mother Daughter Gala: The Heart of the Matter” on Sept. 14, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Bartlett Banquet Hall, 2758 Bartlett Blvd.

There is a fee to attend the gala: $35 for adults and $15 for children. Proceeds benefit The Jasmine Center, Inc., a non-profit transitional home for families that Ortiz is planning to open in the Binghampton community.

A contentious relationship with her mother, which
resulted in homelessness, led Timishia Ortiz to host
a Mother Daughter Gala to fund The Jasmine
Center, a transitional home for families.
(Courtesy photo)

“The property that I’m looking at…they want $350,000,” said Ortiz, 36, the Center’s founder, president and CEO. A temporary office is located at 3592 Knight Arnold Rd., Suite 320.

“Right now we still do help families in need. We will open up the facility as soon as we get the money,” said Ortiz, adding that once the doors are open, six families at a time will be able to stay up to 12 months.

The gala is the first step in bringing The Jasmine Center to fruition. Attendees can expect light refreshments, in addition to a performance by former recording artist Temmora Levy, who manages the wildly popular girl group, KARMA. Elder Yvonne R. James, a poet and novelist, will deliver the message.

While raising needed funds is paramount, Ortiz is hoping the message and camaraderie will help repair relationships and eventually mend hearts – thus the impetus that led to the founding of The Jasmine Center.

In fact, Ortiz’s relationship with her own mother was fraught with problems that waned over time. She was incensed that her mother had defaulted on a lease agreement that was forged with her name.

She discovered what her mother had done after leaving an abusive husband in Nashville and returning home to Memphis for family support. An eviction notice had already been issued, which meant the person whose name was on the lease (Timishia Ortiz) had to vacate the property.

Ortiz was pregnant at the time with her son and a two-year-old daughter in tow when her world was suddenly upended. Because of her mother’s misdeed, “I couldn’t get a place because of the eviction on my credit.”

In retrospect, Ortiz had no money because her husband, whom she’d married in 2013, had convinced her to stay home. The arrangement turned out to be an unwise decision on her part.

When she’d search for a place to live, she was told she needed a physical address. The eviction also complicated matters.

Ortiz was now homeless and had nowhere to turn for help. Then, too, having to navigate the court system leading up to a rocky divorce only exacerbated her problem.

“We were on the streets. Sometimes we slept in my car,” she said.

Ortiz had come from a steady family. Her father was a radiologist and a preacher. He died the day before her seventh birthday. Her mother, who’d stayed home at the behest of her husband, raised five children.

After finishing high school, Ortiz earned a degree at the University of Memphis, worked a good paying job, volunteered in the community, and attended church. Homelessness was now a factor that she had to contend with.

Options were nil for the homeless population in Memphis in 2016, said Ortiz, who’d searched for a shelter to no avail. So she opted to return to Nashville where she’d fled domestic violence. She found a shelter and employment there.

After returning to Memphis, “My dad’s sister relocated from Atlanta to Memphis to help me and my children get a place to stay after she found out what had happened.”

Ortiz had struggled for six months before she started seeing a glimmer of hope. Now she’s trying to help others who are homeless with limited resources or none at all. That’s why The Jasmine Center is so important, she said.

Her mother died this year in March. The eviction snafu, however, is still unresolved. “I’m still trying to fix that error,” said Ortiz, who had already forgiven her mother before she died.

For more information about The Jasmine Center, call (901) 921-9455.

Min. Suhkara A. Yahweh to talk about civil rights and his beatdown in Forrest City, Arkansas

Min. Suhkara A. Yahweh, known during the Civil Rights Movement as Lance
"Sweet Willie Wine" Watson, lounges in his South Memphis home/office where
the story of his activism is documented via newspaper clippings, books and
photographs. (Photo by Wiley Henry)

Forrest City (Arkansas) was once a bastion of racial upheaval. Named for the infamous Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, Min. Suhkara A. Yahweh knows the city all too well. On Aug. 26, 1969, an angry white mob tried to beat the life out of him after leading a “Walk Against Fear.”

“I noticed two men…one in a suit and the other with jeans on. One had a knife in his hands,” Yahweh remembers. “Then I noticed two Europeans on the right side of me trying to break off this branch trying to hit me with it. The next thing I knew I had come to myself. I was in the gully.”

Yahweh will get a chance to tell the full story of his “Walk Against Fear” and other relevant issues affecting African Americans then and now when he returns to Forrest City on Aug. 17 to keynote the Civil Rights Commemoration Program at Beth Salem Baptist Church, 835 Garland St. The program will begin at 5 p.m.

The commemoration will also mark the 50th anniversary of Yahweh’s “Walk Against Fear,” a peaceful walk he was leading in 1969 from West Memphis to Little Rock to bring attention to injustice there and racial conflict. 

On Aug. 18 at 5 p.m. in Memphis, Yahweh and his friends will celebrate his 81st birthday a day earlier at Booth Park at South Parkway East and Texas Street, which coincides with the third annual B.F. Booth Day. Benjamin Franklin Booth (1858-1941), a slave, teacher, principal and attorney, was a distant relative of Yahweh’s.

The skirmish in Forrest City that led to Yahweh’s beatdown is a constant reminder of an era that mirrors racial conflict today. It is an easy topic for Yahweh – who sacrificed life and limb to change the status quo – when he addresses the audience at Beth Salem.

“Min. Yahweh will talk about the struggle of the Civil Rights Movement in Forrest City, and part of that is the Walk Against Fear,” said Frank Shaw III, a retired educator and president of the St. Francis County Branch NAACP, the program sponsor.

“We will talk about the struggle from 1963 to 1969 when Min. Yahweh came to Forrest City,” said Shaw, also on program to speak. He credits Yahweh for his role in initiating incremental changes that eventually came to Forrest City.

“After Yahweh, jobs and everything opened up,” he said.

Known in 1969 as Lance “Sweet Willie Wine” Watson, a 31-year-old member of The Invaders, a local militant civil rights group, Yahweh was already deep in the throes of the “Movement” when the Rev. Cato Brooks Jr. called on him to come to Forrest City to help picket and boycott white merchants.  

Brooks, the Rev. J.F. Cooley and other leaders in Forrest City had been organizing a “poor people’s march” across East Arkansas, but postponed it after meeting with then Arkansas Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller. 

“With them calling off the march…we were looking forward to it. So I couldn’t in good faith be part of the decision,” Yahweh said. “So I said what we’d do…I’ll have a walk against fear.”

The first stage of the “Walk Against Fear” began on Yahweh’s birthday, Aug. 19. He said it took him four days to reach Little Rock. Altogether, he had occupied Forrest City for a total of three months trying to tame the rambunctious city.

So Yahweh has much to talk about at Beth Salem. His stories are endless, vivid, and forever inscribed in the annals of history.

“My fingerprints are all over Memphis, Atlanta, Mississippi, Jackson, Carolina, Washington, D.C.,” he said.

He also left his indelible fingerprint in Forrest City, Ark.

Elder Barbara Hawthorne: Prayer Warrior

Elder Barbara Hawthorne feeds and prays for the health and welfare of these men
in Morris Park after church services. (Photos by Grace Perry)

Barbara Hawthorne has studied the Word of God, taught Bible study, prayed for the sick and shut-in, ministered to the least of God’s people, and preached the unadulterated gospel truth for more than 25 years.

So why has this licensed and ordained elder, evangelist and prayer warrior taken her ministry to the streets and into the disadvantaged areas of the city?

“You can preach the perfect sermon, but there is no healing in the pews,” Hawthorne said. “There is so much hurt that is still not being addressed in the church.”

This gentleman gladly accepts
a mean and something to drink
from Elder Barbara Hawthorne
after he was released from
Methodist University
Hospital.

Ten years ago, Hawthorne made a conscious decision – or was “led by the Holy Spirit” – to minister to the downtrodden in communities where hurt and pain is visible.

“We preach feel-good sermons,” said Hawthorne, a member of The Life Church - Highland. “But there is still hidden pain, unspoken pain.”

Such as domestic violence inflicted on the victim of an abuser purporting to love that person.

Violent rage welling up in a child who has been battered, rejected or sexually abused by someone the child trusts.

Self-doubt, depression and suicidal thoughts overwhelming an individual’s mind who has given up on life.

Hunger pangs ravaging the innards of people without resources to feed themselves or their family.

Financial drought forcing people into homelessness in search of shelter on the dangerous streets of Memphis.

 Hawthorne said the common denominator in each example of unspoken pain is prayer. She feels it is her Christian duty to pray for people in the church, on the street corners, and others laden with life-altering problems.

When she’s feeding the homeless, she’ll first ask if it’s OK to pray with them and for them. Such was the case recently when she fed a half dozen hungry people in a Midtown park and prayed fervently for their restoration.

She wrote a prayer manual and submitted it to the Memphis Police Department after completing eight weeks of training at the MPD’s Clergy Police Academy in April. The partnership between the MPD and the faith-based community is designed to help reduce crime.

Hawthorne wanted to make a contribution. “There were Methodists, Baptists, Muslims, Catholics [in the class],” she said, and pointed out that the camaraderie was a welcome experience.

According to recent statistics, there are approximately 2,000 churches in the Greater Memphis Metropolitan area representing various beliefs and denominations including Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and Jews.

Memphis alone has a population of 655,155 residents. For cities with 500,000 or more residents, Memphis is often ranked in the top 10 nationally for violent crimes. Hawthorne believes prayer is a deterrent.

She prayed for a woman recently released from jail and called on the Holy Spirit to free the woman from the lure of criminal activity. She also prays for juveniles with wanton behavioral problems.

No matter the person, their ethnicity or race, Hawthorne prays for them. She is a volunteer Chaplin at Regional One Health providing emotional and spiritual support to staff, patients and their family.

Hawthorne touts her passion for prayer and being disciplined in the nine attributes of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit, according to Galatians 5:22-23 – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

She said a person has to be equipped to do this kind of work – ministry. “You can’t just step into it with nothing. You have to have the right people with passion, heart and a love of God.”

Her vitae reflect the length and breadth of ministry and community outreach.

“I’ve been busy the last three years waiting on God,” said Hawthorne, believing God will take her to a higher plateau in ministry so that more people can experience the love of God.

Meanwhile, the prayer warrior plans to continue feeding the homeless, praying for the sick and shut-in, soothing troubled minds, visiting those in detention centers and the hospital, embracing the violent child, and tending the spiritual and emotional needs of victims of domestic violence.

“I call this mobile evangelism,” she said.