{"id":623,"date":"2016-08-29T14:38:01","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T14:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/?p=623"},"modified":"2016-08-29T14:41:46","modified_gmt":"2016-08-29T14:41:46","slug":"the-pastor-known-as-little-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/?p=623","title":{"rendered":"The Pastor Known as Little Stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before she was a pastor, Veronice Horne was a homeless alcoholic turning tricks in the streets in her first life. When I met her all I could think was \u201cI want to be her when I grow up.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A few years ago, I was working on a television documentary series called Divine Restoration about African American churches. I am a white, spectacularly secular producer and Ian Burns, the producer I was with, is also white. We were scouting churches in Newark, New Jersey\u2014a desperate city like Baltimore as it\u2019s portrayed in the TV series The Wire<\/em>. The 1967 Newark riots were responsible for most of Newark\u2019s poverty even today. The flight of industries and the middle class out of the gritty city didn\u2019t help. <\/p>\n

Ian and I always looked for a church that needed a small renovation, one that could be carried out by the church congregation. Our only proviso was the finished product had to help and serve the community. Oh yes, and make our tight production deadline.<\/p>\n

Bill, our researcher, e-mailed a weird possibility: \u201cI know you\u2019re thinking\u2026\u2019Bill, this is crazy you\u2019re recommending a church without a building.\u2019 My gut tells me this is a good one.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n

Pastor Veronice Horne runs her \u201cchurch\u201d out of her home in an area where white folks don\u2019t get out of their car. Her husband stood watch over our rental car while Ian and I went inside. A 6\u20192\u201d white guy, Ian, is in charge of the building part of the series. Pastor Horne is about half his height. OK, she\u2019s not three feet tall\u2014she\u2019s maybe five. She could gain on the height if she grew her close-cropped grey hair. Veronice is a human pogo stick full of joy, hugs\u2026and determination\u2014in the Machiavellian sense of the word.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the age of 15, I took my first alcoholic drink. I ran away from home and I lived in the streets, and for 10 years that\u2019s what I did\u2014drinking, prostitution, sleeping in cars, eating what I could steal, bar-hopping because you could always pick up a man in a bar. Guys knew I had a blade\u2014I knifed a guy \u2013 had to be stitched. I\u2019m little.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s stop here and talk about Jesus and God. Be a grown-up and substitute whatever words you want. We were a motley crew of every persuasion and we no doubt looked like a group in need of a little religion. But no one tried to convert us, or even instil any type of missing belief system. So, you reading this, suspend your disbelief<\/em> and give Pastor Horne your full attention so you\u2019ll see and appreciate what this tiny, black lady from the south accomplishes.<\/p>\n

Forty years ago Pastor Horne found Jesus when she dropped into Newark\u2019s Goodwill Centre for a free meal. \u201cI went in\u2026and what I felt was so much love, so much love coming from people who didn\u2019t know me,\u201d<\/em> she says. It turned her life around. She got a job, went back to high school, married, bought a car \u2013 the American dream. <\/p>\n

When Pastor was plain Veronice Horne, she put her life on the line again. She took early retirement to work with women living in the streets of the urban hell of Newark. Seven years ago, Veronice founded \u201cIn The Hands of a Woman Ministry Inc. A Hand up for Hurting Women & Homeless Women\u201d<\/em>\u2014that\u2019s what it says on her fluorescent green t-shirt.<\/p>\n

Veronice distributes food from her car in deepest Newark. She has a weekly women\u2019s lunch in the Goodwill building where she gives the ladies toiletries and new clothing if they\u2019re in the job market. And let\u2019s be straight: Pastor Horne has them Testify first. Jesus and God saved her and Pastor Horne has saved many souls herself. If Pastor Horne thinks you can be saved, then by God, literally, she\u2019s going to save you.<\/p>\n

Michelle DeLaCruz, a tall forbidding woman, told me her Pastor Horne story:
\n \u201cWhen I met her I was dressing in minimal clothing. This older woman lived in my building and every time I saw her: \u2018When you comin\u2019 to church?\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Yea,\u2019 I\u2019d say just to get her out my face. Got so bad, every time I walked outa the elevator, I had to ask people \u2018Is that little church lady out there?\u2019 \u2018Cause she would come out of nowhere, like God just sent her to me. I\u2019d be half-way out the elevator and here comes the little stuff round the corner \u2018how ya doing Michelle?\u2019 I guess she saw something in me that I couldn\u2019t see. She kept at it because the tenants warned her not to say too much to me — I had a mouth like a cellar.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Now Michelle is off the streets, clean of drugs and alcohol, and married last year. She has her Masters degree and is working on her PhD in clinical psychology. \u201cPastor Horne has a discernment not only as a pastor but as a mother and you can\u2019t help love her,\u201d<\/em> said Michelle.<\/p>\n

To me, Pastor Horne\u2019s experience as a mother was horrific. \u201cMy daughter died at 38–suddenly got sick — three weeks later she was gone. I just picked myself up. The Lord took my daughter but He gave me so many others. I tell the girls \u2018The love I had for my daughter \u2013 I can just embrace you and put it all out there. It\u2019s all about love. That\u2019s what it is.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Ian was magnificent in our scout meeting with the Goodwill brass. Pastor Horne had a plan to get a space in the Goodwill building where we met the next day. Veronice sat through the meeting, her wrinkle-free face beaming, not saying a word, while Ian pitched the white Man-In-Charge. Goodwill wanted a brownstone renovated. No way–too big. Ian at his charming businessman best, explained Veronice\u2019s project as if it was all his own idea. <\/p>\n

Clever Veronice. She\u2019d primed Ian and I without us even realizing. After Bill\u2019s phone interview with Veronice, she\u2019d scouted the Goodwill building and found a room not being used. Well not being used to overflow capacity, the way Veronice felt it should be, and she could do that. Goodwill approved her plan.<\/p>\n

Then I had to convince our two broadcasters. \u201cThis is a tricky show because Pastor Horne really is the church and we\u2019ve never had a talking church before. Pastor Horne carries her church in her heart.\u201d<\/em> I got that line because Veronice kept thumping her heart and talking of love and warm, good stuff. \u201cThere\u2019s a glow about her,\u201d one of her saved ladies said.<\/p>\n

We got the green light. Veronice shouted and danced on the spot. \u201cTwenty-five years carrying this baby but now she\u2019s at the birth.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think Pastor Horne slept during our three-day shoot. Our young sleepy soundman kept muttering, \u201cI can\u2019t believe she\u2019s 67.\u201d<\/em> Veronice scurries. Hugs. Laughs. Requests. You can\u2019t say no to Pastor Horne. She insisted we tape her singing a song she\u2019d written. What a voice\u2014Tina Turner goes to church. <\/p>\n

For our first Sunday, Pastor Horn borrowed an actual church, originally Swedish, in nearby Montclair, New Jersey. The Hands of a Woman congregation was bussed in, filled the pews, and bussed back to Inner Newark. It was a very staid service.<\/p>\n

But the following Sunday, was our show-and-tell service held in the Goodwill auditorium. It was the time to reveal the congregation\u2019s work in their new permanent home. Pastor Horne whipped a tambourine around as she shouted out halleluiah, praised the Lord, sang, and did her little jig of a dance. The service rocked\u2014even me, white-girl, got up and sort of moved. <\/p>\n

My notes to our video editor read: \u201cThink of Pastor Horne as a Mick Jaguar and Beyonc\u00e9 clone\u2014after Veronice comes on stage, she\u2019s all you want to see. Please try to work in her band\u2019s short solos. But remember it is Veronice Horne who carries the church in her heart.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Have I grown up to be Pastor Veronice Horne? A bit. And that\u2019s with knowing that Veronice isn\u2019t a total saint. She wrote the lyrics to her song, but Veronice used someone else\u2019s music and no one would cough up money to pay the copyright fee. We couldn\u2019t put it into our Hands of a Woman show. Veronice singing her song would move the heart of a heartless cynic, and it all came down to money.
\nThen the Broadcaster began insisting we feature rich churches that need no help, but do have congregations who can grease wheels. Stop. I had done enough for the broadcasters and it was no longer the series I\u2019d joined. I quit. Kind of a Veronice move. <\/p>\n

Pastor Veronice Horne. Ball of Fire. Steam Roller. A real positive Lady.
\n\u201cIf you don\u2019t have hope, you have nothing. That\u2019s right. That\u2019s right. Yup\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"pastor\"<\/p>\n

Two extraordinary people: Veronice Horne and Ian Burns. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Pastor\"Before she was a pastor, Veronice Horne was a homeless alcoholic turning tricks in the streets in her first life. When I met her all I could think was \u201cI want to be her when I grow up.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A few years ago, I was working on a television documentary series called Divine Restoration about African American churches. I am a white, spectacularly secular producer and Ian Burns, the producer I was with, is also white. We were scouting churches in Newark, New Jersey\u2014a desperate city like Baltimore as it\u2019s portrayed in the TV series The Wi re<\/em>. The 1967 Newark riots were responsible for most of Newark\u2019s poverty even today. The flight of industries and the middle class out of the gritty city didn\u2019t help. <\/p>\n Read More...<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=623"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":629,"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623\/revisions\/629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbaraboyden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}