Helping Refugees Through Ministry

For Jana Strukova, PhD’ 07, the kitchen table is holy ground. 

Jana embraced her faith at the kitchen table where her family worshiped in secret – away from prying eyes in Communist-run Czechoslovakia. Jana was baptized and confirmed in a private ritual in the Lutheran church and worshipping at the kitchen table became a life-long formational practice. “My confirmation in the Lutheran faith was secret, and, as it should be, never a cause for public celebration. So, my public entrance to a life of faith was scary,” Jana says. This experience has led her to create a new table. Here, Ukrainian refugees can find safety, work, solace, and fellowship.

Jana’s ministry has been largely informed by her beloved family, their traumatic experiences, and the unfortunate reality many refugees experience. But before Strukova could help refugees she earned a PhD in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary in 2007. It was during this time a series of family tragedies sent her spinning into a dark place.

“I was in a place where I couldn’t quite see a way out. You just walk in and through your pain,” she says. “When I found myself in that valley, where everything that could shatter had shattered, I decided to open a counseling center. A center for anyone, especially women, who might have found themselves in a similar situation.” Jana named it the Martha and Mary Center for Women and Community Care, as a tribute to her grandmother Mary, and her older sister Martha.   

The center’s mission statement makes the goal clear: “We believe in the dignity, resilience, and soul of women. Our mission is to help women shine. We offer support, empowerment, and education to women locally and globally.”  

Before Princeton Seminary, Jana finished university in Czechoslovakia, then headed for Philadelphia, where she attended Lutheran Theological Seminary (now United Lutheran Seminary) to study Christian formation. 

Her professors saw her passion for helping others and recommended she pursue a PhD at the Seminary. While there, she found a truly global atmosphere where she felt welcomed and encouraged. 

What I have always appreciated about Princeton Theological Seminary, is its global vision. They believe in international students, and they give us an opportunity. There, you are an international student but you’re not a stereotype. You are a part of the family there

Jana also met her future husband, Doug Hume, while studying at Princeton Seminary. After graduation, they moved to Stanly County in south-central North Carolina where he joined Pfeiffer University as a professor of religion and chairman of the Department of Humanities.

Jana went on to teach Christian formation at universities and institutions all around The United States of America and remains the executive director of the Mary and Martha Center for Women and Community Care in Albemarle, about an hour east of Charlotte.

Jana wrote about her experience creating the center and shared the model she developed for Christian formation for youth in her first book, Kitchen Table Youth Ministry: Inviting God to Dinner. 

She has learned so much since her first book, that she has written a new book,  Befriend: Taking Care For Community Through Nonprofit.  The book shares how faith-based nonprofits are perfectly positioned to create spaces for inclusion. 

“I talk about the challenges and issues that happen when a person runs a nonprofit. I approach this whole book as an interdisciplinary treatment of community care. So, I look at mental health, I look at the sociology of community, I look at the nonprofit formation, but most importantly, I look at it theologically.” 

Now, fueled by an educational journey at Princeton Seminary that taught her how to make a spiritual difference in the lives of others, she and her associates are launching a bistro in Slovakia dedicated to helping female refugees, their children, and elderly refugees from war-ravaged Ukraine.

Together, the women – one Slovakian and two Ukrainians – are creating a safe place for refugees to serve coffee, tea, homemade Ukrainian pastries, and borscht – a classic Ukrainian soup – to raise awareness of the war and the needs in Ukraine.  

They plan to offer counseling and guidance to the refugees, to help them recover from their ordeal. Down the line, the goal is to establish a mental health center, programs, and telehealth services for women and other global refugees who are escaping war-stricken regions.  

Jana says “I have done many things in my work. I didn’t pursue the ordained ministry track, yet I still feel I have a call from God. My call is to the Kingdom of God – whenever or wherever God needs me. I like to see my call as a call to international health missions. As a missionary I don’t have a particular church, but I am called to maybe create healthy communities wherever they happen to be.”