Spokane’s Martin Luther King Jr. Family Outreach Center is hosting a prayer breakfast open to all faiths on Jan. 9. The inaugural event is headlined by speaker Nate Miles, vice president for strategic initiatives at Eli Lilly. Miles is well-known as a public speaker and sits on many of Seattle’s prominent boards, including those of the University of Washington Foundation, the Metropolitan Urban League, and the Pacific Science Center.
Miles is also willing to speak publically about his faith and family background.
“Some people ask me, ‘You grew up poor; how did you get to where you are today?’ and I tell them I never grew up poor,” Miles said.
“My family had a good work ethic, good family values, and a lot of love in our household – we just didn’t have any money. I think it would be more appropriate to say that I grew up broke because in my opinion there is a very big difference between growing up poor and growing up broke,” Miles said in an interview with the University of Washington in September 2014.
Valena Arguello, community outreach coordinator for the center, said she and other staff have heard requests for a while to cater to the center’s faith-based community, but they wanted to do an event that was inclusive of Spokane’s religious variety.
They decided on a prayer breakfast — but one where the guest speaker isn’t a pastor, people from all faiths are welcome, and entertainment is provided by Spokane’s Community Choir.
“We didn’t want to alienate anyone because there’s such a wide spread of denominations,” Arguello said.
Inclusiveness, after all, is what the Outreach Center is all about. Staff serve people from all walks of life, providing before and after-school programs for kids, counseling and family therapy, help with school supplies and holiday gifts, and food, as well as housing and utility assistance.
One woman came in before the holidays looking for help signing her child up for EACAP, Arguello recalled, and as she told her story, staff realized she needed some more help.
“In talking to her, we realized there were other services we could provide,” she said.
The center ended up finding the woman holiday gifts for her children, connecting her with a crime victim’s advocate, helping her with divorce paperwork and giving her utility help in the more expensive winter months.
While the center isn’t strictly a religious nonprofit, Arguello believes faith was an important part of King’s original message and mission, and the prayer breakfast will be a way to fulfill that mission.
“I feel the faith community is something that was really important in the movement Dr. King was involved in. It’s something that takes us back to that time,” she said. “[The prayer breakfast] is a way to bring together the supporters of the center who are faith-based.”
Proceeds from the breakfast will go toward the Center’s capital campaign — the nonprofit is working toward a new building to replace current aging facilities, which consist of an old firehouse they purchased from the city for less than $10,000 and an adjacent house. Arguello said she and executive director Freda Gandy expect about 200 people at the first breakfast, which they hope will become an annual event.
IF YOU GO:
Date: January 9, 2016
Time: 9 a.m.-10:30 a.m.
Place: Gonzaga University, Cataldo Hall, Globe Room
Cost: $20
