We were lucky to catch up with Rachel Peck recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel, appreciate you joining us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

431 Ministries tends to the needs of the overlooked and underserved women of Middle Tennessee by providing safety and stability and offering hope and a plan for an independent future.

On a practical level, this means that we don’t tell women what they need to do or where they need to go, but instead “tend” them by standing in the gap and advocating on their behalf. We provide necessary tools and skills needed to understand what it means to have a safe place to live as well as the rhythms of stability to maintain that safety and look at each woman as a whole person. “Overlooked and underserved” to us means women who are in a difficult situation, whether by their choice or not and need someone to remind them that they are known, seen, and loved. We offer hope and a plan by teaching that being in community with others who are walking the same journey brings healing. Our ladies learn to face their pasts to find restoration, and develop the skills they need to not fall back into crisis. They end up living confidently on their own but not by themselves; they’ll have an ongoing community to support and encourage them through whatever they’ll face.

Most of the ladies that we serve are single moms. Whether through the Known Seen Loved Community or the more intense Side-by-Side Community, we want to empower women, build community and watch the next generation change because of the work their mothers have done.

In Middle Tennessee, most counties have an average of 30% of households being single mother led. Yet the number of services offered to support them is minimal, especially if they have some rhythms of stability, like a fulltime job. These women are stuck, with the pieces of what they need, but no explanation on how to use them. They are most often raised in a single-mother household themselves and want to break the cycle but don’t know how.

In the words of one of our graduates: The [Side-by-Side Program] brought beautiful friendships into my life. At the time I entered the program my financial future as a single mom looked bleak and often overwhelming. The program brought connections into my life that I could only have dreamed of, prior to the Side-by-Side Program. I felt the prayers of my mentor and emotional support. My [Financial Mentor] brought in much financial wisdom which helped make the financial burdens more manageable.

But more than anything else; I learned I’m not alone. The program helped me find more confidence. Even after graduation the programs gift to me has me in a place where I know I’m not going to be alone again as a single mom.

Thank you!”

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Justin and I had no idea what we were doing when we started. All we knew was that our lives were supposed to be used in ministry. And so after praying a dangerous prayer for months, “Lord, break our hearts for what breaks yours,” he answered it in the form of a single mom. We were 23.
A woman walked into the office that I was working at at the time, and she went to the front desk and told them I’m about to be homeless. “I have no hope, no options, and nowhere to go from here” she said. To their credit, they didn’t turn her away. Instead, they sent out a company-wide email and asked if anyone knew of a cheap apartment, a mother-in-law suite, or even just an extra room in their house.
When I read that email, my soul was pricked. I didn’t know what we could do, we lived in 700 square feet at the time, but I knew we had to do something. So I forwarded the email to Justin, expecting him to say no way. I would feel fine, he was the head of our house after all, and would have, with full confidence, said “Lord bless her from afar.”
But instead, in God’s perfect sovereignty, he pricked Justin’s soul as well. Instead, I got an email back within five minutes, saying “absolutely, we need to do something. I think she may need to move in.”
I was stunned and a little upset, that wasn’t what my plan was. I didn’t really want to share our one bathroom with a stranger!
But as we heard her story, the hard circumstances that had led her to us, we saw God’s hand in that. She had been targeted by a man in her office, who knew she was a single mom, and spent months trying to convince her that she deserves more, and that he could help. He finally got her to a place of accepting the “help” after a hard month, and when he moved her into the apartment, she couldn’t afford and have her sign the car payment that would drown her, he put a contract on the table and said, here’s a list of the sexual obligations you are now required to pay me back with. She threw it at him, making the brave choice to be homeless over what he was offering her.
The problem was, the system worked against her. She could not go to a domestic violence shelter, because there was no physical abuse. She couldn’t even go to a homeless shelter, because that full-time job that she maintained did not line up with her daughter’s school hours and her daughter wasn’t allowed to be alone at the shelter.
This left her walking into the office that I was at, bravely asking for help. And after we heard her story, and realized how broken the system was, it was God’s sovereignty that allowed us to say yes. And 24 hours after we showed her the room — a little 9×9 bedroom with a single queen bed — she and her daughter moved in.
The mom and daughter lived with us for just under 9 months. During that time, we did life together. We celebrated holidays, birthdays, new jobs, promotions, and more. The mom learned to budget, saved up an emergency fund and rebuilt her confidence. The daughter learned life skills on the farm and had a positive male role model in Justin. She was proud to be able to “take care” of the farm, which built up her confidence too. And throughout the entire time, they watched what a Christ-centered marriage and relationship looked like. Not perfect, but constantly seeking after Jesus. We lived in community, and that community didn’t end when they moved out — it just looks a little different now.
God built us for relationships, and this is one that I hold deeply. Plenty of mistakes were made, plenty of tears were shed. But we have fought for that friendship and it is one that shaped me and changed me forever. I still talk to her frequently and we got lunch together on Thursday. We pray for her daughter, they show up to birthday parties, dance classes, and everything in between.
Only God can take an introvert and change a heart from one of solitude to one of hospitality. Only God can form a lifelong relationship between two families of strangers and build community. And all it took was a dangerous prayer: “Lord, break our hearts for what breaks yours.”

In the 7 years since that first mom walked into my office, we have served over 500 women with mentorships, community opportunities, classes, grief trainings and more. We recognize the challenges that women face as single mothers and after coming out of crisis and we want to offer practical and usable solutions. We don’t just offer prayer as a solution. We offer advice, professional counseling, connections to business leaders, handymen and more. We meet women where they’re at and look at their whole life to help them find restoration for their past.

I am most thankful for being able to be a voice for those that had none before. For the phone calls I get letting me know that a client spoke up for the first time ever. For the notes from our team members letting me know that a woman has made a deposit into savings for the first time.

It’s the personal touch that sets 431 Ministries apart and it’s the community piece that makes what we teach last.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

When working with people, the chance for burnout is high, especially when you’re working with women who have been through such heavy things and are still processing that grief. As a leader, the most important thing I can do for my team is to bring it back to the why. Every week during staff meeting, we go over our mission, our vision and our values and we translate it to the work we’re doing that day. We celebrate the moments of joy that our clients had the previous week and the impact that it has had on their families. This keeps us in focus and makes the difficult parts easier. And finally, during high stress seasons, maintaining open communication and giving people space to complain “up” is critical. It keeps things in perspective and allows the leader to refocus efforts on areas that need improvements.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Starting in the non-profit world is unique because you have to learn to sell an idea that might not be fully flushed out yet. For us, we had solved the problems for one mom, but how do you repeat the process when the details are different? And then how do you grow beyond you?

At the beginning, my husband and I funded the majority of the work. I did the job for free, and we personally paid for the supplies that we needed – food for women who showed up at our house hungry, additional napkins or paper towels and a larger tables. But when you believe it so much that you are willing to put personal expenses into it, people sit up and take note. From there, it was telling story after story about the impact that we wanted to see. Sometimes, one of the ladies we were working with would be willing to share, and that went even further. People started giving when we asked, and it was that ask that makes all the difference. People may know that there’s an issue, but they want to be invited into the solution.

At 431 Ministries, it took a lot of personal phone calls, lots of networking and slow but steady growth. And the Lord’s hand was on every part.

Contact Info:

• Website: 431house.org
• Instagram: instagram.com/431.ministries
• Facebook: facebook.com/431ministries
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/431-ministries
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC40YS7CUkw3y7DXDhcFC6hQ