Reaching For Recovery

Day of Thankful Hearts benefits women

Both John Two-Hawks and his wife, Peggy Hill, know what it’s like to suffer violence at home. Both had to deal with it as children.

So when they were approached about a concert in support of Jeremiah Recovery House in Green Forest, it was easy to say yes. Since 2013, Jeremiah House has provided a two-year, Christ-centered “nurturing, transformative home environment” for women who have suffered domestic violence, human trafficking, prostitution, addiction, childhood sexual abuse and homelessness.

There is currently only one Jeremiah House residential facility, says founder Vickie Poulson, and keeping the doors open requires “a walk of faith.”

“It takes about $3,000 a month to fund the house, and we don’t always know from one minute to the next where it’s coming from,” she says. “We had been looking for a social enterprise to help us become selfsustaining, and we decided on hydroponic growing of produce.”

According to Poulson, fundraising to pay for the greenhouse structure and equipment included everything from an Easter Egg Extravaganza to yard sales to a sewing and craft room where aprons, headbands, purses and jewelry were made to sell. Poulson also sought and received grants from various banks, foundations, churches, businesses and organizations from around Carroll County over the past three years.

“The greenhouse is up, and one dream is realized,” she says. “But there are others who need the help and healing the program offers. And the bills continue. We depleted our funds in the purchase and construction of the hydroponic greenhouse and need funds for supplies to begin growing our produce.”

Fifty percent of ticket sales from Two-Hawks’ Saturday concert will go toward that project but also toward the dream of opening Jeremiah Houses in

Eureka Springs and Berryville. “And we hope one will be a place where women can have their children with them,” Poulson says.

Not content with just offering the concert, Two-Hawks, a Grammy- and Emmy-nominated recording artist, speaker, author and activist, will also offer an afternoon workshop, as will Hill.

“The Wind of My Soul: Empowering Women to Become,” set for 2 p.m., will explore the emotional pain of rejection and “affirm our power to positive selfesteem, [which] will aid us in our journey of healing,” says Hill.

At 3:30 p.m., Two-Hawks will share his personal insights about freeing himself from trauma in “Hidden Medicine: Surviving, Healing and Rising from the Ashes of Abuse.” There are three phases of that journey, he says, and the third is often not realized. He will share the pathway of all three, with an emphasis on how to take that final step.

The concert, at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, will also include music from Two-Hawks’ “Hidden Medicine” album, an appearance by the Celebration Choir and will take place at First Christian Church, one of the Jeremiah House supporting organizations.

“As lives are restored, communities are restored,” Poulson says. “This core belief is one around which Jeremiah Recovery House operates.”

Photo courtesy John Two-Hawks Native American flutist John Two-Hawks will present a workshop and a concert Saturday in support of Jeremiah Recovery House, a nonprofit which helps women who have suffered violence, addiction or homelessness.