Marcia Sellers (center), a member of Christ the King Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio, asks Betty Lewis what she’d like to drink during a Thanksgiving celebration at The Castle, a nonprofit day-care center for mentally ill adults. Dona Johnson, pastor (inset), visits Tim Willis during the meal, but also regularly stops at The Castle to pray with participants and receive their prayer concerns.


Lewis said. “It’s exciting. They get to go shopping and out to eat, which the majority don’t get to do, not even to McDonald’s.”


For their participation, Christ the King members supply, prepare and serve a meal at The Castle every other month and stop by at other times to visit. Lynn Spatz, 67, serves regularly and visits periodi-


cally. She encourages other congregations to duplicate The Castle model. “Mental illness is still a stigma for a lot of people. This is a very underserved population,” she said. Johnson prays with willing Castle members and for- wards their prayer requests to the church’s prayer team. “They have faith,” Johnson said. “One day Paul said to me, ‘Pastor, I love Jesus.’ And I said, ‘Paul, that is great.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, and I know I’m going to heaven. I just know it because Jesus told me so.’ I was just awestruck. … They do understand, some of them, the importance of prayer. They want to be prayed for.” Because of their relationship with Castle members, Christ the King’s 164 members are becoming more aware of mental illness.


Johnson said it has also opened the door to conversa-


tions about mental illness, including mild or major depres- sion. Some members have difficulty admitting they’re on antidepressants, she added. “Medications are there to help us, and we as pastors and lay leaders in the church need to ... open up conversations about good mental health, that it’s safe to talk about,” she said.


The church also spreads awareness in the community to folks just getting to know The Castle, though it has existed since 1993.


Johnson is planning a community prayer vigil in June to break down the barriers of prejudice and stereotypes that still exist against people with mental disorders. About 1 in 4 adults or 57 million Americans suffer from mental illness, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Funding for The Castle continues to be a challenge. It gets about half of its budget through the county, the rest from fundraising, donations and grants. But money for the mentally ill is hard to come by.


“People with mental illness are still getting left behind,” Lewis said, but they “have the same feelings and the same needs that every human being has.” Just ask Mark, Betty and Tim. 


February 2011 19


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