When Svetlana Kusmiy shops at Food City, she looks for half-price pasta and day-old loaves of Italian bread that can be cut into a dozen portions.
Every dollar the professional housekeeper saves on grocery shopping means she and her husband can feed another person on the streets of downtown Chattanooga.
Five days a week, Kusmiy cleans houses for a company called Nooga Home Cleaning. On weekends, she and her husband, Glen Cox, a factory worker, cook and distribute meals to the homeless while sharing their Christian faith. They call their mission the Hands and Feet Homeless Mission.
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Kusmiy, who lives in McDonald, Tennessee, feels this is the least she can do to honor her hard-won religious freedom. The 54-year-old came to America from Ukraine in 1989 at age 19. Her family fled persecution in the former Soviet Union, where they were in danger because of their Christian faith, she said.
“We had no freedom of religion,” Kusmiy said in an interview. “We were Christians and they (the authorities) persecuted us.”
“I was followed at school. KGB agents came and asked me questions,” she continued. “A few times they handcuffed my father and put him in prison. My grandmother never got her pension.”
(READ MORE: Hixson Middle School teacher hauls shower to help homeless.)
Life in their hometown of Ternopol in western Ukraine had become unbearable, she said, so when an opportunity arose, they withdrew. The then President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, authorized the exodus of Christians from Ukraine before the collapse of the Soviet empire. Today, the majority of Ukrainians and Russians profess Christianity.
Kusmiy, now a U.S. citizen, said her entire family arrived in New York in 1989 and then moved to New Jersey and later Ohio before settling in southeast Tennessee. Over the years, she has worked in various factories, including 20 years as a worker at a Shaw Industries plant in Chickamauga.
Two decades ago, Kusmiy had terminal breast cancer and she believes her life was spared so she could serve her faith. She believes in the Bible verse in Psalms that says, “Blessed is he who cares for the weak; the Lord delivers him in time of trouble.” She also believes that the war between Russia and Ukraine is somehow part of a divine plan.
After losing her job at the Whirlpool plant in Cleveland, Tennessee, earlier this year due to a wave of layoffs, she prayed for work and immediately saw an opening as a cleaner. As with most things in her life, Kusmiy believed it was divine intervention.
Because she works in the service industry rather than manufacturing, she has the opportunity to talk about her faith with coworkers and clients, she said. Some of her home clients donate clothing and money to support her homeless outreach, she said.
Cox said the ministry has evolved since its creation late last year.
“We found an area in Cleveland, near Ocoee Street, where we frequently saw homeless people walking around, so we knew there was a need there,” he said. “We finally drove to Chattanooga and looked into it.”
(READ MORE: Brainerd couple launches homeless relief organization.)
Now, he said, the ministry is focused on Chattanooga. On Saturday afternoons, the couple, who attend Redemption Point Church in Ooltewah, hand out food and religious tracts to people on the street. On Sundays, they often return to be part of a large, cross-church ministry that operates on the grounds of the Bessie Smith Cultural Center on ML King Boulevard.
They reject praise for their efforts.
“We want people to understand, first and foremost, that it’s all about him,” Cox said. “His love, his mercy and his grace that he shows to everyone.”
“We are just servants doing what God wants us to do,” Kusmiy added.
The Life Stories column appears Mondays. To suggest a human interest story, contact Mark Kennedy at [email protected] or 423-757-6645.
Contributed photo/ Svetlana Kusmiy and her husband Glen Cox distribute plates of food to the homeless in Chattanooga every weekend.