November 18, 2020 
FROM PETER'S PEN
Special Edition

Ascension Family,

My colleague, The Reverend Marian Taylor, is the Pastor at South Frankfort Presbyterian Church, which is located near the Access Soup Kitchen here in downtown Frankfort. Marian wrote the following letter in response to the death of Robin Jones at Access last week. I am sharing it with you here, as it does a good job of talking through this heartbreaking situation. 

Robin’s death is tragic, unique (the only event like this in the 35-year history of Access), and also a sign of just how difficult these times of are: COVID and divisiveness on a national level causing all of us to be more anxious and edgy. Please keep Robin’s family, the Access Center, and also Clifton, the man charged with Robin’s murder, in your prayers.

Peter+
Cell: 502-661-2742
FROM THE REVEREND MARIAN TAYLOR:

You may already be aware of yesterday’s tragic death of Robin Jones, an employee at ACCESS soup kitchen and men’s shelter.

Robin had worked there for 12 years, starting as a fulltime volunteer and then as an employee. She presided over about four months’ worth of lunches that were served to the ACCESS clients in our own SFPC Fellowship Hall in 2017.

The director, James Barnett, and other workers and residents at the Men’s Shelter are deeply shocked by Robin’s loss. Several hundred volunteers and alumni of the program have contacted James in the last 24 hours to say how much Robin will be missed.

The attack on Robin was completely unexpected, and her assailant is now in police custody. The assailant was a client of the shelter and had been for several months. He had the same friendly exchanges with Robin that many of the men do, with her buying him cigarettes and him buying her Mountain Dews from time to time.

James Barnett says that what happened came with no warning, no build-up of hostility or violence. James specifically wanted me to assure you that nothing like this has ever previously happened at ACCESS.

Robin is survived by a sister and a son. Please pray for them and for the traumatized staff and residents of ACCESS. Please pray also for the members of Access Board, many of whom are our friends and acquaintances, as they work to continue this vital community ministry at such a time. They will be resourced by Kentucky Crisis Prevention and by Tom Russell.

Above all, give thanks for the life and witness of Robin. James told me that she was a “genuine person who showed people love through her actions,” and “a loss to the whole community.” He is proposing that the kitchen be named for her, to become the Robin Jones Memorial Kitchen.

Even before this tragedy happened, whenever I noticed Robin at the center of things over at ACCESS I thought about her dedication to helping some of our community’s most vulnerable yet aspiring people. The organization’s web site has this apt quotation from Proverbs 3:27:

“Do not pass by a man in need, for you may be the hand of God to him.”

May God hold Robin in that very hand now and forever.

Your sister in Christ,
Marian