Serving Souls with Ministry on the Margins

Let all be received as Christ

In the spring of her freshman year at the University of Mary, Raquel Doll, ’22, struck out on a new path. “I went to a career fair here, and I ran into a social worker who told me about the university’s social work program,” she said. “What she said spoke to something in my heart, and I switched my major and never looked back.”

Three years later, that same Something brought her to her journey’s next turning point. “I did my senior internship at Ministry on the Margins, and I fell in love with the population there and the ministry’s mission. Luckily enough, they ended up offering me a job.”

Ministry on the Margins, an ecumenical service organization based in Bismarck, exists to, in the ministry’s own words, “support those who fall through the cracks during times of transition.” Annunciation Monastery’s Sister Kathleen Atkinson, OSB, founded the organization in 2013 to address urgent community needs in the Bismarck-Mandan metropolitan area. “The need is so strong with our population,” Doll said. “They need housing, they need food — it’s potentially life or death.” Doll, her colleagues, and ministry volunteers serve over 1,000 community members each week, distributing food and clothing, hosting free social events, providing basic hand, foot, and eye care, and much more. “We have haircuts once a month, support groups for clients and their families, prison after-care, all of these different programs for people who need a place to go for basic services.”

Doll and Sister Kathleen entertain some young guests with a flurry of bubbles at the ministry's food pantry.

In her current role, Doll coordinates with Free Through Recovery, a unit of the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services, to link ministry clients with crucial behavioral health resources. “Experiencing life with these people in need is such a gift,” she said. “Going in to their appointments with them, taking them shopping, just walking through life with them. That’s what I love the most.” Twice a week, she joins fellow University of Mary alumna, Kacey Peterson, ’19, to meet Bismarck’s unsheltered community members where they are. “Every week, we’re out on the streets looking for people who need support,” Peterson said. “We’re super mobile — anything we do in the office as far as connecting people with services, we can make it happen anywhere.”

Peterson came to Ministry on the Margins nearly four years ago, two months after graduating from Mary with her bachelor’s in social work. “I did my senior field placement with the [North Dakota] State Penitentiary, and I was also volunteering at the Youth Correctional Center, doing reentry work,” she said. “That’s how I met Sister Kathleen, who then had a grant position open up in the summer. I’ve been with the ministry ever since.” As the organization’s designated behavioral health specialist and a Free Through Recovery care coordinator herself, Peterson enjoys no shortage of quality time with ministry guests throughout her typical workday. “I love hanging out with the people we serve, whether we’re playing cards or joking around or working on art projects together. This year, we’re doing a community garden, which is going to be a blast — our clients are so excited to participate.”

This particular development serves as an apt symbol of the ministry’s commitment to continuous growth. In the last two years, almost 20 full-time staff have joined Ministry on the Margins’ core leadership team, a welcome consequence of the organization’s drive to respond to community needs with an ever-expanding range of services. “We have a fantastic team of go-getters, and Sister Kathleen is a powerhouse,” Peterson said. “She can see a need and come up with the solution like that, and then we all just jump in and do whatever we have to do to meet the need.”

Peterson guides a new client through the ministry's intake process.

“The work that we do really does bridge gaps and fill the need,” Doll added. “Wherever the world ends up in five, ten years, we’ll be here as a refuge for people who need to be served.”

Above all, the ministry seeks to build a culture of grace, one guest at a time. “The ministry as a whole does a fantastic job of truly receiving every person as Christ, as a person with dignity and worth,” Doll said. “Just like Jesus, we’ll never turn anyone away.”