The Ecumenical Assembly of Bartholomew County Churches’ longest-tenured leader, who ushered the organization through its greatest expansion, is retiring Jan. 25.
Elizabeth Kestler, 58, has served as executive director of the Christian nonprofit agency, also known by its name of Love Chapel food pantry, since August 1999. She replaced Margie Wilson, who began her post in January 1989.
Kestler arrived with nearly 20 years of experience working with people in needy from Pennsylvania to Alabama, then contributed 20 more in Columbus.
She plans to travel more with husband John, recently retired from Cummins Inc. Her youngest son, Noah, will graduate high school in May.
Kestler said she will leave with “many great memories, many great prayers answered, and many, and many great, God sightings.”
That last bit of terminology is her way of regularly referring to God’s intervention and provision for the agency when faced with a challenge.
“A new force is needed for the next phase,” she told her board at its most recent meeting.
The search already has begun for her replacement.
Kestler has led the agency with a more than $300,000 annual operating budget, $200,000 in an assistance-related funds budget and about $1.5 million of in-kind donations for direct assistance. Moreover, she has overseen a paid staff of 13, plus more than 225 regularly active volunteers, besides more than 500 one-time volunteers throughout the year.
She began her tenure with one staff member, a food pantry coordinator, and about 30 volunteers.
Attorney Jeff Crump has served on the Love Chapel board since 1999, and has known Kestler as long as anyone associated with the agency. He passes credit for the Love Chapel Foundation that he helped organize in 2007 to Kestler. It currently holds $320,000 for the agency’s infrastructure and special projects.
“Elizabeth is a good leader who has a good sense of keeping everything together,” Crump said. “She’s also one who’s able to find money among donors when it is especially needed because people trust and respond to her so well.”
She holds to some firm opinions in defense of those facing tough times.
“Those in poverty are as discriminated a group of individuals probably as much as anyone else,” Kestler said. “And in my heart of hearts, I still believe in the best of people. And I still believe that collectively, we must take the time learn to understand others rather than judge them.”
Columbus Township Trustee Ben Jackson praised Kestler for her work in helping his office launch the Brighter Days Housing shelter for homeless people in 2017.
“She took a big leap in getting her board to agree to that,” Jackson said.
Kestler said one of the biggest changes to the pantry itself the past three or four years is the consistent option of offering struggling families “the whole gamut of nutritional foods” from meat to vegetables to fruit. She said that’s due to regularly donated produce from local stores and local farmers.
“We’ve purposely changed things in the pantry to be more nutritional,” she said.
She hardly plans much relaxing in her retirement.
“I have a bucket list that will take at least 20 years to complete,” Kestler said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Elizabeth Kestler” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Age: 58.
Born: In Indianapolis, but moved to Hope at age 2 and grew up there.
Family: Husband John; three children.
Position: Executive director, Ecumenical Assembly of Bartholomew County Churches, since 1999.
Prior social service jobs: Worked in a detention center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as part of a college internship; former US2 United Methodist missions program at Dumas Wesley Community Center in Mobile, Alabama; former director of social services at The Cabbage Patch Settlement House working with youth and families in Louisville, Kentucky; operated three child care centers in upstate New York; developed a plan for a community center within a housing project in Dallas, Texas.
Perspective on her training before Love Chapel: “It was all part of God’s plan. The two years I spent in Mobile especially shaped my life ministry path.”
Education: 1977 Hauser High School graduate; undergraduate sociology degree from Hanover College; community ministries master’s degree from Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis.
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