Archive for year: 2025

The Rev. Dr. Karin Pejack cherishes the shared history between Homeland and the historic church she shepherds – Zion Lutheran Church, one of Homeland’s founders.

“We’ve been impressed with the care residents receive at Homeland and the caring community,” Pejack said. “You’re so lucky to have a chapel and chaplains. It’s a wonderful place. I’ve found the staff here consistently very friendly and welcoming.”

The dynamic reverend was the featured speaker for The 1867 Society of Homeland’s member appreciation event in May. In her remarks, she explored the meaning behind the ties between two of Harrisburg’s most historical institutions — Homeland Center, founded in 1867 as the “Home for the Friendless,” and Zion Lutheran Church, where in 1839, the Whig Party nominated William Henry Harrison as its candidate for president.

Pejack grew up in the Reading-area town of Robesonia. Her father worked at a printing business, and her mother, a one-time high school German teacher, was a community volunteer. Her busy mother served on the local school board and continues to be active in her local church, including support of their outreach efforts.

“You want to give back to the community where you live,” Pejack said while sitting in the Homeland Diner. “You want to make a difference.”

Pejack graduated from Smith College in Northampton, MA, with bachelor’s degrees in German and World Religions. During her junior year and after graduation, she spent time in Germany. Overseas study and work could be challenging, but country-hopping by rail throughout Europe offered “a wonderful adventure.”

After realizing that her conversations often turned to religion, Pejack enrolled in the Lancaster Theological Seminary and, following her graduation was ordained through the United Church of Christ before finding her theological fit in the Lutheran church.

Today, her congregation is affiliated with the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

“Christ is our center, our anchor, our rock, and that has never been more powerfully needed than in the quicksand of the world today,” she said. “We also practice grace and mercy. When we acknowledge that we need that and have been so blessed to receive it unmerited from Christ, who’s paid the penalty for us, how can we deny being forgiving, gracious, and merciful to others?”

She joined Zion in 2009 as a part-time assistant pastor while caring for her school-age son, who is deaf and on the autism spectrum. A few years later, she became head pastor for the downtown Harrisburg church.

“We are in the middle of a mission field,” Pejack said. “The church acts as a beacon for downtown residents, ministering to their spiritual needs while partnering with providers and church collaboratives to help feed and house the homeless.

Pejack met her husband of 24 years, Todd Pejack, in seminary, although he built his career as a recycling specialist with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Now retired, he serves as Zion Lutheran’s part-time office administrator and handyman — a welcome value-add for a building that dates to 1839. He also helps conduct Zion’s outreach ministry and leads a monthly Bible study at Bethesda Mission, a Harrisburg homeless shelter.

“I’m very blessed,” Pejack said. “He has a wonderful, loving personality and is very skilled. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

The Pejack family – Karin, Todd, their son, and Todd’s two adult children – feel fortunate to enjoy frequent visits with Karin’s parents in Wyomissing and Todd’s mother in Bedford. They enjoy movies, reading, sometimes competitive game nights, and laughing in the spirit of Karin’s favorite Bible verse, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Pejack was amazed to learn about Homeland’s history and the role of her church in its founding. Zion Lutheran was one of nine Harrisburg churches, and each elected two women members to help create a home that would care for the city’s women and children widowed and orphaned by the Civil War.

Those women “chose to serve” amid extraordinary need in their midst, Pejack said.

“They didn’t need to do it necessarily, but it was on their hearts,” she said. “That’s what it means to live out our faith – to love God and serve our neighbor.”

Their legacy continues today in The 1867 Society of Homeland, founded in 2011. Through The 1867 Society, generous community members commit to donating $5,000 or more toward benevolent care – the funds that allow Homeland to continue its tradition of never asking a resident to leave due to inability to pay for care.

Members of The 1867 Society have the satisfaction of leaving a legacy that sustains exceptional care for years to come, plus the opportunity to enhance their gifts through the “Uplift Your Legacy” initiative that invites additional donations.

Pejack sees parallels between Zion Lutheran and Homeland because both provide services and love in the city.

Even today, Harrisburg’s churches still collaborate for the betterment of the community in the spirit of Homeland.

“Homeland’s founding women clearly had the gifts and talents that were right for the time, the place, and the need,” Pejack said. “God blesses us in many ways and calls us to serve.”

Joyce Muniz was a little girl going through a magazine when her mother explained that the picture of a woman in a white dress and cap was of a nurse.

“I said, ‘I’m going to be a nurse when I grow up,’” Muniz recalled. “Of course, my mother just looked at me because I was about 7, and she didn’t say anything. From then on, I had it in my heart that I would be a nurse.”

Now, Muniz is a resident of Homeland, where many of the nursing and administrative staff are former colleagues from a career in nursing and teaching. They include Director of Nursing Jennifer Tate-DeFrietas.

“She tells people that I used to be her boss, and now, she’s mine,” Muniz said with a laugh.

Muniz’ care at Homeland has been exceptional, helping her through a crisis with a rare and debilitating neurological condition.

“I want to give the praise to God,” Muniz said. “I went from a point when I came in barely able to walk to where I do everything myself. I do everything independently.”

Muniz grew up in York County and lived in foster homes for many years. At one home, she told her foster mother that she always wanted to be a nurse, and the woman responded, “You’ll never be a nurse.”

From then on, that voice stayed in the back of her mind, driving her forward even when she felt like quitting.

“So consequently, I got my LPN from York County Vo-Tech, got my RN from HACC (Harrisburg Area Community College), graduated cum laude from Thomas Jefferson University with my BSN, and graduated from the University of St. Francis with my master’s in health services administration,” she said. “What she said was like a knife. I always remembered that and thought, ‘I’ll show you.’ And I did.”

She shares that experience with Homeland staff as they pursue their career goals.

“I love to talk to them and tell them never to give up,” she said. “If you fail a class, take it over and see where you’re going.”

After the breakup of her first marriage, Muniz was a single mother, raising two boys who were born in the same year. She worked in hospitals in New Jersey and Florida before returning to Pennsylvania, where she served as assistant head nurse in a demanding cardiac care unit and as director of staff development at a Harrisburg-area nursing home.

She retired to take care of her second husband, a good man whom she married in the early 1980s and who died in 2010 after a series of strokes.

One morning, she settled into a recliner with her newspaper, cup of coffee, and her Pomeranian in her lap. When she stayed there until 5 p.m., she realized that a typical retirement would not suit her go-getter self.

She jumpstarted a new career, teaching medical assistants in schools and a rehab center. About three years ago, mysterious symptoms started plaguing her, including a loss of balance and frequent falls.

Doctors attributed her symptoms to aging until she was finally diagnosed with MSA-C, or multiple system atrophy – cerebellar subtype. She openly volunteers the details of her rare condition, which typically causes patients to lose their equilibrium and their voices.

“I want to educate people,” Muniz said. “Nurses have not heard of what I have. Most doctors haven’t either, unless they’re a neurologist.”

As her symptoms worsened, she knew Homeland was where she needed to be.

“I knew the standards that they require in the care of residents, and I know where their hearts are,” she said. “There are a lot of good people here.”

Muniz arrived unable even to get into a wheelchair by herself, but with regular therapy from Homeland rehabilitation services, her condition improved dramatically. Today, standing still feels like swaying on a boat, but she takes assisted walks daily, goes out for occasions with family, and uses her feet to pedal around in the wheelchair that her son calls her “Flintstone car.”

“God is so good,” she said. “There is no other explanation for how I went from that bad to this good.”

Recently, friends escorted her from lunch to the Homeland chapel, where the Central Pennsylvania Nurses Honor Guard surprised her with a ceremony recognizing her lifetime of service.

“They gave me roses,” Muniz. “They gave me a hand-knit Afghan and a Florence Nightingale lamp. Nursing is about doing for others.”

The severe symptoms of her MSA-C could return, she knows, but no matter what comes, she has confidence in the care she is receiving at Homeland.

“My hopes here are just to continue getting the wonderful care I’m getting, doing what I can, and enjoying life as much as I can.”

Homeland Center (www.homelandcenter.org) offers levels of care including personal care, memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation. Homeland also provides hospice, home care, home health and palliative care services to serve the diverse and changing needs of families throughout central Pennsylvania. For more information or to arrange a tour, please call 717-221-7900.