IGY6 (I Got Your Six) Ministry was officially created in 2024, but the work started long before that. The day I married my husband, I vowed to stand beside him in all aspects of life, both the good and the bad. As a wife, it was difficult for me to understand why he always had to sit facing the exits, or why he wouldn’t budge on our baby co-sleeping with us. I quickly learned just how different our lives are from people who are not first responders and realized how much I was going to need a community of people who understand what it's like being married to someone who runs into danger instead of running out of it. This is where I learned what "I've got your six" means. "I got your six" is a phrase that signifies someone has your back or is looking out for you. It originated with American fighter pilots during World War I, who used analog clocks to determine location. On a clock, 12 o'clock meant straight ahead, and 6 o'clock meant directly behind. In a dogfight, an enemy pilot would fly behind a plane to shoot it down, but a trusted wingman would have "your six" and be protecting the plane. The phrase is still used in the military and law enforcement today.

After years of not having him home on the holidays, I was surprised that the first year he was home, he too wanted to make sure that his people were going to get a hot meal to eat on shift while keeping our community safe. That’s when the holiday meals started. Us, in a kitchen, praying we had enough meals to feed Sumner County heroes. After the holiday meals launched, we realized just how much the community wanted to serve our first responders, and the rest was history.

Today, we are honored to feed and share love with every single working Police Officer, Firefighter, Nurse, EMS worker, and Doctor working on Thanksgiving and Christmas day in Middle Tennessee. Through this, we also learned how much need there is in the Foster Care system during the holidays, and we vowed to ensure no foster child in the Middle TN area go without Christmas. We are forever grateful to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this community. We are forever grateful for the spouses and families of our first responders, and we are so excited that this is just the beginning of great things to come.

• Jordyn Clark - President/ First Responder Wife