The block party

Yesterday was the second annual Oklahoma City Block Party. I wasn't able to make it last year, but this year it was a priority to me. I have been volunteering down at the City Rescue Mission for just over a year now, and those are my peeps!

When signing up for the mission, I asked that I be put on a team that would be allowed to wander, because I didn't think that I would do my job well unless my job was to love on the people. They put me on the prayer team which gave me permission to go where I was led when I was led there and didn't have to ask for permission to do anything.

So the morning started with me wandering through the City Rescue Mission with my friend Kelle (who is a graduate of the program at the City Rescue Mission) to find out why and for how long a man had been barred from the mission. At least this was my intention. The guys at the desk had never heard of this man before. So when we came out the doors and around the corner of California and Shartel I met the real reason why I had come down to the block party.

Her name was Carol, and she had two babies (ages 1 and 2) and another on the way. She is due in two weeks! She was there with her brother Anthony and a friend they had met while on the streets, Christina. Anthony and Carol had been on the streets since last Wednesday.

Her story is long and complicated, as stories usually are. There came a point when I asked to pray with them and then when most people would have moved on to the next homeless person...I stayed with them. I felt drawn to Carol. I spent the whole day with this group just talking and mostly listening. She needed to get off the streets ASAP. She was in danger of having her kids taken away. She felt completely hopeless. She didn't know what to do and even if there was anything she could do to keep her kids.

Her brother had already been looking into getting into the program but wasn't going to do anything until he knew his sister was safe. So I had him by my side pouring into her the benefits of the program at the City Rescue Mission.

By the end of the day she started to really consider the program as an option. And I started to see her as a friend. I told her I would come back Sunday to take pictures of her with her kids minus tomato sauce stains.

Sunday I showed up and she was a little surprised. My goal in taking the pictures was to show her that I was a girl of my word. I wanted her to trust me, so I started little. And the pictures are so cute!

I cannot wait to see what God has in store for this relationship. I want Carol to trust Him, so I want her to trust me so she will begin to believe what I say about Him.