Family Promise

I am so excited about a really cool opportunity our church has to help homeless families by partnering with Family Promise of Greater Wichita. When our pastor, Dave Mitchell, first mentioned we might be housing homeless families in our Sunday School rooms my reaction was, "What!?"

Of course, I had visions of trying to teach in my 2nd grade Sunday School classroom with bedrolls and clothes stashed in the corner next to the drawers of crayons and construction paper.

I quickly learned that would not be the case. In the program, Sunday is a transition day, so the cots used by the homeless families would be packed up before church services, and then taken to the next church in the rotation later in the day.

Speaking of cots, they will look like this:

And what's so cool about these brand-new cots is that they're paid for!

The program is planning to serve 14 people at a time, so they needed 14 cots. Our church had a bake sale this summer to raise money for the cots. I meant to bake cookies, but with our lawn service, summer is a busy time and I didn't get any made. However, I was so happy when Dave said he thought our family should donate enough for one cot, because that's what I wanted to do too!

We were not the only West Ridgers exited about this project. The bake sale raised $3613.72, more than enough for all the cots. And you thought Girl Scouts were the experts in cookie sales!

Our church was blessed over two years ago to be able to buy the former Crossroads (and former Country Acres) building near 13th and Ridge. On Sundays we use every inch of it, with babies packed in every nursery, and kids crowded in every Sunday School room or chasing balls and each other in the gym.

But during the week, it's kind of empty. I see the Family Promise concept as part of the new "sharing economy" sort of like Uber and Air B&B. We have the resources, let's put them to use more of the time. The families in the program will hang out at the hosting church in the evening. (Each of the 13 churches will host four times a year, once every quarter). Church volunteers will prepare meals each night. Some might play with the kids. Two church volunteers will be there at all times for security.

During the day, the families will go to a day house, which brings me to another really cool thing.

 Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church donated this house to be used for Family Promise. I grew up in a Mennonite Brethren Church, so it's really cool to see a church from our sister branch of Mennonites lead out in this way. Their branch has historically been more focused on social issues, while the MBs focus more on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. But it's my relationship with Jesus that makes me want to extend a helping hand and share Jesus' love with these struggling parents and kids, so I am thrilled to be joining them. I completely agree with the title of Hillary Clinton's 1996 book "It Takes a Village" to raise a child, but if Clinton is looking to the government to be that village, that's where she and I differ. I've always heard that the church can run programs more efficiently and effectively (and offer real hope and real solutions besides) so I am anxious to see what God can do through the people at Family Promise.

I remember reading articles in The Wichita Eagle about the challenges of educating the roughly 2,000 homeless school-age children. One of the biggest hurdles was getting them to school, and keeping them in the same school. One of the really cool things is the school bus will pick up the school-aged kids from the Lorraine Ave. day house. No matter which church they are staying at for night, while they are in the program they will have the stability of the same school.

But how will the families get to the day center? In this 15-passenger van, donated by a family from West Ridge!

At the day center, volunteers will work with the parents to help them find a job, or figure out what kinds of training or classes they need so they will be able to support their families.

As if all of those things aren't enough, last week Family Promise of Greater Wichita named Jacqueline Cook Green as the new Executive Director.

Jacque married our friend Chris Green about a year ago, and I've loved getting to know her. Since moving to Kansas she's been working for a different nonprofit, but before that she worked for Family Promise in Texas, and it's been her great desire to see this awesome program help at-risk families in Wichita. I was so surprised and pleased when I heard that she would be joining them.

Our church isn't scheduled to host until the week of Thanksgiving. I can't wait to see what will happen next.