One Community Group’s Generous Effort
Nichole Coles and her community group were recently blessed to be a part of work that God is doing in her neighborhood. Here is her story of how members of Mars Hill and other area churches came together to make a difference in the life of a homeless woman:
Our community group was discussing the MircroMissions project one week. We were trying to think of ways we could serve the Greenwood neighborhood. One of our community group members mentioned that she knew a woman at local church who was involved with ministering to homeless adults living in motels along Aurora Avenue and offered to find out if she needed any assistance.
Shortly afterward we were contacted by Karen from Awake Church. She told us about a woman she had met while volunteering at the Bethany Church food bank. Out of respect for her privacy, her name has been changed to “Ann” for the purpose of this story. Ann was about a month away from giving birth and was living in a motel with her boyfriend. She was in need of clothing and diapers for her baby.
We felt that God was calling our community group to help this woman. We volunteered to throw her a baby shower and looked into other, more permanent housing resources for her. By God’s grace we were able — through a combination of MicroMission funds, our community group’s contributions, and the support of people from Awake and Bethany churches — to provide Ann with all of the baby gear she needed, from clothing and diapers to blankets and a co-sleeper, and everything in between.
Unfortunately, she was not able to make it to the baby shower.
The night before the shower Ann was assaulted by her boyfriend. She was left with a black eye and a broken leg. Luckily, the police were called and her boyfriend was arrested. But, Ann was now nine months pregnant, injured, out of money, and wondering where she was going to sleep the next day.
For everyone involved, the next two or three weeks were a hectic combination of researching shelters and low-income housing, spending time with Ann, and just praying that God would work everything out. We lost count of the number of days that Ann was on the verge of being out on the streets. But each time, God came through for her in the form of people anonymously paying for her to spend another night in the motel, or space opening up in a shelter for a few nights.
Meanwhile, many of us were starting to build relationships with Ann through visiting her, asking how we could help, what we could pray for, and how she was doing. We prayed and waited, trying to trust that God was bigger than the situation and could work everything out for her. We tried not to worry (though not always successfully) about the fact that Ann had nowhere to live, no income, was about to have a baby and therefore would be unemployable for the next month and a half. On top of that, she was getting out of an abusive relationship and might decide to go back to him when he got out of prison.
And then things started to come together.
Ann, accompanied by one of the women from Awake, went to court with Ann to determine the custody arrangement with Ann’s ex-boyfriend for their unborn child. The judge ruled that he was too dangerous to have any contact with the baby. Very shortly thereafter Ann went into labor, and with that same woman driving her to the hospital and supporting her throughout labor, gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
The next day, about to be released from the hospital, Ann got a call informing her that she had been given a place in a shelter for women with children. Here she would receive free food, housing, and even job training for the next six months. Ann providentially named her son Ian, which a member of our community group informed us means “God is gracious.”
As far as we know, Ann has not met Jesus — yet. If you are reading this, you could pray that she would. You could pray that she would be blessed with a job. And you could pray for those of us in relationship with her – that we would continue to have the Gospel in the forefront of our minds as we love and serve her. We feel so blessed to be a part of what God is doing in this woman’s life, and what He has done in our lives through this experience as we watch Him continue to pour out His grace over Ann.
