Joy should rightly be proud of helping get a local Family Promise network (rotating shelter in congregations’ buildings for homeless families) started in Tulsa. We signed up to host over two years ago, and that helped encourage others to sign up. We approached our synod’s Living God’s Abundance campaign together with Fellowship to help gather startup funds, and Lenten/Advent offerings as well as grants from Joy’s Mission Endowment Fund have all been generous supports for their first two years of operation.
When the congregations in the network all started closing their buildings in mid-March, it was our turn to host. I was committed to making Joy’s space available to the two families in the program at that time, but keeping our volunteers safe and the residents safe was a challenge we just couldn’t figure out. Family Promise was able to temporarily fall back on using its Resource Center--where the program’s families spend their days--for overnights, but that facility is not big enough and their lease does not really allow for it.
But there’s a more permanent solution. And amazingly, it’s a win-win with another ministry, Lindsey House, currently vacating old apartments and moving into new ones. It’s both a stopgap in a time when evictions are anticipated to skyrocket, and also a way to expand Family Promise when things return to something more closely resembling our “old normal.”
Other host congregations are committing $100/month to this new aspect of Family Promise. If all 13 host congregations did so, we’d easily be able to host four families just as before. Down the road there’s a potential to triple the size of the program, or turn these apartments into transitional housing, or set them aside for families for whom playing nomad from congregation to congregation each week just isn’t feasible.
I’m not asking for a monthly commitment right now. But I’m asking you to consider what the program could do now, and in the months ahead, as more families face homelessness, and ultimately the incredible impact this program could have when our buildings all re-open. If you would like to support this, please make a separate offering to Joy designated “Family Promise New Apartments” or make a donation directly to “Family Promise of Tulsa County” and let them know you’re from Joy and want to support their new apartment program.
Pastor Jon
