Our Family Promise week is underway! We had an awesome team that transformed classrooms and the nursery into bedrooms for our guests.  How wonderful to see the youth of our church learning how to make hospital corners and place sweet bags of stuffed animals pampering items for moms on the beds! We had a teen from our church vacuuming and a members preparing snack baskets so our guest have food to grab and go at their leisure.  We are truly thankful for the food provided for our guests. We have snacks and breakfast items and meals lined up for the week. What a blessing! 

Next, the cots were dropped off along with each family members' belongings.  How humbling to see stacks of everything the family owned that will be transported from place to place as they work through the Family Promise program. The van arrived later Sunday evening and the kids in the program were the first to hop out and run in! It was like any of our own children when we check into a hotel. The investigated every single nook and cranny of their rooms with pure excitement. The moms were tired but appreciative as they were shown to their rooms and made quick work of unpacking and settling in.

We have three moms  and their five kids. Another mom and daughter will join us mid-week. One of the boys is a 16-year-old who looks out for his mama and sister, which is really touching to see. Meeting this young man certainly made us think about how hard it must be to be a homeless high schooler. Meals arrived and our dinner hosts prepared and served a delicious hot meal for our guests. Hosts were from both St. Columba's and the Episcopal Church of they Holy Spirit. Several of the children were anxious for Father Tripp to allow them to say the prayer before our meal. We ate with our guests, breaking bread together at dinner and the kids were animated and took up much of the conversation.  Some more of our awesome youth were there to help serve dinner and did an amazing job playing games with the kids in our makeshift recreation corner, made up of donated games and art supplies. Again, how very thankful we are for our the members of our parish and community for making this a successful week. 

During a quick meeting it was a good time to learn that these moms appreciated all of our efforts and the churches they had visited prior to ours. Their families have been waking at 5:30am or so to take the Family Promise van to the drop children off at schools and then head to work. Yes, these mamas have jobs and are doing all they need to do to look after their children. Family Promise is in place to allow them to get back on their feet during this time of homelessness. Bedtime was important to them and like any tired mama, they asked that we not plan activities that kept the kids up too late.  By 9:00 it was quiet and our overnight hosts set up their beds. We are happy to report a quiet night, and then it was 5:30am and time for the families to awaken and head out for the day. Breakfast was available and moms and kids grabbed snacks to take with them for school and work. Coffee was brewed to get through another day and off they went!