By Katy Penner
Do you believe those people who claim that volunteering will change your life?
If not, you most definitely need to meet our guest families.
We talk proudly about walking through life together, and many of us joined Family Promise because we want to make a difference in lives and mentor new friends who need help. While that can happen, my favorite part so far is this:
As I watch how the families interact with life and care for others, I am learning something new and beautiful with every visit.
Our families are amazing. We speak of the need often, but we also need to speak of the strength.
Our guest parents are fierce. These heroes have taken a HUGE step to join our program, and it is HARD WORK. It is studying for GEDs and studying for driver’s license tests and coordinating daycare, plus hunting for jobs, navigating bus systems, and working long hours, AND letting a case manager and hundreds of volunteers look into all the parts of your life. That is an exhausting list.
Our guests are courageous. A mom informed me recently, “The hardest part about this program is the lack of control.” Can you imagine giving others control of your schedule, transportation, food choices, and even spending money? The decision parents make to commit to these guidelines, with the hope of a better future for their children, is not for the faint of heart. It takes risking hard work and determination.
A guest mom recently chose to do an interview and video with our local newspaper — she was nervous, but she really wants people to know that Family Promise is a great program. She knew it would be helpful for us to get the media attention, and she offered her story, a gift that will have far-reaching impact on the future families we will serve.
Our guest children are loving. Every time I visit the Day House, I am welcomed with a hug and usually a request to play a game. Even during business meetings at the Day House, children wander through the room or crawl up on a lap to join us. I also have watched a sweet teenage boy entertaining a two-year-old, who is brand new to the program, while her mom participates in orientation.
Our guests are hospitable. The guests are sometimes overwhelmed by the sheer volume of rotating volunteers to keep track of, but they receive me with a smile, introductions if they are new, a handshake or hug, and offer me a place to belong: “I’m so glad to see your face here tonight.” They are reaching out to me, and to each other as new families arrive in the program.
One day as we played a board game at the Day House, a mom chided her daughter, “Be nice to our guest!” And then to me, “Wait – are you the guest, or are you the host?”
This was a fantastically beautiful moment for me: doing life together. Not to or for people, but together with them.
Rather than mentor/mentee, volunteer/person-in-need, we are free to simply be friends.
Our guests have strong faith and character. At the celebration for our first graduate family, a young mom expressed the family’s thanks and then reminded us of her intent to become a volunteer herself: “God has blessed us so that we can give back to others.”
When I think about the life trauma that these friends have been through, and are still struggling out of, I am in AWE of their positive attitudes, courage to commit to these hard steps, willingness to look outside their own needs to help others, and their relentless pursuit of God’s work in their lives.
What beauty we are seeing in relationships each day, and we are honored to participate.
We say that we “walk with families” through life in crisis services, the Rotation Program with lodging, and after care/mentoring programs. But this goes way beyond just words with warm fuzzies, and into REAL life.
Truly these are friends we need — not people who have it all together (those don’t exist), but people who are genuine and humble, loving and hospitable, brave and willing to wade through difficulty to make a new story.
The families are mentoring me.
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What’s your story?
Volunteers, we would love to hear your stories about walking with guest families! Send us an email at pr@familypromisewichita.org.
Join us!
If you are ready to #changethestory together with the families we serve, sign up at www.familypromisewichita.org/volunteer or email samuel@familypromisewichita.org.
Family Promise of Greater Wichita unites hearts and hands to provide compassionate hospitality and empower homeless families with children to achieve sustainable independence. We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
Image: Freepik
