Over a year and half ago the Homeless Commission called the offices of AtG to meet with one of their summer “stimulus money” workers (this was the summer that the teens were placed in Non-profits to work while being paid by the Federal Government). She was a teen mom living in public housing practically on her own. Her mother was gone weeks at a time. When the mother did come home she would get mad, take the cell phone away, then leave again. The teen mom did not always have access to the outside world. When AtG met her and took her to lunch we were upset because she was only 17 so we really could not talk to her without her mothers permission. We helped her the best we could. We called the alternative high school to make sure she was going to be accepted. 2009 was on of the first years that there were NO daycares in any of the Davidson County high schools. In order for a teen mom to stay in school she really had to want it. In Davidson County a teen mom has to get their own DHS Families First case (the money portion of the government help, which unfortunately if you did not qualify for that would then mean NO daycare certificate, and NO daycare certificate meant NO school for the mom, in most cases). Luckily this mom did qualify, so she sent her child to daycare and drove herself to school (did I mention with no license, we helped her apply for a restricted license but it never came through, but she had to get to school and her child to daycare). We kept in touch the best we could but then lost touch due to her age being a factor.
Fast forward to August 2010.
AtG’s cell phone rang and it was her. She was alive and not so well but she was making it the best she could. She was now homeless. Her mother informed her now that she was 18 she was no longer going to keep the apartment and that this teen mom needed to find a new place to live while finishing her last year in High School. She did graduate from high school against the odds and is a very bright young lady. She loves to cheerlead and dance, but the realities of being a homeless teen parent overtook any chance of speaking into the lives of other teens at this time. She came to AtG’s offices in Nashville where Executive Director Meredith Kendall met with her and helped her get an interview with a company in Franklin that she knew was hiring. This company took a chance on her even though she was homeless and a single parent. She has been a good employee and seems to enjoy her job but the homeless part started to take its toll. She never knew where she and her now 2 year old daughter were going to stay that night. A friends house, a relative’s house, her grandparents house or her car.
On Sunday night September 19th she called upset. She did not know what to do. In order to stay at her grandparent’s house she had to use her hard earned monies to buy items for her Aunt and Uncle as payment to stay. As she called and explained this to AtG she said “I am done paying for their addictions”. So on Monday September 20th, AtG called a partnering agency to ask about this “emergency number” you could call with DCS not to take away a child but to get assistance. When the partnering agency called back they gave AtG the names and numbers but there are no funds for this type of help. All they will do is call other partnering agencies and try to get help.

So on Monday night September 20th, Rob and Meredith Kendall, founders of AtG took this homeless mother and her 2 year old daughter, to their personal home to spend the night. We had a family dinner and settled in for a good night.

At 9pm the mom came down with her daughter, she is hungry can she have something to eat please?

My heart broke to think we live in Middle Tennessee and when you think of “homelessness” you think of those living under a bridge, unshaven, alcoholic… but do you see this.

Help AtG be a part of the solution… we want to start our first home for single mothers and their children…. it has been a 7 year dream… it is time it became a reality. For more information contact AtG at 615-291-9532 or email at info@atghope.org

As most of you know I went on a trip to Israel this past week. Part of the trip was to see the Holy Sites. It was an amazing adventure but to do it justice I need to start back to a meeting I had on June 22.

As I was driving to the Williamson County Jail on June 21st I heard a commercial – “go see the Holy Sites of Jerusalem, it’s a once and lifetime trip, you won’t be disappointed”. I remember leaning into the radio and stating very emphatically “God, I have NO DESIRE to go to Jerusalem”. Fast forward 24 hours. I was in a meeting with a local pastors wife and we were just talking and I asked her, “so are you ready to move to Nazareth”?

(You see they had been there in November and I have always heard that you go on a mission trip and come back and say “oh I am moving tomorrow”.) Well she answered “No, but we are going back in August”. Before I could stop myself, I said “you know I now have a passport, the 180 Curriculum is printed and I could travel”. Little did I know that 30 minutes prior to this meeting one of the females scheduled to go on the trip had backed out. Trina said “you know”…. And I said “no”, well I called Rob and told him, he said “you did say yes, right?”

So before I knew it I was going on my first trip across the Atlantic to the Middle East to go to the Holy Land… Not only was I going to this trip to where Jesus actually walked, talked and preached….

I was getting the opportunity to talk with women about community and parenting.

The days leading up to the trip I was praying, reading and writing… and I remember praying “let me be open to what it is that You would have”. I really was not feeling the “lets up and move to this country” but if I was to be involved somehow, I would be.

We were preparing to leave. We all had been praying and getting others to pray. We were told that either our bags will make it to Israel or we will make it to Israel but not both on the same day. The connecting flight out of JFK was not long enough. Well I know that God is so much bigger than I give Him credit for, because not only did we get on the plane, so did our luggage. When entering the Tel Aviv Airport again we were told what to expect… and we were given favor… again God is so much bigger than we give Him credit. After we got our bags the tour guide was waiting for us. His name is Ido, not only is he a Jew, he is a Christian and an Archeologist; so you can only imagine how awesome seeing the Holy sites with him guiding us was. So let’s fast forward a couple of days. We are headed to Nazareth. The hotel in which we were staying got air conditioning 1 month before our arrival…Oh thank you God for air. The city from where I am standing is beautiful.

We decide to get acclimated to the town.
I did not think about the fact that to go down we eventually would have to go back up.

The roads that we went down, we did share with cars, were old donkey paths so nothing was straight.

This city where Jesus preached and lived has only about 100 believers left. Wow, not only did we stick out because we were American but now, as we walked and prayed for the city of Nazareth, we asked the Holy Spirit to be felt as we walked by; that the people of Nazareth would feel the presence of the Lord.

As I am praying, reading and journaling… I am stuck in Ezekiel which is written to the Israelites. And when I started Ezekiel I was thinking, Oh Lord…”I am headed to Israel and you are going to ask me to stay”. Well as I was praying on Mt Precipice

I began to realize that we all have an Israel that God has called us to, we just need to be quiet and still enough to listen and hear.

In Ezekiel it states “All is peaceful when there is not peace at all! It’s as if the people have built a flimsy wall, and these prophets are trying to reinforce it by covering it with whitewash! Tell these whitewashers that their wall will soon fall down.“ What whitewash have we told ourselves? What whitewash are we listening to as truth, instead of finding the truth for ourselves? What are we telling the Lord, maybe later I will do this or that?

What is it that God has asked you to do and to quit “whitewashing?”

Well this trip had another adventure for me. I was given an opportunity to serve the women in Nazareth. I was able to take part of the 180 Curriculum across the ocean to empower a local woman. She was able to gather women to talk about community and parenting. I was told to expect a few things: 1) they will not look you in the eye, 2) they will not open up 3) there is a language barrier and the translator is good going from English to Arabic but not so good coming back to English. Again, our God is SO much bigger than we give Him credit for… 1) they looked me in the eyes and welcomed me 2) right off the bat they had questions and 3) the translator was awesome. But more than that, at one point in time the women starting talking in Arabic to each other while us 3 Americans just looked in amazement…it had happened… they started “community”. Their dialog was about 20 minutes or so…and when they stopped long enough for us to ask what just happened…we realized that they just needed to be given permission to talk and share. It was so great to be given this opportunity to be used by God to start dialog with other women so that they no longer felt alone.

As Christians, we are called to find our Israel (the place we are called to serve) and do His name justice. Where is your Israel and are you doing His name justice there?