My Sister's House

This morning I joined several of the people in my Fusion group for a service project at the Atlanta Mission (formerly Atlanta Union Mission). We spent a couple hours doing arts and crafts and just spending time with the children at My Sister's House.

I am happy to say that the folks at My Sister's House were good volunteer managers because they were very welcoming, kept to the schedule, and provided an excellent orientation to their program. And they didn't even go through a HandsOn training to learn how! :)

My Sister's House provides housing, counseling, support, education, and spiritual guidance for women in recovery. For most of them, it's recovery from addiction. But it can be many other types of recovery. There is a real sense of family and support in the facility (which is incredibly clean, organized, and well laid out). Single women share 2-bedroom "apartments" (minus a kitchen) and other women share apartments with their kids. There are TV lounges, educational classrooms for the women and the kids, playgrounds, a large cafeteria where they share all meals, and a chapel.

There is also a shelter for women who need care for 30-60 days. But these women don't socialize with the women in the PDP (the 1-year recovery program) for multiple reasons.

The lady who gave us a tour is a graduate of the program. She was addicted to drugs for 22 years. She is now in her mid-40s and has been clean for 2 years. She decided  to get help when her son told her she couldn't come to his high school graduation if she was still on drugs. She willingly shares her story of how My Sister's House brought her to a relationship with God in addition to recovery from her addiction. She now works part-time at My Sister's House while she trains to be a counselor in the program. 

It was truly incredible and inspirational to learn about this ministry that is only a mile or so from my office. I have passed the building countless times on the way to/from lunch, never knowing that God is at work in a powerful way within its walls.

For just a short while this morning, our Fusion group supported My Sister's House by doing an arts and crafts project with the kids who live there (and two who are visiting their mom for the weekend). We played and laughed and hugged . . . and I think we may have had more fun than the kids! 

And in true Fusion fashion, we finished the day with lunch at YEAH! Burger. :)

When I started this blog a few months ago, I thought I would use it to share funny or interesting things that happen in my world. But today I can't do that. Although I had a good time, and there were certainly funny moments, what I really wanted to share was the impact this project had on me. I enjoyed getting to connect more with people in my Fusion group, but even more powerful was the sense of being truly awed and humbled and inspired by the work God is doing at My Sister's House. If God can take a women addicted to crack for 22 years and turn her into a warrior for His kingdom, what other miracles can His love bring about?

Last week at Buckhead Church, the sermon was about God's thumbprints on our lives, the talents and gifts He gives us so that we can run the race He planned for us. I am still working on figuring out what talents He gave me, but today I'm even more inspired to "throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and . . . run with perseverance the race marked out for [me]." (Hebrews 12:1).