Sonny - February 2019

A little more than ten years ago, our mission worked with Missouri State University to do a study on homelessness in our area. We found then the frequency among the homeless with a foster care past was nearly 25%. The frequency of foster care children in Missouri at the time was 0.7%. Not quite 1/100 children were in foster care but the frequency among the homeless population was more than 25 times greater! Unfortunately, today those numbers have doubled. The frequency of children in Missouri state care is 1.4% and some researchers estimate the frequency of that foster care-homelessness correlation near 50%. How is this happening? Where does it go? Is there hope? Read what Sonny told us.

“I grew up in a lot of foster homes and have been homeless since I left. My birth mother was a dope cook, and I had picked up using and selling when I was a kid. I got married to Brenna a few years ago, and she’s struggled just like I have. I came to my lowest point last year. Having lost custody of our son and kicked out of our apartment, Brenna and I were living in a camp and going hungry. We decided to get help at Watered Gardens.

Now I’m forty-four days sober and the closest I’ve ever been to God. I’m taking career counseling classes to learn new skills for my job, and I attend Bible studies with the men in the Forge program. This place saved my life.”

I was excited to learn recently that Sonny and Brenna are working to get their son back. There is hope! Thank you for your support and for helping to break a cycle possible only by the transformation of lives through Christ’s power. Join me in praying for Sonny and Brenna and their son, that God will see them through to a new season as a whole family, employed and in a home full of love.