I had a precious observation this morning. One of those moments when as you see it play out, you realize how special it is, even though it is just part of the normal. Such moments are gifts.
I was sitting in the living room of the Day Center with the kids in the program who were waiting for their bus to arrive to take them to school. The parents were busy getting ready for work, and packing bags for the day’s activities. Two boys in the program from different families, both about the same age, both wearing black shorts and black t shirts with bright neon yellow and green accents, both with their backpacks on, walked out to the bus as best buddies – arm and arm. It just filled my heart with absolute joy.
This is yet another benefit of Family Promise played out in the normal. Families in the program grow close together and frequently become like an extended family as they manage through this difficult program. They walk through the tough stuff of this program in friendship. They understand life from an unusual and difficult perspective, and share it closely with the few others who also have endured, courageously forged through, and celebrated together at the other end of the program.
This program model is so simple. It is about doing life together, with the other families in the program, with the volunteers in the communities of faith, with the staff, with Called to Community Partners, with graduates of the program … All of us sharing lives, sharing love, learning from each other … living together in the normal bits of life – like walking to the school bus…
“Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. … The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. They are steadfast for forever and ever, done in faithfulness and uprightness…” Ps 111:2, 7-8 (niv)