Victories at Maggie's House

I received this letter from Cheryl Selby and got her permission to share it on the blog. It's about "Maggie's House," a home our church supports for women re-entering society after prison. Maggie's House has just moved to a neighborhood closer to our church. The gals invited Diane and I to dinner last Monday night to open their new semester of The Anchor Course, and we got to hear a little more about their neighborhood impact:

Dear Tom,

I love little tid-bit stories of how God uses us and negative circumstances to HIS glory and further His kingdom.

When Maggie's Home moved into this great residential neighborhood, we were thrilled to have a school around the corner, regular neighborhood with no beer cans in the front yard or unattended children running into the streets. We were thrilled to be in the north Austin area where crime stats were less and there weren't unsavory characters loitering around the 'stop n go'. We were also excited that this was going to be place to witness and check out the spiritual condition of our potential tribe.

We were so disappointed when Kat or another of the girls would reach out with a resounding 'hi' as we were moving in to people in their front yards, or walking their dogs. There was a brick wall so thick you could almost hurt yourself trying to break through. And sometimes it was painful.

Kat, our head angel went to talk to a lady across the street and she was down right angry with her. She know this home was for people coming from prison, but we found out right away the previous ex-offenders had been ANYTHING but good neighbors.

We prayed that God would have every house on all sides watch us and our 'walk'. We know that preconceived ideas cannot be transformed with words - it has to be done by actions. Every woman in the house has kept the same smiling attitude when in the neighbors view also doing small things like bringing in the trash cans if she gets home first.

Well, I decided to have a sober New Year's party at Maggie's Home on December 31st early in the evening and all the Overcomers were invited as well as MH alumni and others. The girls wanted to make fliers to put out and invite the neighbors too. Wow, I thought, they are brave. At the same time, I was happy to see them reach out.

Well, God used this event in a mighty way! 6 out of 10 neighbors showed up during the evening. The lady that gave us a real cold shoulder has been over donating clothing, make-up and other items. The family across the street has a 23 year old autistic daughter that kept giving the ladies hugs and kisses to the amazement of her parents. Who, by the way, are donating a TV and DVDs to the home. Others came by and offered their pick up truck and other services to help out.

What an amazing change of attitudes! I love the Hillcrest THEMs strategy. We are planning a BBQ when it gets warmer and expand the range the fliers will go. We are going to start a weekly Bible study and already one man brought us a woman he found at a 7-11 that needed help!

His Prisoner Now, Cheryl