Mission: Trestletree Cookout
If you have not been on a prayer walk around the area that you serve, in your mission field, try it. As we shared in the previous story, the Lord spoke clearly to us as we were on a prayer walk searching God’s heart for how to love Grant Park well. Well, shortly after—maybe the week after—God stirred out hearts again.
As we walked the streets, on the eastern edge of the neighborhood this time, we came across a small community at the crossing of Mercer and Eloise called the Trestle Tree Village Apartments. Walking through the small circle of apartments, we stopped and prayed with two women who informed us that none of the churches in the area have ever bothered to take the time to get to know the neighborhood. Though there was one church that had invited the children to church, the overall sentiment was that the complex had been abandoned or looked over by all the churches in the area.
We walked on, praying for the community—for the children, for the single mothers, and against the widespread drug abuse we were told exists there. We knew that if Renovation is to live out its vision, we must care for these people—the discarded, the disenfranchised, those overlooked by society.
A cookout was what came to mind as we made our way back across the park. We decided that we would set up some grills in the middle of the parking lot with a sound system, cook some hamburgers and hotdogs, and throw around a football. What happened the day of the cookout would prove to be the norm for the rest of our encounters with Trestle Tree: kids, kids, and more kids.
Our church’s original City Group rallied and covered all the needs for the cookout within a week. What a grace and blessing from God! We were able to get to know a lot of folks in the complex that day and had a great time of fellowship and fun. Some lasting relationships were started, and we are now picking up 15-30 kids from Trestle Tree each Sunday for worship with Renovation Kids.