October’s 12 Hope Highlights

New mom, new job, new graduate

Life Launch Team Gisella celebrated her graduation from Life Launch this month. Over the last year, Gisella has graduated high school, begun working full-time, and become mom to a sweet little one. Her Life Launch team has been by her side and stands with her through whatever the next chapter holds!

A New Spiritual Family

Malik on the Move

Malik is a young man who has been through a lot. But his positive outlook on life, along with his Life Launch mentorship experience, has brought him to this point. He is in college, has several jobs, and saved up to buy his own car. The future is bright for Malik. This month we celebrate his Life Launch graduation!

Partnership Progress

As we enter another round of COVID outbreaks, social distancing precautions disproportionately effect the at-risk elderly population. In order to stay healthy, many widows across the country are finding themselves more isolated than ever before. That's why we are so grateful to be continually forming partnerships with churches across the country. These churches will receive the Stand in the Gap for Widows toolkit and be empowered to reach out to these women in safe, proven, effective ways. Help us welcome our newest partners, Church on the Move in Tulsa and Church of the Highlands in Alabama!

Sharing what we've learned

Speaking of our church partners... this month, our Director of Programs, TJ Warren, was asked to train 100+ "NextGen" Ministry staff at Life.Church. He modified our Life Launch volunteer training to encourage and equip the children's ministry staff with the story of how the Gospel calls, equips, and empowers us to care for young people in a restorative, trauma informed, dignified, and beautiful way!

New Beginnings

We formed a new Women in Transition spiritual family around Tressie this month. Tara, Katie, and Darla will support and mentor her through this season that they've committed to meet together. We are always grateful for front row seats to miracles. Can't wait to see how God moves in the life of this small group!

More Room, More Hope

One of our awesome partners in our Women in Transition program is Branch 15 transitional home for women. This month, we had the pleasure of celebrating with them as they opened a new home in Western Oklahoma. We rejoice for all that will happen inside these walls!

Flourishing...

Speaking of Branch 15... this month, we officially received the Flourish Award for our partnership with Branch 15! More to come on this award later, but the evening was so special we can't leave it out of this list! Our Stand in the Gap for Widows Program Director, JoLeta Nash, says, "The Flourish Awards night was incredible! I was so impressed by the Branch 15 leadership and how very thankful they are to have Stand in the Gap as a vital partner in their ministry. Lives are truly being changed forever! I was more honored and proud than ever to be part of the SITG family!!"

Another Graduation!

For obvious reasons, it wasn't an easy year to participate in a Stand in the Gap family. But Team Whitney made their relationship a priority and this month, we celebrated Whitney's graduation from her Women in Transition small group experience. We are thankful for every volunteer and client who has "dug in" to their relationships during this time.

Putting the Money Where Their Partnership Is...

This month, Life.Church staff from the South Broken Arrow campus (one of our longest running Life.Church partnerships) showed up at our staff meeting to present us with a surprise $30,000 check. Their passion (blended with action) has blessed Stand in the Gap countless times over the years. Check out our full post about this unexpected act of generosity (and watch the video) by clicking here.

Better Together.

Life.Church is a great example of a partnership that helps us recruit volunteers to serve as small group mentors. But we also partner with organizations that help make our services available to their clients. For example, we are now partnering with First Step Male Diversion Program and Compassion Women’s Center in the Tulsa area to provide small groups of support when their clients request it! These partnerships with other like-minded helping organizations make us so much stronger and provide a complete continuum of care to people in need.

Episodes of Hope

Our email subscribers were the first to hear a surprise message from Oklahoma's First Lady about the importance of hope! AND donors like you unlocked an additional $32,000 in matching donations this month! If you're behind on our Episodes of Hope, want to see the message from the First Lady, or contribute to hope now, click to visit our hope homepage!