Summer Speedos | Lifting Up a Grieving Mother
Summer of +30!
Join the Challenge: We're looking for 30 generous listeners to donate $30 in the next 30 days. Be come one of the 30 today!
https://journeywithcare.ca/30
Description
What happens when a grieving mother, recently arrived from Ghana, finds herself isolated after the tragic loss of her son? Hear this story of a local church stepping up to provide not only material support but also emotional and spiritual connection to a family in desperate need.
Through the CarePortal platform, a simple request for an Uber gift card turned into a heartfelt mission of compassion and community. Listeners will hear how this church went above and beyond to offer genuine care, showing up to provide meals, counselling, and ongoing support, transforming a story of isolation into one of belonging and hope.
Other Links
Reach out to us! https://journeywithcare.ca/podcast
Email: podcast@careimpact.ca
Listen To Journey With Prayer - A prayer journey corresponding to this episode: https://journeywithprayer.captivate.fm/listen
or get both podcasts on the same RSS feed! https://feeds.captivate.fm/n/careimpact-podcast
CareImpact: careimpact.ca
About the CarePortal: careimpact.ca/careportal
DONATE! Help connect and equip more churches across Canada to effectively journey well in community with children and families: careimpact.ca/donate
Editing and production by Johan Heinrichs: arkpodcasts.ca
Transcript
This is Journey with Care. Hey. We're taking 4 weeks of the summer
Speaker:to keep it short or speedy. Let's just call these
Speaker:summer speedos. Short action packed dives into the
Speaker:incredible stories of everyday people using Care Portal to
Speaker:build connection and change lives. Care Portal, for those
Speaker:that haven't heard, is an amazing platform connecting churches,
Speaker:families, and businesses with specific needs with some of the most
Speaker:vulnerable in our communities. So as you soak up the sun this
Speaker:summer and enjoy these summer Speedos, remember, Journey with
Speaker:Care is powered by Care Impact, a Canadian charity helping
Speaker:strangers become good neighbours. To keep bringing you our podcast and these
Speaker:stories, we rely on supporters like you. So for
Speaker:the summer Speedo series, join our summer of 30.
Speaker:We're looking for 30 amazing listeners to donate $30 in
Speaker:the next 30 days. Every dollar helps us maintain our
Speaker:equipment, update our software, and help us cover all the
Speaker:expenses associated with bringing you these important stories.
Speaker:So to join the summer 30, check the show notes for the link or visit
Speaker:journey with care dot ca slash 30. That's journey with care
Speaker:dot ca slash 30. So go ahead,
Speaker:pause it, and become 1 of the 30 right now. Alright.
Speaker:Enough chit chat. Let's get on with the summer Speedos.
Speaker:I think keeping in the forefront of our mind, we're sending the churches on
Speaker:mission over and over again, right into, into hard places.
Speaker:A need came in and the need says, this mom
Speaker:lost her 7 year old child last week to drowning.
Speaker:She wants to get connected to a local grief counseling program, but she
Speaker:doesn't drive. And so an Uber gift card will ease this
Speaker:financial burden of transportation and allow her to get the services that she
Speaker:needs as she greets her child.
Speaker:And so a local church picked this up, and
Speaker:they acknowledged we could send her a gift card through
Speaker:email. We could send that gift card through the case
Speaker:worker, but we would really, really love
Speaker:And so, they showed up to her home. They really expected
Speaker:to give this to her and go. But when
Speaker:they came to the front door, she kind of launched
Speaker:herself into their arms and wouldn't really let go.
Speaker:It had been 6 days since she lost her 6 year
Speaker:old son. They lived in an apartment complex. He had,
Speaker:pretty severe autism, and they had walks
Speaker:in place and all of these extra measures,
Speaker:in place to keep him safe. And he still got
Speaker:out, and he still drowned.
Speaker:She hadn't had the ability to process that really with anyone.
Speaker:She ended up in child welfare and in prevention due to the
Speaker:investigation of all of that. She and her
Speaker:family are from Ghana, and so they recently relocated
Speaker:here, and so she doesn't drive. Her
Speaker:husband left almost as soon as they got here, and so she's pretty
Speaker:isolated.
Speaker:She has no real way of supporting her family. She has a 15
Speaker:and a 7 year old still at home, and they're struggling
Speaker:to then grieve this loss that happened as soon as they got here.
Speaker:And so, for the church to go in
Speaker:and offer her not only this gift card, but this
Speaker:place to to process. They stayed there for hours.
Speaker:She showed them pictures of her baby. She was able
Speaker:to talk with them, and then they they told her,
Speaker:we'll be back. Like, how how soon can we be back?
Speaker:And they were able to tell her, this is not punishment
Speaker:here with you, and we'll be back. And so, how are you gonna feed your
Speaker:kids this week? We'll be back with food. Do you need groceries? We'll be back
Speaker:with groceries. How do you who is your support? We're your support because
Speaker:you are so marginalized here and you are so
Speaker:isolated here, and we're your people now.
Speaker:And so, you know, a a few actually reached out to me because
Speaker:here's I wanna quickly read what the church responder left
Speaker:as the the feedback. He says, this child
Speaker:drowned on Wednesday. This was the saddest and heaviest
Speaker:care portal need I've ever been involved with. When we entered the apartment,
Speaker:we introduced ourselves and mom immediately embraced the lady who came with me
Speaker:and began to cry. They had never met and yet 1 mother was comforting another
Speaker:mother and sympathizing with the indescribable pain that goes with the
Speaker:She took She took out her phone and showed us pictures of her
Speaker:beautiful 7 year old boy. It's heartbreaking, really. We
Speaker:talked a while and told her God sees her and has not forgotten
Speaker:her. We told her about our church and that she was
Speaker:not alone. We asked to pray for her and she called her other boys out
Speaker:and the 5 of us stood, held hands, and prayed together.
Speaker:This family is from Africa and she seems so alone and isolated. I
Speaker:hope and pray she knows she's not alone. I hope and pray we can be
Speaker:there for them moving forward.
Speaker:So the the follow-up here is that this past
Speaker:Sunday, these
Speaker:blessed to go. They had strategically placed people to greet
Speaker:them as they went in the door and the responder kinda said the church
Speaker:doesn't always get it right, but on Sunday, they nailed it. They felt
Speaker:welcomed and embraced. They went out to lunch afterwards.
Speaker:They have plans moving forward, like the 15 15 year old needs to learn how
Speaker:to drive. He just got his permit, so they have people in place to teach
Speaker:him how to drive. They have people in place to get groceries moving forward. They
Speaker:have people in place to walk through counseling, and they have her counseling
Speaker:covered. And so the idea of everyone
Speaker:just just getting it right on such a heavy 1,
Speaker:Right? That this family went from isolation
Speaker:to support through a church saying yes and connected
Speaker:by Care Portal. And her
Speaker:investigation is closed out, her prevention case is
Speaker:closed out, and the church really has got it from
Speaker:here.
Speaker:Thanks for listening to this summer Speedo on the Journey with Care podcast.
Speaker:To keep the stories and conversations flowing,
Speaker:visit journeywithcare. Ca/30. That's journeywithcare/30.
Speaker:Thanks for being part of the journey.