It’s always such a treat having one of our volunteers guest write for the blog and this week doesn’t disappoint with Tricia Poissonnier sharing from her viewpoint about last week’s Santa Ana Club night.
It sounded a little like a personal ad. The closing lines read, “Message me if you would like more info. We would love you heart and your help”. That’s the post I put out on social media – not really knowing what kind of a response to expect, but trusting in, and hoping for, God to “work things out” like HE always does. It was going to be a special club for May since Mother’s Day was just around the corner and we wanted it to be just that, SPECIAL for all of our teen moms.
Man, can God do SPECIAL!
When I arrived at Newsong, Maria was already set up with beautiful table décor – flower bouquets for every mom to take home. Nothing says Mother’s Day like fresh flowers, right?
I got busy setting up the craft – sugar body scrubs. The girls would make them and get to choose between orange, lemon, lavender or peppermint as their scent of choice. There was also a little gift of a face mask and hand sanitizer for each young mom. Because nothing says Mother’s Day like a little pampering, right?
While all of this was going on, barbers were setting up on the other side of the room. They had come to give the men – daddies and little guys alike – complimentary haircuts. As the chairs started filling up with takers, the young moms stood by with smiles and satisfaction. They admired their boyfriends or tried to keep their little ones still and distracted while the barbers did their magic. Because nothing says Mother’s Day like a Mom taking care of the ones she loves.
Then my friend arrived to set up a photo corner. She was the first one to have responded to my social media post. She came with a gorgeous backdrop of paper flowers and starting clicking off pictures of the moms and their little ones. Each mom addressed an envelope to herself not quite knowing why. Well, the secret’s out of the bag now – – – we’ll be dropping Mother’s Day cards and these pictures in the mail for them to receive on Mother’s Day. Because nothing says Mother’s Day like photos and keepsakes to mark special times over the years.
After a delicious dinner, the teens settled in for the message. The kids were taken into child care where 4 of my other friends whose hearts had been tugged at by my social media post showed up to hold babies and play with toddlers. The message told of the prodigal son and the way he was welcomed back into his father’s arms without question or hesitation. Then the kids got an amazing visual on how man, sin, and God really work. It was kind of a science experiment-y thing with magical color changing liquids, but it tangibly showed the kids how Jesus takes all of our sin away if we will just let him pour into us. Because nothing says Mother’s Day like an encouraging word (us mamas need lots of them to do what we do every day and not grow weary), and God’s word encourages far better than any friend or advice column!
All of our teen moms left the evening feeling special – I hope, anyway. I left the evening feeling so thankful for women who had responded to a little heart nudge via social media. I felt like they too had received a little early Mother’s Day gift they probably weren’t expecting – the blessing of serving others and having a front row seat to seeing just how well our God does SPECIAL!
Tricia, Santa Ana Volunteer
Tricia with her own daughter Claire
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