OUTRE ACH
North Lake Wire Outreach:
Sharing Light in the Darkness BY LINDA GILDEN
“When I got up this morning, I said, ‘Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!’ The Lord answered my prayer, y’all,” a resident of the North Lake Wire neighborhood in Lakeland said. “I’ve been living here for 47 years, and this side has never looked this good,” she added. “I just wanted to come out this morning and tell you. It was a blessing to see that somebody cared.”
Lawnmowers whirred, saws buzzed, volunteers called to one another and residents chatted as this woman shared her excitement. Her heartfelt joy came in response to the kingdom work of All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Lakeland, on its recent outreach day. Under the leadership of The Rev. Kathy Hulin, assistant rector, and The Rev. Bob Johnson, deacon, church volunteers of all ages pitched in on Sept. 26 to parents. Older volunteers cut clean up and improve this impovershrubbery, pushed lawnmowers and ished community. painted the home of an appreciative “About 20 young people gave up resident. This year we weren’t sure their Saturdays to be part of this what the turnout would be like. But day,” Hulin said. “They picked up all ages showed up to help.” trash, put together food boxes, This recent outreach was All played with the neighborhood Saints’ fifth event in the North Lake children and helped with Wire neighborhood. Though the various other jobs. In the safety precautions of COVID-19 past, children as necessitated some marked changes young as 3 have from previous come to work years, including the with their wearing of masks and the absence of child-friendly offerings such as a bounce house and slushy machine, the work continued throughout the day. And the neverending smiles from both residents and volunteers did too. 10
Nov / Dec 2020 CFE
Purposeful Partnerships The North Lake Wire Outreach began when policemen assigned to the area identified it as gang active and violent. Out of a desire to help residents of North Lake Wire and similar neighborhoods, the officers formed a committee called the Gang Task Force. The city then asked the Dream Center of Lakeland, a faithbased nonprofit that already had connections in impoverished neighborhoods, to help with this outreach. Johnson of All Saints’ became involved with the task force, and Mike Cooper, director of the Dream Center, is also a Lakeland Police Department chaplain. The committee organized Gang Task Force events throughout the city and found that gang activity in these neighborhoods reduced to almost zero. Johnson said, “All Saints’ participated in these Gang Task Force events with other churches. But we saw each neighborhood only every couple of cfdiocese.org
