Hope Street is The Greenhouse for People on 26th and Capitol. We provide housing and community to empower broken men, women, and children to cultivate a relationship with Jesus, themselves, and others to restore hope that flourishing is possible for us all.
Felicia
Safety and security can be at the foundation of change. Felicia was in an abusive relationship. Toxic. Unsteady. Unpredictable. Her life was controlled by a man as broken as herself. Felicia didn’t always live this way, but just as so many things in this world promise goodness and leave us entangled, Felicia found herself in a relationship that pulled her from healthy things like her family and work. She was isolated and withdrawn from people she once enjoyed being around. She still would have liked to be around them, but he didn’t let her. Felicia’s unrest also began to surface in physical changes like not being able to sleep and developing bad headaches. She didn’t care much about anything and living was about surviving rather than thriving.
By God’s grace, through seemingly graceless circumstances, Felicia and her daughter found their home at the corner of 26th and Capitol; an unlikely but steady place of rest and restoration. In Felicia’s first months under the roof of The Greenhouse for People, she was able to rest. She knew what to expect. She knew she was safe.
Felicia said she doesn’t know what’s different about her, but something is changing within her. She said she has a “peace feeling.” Felicia feels physically safe in the Greenhouse and knows she is also emotionally safe. She knows that she can talk through things and not be judged for those things. A need we all hope to see fulfilled.
When we feel safe; when you can lay your head down at night and know that you’re okay, and when you can talk to people you know will hear what you mean, you can grow. You can become who God intended you to be. The fullest person He desires you live into while on this earth.
Felicia is growing. We all will always be growing, but there’s rich goodness in a slow and steady growth that’s untangled by the mess of this world and firmly grounded on rich soil. Felicia can see past surviving and is now is in a place where she can thrive; where she can flourish, where roots grow deeper and joy abounds through a changed life that’s still changing. Felicia’s beginning to experience her life changing and can share this hope with others.