The Call for Help 
Grandma Katy first heard about Arizona Baptist Children’s Services & Family Ministries (ABCS) through the parent aide program. She has a relative who is a parent aide client with ABCS. Recently, the parent aide working with Katy’s relative reached out to Mona, Vice President of ABCS’ Pursue Life Adult Ministry looking for resources after Katy’s house burned to the ground. Katy and her adult grandson, who lives with her, thankfully escaped. But sadly, she lost many of her rescue cats in the fire along with nearly everything she owned. She was burned on both hands when she went back into the fire to save her pet bunny. Katy works as a baker and is an animal lover. She has some cats and a dog, Spike, that survived the fire.
After the fire, Katy and her grandson moved into a small garage that has been converted into a living space on her property. The studio has running water, electricity, a bathroom and a small kitchen. Being that nearly all her belongings were lost in the fire, she doesn’t have a bed to sleep on yet and is sleeping on a pull out for the time being. This is a struggle for her as she has just recently had a knee replacement.
A Community in Action
Mona got to work right away when she heard about Katy’s situation and rallied the team to help her. She reached out to her church’s food pantry, American Red Cross, Arizona Mission Network Disaster Relief and other outside resources for help. ABCS has a community resource center in Central Phoenix that has supplied Katy with some much-needed food and hygiene items. After hearing about Katy, a woman from Mona’s church shared that her neighbor, a realtor, has a client selling their home. Upon learning Katy’s story, the client generously offered to provide her with any household items or furniture she might need.
Larry and Jade, who are faithful volunteers at ABCS’ resource center Casa de Amor borrowed a truck from the center to transport all the furniture and appliances Katy needed. They delivered the items to Katy’s home and unloaded them with assistance from other ABCS team members. Donations and support for Katy are coming in left and right.
A Hopeful Future
Katy has expressed deep gratitude for the provisions and additional resources she has received. The ABCS team is blessed to be a part of Katy’s story of hope and we will continue to support her with our services as she moves forward. Katy’s journey shows the importance of relationships. We are grateful her family member knew they could reach out to the team for support in this time of crisis. The parent aide team jumped into action and that resulted in Pursue Life Adult Ministry, Community Resource Centers and other staffers to come along and provide hope and care to a hurting family! We are seven ministries with one mission and now more than ever we know that #TogetherWeCan do more. Click here to help someone like Katy.