Team Angela

My name is Christopher Bradshaw and last week, by the providence of God, a young lady named Angela walked into my office just seconds after our church doors were locked for the night, and right away I knew the Lord was up to something. She didn’t ask for anything, she just told me that as she drove past our church building she felt the Lord put it on her heart to go inside.

For the next 40 minutes or so, I got to hear Angela’s story and it broke my heart. Angela is a single mom of 7 children and has been living in her car. She has 1 suitcase for the boys and 1 for the girls. She put her faith in Jesus and was baptized a few years ago in Texas, but recently moved her kids back to Michigan where she was born because her mom passed away. She started a job on Monday, but they’ve been parking in hotel lots and sleeping in her car (not a big car) every night.

My wife Mia and I have felt led by the Lord to do whatever we can to help this sister in Christ and her kids. The verse that has kept ringing in my head since the night I met Angela is from a passage in Matthew chapter 25 when Jesus said “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” (To study the entire passage, read Matthew 25:31-46 - it’s incredible)

The next morning as I was praying, I broke down in tears because I sensed that the Lord was going to provide for this family in an awesome way through the generosity of His Church. Since that moment, we have seen God show up again and again. Mia and I have been able to form a great relationship with Angela and her kids. We hung out with them for lunch the other day to get to know them more and have been in communication with them every day since. Their joy and gratitude has been amazing to witness. They haven’t complained, they haven’t grumbled, and they have never asked us for anything. Their faith in God has been incredibly encouraging to us. We saw them again the day after we got lunch and helped them get out of their car and into a hotel room for a few nights. It was the only hotel in the area that wasn’t booked and just so happened to be right across the street from her workplace.

The next night Mia and I hung out with Paul and Andrea, friends of ours from church, and we shared the story with them. They immediately sensed the Lord leading them to get involved and help this family. The next day Andrea called a ton of different camps and housing agencies in the area, and nothing was available. One of her last calls was a campground, and a lady answered the phone. Her name just so happened to be Angela. She was super helpful and said they have one lot left, and she was even willing to move around the dates so that Angela and her kids could start staying there right away. We booked the lot, and then Paul (that same night) found a nice camper on facebook marketplace that just so happened to sleep exactly 8 people. We got it. The LORD will provide!

Tonight is their last night in the hotel. Tomorrow we move Angela and her kids into the camper. We’re hoping this will give them a nice place to stay for at least the summer until they can find and afford an apartment / house. We have been blown away by the way God has shown up in every step of this process and it is so clear that He is writing an awesome story.

We’re creating this GoFundMe page to help Angela and her kids get back on their feet, and we’re asking that you would prayerfully consider giving to this family and being a part of this story.

The first step is to raise money for Angela to be able to cover the cost of the campground. It’s $1,100 per month to be on the lot. They’ll likely be there for July, August, and September. The next step would be to raise money to provide for some needs like gas, clothes, towels, new sheets, blankets, hygiene items, kitchen appliances, grill, etc. They really don’t have anything except for 1 or 2 changes of clothes because they can’t store anything in their car.

We’re praying that through the generosity of our friends and family, we will be able to cover all these costs and provide their basic needs so that Angela can start saving in order to get a place for her family in the winter time. We believe that God is about to do something massive. So many prayers have already been answered. He has been in this from the beginning and hasn’t stopped opening doors since the moment we met Angela and her kids. This is such an awesome opportunity to rally around this family and put the love of Jesus on display. We hope that you will join us!

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or imagine, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” - Ephesians 3:20-21