Watered Gardens Help Poor in Southwest Missouri
JOPLIN, MO — Watered Gardens is a local, faith-based organization ministering to poverty-stricken people in Southwest Missouri. Many are homeless. Almost all feel hopeless. In fact, conversations with people living in extreme poverty, regardless of where in this world they live, reveal that neither homelessness nor nakedness nor hunger are the heaviest burdens they bear.
Their most commonly shared sense of desperation is loneliness. They have no trustworthy relationships. Relationships are established based upon our individual sense of value in another person. The unwelcome truth is that people entrenched in poverty have learned — and even been told — that they have less value than others. The more we are told that we are worth less than others, the more we believe it. This happens regularly to the extent that some people are convinced that they are, indeed, worthless. At some point, their life turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The staff and volunteers at Watered Gardens believe that the Bible teaches that each of us was created by God and in His image. “Not one of us has any less value than another.” The Bible reveals that our Creator loves us and that He wants to have an intimate relationship with us. Jesus not only died to pay the penalty for our sins but also to make a personal relationship with the Father possible — and to share His riches and glory with us forever.
The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. — Isaiah 58:11
Outreach
In many ways, Watered Gardens resembles other faith-based inner-city missions with its Outreach program that includes a food pantry, a thrift shop, and connections to other community services. Overnight Shelter includes dinner and breakfast, as well as access to showers and laundry. Participants in the shelter program attend chapel services, Bible studies, and Care Coordination that helps them transition back into healthy relationships and a self-sustainable life.
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