In C.S. Lewis’ classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, it is said of the King of Narnia... “Aslan is on the move.”
The other day we were at a meeting with three residents at the Village Oaks Apartments. All three are part of the City of Dallas Gateway Program at Village Oaks—which assists chronically homeless, disabled persons with permanent, supportive housing. It’s a terrific program.
One of the residents, Cicero, was about to deliver a speech at a board meeting of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART). These three friends, along with three of us from Behind Every Door, were going to the meeting to ask the Board to reverse their decision to suspend evening bus service to the stop in front of Village Oaks. As a side note, we’ve had a follow-up meeting since with DART officials and it appears very likely they will reverse the decision. The community is really coming together to address problems.
Back to Cicero. He read us his well-prepared speech to see if we had any feedback for him. In it, he made reference to how different Village Oaks is today. I asked him to tell us more. He made reference to how the “spirit” of the place has changed. He said something about the fact that “people aren’t fighting anymore.” He said, “I’ve never been at a place where this has happened.” He was talking in a very matter-of-fact way about the fact that something is different. I turned to one of our team members and said: “Jesus.”
The spirit at Village Oaks is different. Jesus is on the move.
Thank you for your friendship. Please continue to pray for Village Oaks as you remember.
-- Dean Wilson
