Arms of Hope Update
by Leslie Salinas and Marilyn Flores
We recently had the pleasure of working with Ms. Maribel Espinal, who is an amazingsingle mother to 3 beautiful children. She was previously employed as a housekeeper but work started dwindling and eventually she was let go from all her contracts, not due to her work ethic but due to families needing to save money. She did not have savings for this difficult time, because what she made was only enough to cover her and her children’s expenses. After a time of extreme stress, not knowing if she would be evicted, she was able to find work at McDonalds. She now wants to become financially stable and wants to save enough to not go through a situation like that ever again. Through Arms of Hope she was given the resources that she needed, and access to other community resources such as the Impact Resource Center.
We also had the pleasure of working with Ms. Clara Villegas. She is a single mother of 4 children and has been involved in our program since 2019. The father of her children is in and out of their lives due to incarceration and she has therefore assumed all financial responsibilities. They recently were affected by Covid-19, and she was out of work for some time while they recovered. Her daughter seemed to have the most difficult time, as the virus affected her lungs. During this time she lost her job at the construction site that she had been employed with. Ms. Clara is fighting very hard for her family, and there is no job she feels above taking. We are very grateful to provide resources as she finds herself in this difficult situation, and we pray for Ms. Clara as she continues the job search and finds her way to stability.
Ms. Mildred Henry was referred to us by a partner organization. Ms. Henry was in need of assistance to bury her 6 year old granddaughter, who had recently died of cancer. AoH and Impact came together to help her through this crisis. We also found that her household also consisted of her daughter, who is a single parent to three other special-needs children. At the time of our contact with her the family had been staying in a hotel almost a year after being affected by the 2021 Houston winter storm. They were transitioning back home, which was very encouraging, but did not have any furniture. Dennis, Devin, and Geremy all came together to furnish Mildred’s home with the help of Eric Morales, our Warehouse Director. It was a lot of work and collaboration between ministries to help the family, and we are so grateful to work with teammates that will help take on the heaviness that case management can bring. The lives of people are important for us at Arms of Hope and Impact; we hear stories such as Ms. Mildred’s and know that it’s not just about furnishing someone’s house, it’s about showing the grace that our Father God gives us daily.
