Doing something that matters
I remember first meeting Toya.
Years ago, she was living at Restoration Urban Ministries with six kids and pregnant. It was hard. The ministry runs out of a former motel, and Toya’s family had two adjoining rooms, connected by a bathroom. She used a crockpot and hot plate to make tacos, roast beef, crawfish and other meals for her family. She was one of our first ReStart employees, and if I’m being gut honest, I had my doubts it would work. But it did. Toya was here two years, then got a full time job with OSF and rented a house for her family. She still lives in the house, but now works part time at the bookstore. Her love of reading began here.
A few weeks ago, I stopped by Toya’s desk and, on a whim frankly, I shared a dream. We were filling out a grant application and I wanted her ideas. The dream? To double our efforts in getting books into book deserts throughout Champaign County. What if we gave away 30K, 40K books to kids without them? Her eyes lit up with joy. Toya fell in love with books when she worked here in 2016. She bought books by the bag full, taking them home to her kids. Then neighbor kids. Then kids at her church. The circle of giving kept growing. When I saw how deeply this resonated in her spirit, I realized whether we get the money or not, Toya needs to be leading this project. God will somehow provide, grant or no grant. She’s ALREADY doing it and we’d simply be empowering her to do more. Although a bit shy, Toya asked me to include pictures and her story, to share what our dream is and why it matters.
In her words: “People have seen me as being in need and I guess I am. But, the reason this project excites me so much is I can now be part of meeting a need. Doing something that matters.”