…or “Where have we been & where are we going?”

Through his work as a life insurance agent, Jimmy Chouteau naturally came in to contact with many widows.  He began to hear and notice many needs ranging from household tasks & yard work to simply a listening ear & smiling company.  So, as it worked with his schedule, he began taking off work every Wednesday to do small projects and visit widows with his family.  After officially founding Widow Wednesday in 2012, the idea grew to several projects throughout the year involving groups of wonderful volunteers, as well as consistent visits to a list of nearly 200 widows by the Chouteau family and friends.  In just under four years, Widow Wednesday has touched the lives of around 200 widows throughout the Kansas City area, serving with hundreds of volunteers.  It’s wonderful to see that so many people care and have given of their time and energy to love others!

But as we’ve continued, we’ve realized that there are far more widows in our community than one family and a group of volunteers can visit.  And while many are blessed by a thoughtful gesture or two throughout the year and are otherwise doing well, many find themselves with more needs in widowhood than an occasional visit can meet.  It’s clear that what most widows need is community (as, indeed, do we all).

So, simply put, we at Widow Wednesday are endeavoring to move from one model of service to another.  I like to think of it as a “reach-out” revolution.  And it is, in fact, a kind of taking our previous way of organizing outreach and flipping it on its head.  I’ll talk more about why and specifically how in later posts, but for now, please refer to the following two brilliant pieces of high-brow fine art that illustrate the point.

Where we’ve been:

The Old Way: Small, but spirited groups of volunteers banding together to reach out in acts of love to a much larger group of widows.  Beautiful!

Where we’re going:

The New Way: A large network of service teams committed to reaching out and serving widows on a consistent, ongoing basis, with a focus on building community based on love and compassion.  AMAZING!

We’re so grateful for what the Lord has done through us thus far, but also filled with much anticipation to see this new vision become a reality, and we’re excited to begin the hard work it will take to fulfill it.  Currently, we’re raising funding to enable the work needed to build and cultivate consistent, loving community around serving widows.  If you’d like to be a part of this kind of work, please follow the button below and give what you can.