Sandra Wilson
Bible verse shaped Sandra Wilson’s approach to changing her future. And once she took charge of her own situation, she began sharing her gifts with others. Her leadership and teambuilding skills have been a blessing to the Providence Park neighborhood, and she now serves as president of the Providence Park Homeowners’ Association.
After Mr. Wilson decided he no longer wanted to be a father and husband, I moved into one of Nashville’s largest public housing developments.
Things there just didn’t sit well with me. I saw used syringes, men that hung out all day with brown paper sacks, cars with loud music. Most disturbing was the fact that in my row, seven out of 12 families were related – grandmother, mother, daughter, sister and aunts. At first this seemed really cool. Family reunions were the first Friday of each month. I attended several, and each time I left with an uneasy feeling …
One night as I lay in bed unable to sleep, listening to the ruckus outside, I thought about what a neighbor had said to her pregnant daughter who was two months shy of her 18th birthday. “When you turn 18 you can get your own project,” she said. As much as I love my daughter, I refused to let her name come into my head. I got up, walked into my children’s room, kissed each one and said to myself, “I must break the generation curse.”
I began to read my Bible. I read about a man in Jerusalem who had been crippled for 38 years. He spent every day of his life lying on a mat, hoping for a miracle. Jesus came by and asked, “Do you want to be made well?” The crippled man began to list all his excuses: “I’m all alone, people always seem to get ahead of me, I don’t have a chance in life.”
It sounded familiar. I had said to myself: “I’ll never get out of debt, my children will never be able to play outside, I will never be able to get my degree, I will never be a homeowner.”
Jesus told the crippled man that if you are serious about getting well – about getting your life in order – here’s what you must do: get up off the ground, take up your bed, and be on your way. When the man did what Jesus told him to do, he saw the big picture and was amazingly healed.
At that moment, I knew I had to get serious about getting out of debt, going back to school, and finding a place where my neighbors were not all from the same family. I had to get serious about becoming a homeowner. It was a long journey, but with the help of Nashville Habitat and its wonderful volunteers, I did what I needed to do.
“I knew I had to get serious about getting out of debt and finding a place where my neighbors were not all from the same family. I had to get serious about becoming a homeowner. It was a long journey, but with the help of Nashville Habitat and its wonderful volunteers, I did what I needed to do.” – Sandra Wilson