Washed by the Waters (Finally!)
After two years of intense planning and fundraising — not to mention a pandemic-related delay of over a year — Moving Waters of Houston finally turned the taps on its first showers at 10 a.m., Monday, May 10, at Northwest Assistance Ministries in Spring.
An abundance of rainfall on two of the first three Mondays of shower service at NAM may have slowed the number of guests, but it did not stand in the way of the exuberance of organizers nor did it slow the number of volunteers lined up to help the Houston area’s first mobile shower service whose mission is to relieve immediate suffering and promote the long-term dignity of the whole person.
Guests who took advantage of the refreshing showers in the early weeks were clearly grateful for the opportunity to freshen up in the springtime heat and humidity of southeast Texas.
“You are angels who bring me my dignity,” said one visitor who came to each of the first three service days Moving Waters partnered with NAM.
By June 2, just 16 days after showers began, Moving Waters announced it had partnered with two more organizations committed to helping the homeless: Tomball United Methodist Church will offer showers every Saturday beginning July 3, and St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, in downtown Houston, received approval from the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and is expected to provide the service on Wednesdays beginning later this summer.
Moving Waters’ growth was certainly expected, but it’s safe to say that few expected it to triple in little more than the first three weeks of its existence.
“The response has been overwhelming,” said Jennifer Park, founder and president of Moving Waters. “It is clearly a sign that God is working and moving amidst us every day. To see the looks of relief of those we have had take advantage of our showers is humbling and very emotional. We’re all quite blessed.”
Moving Waters has also received attention from a number of media outlets. Community Impact newspapers and a Houston-based podcast ran early stories, and when ABC-TV13 published Community Impact’s story about Moving Waters, the web post drew notice from Newsmax, which selected Park as its Patriot of the Week. She and her volunteers will be recognized nationally on June 12, 2021. Such exposure is expected to bring additional interest in the fast-growing non-profit.
“With the rapid growth we’ve experienced, it brings us a sort of happy problem: We really need volunteers to make this work properly,” said Liz Hutchinson, secretary of Moving Waters. “We would really be in good shape if we had eight or ten people who could commit to 2-4 hours maybe once or twice a month. The reward for being a part of this service to our unhoused friends is hard to describe. It’s a God-given gift for all involved.”
Moving Waters recently completed a capital campaign totaling $84,000 for start-up costs, which allowed the organization to move from concept to reality. Perhaps the most moving part of that total is that more than 50 percent of the total raised was given during the hardest months of the COVID-19 pandemic. And instead of pausing its operations during 2020, Moving Waters instead expanded its mission and began providing personal hygiene tools to the homeless until shower operations could begin. Now fully functional, anyone who comes to Moving Waters for a shower receives the same hygiene items as well as clean socks and underwear.