09/01/2026
JUST IMAGINE.
Last week, around 10:30 at night, a desperate mother called one of our leaders.
She and her daughter were staying in a local motel.
They were hungry with no food or money.
There was no food in the room. No money to buy dinner. And by noon the next day, they were at risk of losing the motel room—the only place they had to sleep.
This mother is working everyday from 4:00 am to 9:00 pm. She makes deliveries to earn enough money to pay for the room one day at a time.
Work. Deliver. Pay for another night.
Wake up and do it all over again.
That night, we answered the phone.
A hot meal was delivered directly to their motel door. Crisis counseling was provided to them.
Thank you to the generosity of some of our loyal private donors for the “Diversion and Prevention Funds”, Talbot House Ministries stepped in to cover the motel for the next couple of weeks, giving this mother something incredibly precious:
Time.
Time to work.
Time to breathe.
Time to figure out what comes next.
But we also had to tell her something heartbreaking.
We don’t have an open room for her and her daughter at our Talbot House Ministries Center for Women & Children . And right now, permanent housing isn’t immediately available.
So tonight, I want you to do something.
Just imagine.
Imagine opening your refrigerator and there is nothing there.
Imagine your child telling you she’s hungry, and you have nothing to give her.
Imagine knowing that at noon tomorrow, someone could knock on the door and tell you that you have to leave.
Imagine having a job—and still not being able to afford a home.
Imagine putting everything you own in your car.
Imagine sleeping in that car with your children.
Imagine moving from couch to couch, motel to motel, never knowing where your family will sleep next week.
This is homelessness, too.
It doesn’t always look like someone sleeping on a sidewalk or in a transitional overnight program.
Across our community, families are living in cars, motels, temporary rooms, encampments and on someone else’s couch. Some of these situations are not fully reflected in HUD’s narrow definitions and traditional homelessness counts, which means the numbers alone can never tell the whole story of what our neighbors are experiencing.
These are mothers. Fathers. Children. Veterans. Seniors. People with jobs. People who were making it until one setback became two, and two became three.
This isn’t simply a homelessness crisis.
It is a crisis of people struggling to afford the basic necessities of life.
Housing.
Food.
Transportation.
Childcare.
Utilities.
And sometimes the difference between having a place to sleep tomorrow and having nowhere to go is one unexpected bill, one missed paycheck, one broken-down car, one illness, or one increase in rent.
At Talbot House Ministries of Lakeland, we cannot solve every housing crisis overnight.
But we can answer the phone.
We can bring the meal.
We can help keep a family from sleeping in their car tonight.
We can stand beside a mother while she fights for something better for her child.
And when our community stands with us, we can do more.
Tonight, when you walk into your home, turn on the lights, open your refrigerator and climb into your bed, take one moment and…
Just imagine.
Then remember that somewhere in our community, a mother is doing everything she can to give her child those very same things.
Our neighbors are struggling. They need us.
If this story moves your heart, please help us be there when the next call comes.
❤️ Give today:
https://talbothouse.org/donate/
Your gift can help provide a meal, emergency assistance, safe housing, and the support someone needs to begin again.
“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” — Matthew 25:40
Talbot House Ministries | Where Lives Find Hope
