Micah Community Movement

10/19/2026

Scott was loved and will be missed 💛 He brought fresh bread, banana bread, cinnamon rolls, or muffins to the Micah Center three times a week for six months until he passed away in September. Scott rode his bike a mile each way through the blazing summer to deliver his gifts. I was honored to attend a Celebration of Life memorial today for Scott and shared with his family and friends what a blessing his generosity was to the Micah Center.

Scott lives down the street from the Micah Center in a retirement center. He and another resident, Mona, have caught on to what we do and came by on Sunday afternoon. "Scott loves to bake," Mona said, "and wants to know if he can help. Can you use bread?" Of course! Scott is shy, kinda sheepish, and lets Mona sort out the details with me. Today Scott came back alone with a bag of four loaves of fresh bread. He said he doesn't hear well, so Mona is his 'interpreter.' Scott's frail face is all lit up today. "I'm in recovery. And I need to be busy. Doing this keeps me distracted, gives me purpose." What an honor to receive and share this bread that Scott had offered. 'Community' is not an incidental part of our name. It is who we are. We focus on three rings of Community: what we create inside the Center for our unhoused neighbors to enjoy, providing hands on experience for university students to engage with the unhoused in order to build a more compassionate future community, and engaging the larger society to embrace the unhoused as neighbors and form a community of support around them. Receiving bread from Scott is a perfect fulfillment of our community mission - As a member of the OKC community, Scott is empowered and encouraged by using his gift to support his neighbors. This is the work of Micah! If you have something you love to do and want to join our community of support, email [email protected].

10/18/2026

So grateful for our 15th and newest Faith Alliance partner: Northwest Baptist Church nwbaptistokc. This team came with dinner and fully staffed the Micah Center for an evening last week - they did great! It's an amazing thing to bring new members of our community together - the housed and the unhoused - to broaden our understanding of each other and ourselves. This is the work of Micah Community: We envision a stronger and more hopeful OKC community where all people are valued, supported, and participating.

10/17/2026

Come for the Micah Experience! This experiential event is an opportunity to walk through the Center, step into the shoes of our neighbors through an interactive tour and our Story Gallery, and see how we are addressing homelessness in our community. You are welcome to bring the whole family (and everyone you know), as we will have free food and beverages along with a hands-on resource project for kids.

10/14/2026

Isaiah and onions -
There's nothing better than having 40ish friends gobble down tacos piled high with toppings I don't like 😉 A generous volunteer made pounds and pounds of pulled pork we kept warm in a crockpot, and the tortillas warmed in a roaster, and then toppings of mozzarella, fresh chopped onions, cilantro and lime, and seemingly gallons of chunky salsa.

Yesterday faith congregations all over the US observed World Homeless Day. My particular community did so as part of the National Faith Coalition to End Homelessness. I have been sick, and so wrapped up in our service plans, that I overlooked mentioning the day online. One of the assigned Lectionary passages for Sunday was Isaiah 25:1-9, which speaks about care for the poor. Verse 6: "On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food..." so in our service we talked about what role food has at the Micah Center.

I'd been thinking about it all week. On Monday I'd met with another shelter director in the city who has been a meaningful mentor to me, and serendipitously we had talked about serving meals, so all of this came together. Many of you know that we always serve a hot meal when we are open, but we don't have a kitchen at the Micah Center. So our meals are by way of crockpots and roasters, or casserole dishes and aluminum tins kept warm on electric mats. We have often lamented not having a kitchen. But last week the scripture and conversations I had gelled together and I changed my mind.

Maybe it has been a blessing in disguise that we haven't had a kitchen. It has meant so many more hands, hearts, and souls involved in providing food for our unhoused neighbors. Preparing and serving food is a spiritual act. The Bible shows us over and over how connected faith, liturgy, and food are. With my congregation I shared that being full is one thing, being nourished is another; offering dignity to our fellow humans is essential, but so is providing enjoyment and pleasure.

We don't always accomplish this; between managing finances and the variable number of individuals who come every day, not always is everyone as full as we wish they could be. But we do strive to have a variety of healthy meals always served with love, even if it means crying over a dozen onions that I never want to eat.

10/10/2026

You're invited!
In its first 15 months of operation, Micah Community Movement has served hundreds of our unhoused neighbors at our Center in northwest Oklahoma City.

From providing hot meals, showers and laundry, to resource navigation for services like job training or pathways to housing, the work of Micah is only possible because of our donors and volunteers.

Whether you already support Micah or want to learn more, you’re invited to the first annual Micah Experience, a drop-in event on Nov. 14, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Micah Community Center, 6600 N Meridian Ave, Ste 151, OKC.

This is a chance to experience the Center firsthand, understand homelessness in our community, and learn more about Micah and how you can help support its work. We will have free food and beverages. The whole family is welcome.

10/06/2026

We are so grateful to for choosing the Micah Center as a recipient of endowment grant funds this year! With their generous gift we are able to lease additional space, which enabled us to rearrange storage to free up more room for community use, and add a small respite area with a couple of cots for friends who aren't feeling well and need some extra rest. It takes all of us to take care of all of us, and Mosaic is a valuable partner in the mission of loving our unhoused neighbors.

10/02/2026

Is there anything better than creamy chicken and wild rice soup on a rainy first day of October? Our friends at the Micah Center don't think so! What a joy it is to hear people who have so little to enjoy be satisfied and full.

09/30/2026

Here's hope: Happy 62nd Birthday Duane! 🎉

09/23/2026

I had the opportunity to speak to a class of freshman college students today about homelessness. I shared about the Micah Center, gave them a few OKC statistics, and we spent the rest of the time working through Myths and Truths. Several times I challenged them to imagine themselves as an unhoused person in the context of a particular Truth. Over and over I reinforced what humility as a person of faith leads us to believe about our neighbors. By the end, we are more educated, and hopefully more reflective, but also left grappling with the grim reality of homelessness in our city and country. To close, the professor asked me the perfect question: "Considering everything you just shared, how do you maintain a sense of hope?"

I teared up immediately. This may be a perfect question, but it's also a difficult one. I am often frustrated with 'the system,' in its slowness, inefficiency, and red tape. There is always a lack of funding. I'm angry that my friends are withering away because our society treats housing as a commodity and not a utility. I'm heartbroken that many will die while living outside. Hope? Some days it can be hard to find.

G.K. Chesterton's statement on hope is one I have had pinned for years where I see it most days. "It is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength at all. Like all the Christian virtues it is as unreasonable as it is indispensible." Because I am a doer, sometimes I have to be reminded that I need to be doer of faith and hope.

My hope comes from the call of Jesus to love: to think beyond ourselves, to want for others what we have, to be grateful and keep the perspective that we are fortunate. Our call is to love: to do what we can to help those around us and to work on their behalf. My hope relies on knowing that no matter how frustrated I am about results, Jesus does not hold us responsible for results. Our call is to love: to acknowledge humanity, offer dignity, and recognize the image of God in each person. My hope is that regardless of what the end may be, each individual we interact with will know they were seen, valued, and loved. And there is plenty of hope in that.

09/12/2026

This is Rick. We gave him a mat woven out of plastic shopping bags that a local church brought us a few of. It takes the edge off of sleeping on concrete and he is so grateful. Rick is pretty regular at the Micah Center, and in this location where he seeks respite to sleep. We haven't seen him in over a week and I'm worried. Hopefully he in another safe place and will come back by soon to see us. We mentioned Rick in one of our recent newsletters, which I have included below. If you would like to receive a deeper ministry update once a month you can email [email protected].

72 years old and sleeping on the sidewalk
--Micah Newsletter, May 2026

Think of the seniors in your family — your parents, grandparents or neighbors over 55.

You likely know the challenges they face: chronic illness, difficulty moving and needing more help with daily tasks.

Our unhoused friends experience many of those same issues, too, with little or no access to medical care, and no one to assist when movement becomes difficult.

The number of unhoused individuals in Oklahoma City aged 65 and older increased by 35% over the previous year, according to the latest OKC Point in Time Count Report. One in five experiencing homelessness is at least 55 years old, part of an increasing national trend.

Each week at the Center, we see Gary, William, Howard, Mike, Shawn, Tracy, John, Mellanie, Eugene, Ryan and Jimmy, all over the age of 60.

There are others we see a little less often; we haven’t seen once-regular Talmadge or Glen in a while, and we wonder what that means.

Just in the last two weeks, new individuals include Randy, Rick, Charmon and Ray. And there are many more in the 50ish range. Everett is a disabled veteran, and Mike is a veteran with late-stage liver cancer, whom we were able to connect to veteran support services and housing.

One of the gentlemen on the list went through prostate cancer treatment last winter — while living in his car. One had a foot injury that required a slip-on shoe a size larger than the other foot. They struggle with Afib, diabetes and cataracts. Mellanie needs a walker most of the time. Few can eat easily because of missing teeth.

And then last week we met Rick.

Rick is 72 years old and his hands are curled in due to neuropathy. Needless to say, he struggles to care for himself. After a shower, we helped him put on clean socks. Because of swelling in his feet and legs, the best thing for him is to wear crew socks cut off about halfway up. We were out of crew socks the week before Rick came for the first time and had just gotten some more. Someone on the bus told him about the Micah Center; he sleeps on the sidewalk or on a bench if there is one. We aren't sure he can manage a tent.

The increase in our unhoused senior population should be a wake-up call for our community. More Oklahomans are reaching their "golden years" with nowhere to call home and no one to help manage their complex medical needs.

Micah Community Movement is stepping into that gap, but we cannot do it without your partnership. Your generosity allows us to provide the immediate relief and the long-term advocacy required to move friends like Mike and Everett from the sidewalk into a home. Please consider a gift today at www.mcmokc.org/donate to help us meet this rising need.