If you ask elementary-aged children in the United
States about Thanksgiving’s origins, they will likely
relay a story about the pilgrims’ arrival to North
America and the ensuing feast, symbolizing the
budding unity between the pilgrims and the Native
Americans. Though this version is simple, it highlights an
important underlying sentiment. As the pilgrims’ arrived
on North American shores, they also arrived at a new
beginning, full of possibilities and full of promise.
Nearly 400 years later, this spirit of promise still carries on
in projects like Turning Point Ministries’ Heritage Village.
Turning Point Ministries began in 2008, and their goal as
a non-profit organization is to provide affordable housing
for hard-working families and individuals with moderate
incomes.
“If you research the average cost of a new home in Edmond,
it’s well over $200,000,” Josh Moore, president of Turning
Point Ministries, said. “We realized that there is a big gap
there for a lot of people that work and live in Edmond that
can’t afford that right now.”
In an effort to meet this need, Turning Point began building
houses for those who fell into the gap. However, the
ministry is not in the business of simply giving away homes.
“We have all types of demographics in Edmond, but we
don’t necessarily have a group of new homes that are part of
that demographic,” Moore said. “In our minds, it provides
a home for a large group of the population that lives and
works in Edmond and helps make up everything that
Edmond is. Our goal is not just to build homes and sell
them and hand over the keys and walk away. Our goal as an
organization is to try to wrap our hands around the entire
homeowner process.”
This vision is evident in the way that Turning Point interacts
with recipients of its homes. A family or individual is
chosen for a home after meeting eligibility requirements
and completing a comprehensive application process.
Eligibility requirements include demonstrating a need
to live in Edmond, having a stable and reliable income,
and providing a small down payment for the home.
Additionally, applicants must put in 300 hours of service
throughout the community, 200 of which can be completed
with the help of family and friends and 100 of which must
be through work on Turning Point projects. After the
application process and volunteer hours are completed,
homes are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.
Each family or individual chosen to receive a home is
assigned a mentor, attends classes, and volunteers their time
for the construction of their home and toward community
service. Turning Point focuses on teaching the recipients
the basics of homeownership, including budgeting, saving,
and participating as a good neighbor in their neighborhood
community. Turning Point then sells the home to the
recipient through a low-interest mortgage with affordable
monthly payments.
The ministry has already completed fifteen homes, all
of which are located in Turning Point’s Legacy Station
neighborhood. Now, Turning Point is preparing to break
ground in Heritage Village, a new neighborhood of homes,
located on Fretz Avenue between Second Street and
Danforth. Heritage Village has 37 lots in total, and Turning
Point’s goal is to build two to four houses at a time.
These goals are made possible through various avenues of
generosity. When the project first began to take shape, the
City of Edmond awarded Turning Point Ministries a grant
for $500,000 to provide funding for public infrastructure,
including paving for interior streets and the neighborhood’s
sidewalks, sanitary sewer lines, water lines, and storm sewer
systems. In addition, Bockus Payne Associates Architects
provided architectural design for the homes of Heritage
Village and St. John the Baptist Catholic Church donated
the neighborhood’s playground.
“We were very attracted to the vision they cast of creating
a neighborhood that had a strong sense of identity and
community,” Bruce Bockus, president of Bockus Payne
Associates Architects, said. “To use our gifts and talents as
![Project 31: Healing the Whole Family Imagine you’re recently married and have just moved to a new state. You have few friends, new jobs, and you’ve just settled into married life. Then, one day, you get the news that your wife has cancer. In-laws come in. You, the husband, aren’t of much concern because all of the focus is rightfully on their daughter, fighting a battle that she was supposedly too young to worry about fighting. This was the case for Steve McClean, husband to Sarah McClean, Development Director for Project 31 and former Deer Creek Baseball coach. “They were focused on Sarah,” Steve said. “That was really hard for me. Yes, there’s a lot of services for the survivors, but we concentrate on the family and we want the entire family to use our services, experiences, stories and mentoring. We will walk through everything with you as long as we need too. It effects everything, not just one person. No one really thought about that side. The first question that everyone asks is, ‘Hey, how is your wife?’ It’s what anyone who calls will ask you. Not one person ever asks ‘How are you?’ It’s the most alone, deep dark place I’ve ever been. A lot of men that I’ve talked to have been through similar things.” Steve is more than honest about his struggle with depression and feelings of inadequacies throughout Sarah’s multiple battles with breast cancer. “Men fall into two camps, we either want to control everything or we want to fix it,” Steve said. “If we can’t do anything we don’t want anything to do with it. With cancer, you can’t do these things. The feeling you have of emptiness, of just sitting there idly by while your spouse goes through surgery and treatments. I’d trade places with her in a heartbeat, but I can’t. We want to take care of our wives and families and we [husbands] can’t. That was the worst. No one understands that part of it. None of the doctors, friends, medical community, so you really keep it in because you can’t share it with anyone, you can’t explain it because it brings up emotions…you almost feel weak as a man sometimes because we aren’t supposed to be vulnerable.” It was this realization - that vulnerability is inevitable, even natural, in such a circumstance - that helped heal Steve and his relationship with his wife. Steve started seeking out a counselor, and after finding one who was a breast cancer survivor, things started to click. He could tell her about his frustrations and his fear—and how these feelings were overwhelming and often paralyzing. The counselor helped him understand what Sarah was going through emotionally, and eventually translated her feelings and experiences in a way that Steve could understand. Finally, he felt he had a grasp on the situation. There is a significantly higher rate of divorce among breast cancer survivors and their spouses than there is in the](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/568acc307086d7b181980eb8/5693ea820ab3770f618c2f05/5693eaa99cadb6d2cf5b5b2a/1452534711186/Deer+Creek+November_Page_18.jpg)
![general population, according to Steve. And, Steve credits the stability of his marriage to the counseling that took him nine months to find. “Counseling isn’t like [it is portrayed in] Hollywood,” Steve said. “What it’s been for us is this continuing education; we’ve gone to a professional who has experience. It made all the difference in the world. Sarah and I meet with people, I meet with husbands and fathers and I give them all the resources I can and sometimes I just listen.” Steve equates it to being a “car guy.” If you’re working on your car and don’t know how to fix something, most men would go to someone else who did, and usually learn a thing or two they can use down the road. However, American culture creates strict, unwritten rules for men expressing emotions and vulnerability. In Steve’s case, these societal confines made it hard for a young husband to learn to communicate with his wife as she fought through a double mastectomy. “Honestly, the top three the biggest things I’d want them [husbands] to know is that your spouse just needs you,” Steve said. “They don’t need you to fix it, to try and take control of it, they just need you. They need to know you’re going to be there no matter what. You’re going to love them no matter how disfigured they are. You care about them first and foremost. The second thing is no matter how scared you are, because you’re going to be scared, you won’t tell anyone. It’s OK to tell people that you’re scared and be honest with your feelings. There’s a potential that you could loose your wife, I don’t care who you are, it’s scary. Be willing to share your feelings of how much you love her, how scared you are. The more open and honest you can be, the better off. There is a community of other men who have been just as scared, who have been down this road, who understand completely what goes on and we’re willing to help because we know how hard it is.” Having a conversation about holistic healing - help and](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/568acc307086d7b181980eb8/5693ea820ab3770f618c2f05/5693eaabd82d5e360ab8b9fb/1452534727817/Deer+Creek+November_Page_19.jpg)
