Sample Work
Writing samples from Ryan Sanders. For more information about Ryan's freelance work, visit www.ichthuscreativeguild.com.Thursday, March 30, 2006
Mission Arlington Story
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
| February 12, 2000 Section: METRO Edition: ARLINGTON Page: 1 Ryan Sanders Star-Telegram Staff Writer Walt Vickers is supervising two construction projects at Mission Metroplex in Arlington, but the project he's most proud of is rebuilding his life. |
| Next month, the mission is scheduled to open a 15,788-square-foot community center at 1012 Thannisch Drive. The 2-story facility includes a gym, kitchen, multipurpose rooms, classrooms and office space. It was built entirely with donated funds on donated land. "It's amazing how God works to put things together," Vickers said. "I know God is at work here." Mission founder Tillie Burgin agreed, saying the building has been a gift from the beginning. About a year ago, the owner of two acres near Center Street and Randol Mill Road donated his land to the mission. Three months later, Burgin said, another man walked into her office and offered an even more impressive donation. "He was from an anonymous foundation," Burgin said. "He said, 'I know you have some land and I would like to give you a building.'" The foundation's donation was $600,000. Now with unpainted walls and ductwork and plumbing still exposed, Vickers said it may be hard to open the community center in March as planned. But Burgin and her staff have a long list of programs they'll host in the building: Bible studies, parenting and English as a second language classes, basketball leagues and the mission's Thanksgiving dinner, for example. The community center is the first of three projects for the mission. Ground has been broken on a 2-story addition to the mission's small front office. That will house counseling rooms for clients who are now being crowded into the mission's small reception area. The mission has also acquired land near Arkansas Lane and Browning Drive and hopes to build a similar, perhaps larger, community center there. "When you look at what God is doing, He's not moving us from here," Burgin said in her office at Center and Oak streets. "But he's giving us this place up north and we have a lot of work going on up there. And we've got land in the south. We're getting closer to the people we serve." A few months ago, Vickers was one of those people. In his starched shirt and Wranglers, Vickers looks more like a cowpoke than a construction foreman. But looks can be deceiving. His young, earnest eyes don't reveal a life that, only months ago, had its foundations shaken. "I've been a selfish person all my life," Vickers said. "I worked for that almighty dollar." Vickers met Burgin at Christmas time, when the mission is busiest. Vickers had come to stay at the mission's day shelter. He had a job, but no home. His estranged wife and daughter lived with her mother in Bedford. Vickers had been in and out of drug rehabilitation and detoxification centers for seven years. When he came to the mission, it was the generosity that impressed him. "He would just stand out there on the curb and cry," Burgin said. "He'd say, 'I can't believe this. I've never seen anything like this.'" In December, Vickers went to work for the mission overseeing its construction projects and teaching a Bible study in one of the mission properties. "God finally got a hold of me and put me where he wants me to be, doing exactly what he wants me to do," Vickers said. "I believe that." Vickers and his wife are on better terms too, and expecting a second child. "Before, I would hide from what happened in my past," Vickers said. "But I don't hide anymore. I face it every day. That's what this place is about. This place changes lives." Ryan Sanders, (817) 548-5566 rsanders@star-telegram.comPHOTO(S): Paul Moseley |
 |
| Copyright 2000 Star-Telegram, Inc. |
posted by Unknown # 3:04 PM 
Archives
March 2006 September 2006 January 2007
