Five Sparrows: His Eye Is On The Sparrow

story by Cookie Cawthon

His Eye Is On The Sparrow

story by Cookie Cawthon

I ate at my kitchen table with my phone face-up - a usual no-no, but these were special circumstances. My phone rang, but it wasn’t the number I expected. I answered, prepared for the characteristic pause and then distant voice of a telemarketer. “Hey, Miss Cookie. I’m ready.” “AAAAAHHHHH! I’m so excited and can’t wait to give you a big squeeze. I’m really proud of you! Casea will be there in a few minutes to pick you up. She’ll take you through a drive-thru to pick up dinner and then to Walmart to get anything you need. I will stop by the house to see you after my nephew’s tee-ball game.” And with that call, a dream stepped into reality. Five Sparrows had its first resident. Five Sparrows is a free, comprehensive two-year recovery residence for formerly incarcerated women who are survivors of abuse, addiction, poverty, and prostitution. That phone call on May 27, 2021, can be traced back to the evening of June 3, 2015 - the first time I went to jail. The first time I stood before sliding steel doors. The first time I was patted down in booking. The first time I made the quarter-mile trek to H-pod in the Florence County Detention Center. I was there to participate in revival services for the inmates, and I was terrified. At that time, Tenacious Grace was a new women’s ministry, creating spiritual growth resources and speaking at local women’s events. I had recently announced to the team that I felt we needed to carry our resources and teaching to women in our county jail. The mission of Tenacious Grace has always been to engage hurting women from all walks of life with the message of Truth, strength, and hope in Jesus; encouraging and loving women in jail was definitely within the scope of our ministry. So I joined the Florence County Detention Center Ministry Team under the leadership of Chaplain Buddy Rainwater. That first night he told me, “You will quickly know if this is your thing or not.” When I reached H-pod, I fell completely in love with the women I met.

If you would like to follow our story, you can check out tenaciousgrace.cc and/or follow us on Facebook and Instagram. If you would like to purchase items for the house, you can find our registries at tenaciousgrace.cc/fivesparrows. If you would like to attend our annual fundraising event - The Grace Bash - on February 10, you can email us at howdy@tenaciousgrace.cc.

Pictured L to R: Casea David, Cookie Cawthon, Rachel Desta, Danielle Rhodes, and Lindsey Haseldon

Women facing away from the camera are residents of Five Sparrows

They were gracious and strong and vulnerable and beautiful and kind and real. There was no pretense about their desperation….unlike how we mask our brand of desperation with flattering filters and selective cropping. This was my thing. After a year of weekly jail visits, I began to see ladies re-arrested. As I began to wrestle through the causes for cycling through the system, I came to learn it was foolish to expect new lives from women forced to return to the same destructive environments and relationships they left when arrested. Over time it became clear that this reality was not okay with our Heavenly Father. He meant to use His resourced daughters to help those without. He meant for His girls who had been given many chances to grow and thrive to help their sisters, many of whom had never been given a real chance. He placed a divine compulsion upon Tenacious Grace to provide a safe place for our sisters to find healing and health, a place conducive to the gospel, a place called Five Sparrows. After establishing our 501c3 status, we began to raise money for this vision in 2016. By 2020 - thanks to the generosity of many faithful donors, we were able to purchase a charming, 2300 square foot home with an oasis of a backyard. During the past five years, we became students of Thistle Farms, a like-minded organization in Nashville, Tennessee, serving female survivors of sexual exploitation since 1997. We adopted their model for twenty-four months of safe, free housing and trauma-informed programming and joined their National Network of 100 similar organizations around the country. We can lock arms with five residents at a time for a period of two years of intense healing and growth. Many of our ladies bring decades of complex trauma and abuse to their stay, and there is no shortcut through the pain they have carried a lifetime. It takes a long time to unlearn unhealthy survival skills when they are no longer needed. Building trust is a fragile marathon, and rest is vital. Time is our partner. Four gorgeous souls live in the house today. Two others have been in the program and many ladies have applied over the past six months. When making admissions decisions, we pray a lot. We ask God for discernment as we look for the women with the greatest obstacles and the strongest willingness to do the hard work. These ladies are the bravest, strongest, most resilient women I’ve ever met. They have survived a hell many of them had no part in creating. I was recently asked if addiction is the root of the incarceration of women. It is not. Pain is. Substance abuse is the coping mechanism that keeps them from being swallowed up by it. Obviously, this is a beautiful endeavor only possible as a collaborative effort - empowered, equipped, and assembled by God Himself. The Tenacious Grace board believes in this work and supports us with their wisdom and expertise. Our donor base is the instrument of divine provision that keeps these expensive offerings free to the ladies we serve. Our community partners (i.e., HopeHealth, Poynor Adult Education, FDTC, Equine Intervention, FCSO, many area churches, and the strong Florence recovery community) provide the services that are helping our residents build their new lives. I am blessed to journey beside the warriors in the house and the heroes on the Tenacious Grace team. These days my job as the Executive Director is to raise the money to help these women do what God gifted them to do: Lindsay Haselden, Creative Director; Danielle Rhodes, Operations Director; Rachel Desta, Five Sparrows Program Director; and Casea David, Five Sparrows Residential Manager. They are the boots on the ground, in lockstep as we keep our hearts open and our souls sensitive to the Lord’s leading. Because we ourselves are beneficiaries of a grace that won’t quit, we are honored to be extensions of His love in dark places.