When we moved to Redding three years ago, my husband was struck by the challenge that parents in the area faced from extreme summers and wet winters. He was also moved by the surprising statistics around childhood pain in our county (we have some of the worst statistics in California according to the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study). In the middle of this, he started talking about an idea he had for what he called “an indoor playspace.”
After nearly a year of my husband consistently mentioning this business idea to me, and two years of me saying, “Honey, I don’t think that is what we are about,” I finally said, “Ok. I will pray about it.”
I quite honestly thought I would hear God say no, and we could move on with our plan for the next couple of years: spend a year or two in Redding, learning to usher in the Kingdom at a new level, and then work among refugees in the Middle East.
So I went for a little hike and found myself on top of a hill asking God what he had to say about this playspace my husband had been brainstorming about. The second I closed my eyes, I experienced the strongest vision I have ever had.
I saw a group of kids and in the vision, the lens “zoomed in” on them. They were clearly from some other nation and in a post-conflict zone. They left my vision and I saw another small group of kids, obviously in a refugee camp. A third group of kids followed that one, this time in a post disaster zone in a different nation. As all these kids zoomed into view and then out of my sight, I heard God say, “I need people to tend to my kids. I want to heal and encounter them through play.”
I kept my eyes closed as he continued to talk. “And I want to give you blueprints so that kids can walk into this space and encounter me and be healed without ever being prayed for. Throughout time and scripture I have healed through simple tools like movement and light and sound. I want to use these to heal kids.”
God went on to impress on me the sheer number of kids in the world right now who have experienced the trauma of wars and natural disasters—so many that it would be impossible to have enough trained counselors to help them overcome and begin to thrive. But in the Kingdom he always provides a way to fulfill his promises. And he has promised to bind up the broken hearted. He was showing me a way.
I walked away with it settled: we were to pursue this business in obedience to God. He had some unique ways that he wanted to design it. Based on the vision, we suspected we might use some form of this model overseas at some point, but first we were to open one in Redding.
When I had this vision, it was late March of 2018. I honestly thought Redding was a strange place for God to have us “cut our teeth.” Even though Redding and its surrounding counties have the worst statistics as far as childhood trauma in the home, it is a humble small city—not known for disasters or violence. Until July 2018, that is. When the Carr fire and tornado ripped through our city, thousands and thousands of kids were exposed to a new kind of trauma: running from fire, recovering from the loss of home, and being restricted to indoors for the three months that followed. Then four months later, in November of 2018, one of our neighboring cities experienced the Paradise fire, a deadly tragedy that wiped out their whole city infrastructure and brought more impacted children to our region as they resettled. We will always treasure in our hearts that God made a plan ahead of time to meet the needs of these kids in a small way through Roam Playspace before the fires even happened.
As he promised, God gave us specific plans for Roam. Through visions, we received design plans of play structures, sometimes even down to the details of color. The process and journey busted all the boxes we had God in and began to bring scripture alive in a new way: God gave a unique, quirky battle plan every time in the Bible; he specified the art when the Temple was built; and he used things like spit, mud, and handkerchiefs to heal. Perhaps he really did have designs for play that could bring healing to kids.
We opened Roam in July of this year. The journey to open was one that demanded more endurance than we thought possible, starting the day we officially decided to go for it. We experienced spiritual resistance every step of the way, and it really did cost us: odd illnesses, extreme night terrors for one of our little ones that lasted a year, a fire that caused soot damage, displaced us for two months, and traumatized our kids, a stolen car, getting smacked in the face by a demonized person in a public place, money drained by an unfortunate situation with our contractor. That’s the short list.
But, four months in, we have had the special experience of getting customer feedback confirming that what God told us this space would be for is already happening. Both people who don’t know him and believers consistently walk up to us and unknowingly give testimony to what God does in the space:
“On our drive here today my son said something so funny. He said, ‘Mom, Roam is a very famous place to play, and there is a big river that runs through it.”
“My foster baby has never let me put her down in a public space. Look at her, she is crawling around and playing by herself!”
“My kids never will play with each other. When we come to Roam they form a sibling bond and play.”
“I came here because I don’t know how to play with my daughter. I need to learn. My mom never played with me and I don’t really know how to play. Maybe you guys can help me.”
We have hosted events focused on healing from the trauma of the fire. We are leading moms through a leadership development series. We have hosted supervised visitations. We have talked to a mom who’d just dealt with a criminal situation against her child, inviting her to use the space to let her kids come and heal. We are in conversations about a contract with the two main agencies that offer therapy to kids with developmental delays, including the Department of Education.
Roam hosted a “We Are Resilient” party around the anniversary of the fire. These kids are learning to be real-life super heroes—through play!
The strong, clear encounter we had with God as he told us to build Roam Playspace will forever be a gift we hold close to our hearts. It was a stake in the ground that we referred back to over and over.
His voice led us to prepare healing for kids before trauma happened. It gave us a solution to the problems plaguing kids in our county for decades. It gave us detailed plans along the way on how to build. Those words anchored us as we made our biggest jump of faith yet and gave us focused endurance as we navigated an intense level of resistance.
His voice is such a precious gift.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Mullikin has worked with Novo since 2006 and helped build Prime Healing. Anna and Alan live with their two sons in Redding, CA and seek to see healing and discipleship happen among children and their parents. Part of this is through their business, Roam Playspace.