John 3:16 Mission Begins $8.3 Million Expansion To Better Serve Tulsa’s Homeless

John 3:16 Mission is starting an $8.3 million expansion that will add three new buildings to the campus. 

"Places like this let you get to push the pause button, and let you reflect on what you've done and what you've been through," said client Ted Littlefield. 

Littlefield has been visiting John 3:16 since January and said he's already seen his life change. 

CEO Reverend Steve Whitaker said this new project has been in the works for several years. 

"Most people know we have a homeless problem in Tulsa, in the state of Oklahoma and all across the nation, numbers are up all across the nation," Whitaker said. 

The expansion includes a renovation to add space for the men's long-term residential recovery program, a new women's recovery center, a work training center, and a redistribution center for donations. 

"It's amazing to be able to see finally the day come to be able to break ground and know that they are going to be out here with machines building a building, and pretty quickly going to be able to change some lives," Whitaker said. 

Littlefield said before he started going to the mission, he was nearly homeless. He wants others who need help to know that they are welcome at John 3:16. 

"If it can touch mine, it can touch anybody's, we all have a sad story to tell, but looking at it, it's not the sad thing, it's looking at what God led us through even though we went through those sad things," Littlefield said. 

John 3:16 has not said when the project will be complete.