By Alex Walters
Twenty-nine years ago, a youth minister at a local Baptist church attended a potluck dinner and left with a hefty amount of leftovers. He stopped outside the Greyhound bus terminal in Tulsa and asked a homeless woman if she would like some food. She declined, instead asking for a blanket to keep her warm in the cold winter. The youth minister returned home, but wasn’t able to sleep knowing she was shivering outside the bus terminal, so he gathered some of his own blankets and returned to where she had been, but she couldn’t be found.
Since then, Mike Doudican, a proud Sapulpa resident since 1985, has braved all weather to bring food, blankets, sleeping bags, and winter wear to those experiencing homelessness across Sapulpa and Tulsa. Since 2021, according to the City of Tulsa, homelessness has grown 8.6%, more than the overall population growth in the same time, and includes almost 1,000 TPS students. The reality gets worse when you consider that 70% of Tulsans also see the make-shift camps as threats to public safety.
“It’s the mission field God gave me,” Doudican said, “I’ve been far more blessed.”
Over the years, he has never felt endangered and has learned it’s all about adding value to people’s lives where they’re at. A predominant number have struggled or are still currently struggling with addiction and mental health. Until the cities address these deeper issues of lack of mental health resources and addiction, until society can come together, this is not a problem that will be solved anytime soon. “It’s a societal issue, and it’s heartbreaking,” he says.
Doudican recounted a horrible night from one of his food deliveries. A man named CJ—whom he had met with often, fed and kept warm for years—was found dead. Doudican and his ready army of supporters provided CJ with cremation and a ceremony, providing him the final rights deserving of every human.
Now a teacher at Victory Christian, Doudican says it’s important to humanize people who have been pushed to the background and labeled as worthless or burdensome. “That’s a human being sleeping outside in 20-degree weather,” he says. There’s a lot of negative connotation around those experiencing homelessness, and a lot of heartbreak.
“We tend to focus only on the people around us,” He added, “Everyone has a story, and is a tragedy away from our lives being turned upside down.”
Now, Doudican has it down to a science. He cooks dinner, filling styrofoam cups with as hot as possible food so it stays warm, and fills the front passenger seat of his car. The back seat is overflowing with blankets, hats, sleeping bags, and water. He waits until the four shelters in Tulsa have closed for the night, heads up 75, and within ½ mile of those shelters, he finds upwards of fifty people a night.
“If they don’t need it, they won’t accept it. If they have it, they want it to go to someone who needs it,” Doudican said.
About four years ago, Doudican was wondering what he could do for Christmas break to continue helping, and said that God told him, “Do more, and let people know about it.” So, Doudican began posting on social media, and people began pouring in. Hundreds of people across Northeast Oklahoma have donated thousands of dollars, food, and goods. Local humanitarians have provided everything from Thanksgiving leftovers to large sums of money, and every bit has gone to helping those experiencing homelessness. Fresh-baked and iced cookies, lovingly crocheted scarves and sewn blankets, even sleeping bags rated for down to zero-degree weather.
“There are nights it can be life and death,” Doudican said, and these supplies can save lives. A mild December now, low 60’s Christmas week, but there are brutal days ahead. Any local knows that come February and March, we’ll be yearning for some sunshine and warmth as the cities freeze.
Without social media in this ministry, allowing people to hear the stories and faces of humans just like us, there wouldn’t be this sizeable Good Samaritan army behind Doudican, and more people would go without on the streets. Doudican says social media is also important for him in keeping transparency, as people entrust him with goods and money, and they deserve to see how and who they’re helping and how simple it is to save and change lives on the ground with just a coat.
It also allows him to connect, as he did at the birthday party he and a fellow teacher threw for the homeless community. A local law firm granted them use of their parking lot, and there was brisket, over 200 individual cakes, racks of clothes, and a calendar on which everyone could write their birthday. Around 225 people showed up to celebrate what is usually forgotten.
However, with the use of online platforms to grow the ministry and outreach, Doudican has been accused of ‘clout chasing’ a few times, and each time, the community behind him has risen to his defense. People have even accused him of ‘enabling’ and ‘feeding the strays’.
“It took me back,” he said of the accusations, “I had to ask my students what it meant. I don’t need clout, I’m 62.”
But, Doudican says, it did ground him. He asked himself if he was really helping, but without social media, they couldn’t help as many people. “This is not anything other than what God has laid on my heart,” he added.
The long-time Sapulpa local believes in the true biblical sense that what you do for the least of these, you do for God. The more we can help others and humanize rather than criminalize, the better we are as a society. He encourages people to get out there and truly see it, and to continue trying to help through difficult times.
“What we do is a very small band-aid on a huge problem,” Doudican said of his ministry and army of helpers, adding that any little bit helps: food, drinks, wipes, scarves, hats, sleeping bags, and blankets. Even on extra-tired nights, “100% of the time I go out I’m happy I did,” he says, calling himself everyone’s Uber delivery driver.
The long-time teacher insists none of this would be possible without all the supporters and donors behind him. He mentioned Sapulpa specifically has a strong heart, with a plethora of helpers at the ready, and several restaurants providing trays of food to be passed out. Doudican proclaimed, “I’ve never been so proud of this community.”
