calledtoserveinc@gmail.com
Meet Amanda Condren
My name is Amanda Condren, and I am blessed to be married to my husband, Matt Condren, and to be a mother to our two children. Together, we live on our small homestead in Southeast Oklahoma, where faith, family, animals, and serving others are at the heart of our lives.
I graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2015 with a Master’s Degree in Social Work and have been a Licensed Clinical Social Worker for more than 10 years. Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to serve individuals and families in a variety of settings, including behavioral health, integrated care, home health and hospice, and school counseling.
For as long as I can remember, I have felt called to help others. In 2018, that calling took me to Peru on a medical mission trip. Like so many who have experienced mission work, I returned home with a changed perspective. The experience strengthened my faith, deepened my compassion, and gave me an even greater appreciation for what it truly means to serve others.
Later that same year, my life changed unexpectedly when I became very ill and was eventually diagnosed with Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome (MALS). In 2019, I was blessed to find a surgeon who was able to surgically correct the condition. My surgery was his 308th MALS procedure. Recovery became a long journey, and although I continue to face some challenges, my story did not end there.
God was not finished with me. I am still here, and I believe I am here for a purpose—to serve Him by serving others.
Our family’s story also grew from a season of tremendous loss. During 2020, my children lost their biological mother, and Matt lost his wife of ten years. That part of our family’s journey is Matt’s story to share. Through grief and circumstances neither of us could have planned, however, God brought our paths together.
Matt and I married in 2021. Our story truly is a little love story that we believe was written by God. He brought us together during a time when we needed one another most. For years, I had prayed for a Christian husband and dreamed of one day having children. I could never have imagined the way God would answer those prayers.
He blessed me with a husband, two children, and the little family I had prayed for.
How HAPPI Began
Animals have also been an important part of my life. With approximately 10 years of experience raising and breeding dogs, I have seen firsthand the unique connection that can develop between people and animals.
Throughout my professional career, I dreamed of one day combining my experience helping people with my love and experience with dogs. I wanted to incorporate a therapy dog into meaningful service to others, providing comfort, companionship, encouragement, and a little happiness to people who may need it most.
For many years, that remained a dream. Today, I am incredibly grateful to finally see that dream becoming a reality through HAPPI — Heart and Paw Partners Initiative.
With our founding therapy dog, Prince of Peace, affectionately known as “Prince,” HAPPI provides volunteer therapy dog visits to individuals and organizations throughout our community. Our goal is simple: to create positive connections and bring comfort and encouragement through the special bond between people and animals.
Whether it is a child who needs a little encouragement, an older adult who enjoys the companionship of a dog, or someone going through a difficult season who simply needs a comforting presence, HAPPI allows us to serve in a very special way.
What was once only a dream has become another way God has allowed me to use the experiences and passions He has given me to help others.
How C2C Began
The heart behind C2C — Called to Comfort developed through my years of working directly with patients and families.
During my work in healthcare, home health, hospice, and other helping professions, I quickly realized something important: the simplest gestures can sometimes mean the most.
A visit. A card in the mail. Remembering someone's birthday. Sitting beside someone who is lonely. Offering a prayer. Reading Scripture. Providing a small care package. Taking a few minutes to listen.
These actions may seem small to the person giving them, but to someone who is grieving, lonely, sick, homebound, struggling, or simply going through a difficult season, they can mean so much.
I witnessed how much people appreciated simply knowing that someone remembered them and cared enough to reach out.
That experience became part of the inspiration for Called to Comfort.
C2C is our Christian-centered outreach focused on sharing compassion through supportive visits, prayer, Scripture, birthday and bereavement cards, care packages, and other simple acts of kindness. We also recognize that not everyone requesting support desires spiritual or religious materials, and nonspiritual support may be requested.
Our purpose is not to make grand gestures. It is to faithfully use the opportunities and resources God gives us to remind people that they are seen, they are valued, and someone cares.
Called to Serve
Through the joys, losses, illnesses, healing, professional experiences, animals we have loved, people we have met, and unexpected turns in our lives, one message has remained constant:
We are called to serve.
That calling is the foundation of Called to Serve Outreach, Inc. and its two programs, HAPPI — Heart and Paw Partners Initiative and C2C — Called to Comfort.
Our story has taught us that serving others does not always require doing something extraordinary. Sometimes service looks like a therapy dog resting his head beside someone who needs comfort. Sometimes it is a birthday card arriving in the mailbox. Sometimes it is a prayer, a listening ear, a care package, or simply taking the time to let someone know they have not been forgotten.
We believe God can use even the smallest acts of compassion for a greater purpose.
Our story is still being written, and we are grateful for every opportunity He gives us to put compassion into action and faith into service.
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” — Romans 12:12 (NIV)
