Audrey Carma went from someone who was "just existing" to the leader of a local ministry.
Now, her story of resilience echoes across the Blythewood community, inspiring people to rethink how they serve people experiencing homelessness.
An Unexpected Encounter
Before Blythewood Presbyterian Church built its permanent home in 2019, the congregation gathered every Sunday inside the auditorium of Blythewood High School.
This story starts back in 2016.
Carma spent her weeks working at the school as a custodian. She was down and out, battling internal wounds. One day, she reluctantly decided to walk into a service in the auditorium one morning.
Her initial instinct was to go back out the door.
"I'm just gonna say the truth," Carma recalled. "I opened that door and all those white people turned and looked at me and I said, 'Hell no!'"
But before she could walk away, Ann Sanders, the wife of the church’s pastor, approached her with a simple question: “You wanna buddy?"
Healing Hand-in-Hand
That greeting snowballed into a fortified friendship. Sanders didn’t just welcome Carma into the church, she opened up her home, recognizing that true healing cannot happen in isolation.
"How can you do this when you don't know me," Carma asked the Sanders family. “How can you let me sleep in your house when you don’t know me?”
The answer would soon come.
Gifted with a new home, a newfound family, and a fresh start, Carma felt a profound calling to pay the kindness forward. Keeping the words that saved her at the center of her new mission to help people experiencing homelessness, she created Wanna Buddy Ministry.
The Woman in the Mirror
Data from the 2025 Point in Time, or PIT Count, recorded more than 1,300 people experiencing homelessness across 13 counties in the Midlands.
More than half recorded were out of Richland County, home to Blythewood.
As Wanna Buddy started gaining momentum, Carma remembers meeting a young woman whose struggles mirrored her own past.
"It was like I was talking to myself," Carma said. "Because so much of what I had lived, she’s living it.”
Carma began recruiting church members to expand the reach of Wanna Buddy. Volunteers and congregants like Brandon Huss and Justin Keller understood her program wasn't about checking off a moral checklist, but about fostering genuine, human relationships.
"Audrey gets that," Keller explained. "It’s not ‘going to help the homeless’, it's ‘going to make myself available.’"
At first, Huss doubted his ability to contribute, but the ministry changed his perspective.
"Initially I didn’t think I was equipped to help the homeless," Huss said. "But working with Wanna Buddy, I realized I do have these skills."
Where Are They Now?
Although Carma, Huss, and Keller might seem to have little in common on the surface, the initial barriers Carma felt have completely melted into deep bonds and shared laughter.
Today, Carma says Wanna Buddy Ministry has reached hundreds of people in need. The mission has even come full circle back to where it all began. Hope Reed, a math teacher at Blythewood High School, says students support the ministry through seasonal giving events.
Despite the impact of Wanna Buddy, Carma insists that the credit belongs elsewhere.
"It’s God’s story," Carma said. "He gave it to you for a reason. Share it."
