You'll meet a huge need in the inner city ... HUNGER ... and shine the love and mercy of Jesus.
Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series on the exponential power of Cru® Inner City's discipleship training. In the first installment we explored how the training impacted Blanca Nuñez's spiritual walk. Here, we get a glimpse into how she's using it to impact her community.
Like most Americans, your 2020 calendar resembled no other yearly planner before it. Tidy lines and white spaces were replaced by chicken scratch and hieroglyphics. Not much of what was planned came to fruition and what did happen likely bore little resemblance to the original vision.
But, Jesus is the redeemer of those chaotic spaces.
Blanca Nuñez's calendar was no different. Like many serving in urban communities, she has seen the resulting chaos as those living on the margins try to cope with the physical and economic havoc wrought by COVID-19. The prolonged rule of illness and death has left job losses, relationships put on hold, isolated, lonely home-schoolers and new work environments in its wake.
Amid the suffering, though, there has been solace.
As a volunteer with her church, La Voz de Dios, which partners with Cru Inner City, Blanca has been blessed to see how congregations throughout the region have adjusted their ministry to accommodate fast-changing health protocols in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Most churches are also dealing with staggering needs as their already-impoverished neighborhoods buckle under the weight of growing job losses and limited or inconsistent assistance.
In the midst of the crisis, churches have combined their stability and experience — historic hallmarks of successful leadership — with creativity and flexibility to meet the daunting challenges of the pandemic.
La Voz de Dios teams up annually with Cru to deliver PowerPacks®, backpacks stuffed with school supplies and gospel literature. But the congregation had to change its distribution effort last year due to a variety of obstacles related to the coronavirus. Instead of hosting a single event, volunteers, including Blanca and her friend, Sarai, opted to hand-deliver the colorful backpacks.
"I think that bringing the PowerPacks to families in need is the embodiment of the gospel," Blanca said. "I think about my friend whose home — with no planning whatsoever — became a hub for drop-offs."
It's become a hub for so much more, including a women's group. The ladies in the group "felt cared for," especially a neighbor who was wary of Christians. Sarai ministered to her by arranging for PowerPacks for the women's children.
"Even her neighbor has now joined in," Blanca said.
The response was a welcome reminder that effective ministry also happens outside the church walls.
"This reminds me that the building may be closed, but the church is not," she said.
Blanca said she's been impressed with the response of local churches, which, over the past few years, have increasingly connected with their neighborhoods. But 2020 seems to have fostered a new sense of urgency.
| "I see this hunger to work and serve others, but I also see feelings of fear and doubt that tend to shadow us." | "I got to see leaders from inside these ministries step up and get their feet on the ground," she said, adding "they made the initiative to make connections and use their time (and) homes to bring hope around them." |
The shift in focus is significant, she said, likening it to small points of lights emerging within the community instead of a single beam from a church building.
Another new trend, Blanca noted, is the willingness of lay leaders to step up and absorb some of the ministry load from pastors.
"As Latinos in the inner city, we want to do more for our community," she said. "I see this hunger to work and serve others, but I also see feelings of fear and doubt that tend to shadow us. One of the volunteers told me, 'Sister, I've always wanted to do something like what we did, but I feel ashamed to ask.'"
Such feelings are heartbreaking to Blanca, who early on shared the same lack of confidence. After receiving specialized training through Cru, Blanca said she's now motivated to help other leaders — particularly those in Latino communities — overcome fear by equipping them with vital tools and skills they can use in neighborhood outreach.
All they need, she said, is someone to pave the way.
Blanca has parlayed the chaos and confusion of a pandemic into opportunities to bring help and hope to devastated families in her community.
"That's what I hope to do this season, just take a chance on those who have been overlooked and see us all blossom together," she said.
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Lori Arnold serves as senior writer for Cru's inner-city ministry.
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