Help set children and families on a whole new path … toward new life in Christ.
Valerie’s heart was a gaping wound as she watched her oldest daughter, Britany, struggle with liver disease. After a successful transplant at age 4, the donated liver was failing, so Britany, now a teen, waited several years for its replacement. Finally, at age 17, Britany was matched with a donor and a transplant team was assembled for the life-changing surgery. A relieved Britany was rolled into the surgical suite but, as the surgery progressed, her weakened body gave out on the operating table.
“Valerie's hope tumbled into an abyss of numbing sorrow ...”
Britany “was really at the door of her second miracle when doctors lost her,” said Tonya Harris of Body of Christ Church.
Valerie’s hope tumbled into an abyss of numbing sorrow, pushed over the edge by a marriage derailed by grief and skyscraper-sized medical bills. She had six surviving foster children who needed her emotional and financial support. Once a regular church attender, Valerie’s faith faltered. It was difficult to see God in a devastated life.
Britany was a miracle baby. By the time most kids enter preschool, she had already endured a liver transplant surgery. Like most transplant patients, the lifesaving surgery also brought years of medications designed to prevent rejection. However, the transplant gave her new life during her primary and secondary education. But in her teens, Britany’s condition worsened and doctors delivered unsettling news: She needed another liver transplant. The waiting began.
The trauma of Britany’s death was exacerbated by Valerie’s own health challenges, which kept her from work, adding to the financial spiral. When spring arrived months later, the single mom, still in a haze of bereavement, had no idea how to salvage Easter for her children. All under the age of 8, each child was also lost and drifting through their own grief.
That’s when Valerie received an invitation to attend an Easter event at Body of Christ Church, which she attended before life’s tragedies wore her down.
During the Resurrection Sunday event, each of her children received Easter Bags provided through Cru® Inner City, filling a void for Valerie’s family. The bags contained a toy, candy, snacks and gospel literature. Easter bags are one of four Compassionate Products™ that the Inner City teams provide to partner ministries in dozens of U.S. cities. (The others are PowerPack® backpacks, Boxes of Love® holiday meals and Homeless Care Kits). Volunteers from the receiving churches attend evangelism training ahead of the distribution, as well as packing parties to put together the gifts.
Equipping urban churches is at the heart of Inner City’s vision and mission, which is “Living out the Great Commandment and Great Commission with churches in the inner city.”
The impetus for that partnership is that local churches are best suited to know the needs of their neighborhoods, making sure these products go to the most vulnerable in their community, which is how Tonya’s church knew of Valerie’s need.
The Easter goodies were a blessing to Britany’s siblings, who would have otherwise gone without. Tonya said the outreach was also an open door to share with them the meaning behind Easter and why Jesus loved them.
Among the items in the bag was a booklet called “Welcome to Heaven,” which prompted all sorts of questions from Valerie’s mourning youngsters.
“Where is Britany?
“Did she go to heaven?”
“Is she in pain?”
The book was an important tool to help them process their grief.
“It was like the light kind of came back on, where she knew that this was the place ...”
“The pictures and content helped the children understand what their sister went through and where they could go when it was their time to be with the Lord,” Tonya said. “They confessed that they wanted to go to heaven, to see God and their sister.”
It also allowed Tonya to ease their minds about why God didn’t answer their prayers.
“They remembered people coming to their house praying that God would heal her, and she died,” Tonya said, adding they were pint-sized people grappling with adult-sized questions.
Although geared toward children, the event also proved to be a calming salve for Valerie.
“It was like the light kind of came back on, where she knew that this was the place that she wanted to be and she needed in her life to help her build her foundation back with Christ,” Tonya said, adding the outreach opportunity allowed her to recommit herself to the Lord through confession and prayer.
“Even in the midst of her pain, she found purpose again and she found a relationship with God, so she comes more and more. Now she's participating, and her children just love being in the ministry.”
“No training is the same. I mean, foundational, yeah ... but ...”
While the Easter Bags are a tangible resource for the church, Tonya said the annual training and materials Inner City provides in advance of the Easter Bags distribution are crucial to her church’s successful outreaches.
“It’s been very significant in our evangelism because we're not carbon copies, we're not a factory,” she said. “It's not the same each time. I think that's due to the materials that they give us or they expose us to. No training is the same. I mean, foundational, yeah, it still points to the same thing, but each presenter brings a little bit more of themselves.”
Lori Arnold serves as the senior writer for Cru's inner-city ministry.
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