Pastor Mario Valle Jr. watched the baptism with a billowing heart. Timed for the congregation’s 13th anniversary, he marveled at how the Lord worked since his parents founded Ministerio Cristiano Amigos de Jesus (Friends of Jesus Christian Ministry) in the Magnolia Park neighborhood, southeast of Houston.
In the last year alone, 16 new families joined the congregation, some now in line for the public sacrament of baptism. As each member dipped below the water’s surface before emerging new in Christ, Pastor Valle flashed back to the fall, when Amigos de Jesus partnered with Cru® Inner City to distribute more than three dozen Boxes of Love®.
“Many of those families that received the Boxes of Love got baptized,” the pastor said through an interpreter.
Each Box of Love® contains all the fixings for a Thanksgiving meal for six, including the turkey or other protein, vegetables, potatoes, juice, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rice, fruit and dessert. In addition to the food, each large container includes gospel literature appropriate for all age groups.
“I believe that the Boxes of Love are a great tool to be able to get to those families in need and speak to them about the love of Jesus.”
The annual outreach represents a core value for Inner City, which is to serve local churches and ministries that already have a presence in the community and understand the needs of their neighbors. The Boxes of Love and other Compassionate Products™, such as Homeless Care Kits, Easter Bags, and fully stuffed backpacks called PowerPacks®, are important icebreakers for urban churches, which generally lack resources for widespread outreach.
“The Boxes of Love have been a big impact, not just for the church, but for the whole community,” said Pastor Valle, who assumed leadership of the church after the passing of his father. “We have been able to show our community the love that Jesus Christ has for them.
“I believe that the Boxes of Love are a great tool to be able to get to those families in need and speak to them about the love of Jesus. It lets us get closer to our community's needs.”
The resources from Inner City come at a time when residents of the Magnolia Park neighborhood are increasingly struggling with gentrification, which is skyrocketing housing costs and displacing low-income Hispanic families who have lived in modest homes for generations.
“That shows us that the Boxes of Love are not covering just the basic needs, but they're covering more.”
In addition to helping churches meet tangible needs, church partners are trained in effective evangelism and discipleship. That means those who distribute the boxes understand how to effectively share the gospel, while the discipleship element equips pastors and lay leaders to assist those they are reaching in spiritual growth. The parallel approach is in keeping with the foundational mission of the wider Cru organization: Win. Build. Send.
Those skills have proven invaluable at Amigos de Jesus, Pastor Valle said, adding that the evidence is the spiritual progress among the 16 families.
“That shows us that the Boxes of Love are not covering just the basic needs, but they're covering more. They're going above and beyond,” he said, adding that his new members are connecting with the message. “(It’s) in people's hearts now; showing that (through this) baptizing.”
Intentional Outreach
Although Boxes of Love and the other Compassionate Products have been in use for decades, two years ago, Inner City teams across the country deployed a more intentional emphasis known as the Embracing Families Strategy.
The thrust is for partner ministries to establish relationships with recipients well before the Compassionate Products are distributed. The plan is designed to cultivate deeper bonds to create fertile ground for gospel engagements, follow-up and discipleship.
“Each family has a specific leader that follows up with them and are always in prayer with them, calling them out to make sure everything's fine,” the pastor said.
Putting it in Motion
By initiating the Embracing Families plan, church leaders at Amigos de Jesus reached out to specific families, then maintained contact post-distribution by checking in regularly and praying with them.
“It's so important that every box has a name, but mainly what's important is that we do the follow-up work,” said Bryant Lee, national expansion director for Inner City.
In all, Inner City has more than 30 expansion cities, a grassroots effort where local pastors and ministry leaders are implementing Cru strategies to assist their neighbors. They join 10 staffed cities, which have full-time teams offering support to the urban pastors.
“We're out there every day in neighborhoods, in communities, on the front lines … with a variety of relationships throughout these communities,” Lee said in a video, later adding he believes God has given Inner City this unique space that's going to allow both expansion and staff city teams to advance the gospel.
“It's so important that every box has a name, but mainly what's important is that we do the follow-up work.”
With 17,000 families receiving boxes from 350 church partners in two dozen cities last year, as many as 102,000 people were reached with the gospel.
Still, the outreaches are more than just numbers, with the dividends having eternal consequences.
“We went from being just friends to now being sisters and brothers in Christ,” Pastor Valle said of the new members.
The gratitude isn’t one-dimensional.
Although every box of food has a value based on actual cost, the true worth is much greater, thanks to the commitment of church leaders and volunteers. Lee said he is thankful for Amigos de Jesus and other faithful partners who are “serving with us in the inner city, making a difference to families, bringing people to Jesus, and leading them into long-term, substantial faith in the local church.”
Photo at top by Kaleb Tapp / Unsplash
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Lori Arnold serves as the senior writer for Cru's inner-city ministry.
