Beth Finn (above, center) swayed in her seat as the metro bus took her team of collegiate summer missionaries back to their lodging. It was the final days of their 10-week service with the inner-city ministry of Cru®, and Beth, a senior at the University of Toledo, was reflecting on the experience.
During their Chicago assignment, the team served alongside 10 different ministries: a day-care center, a summer camp, a food pantry and a weekly prayer initiative at a high-risk intersection. Another project included evangelizing souls with new soles — giving away 2,000 pairs of sneakers. The team also participated in the distribution of Inner City’s PowerPacks®, backpacks filled with school supplies, and Homeless Care Kits, which provide a blanket, socks, gloves, scarves, hats and toiletries to the unhoused.
The service projects sweetened the atmosphere for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with a weary community. But there were also moments of uncertainty, especially after planting seeds and not seeing immediate fruit.
“That can be hard when you're waking up every single day to go out and share, and you're not seeing the results of anything,” Beth said.
As Beth glanced over at one of the seats on the bus, she noticed a familiar face cast downward. Focusing on the 20-something woman, Beth realized the team ministered to her during its first outreach in the Windy City. As Beth traced the young woman’s gaze, she noticed the object of her attention: the Bible she had given her nine weeks earlier!
“It was weird, our paths crossed,” Beth said, adding it was God’s character to give them “a little glimpse” of how He used them.
“We got to talk to her. It was a really cool, full-circle moment,” she said.
By the end of the missions trip, Beth was used to seeing God at work, fulfilling her dream when she signed up. Although she had no specific expectations for the mission, she wanted more exposure to the inner city.
“I was kind of letting the Lord use me and show me in whatever way He wanted to,” she said. “I was (feeling) the Lord calling me to do this.”
“I was kind of letting the Lord use me and show me in whatever way he wanted to,” she said. “I was (feeling) the Lord calling me to do this.”
Before enrolling in college, the inner city wasn’t on her radar. Raised in a Christian home in Columbus, Ohio, Beth’s sights were on early childhood education, where she planned to teach in a familiar suburban setting.
“There was nothing unsafe about where I lived,” she said. “I wanted to go back to a school district that was wealthier and had more resources, and when I got into inner-city schools, the Lord really showed me and grew my heart for that. I wanted to go to Chicago to grow in my skills.”
In the process, God also helped her to shift some of her perspectives on ministry.
“I learned that God's heart is for all people, no matter what they've done or what they've experienced,” Beth said. “He loves the people on the side of the road, and He loves the people who are doing drugs and stealing. I had the assumption coming in (that) this would be dangerous or these people wouldn't want to hear about Jesus. But they're all creations of God, and they all desire to learn a little bit about their Creator.”
Before signing up for Summer Missions, God was already speaking to Beth about the basics of faith. As with many teens from Christian households, college can be a major turning point as they decide whether to adopt faith in Jesus as their own.
“I had a lot of doubts,” she said. “Growing up, it was like, ‘Is this faith that I've been following my whole life actually true or is it something that I've been taught to do?’ When I got to college and joined Cru, I was able to learn what it's like to know God personally and how to live out my faith.”
Living out the evangelistic mandate does not come easily for Beth, who struggles with anxiety. Participating in the Summer Mission’s program has helped the college senior face her fears.
“The Lord showed me that there is no anxiety too big where God cannot use you as a vessel and a messenger, despite your anxiety.”
“Anxiety was and has been a huge part of my story,” she said. “Taking the step of faith and risk going to Chicago for the summer was terrifying, and there was a lot of anxiety this summer. However, the Lord showed me that there is no anxiety too big where God cannot use you as a vessel and a messenger, despite your anxiety.”
The Heart of Ministry
Experiencing the genuine gratefulness of the unhoused she served also transformed Beth.
During one outreach, Beth and her group found a man slumped over as he sat on a bench.
“You could smell alcohol on his breath, and you could tell he was having a tough time,” she said.
The man went on to share a familiar story for those working in urban spaces. Addiction cost him his job, his house, his wife, and everything he owned. A fractured relationship with his brother exacerbated his deep pain.
Beth and her peers told the man that Jesus could fill the void in his heart and temper his anger toward his brother. They offered him a Homeless Care Kit — with a blanket, warm accessories and toiletries — to demonstrate God’s love for him.
“He can take care of that mess,” they shared. “No mess is too big for him.”
The man began sobbing.
“The way he instantly felt the Lord's presence was so cool,” Beth said.
The nexus of Beth’s personal passion for Jesus and exposure to the needs of the inner city has created a powerful tug that Beth was unwilling to leave behind in Chicago.
During her final few weeks of summer ministry, Beth began reflecting on what God was expecting her to do as an outgrowth of her experience.
“Why is the Lord calling me here, and what does He want me to take back to Toledo?” she asked herself. “My personality is not the type to put things out (there) and take that step of faith.”
Yet, as she returned to Toledo, she rallied members of the Cru Campus team and launched a crowdfunding appeal to host their own outreach to the city’s unsheltered. The effort raised $300, enough for the students to hand out toiletry items to about 40 people.
“I think initially they might have been scared, but now they're like, ‘this is the coolest thing.’ ‘We get to reach the people that a lot of people don't care to talk with,’” Beth said of her Cru Campus peers. “That's been really sweet.”
A second outreach, also generating $300, was held in early November, with 13 students participating — five more than the inaugural one. The resources they distributed the second time included emergency heat blankets, which proved vital since the season’s first snowstorm hit the following day. They have already raised $200 for another one before Christmas.
“We hope to go out and hand out cookies to spread holiday joy,” she said.
Expanding Their Influence
Alejandrina Higgins, a staff member with the Chicago Inner City team, said having Beth replicate their work is “one of the outcomes we hope for after a summer mission.
“I was inspired and encouraged to see that she was taking back what she learned on Summer Mission in a very practical way,” Alejandrina said. “She took faithful steps of obedience and trusted the Lord to work, which is the best thing any of us can do in ministry.”
With only a few months left before her graduation, Beth is already assessing the feasibility of starting a similar outreach in her hometown. She’s also praying someone in the campus ministry feels called to keep the Toledo effort going.
“Regardless of where I am, there are people who are in need, so I'm hoping to somehow continue it,” she said.
While the faces of some of those she’s served will most certainly fade with time, Beth said her interactions with them have left a lasting legacy.
“They not only plant seeds, but they build my faith,” she said. “I think that’s why I left Chicago so on fire for the Lord, because (of) all those stories.”
“They not only plant seeds, but they build my faith,” she said. “I think that’s why I left Chicago so on fire for the Lord, because all those stories.”
They are stories she plans to use as a bridge to the future.
“A big takeaway that I had was that God could have done all of this by Himself, but He chose us to be vessels, plant seeds, and be a part of His ultimate love story,” she said.
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Lori Arnold serves as the senior writer for Cru's inner-city ministry.
