Box of Love Packing Party 2009

Here's Life Inner City along with volunteers packed 3,400 Boxes of Love for families in need last Saturday! A Box of Love is a tangible expression of Christ's love and opens the door to future and lasting ministry by connecting families to churches in their communities.

How Could A Box Of Love Change A Person's Life?

It happened for Sheela.

Last fall was a low point in Sheela’s life. Her husband had left her and their two teenagers. Sheela had never worked before and finances were really tight. Thanksgiving was going to be a very bleak day.

A woman from one of our partner churches, which is located in Sheela’s Queens’ neighborhood, knew about her situation and lovingly offered her a Box of Love containing a complete Thanksgiving dinner for six.

Sheela was so grateful. Soon after, she began attending the church along with her teenage son and daughter. Little by little, they learned about God’s love for them and became more deeply enfolded into the church family. Sheela committed her life to the Lord and was baptized in August. Her teenagers are now active in the church’s Sunday School program. Through another caring person in the church, Sheela got a job working in a store. Today she is a follower of Jesus and is able to provide for her family’s financial needs.

A Box of Love opens the door to future and lasting ministry by connecting families to churches in their communities. This theme was emphasized at a Here’s Life training last month in which more than 260 people gained practical evangelism and ministry skills in preparation for distributing Boxes of Love through their churches. They are excited about reaching more families like Sheela’s this Thanksgiving. Pray each box will provide an opportunity for a family to hear about Jesus.

November Newsletter

New York Friends: Volunteer with HLIC

Help pack Boxes of Love for Families in Need!

When: November 21, 2009

Where: Here's Life Inner City Warehouse
37-10 Skillman Avenue
Long Island City, NY 11101

Time: 9am-11am and 11am-2pm

Goodbye NYC, I'll be back

On August 31st I said goodbye to NYC for short time as my internship came to an end.

In September, I attended New Staff Training and was commissioned as a missionary with Campus Crusade for Christ. I will spend the next few months in South Carolina gathering financial support. Please pray with me as my hope is to complete my support team by Christmas and return to NYC after the New Year.



Vonette Bright, co-founder of Campus
Crusade for Christ welcomed me into
the staff family.

in humility consider others better than yourselves

Compassion is a gift from God. It allows us to see the suffering of other people and respond with love even if they are hard to love. Compassion has been grafted onto your spirit by the Spirit of God, and it is there to be exercised, developed and shown to others.

God expects us to care for the poor. Scripture is full of challenges to share ourselves with the less fortunate. Sadly, we have learned to give nothing away without some expectation of return. that is not God’s way. He has comissioned us to help the poor, lifting them up, without expectation of return or investment.

Is there a price for your compassion or is it unconditional?

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. -Philippians 2:1-4

From Lesson 3 of Compassion by Command

2 months to go....

I’m two months away from completing my yearlong internship with Here’s Life Inner City and very excited about what God has in store for the future! For those of you new to my blog, let me share my journey . . .

Five years ago God burdened my heart for the lost when I was a freshman at the University of South Carolina, involved with Campus Crusade for Christ. I developed a heart for the poor while serving with the 2006 Summer in the City project in New York, run by Here’s Life. What an amazing summer! I tutored inner-city kids, served in soup kitchens, ministered to women in shelters, shared God's love on the streets. In just a short time, these experiences changed my life! God gave me a vision to one day return to the inner-city to minister to people in need.

Back on campus as a junior at Carolina, God began to show me the needs of the poor in Columbia. I had to act. I teamed up with another Summer in the City alum and trained students at my church in evangelism and cross-cultural ministry. We volunteered at a shelter for women and a transitional home for children. Before long, 29 students developed a heart for the poor and followed me to New York for Spring Break. We spent a wonderful week serving the inner-city poor alongside Here’s Life!

God called me to become an intern on the Here’s Life team in New York City after graduating from college in May 2008. Whether I’m teaching kids about Jesus in Harlem, recruiting volunteers for our next event, praying with a 50-year-old homeless woman as she cries about her past, or helping teach a career development class to those deemed “unemployable” – God is being glorified. I have loved every moment of it!

And now I’m excited to announce my decision to officially join the New York City staff team of Here’s Life Inner City. After much prayer, I know God has called me into full-time ministry. In September I'll head South to attend New Staff Training and raise financial support. I hope to be back in NYC after the New Year!

Poverty Simulation

Attempting to sleep on a cold concrete floor without a blanket, awaking to someone kicking you out of your shelter at six in the morning, hiding your sweatshirt only to discover hours later that it was stolen, walking the streets of New York in the rain with no umbrella and forget about brushing your teeth or showering…

The Summer in the City students participated in a three and a half day poverty simulation to help them experience the day to day struggles of the working poor and the homeless in a controlled environment.

Wednesday night we had the students meet for a scheduled “prayer meeting.” After praying, we told them they were entering a poverty simulation and they had fifteen minutes to grab three items – literally, three. After collecting all of their money, cell phones, room keys and extra belongings, they headed to the Here’s Life Inner City warehouse in Queens for what would turn into a very long three days.

Each day, students were given $20 in “simulation money.” They had to pay for their transportation, housing fee and all meals, which usually meant they only had enough money to buy a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and piece of fruit for dinner.

While participating in the simulation, students still served at their ministry sites, in the same clothes two days in a row. If any students ever arrived late or broke the rules of the simulation, they earned a chance card. Chance cards introduced various scenarios ranging from losing all of your possessions to paying for your child’s lunch. If someone couldn’t pay, they collected money from other group members. Just as in a real homeless shelter, if a student failed to carry all of their belongings at all times, it was stolen and had to be purchased to get it back.

In the evenings, we did various activities and studies to explore what poverty and the term, “working poor” truly means and how our stereotypes feed into our understanding of this culture. Saturday, students were sent out, in the rain again, to complete a scavenger hunt. They talked to homeless people and listened to their stories, gave away one of their possessions-a handmade blanket, collected cans from the trash and most ended up at various shelters across Manhattan to find lunch, all the while meeting people who live like this every day.

By the end of the simulation, they students were completely exhausted and sleep deprived, hungry and miserable. Let’s just say, their staff team were not their favorite people. But it was when they hit their breaking point that the Spirit really began to move in their hearts. Their perspectives were changing. Their hearts were softened. They were clinging to the only thing they had – their Savior.

Written by: Jamie, SITC staff

On the last morning, Dayne's barely hanging in there.

Just found out the poverty simulation is over!