I never wanted just a job in the city. My heart ached for the city because it was my mission field and I wanted the all-consuming life of a missionary. As a single woman in my 20s I jumped at the chance to serve as the leader of a girls’ ministry in an impoverished community. Growing up in rural Virginia where I walked to my mailbox and drove to town, I struggled to make sense of the chaos. Riding the train and finding the laundromat were difficult. But the practical challenges were nothing compared to experiencing the heart-wrenching effects of violence, abuse and poverty through the eyes of the children I served. As a single woman in leadership, my time was poured out without thought on those I served and loved.
Marriage brought the reconfiguring of life that now needed to include another person. Together my husband and I navigated the life of a missionary with all of its overlapping boundaries. As a wife I learned the lesson of balancing my missionary work with loving my husband and building my home for the Lord. It was never hard for me to stand on the corner and speak truth or walk into homes steeped in violence and sit beside a grandmother. And yet holding my first born daughter I waivered. As a mom your instinct is to shield and cover your babies in security. In unexplainable peace my husband and I moved our small family to a Chicago community beleaguered with violence and pain. I joined a small church planting team to build a children’s ministry without the luxury of a building, resources or volunteers. And so I wrapped my infant daughter gently into a sling and stepped out into the summer heat where children sat squashed into a garage waiting for the Bible lesson.
I have five children now; four boys and my daughter. I am a wife and mother which means I do dishes, kiss boo-boos and teach school. I have embraced this as my testimony to my community of how to lovingly serve my children with joy and to honor my husband in marriage. This is my most important role as a leader. Yes, I conduct meetings, equip, teach, disciple, lead programs and build ministries but all of this would be for nothing if I did not acknowledge the ministry of my home first.
My family serves alongside of me. It is no longer my chief aim to keep my children safe but instead to allow them to experience God! My children watch as I weep with the mother who buried her child. They sit beside me as I embrace the child whose father has been murdered. They listen to the stories of men sitting across them at our kitchen table as they share how God used prison to transform them. They jump in the car with me as we rush to the barbershop where we wade through dealers and gangbangers to come to the aid of a young mom in crisis. They watch wide eyed as she weeps, clutching my arm and begging me to take her baby and help. They gaze in wonder as I wrap the baby in a blanket found in my trunk and explain that we are going to care for this infant for a while. My children have seen people struggle to survive, witnessed violence erupt in church and known children who have been shot to death. They have wept at funerals and learned the cost of love and how to trust in Jehovah Jireh’s provision and protection.
Above all they have witnessed God at work in profound ways. God has given me the blessing of being a wife and a mother. I am also a church leader in an inner city community. But all of this is wrapped in the truth that my identity and calling is first to be His child serving Him above all else.
God has given me the blessing of being a wife and a mother. I am also a church leader in an inner city community. But all of this is wrapped in the truth that my identity and calling is first to be His child serving Him above all else. Click To Tweet
This is a wonderful family carrying on the family tradition of urban ministry. We are blessed to know them. They live out the truth in Chi-town.