Grace in Unlikely Places
“I haven’t used heroin in a week. Can you pray for me? I don’t want to use heroin anymore.”
“Please pray for my brother. He was shot in the face last week.”
The prayer requests get real at our weekly gathering at the Johnson Houses housing project in Spanish Harlem. Every Tuesday Kenny Cox, longtime D4L staff member, and his team host a lively discussion of Scripture over free lunch for residents of these subsidized public housing units in upper Manhattan. This dedicated staff team stands in the gap along the border of life and death.
Our ministry to residents and employees of the housing projects of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) continues to expand and flourish. This year we added a new Scripture gathering for employees in Queens and a “Just Show Up” Book Club for employees at the NYCHA headquarters in downtown Manhattan. We’ve been vigilant about not just hosting ministry activities but striving to produce disciples and disciplemakers. Our weekly gatherings form the “top of a funnel” where a community is formed from which we can see multiplying disciplemakers emerge from the bottom. Kenny has recruited an amazing force of five part-time Navigator staff, all of whom are former lifelong employees of NYCHA. All these staff have been trained in “the Big Three” of abiding, evangelism and disciplemaking through our yearlong Disciplemakers Intensive training program, which has seen 100 NYC leaders start their journey toward becoming disciplemakers over the past two years.
It’s been a great joy to see Nancy emerge as our first disciplemaker from the Johnson Houses. She volunteered to serve as our Spanish translator for our Scripture discussions and is often gripped by the gospel and moved to tears as she translates. She is part of a breathtaking cascade of four generations of disciplemakers, as veteran Church Ministry staffer, Audrey Tice, pours into our part-time staff Rosa, who pours into Nancy, who pours into her husband.
“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows…God sets the lonely in families.” (Psalm 68:5-6). What a privilege to watch God do this through people like Kenny and Nancy, standing in the gap for those who have few other defenders. Please pray for Kenny and his team and for more disciplemakers like Nancy to transform the city through Life-to-Life® disciplemaking.
We have a video that captures the spirit of our ministry so well: https://vimeo.com/895894347