God is at work in Camden, New Jersey. As we serve through and with our friends at Urban Promise, His presence has been clear to our volunteers throughout the two decades of our partnership. “I feel such a strong presence of the Holy Spirit in that place,” shared Outreach Commission member Judy.
Judy recalls visiting Urban Promise in the early 2000s. “When I joined in 2004, we were already connected to Urban promise, but it was still relatively new,” she said. She also recounted watching the growth and development of Urban Promise. What started out in 1988 as a summer camp in an old Baptist church in the city of Camden has grown to include two schools, job training, after-school programs, boat building, expeditionary and experiential learning, college tours, faith development opportunities, and a host of other activities. The program has been replicated in over 20 locations worldwide.
The scope of the organization has changed over the years, but its core mission has not. As its website explains, “The core of our organization will always be about relationships and the message that every child and teen is wonderfully created in the image of God.” It’s a message that resonated when representatives from Urban Promise joined us for worship one weekend. Rev. Dr. Bruce Main, founder and President of Urban Promise, was joined by Church and Donor Relations Manager, LaToya McCoy, newly minted 6th grader Wynter Grace, and her grandmother Portia.
Portia shared how Urban Promise impacted her granddaughter and their family, “Wynter Grace is thriving [at Urban Promise’s school], academically, socially, and emotionally. During the pandemic, it wasn’t unusual to get a knock on the door where one of our community leaders from Urban Promise would come by with a box of food. Never thought that was going to happen from a school. And one day there’s a knock on the door and Dr. Bruce Main was there at our house. And that just moved me so, because a few weeks ago I was privy to go to a fundraising event. [My employer] gave me a ticket and the place was packed – and Bruce saw me and he remembered me. I know that they will remember Wynter Grace and the other students there. They are making such a huge difference.”
Wynter Grace had previously been a student in a class our Deacon’s adopted. “During COVID the Deacons weren’t able to do a lot of the things we usually do. We were looking for a project or some way to serve,” explained Vivian. They spoke to Urban Promise about taking on a book collection to help build classroom libraries. Urban Promise, as it turns out, was launching an adopt a class program at that time. The Deacons decided to adopt the school’s 5th-grade class. As part of the efforts to support the school’s fifth graders, a small group would go visit the class a few times a year around specific events like the student’s fall festival or near the end of the school year. “It gave us a chance to show the kids that we aren’t just a group from Toms River that sends stuff up. We’re here and we want to form a connection with them,” explained Vivian.
Collections of school supplies in the late summer, gift cards at Christmas, and adopting a class aren’t the only ways we’ve served Urban Promise. Our Youth Ministry, as an example, organizes multi-generational workdays to help clean and repair facilities around the Urban Promise Camden campus. Some of those work trips occur during broader workdays where volunteers from multiple partner churches are on hand to work.
Kelsey and Landon Armbruster had the opportunity to participate as part of these workdays. Speaking of one particular workday where our team joined other churches to tend to projects Urban Promise needed completed, Kelsey shared, “A lot of people from different churches were having fun knowing they were helping others. For me, it felt good to help others, to make them happy. It’s incredible to know that God has touched so many people around the world, who want to help others. It’s awesome.”
Landon agreed, “Everyone was ‘pitching in’ for one common goal – the betterment of these children! The experience was very rewarding knowing that we were helping to set up their ‘Welcome Back to School’ events! Everyone has busy schedules and could have chosen to do something different with their time, but they chose to help others. I feel this is exactly the type of service God wants us to do, anything to help others!”
The relationship between our ministries extends beyond New Jersey, as well. Our first Chiapas-bound mission team, as an example, included Kris Schnepf who was working in Camden as Program Director of the UrbanTrekkers program. Having begun his career with Urban Promise working in Honduras, Kris joined our mission team in Mexico as a Spanish interpreter. Today, Kris is back in Honduras where he works as Program Director for Urban Promise Latin America. The relationship that began on that mission trip continues.
With so many different touchpoints and opportunities to serve, partnering with the ministry of Urban Promise has spanned different generations and skill sets, and there’s always space for more of us to join the hands-on components. peaking of her experience with the 5th-grade class, Jennifer shared how she has seen God at work in our relationship with Urban Promise, “Visiting with the children several times a year and doing projects with them is so rewarding. Getting to know them and they getting to know us, sharing our similarities and our differences. Bridging a cultural and racial divide is a blessing to us. There are so many ways we can help the school and change the future of these children. Urban Promise has many programs we can get involved in. It is worth our support.” “Together we have been walking alongside each other for over 20+ years!” wrote LaToya. “Oh how time flies, it feels great to know that we have great friends like you; people that we can count on and it is great to know that we are all being fervently prayed for. UrbanPromise is truly thanking God for all of you at PCTR, the love in your hearts is undeniably the love of God, exuding from all of you. Just Wow!”