At an age when many young men focus on college or trade schools to prepare for their life’s work, Turner majored in earning street cred, not a degree or certificate. The community he joined there centered on the violent reality of gang culture, and he embraced it. But when his son Fernando entered kindergarten, Turner determined it was time to break the pattern.
“I wanted him to come to church because I want him to have a better life than I had,” Turner told Jessica Quigley, director of The Vine, an after-school program operated by New Life Center Church in Chicago’s Humboldt Park.
‘I wanted him to come to church because I want him to have a better life than I had.’
The church established the program in 2006, using the S.A.Y. Yes!® model developed by the Inner City Ministry of Cru®. Now used by dozens of churches across the country, S.A.Y. Yes! Centers for Youth Development® programs provide tutoring, mentoring, skills development, social enrichment, Bible instruction, snacks, and fellowship. The curriculum and training are provided to inner-city partners, who implement them in often-marginalized communities.
Although not employed by the center when it launched, Quigley was there when Turner dropped Fernando off for his first day, more than a dozen years ago.
Fernando thrived within the safety of the church’s center, avoiding the crime and violence that often invades idle afternoons — thanks to the consistent care of church volunteers.
“I’m so thankful for our start with S.A.Y. Yes! because it’s grounded in the gospel and grounded in Christ,” Quigley said.
‘I’m so thankful for our start with S.A.Y. Yes! because it’s grounded in the gospel and grounded in Christ.’
From the beginning, Fernando enjoyed all of the center’s activities, especially hearing Bible stories. Mentors regularly helped him as he struggled with reading, a consistent influence that led to his high school graduation, not always a given for students reading below grade level.
“The S.A.Y. Yes! training has been great because it has given us a foundation to run a program and build relationships with the youth and their parents in a way that isn’t just doing homework, isn’t just playing games, but it’s pointing them to Christ, pointing them to community, pointing them to what it means to have a relationship that is healing and redeeming and restoring with Christ,” Quigley said.
Now 18 and officially graduated from high school and The Vine, Fernando still regularly attends the center, now as a junior assistant instructor who mentors children in kindergarten through the second grade.
“He’s working here in the program and giving back to the kids and this community that he was part of,” Quigley said.
Emulating the style of his first role model at the center, Fernando carries his Bible as he moves through The Vine.
“He’s walking around telling the kids, ‘I’m not going to sugarcoat it for you. This is the Bible. This is the gospel. This is God’s Word. This is what is happening.’ It’s causing our youngest kids to ask such deep questions,” Jessica said.
While center staff members model a positive path as Fernando transitions from student to leader, Quigley said it’s difficult now to envision how much he struggled as a child.
“We do chapel every day, and he’s like, ‘I’m gonna read to the kids,’” she said. “He’s only 18, which is wild to me.”
His time learning at The Vine has also helped him to process disappointments, such as missing the deadline to apply to the Moody Bible Institute.
He pivoted, enrolling in barber school, where he is building a community around the school.
After several of his Christian classmates at the trade school approached him, Fernando is now leading a Bible study there.
“God is doing such big things in his life,” Quigley said, adding that the resources provided through Inner City have enabled her team to reach out in tangible ways that minister to families every day of the week.
“It’s been a solid foundation for us to know that we have a partner that encourages and supports and continues to help us point others to Christ in all that we say and do and all of the interactions that we have with the kids.”
For his part, Fernando said he is grateful for the opportunities he found at The Vine.
“I don’t really see it as after school or like a job. I just really see it as like, ‘Oh, I’m going to the church again,’” he said. “It’s like my second home.”
‘I don’t really see it as after school or like a job. I just really see it as like, “Oh, I’m going to the church again.”’
