It was that time of year again: churches and ministries — that you serve through your partnership with Cru® Inner City — were preparing to deliver Boxes of Love® to families in need. Volunteers had packed up turkeys and all the fixings to feed a family of six, including materials that tell about the love God has for them.
To ensure that he had enough strong volunteers to lift the boxes and turkeys, one of our partner pastors in Detroit enlisted the help of a couple young men from the neighborhood. The atmosphere that day was so spiritually charged with love and excitement, that the young men couldn’t contain their curiosity. “Why are you doing this?” they asked. “Why is everybody so happy about giving to others?” Where they came from, people mostly just looked out for themselves.
This gave the pastor the opportunity to share Christ with them up close and personal while they worked throughout the day. The young men had heard many gospel messages before, but something was different on this particularly day — they saw God’s people coming together in unity and caring for others.
In the past, they had occasionally helped out around the church, but only to earn a few dollars. So at the end of this day, when the pastor offered them a few dollars for their help, he was surprised when they refused it. “We’ve never seen or felt so much love before,” they said. The money didn’t mean as much to them anymore. Instead, they wanted to have Christ in their lives so that they too could have this kind of love to share with others!
