Gabriel Perez was greeting guests during a community outreach when a woman approached in her car. Animated, she yells in his direction.
“Where’s Nazari?” came the voice from inside her car. “Tell her that my granddaughter is healed.”
“Your granddaughter is healed?” Perez responded, unsure of the backstory.
Nazari, working nearby, hears the excitement and walks over to see what is behind the commotion.
“Hey, you guys prayed for my granddaughter,” the woman declared. “My granddaughter had a brain tumor, and it’s completely gone. Her brain tumor is gone!”
Before the words left her mouth, a wet trail of gratefulness trickled down her cheeks.
Once again, the team from Vida Church, in the North Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, was witnessing God at work.
“They say, ‘Hey, you’re the ones who prayed for us.’ But then we, of course, point to God, because as vessels and as branches, all we’re doing is working,” Perez said.
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These days, they are doing a lot of working in the name of Jesus, thanks to resources and training that the Inner City Ministry of Cru® provides to the San Fernando-based church.
Partly due to its partnership with Cru, Vida Church has a thriving ministry to the unhoused, using Homeless Care Kits provided through Inner City. Each kit contains socks, gloves, a hat, a scarf and toiletry items, all rolled up in a warm blanket. Each kit also contains gospel literature, which trained volunteers use to share the Resurrection story with each recipient.
Beyond the practical help of providing warmth, the kits are a welcoming signal for residents who, most days, feel unseen. And, for Vida Church, the dignity they deliver to unhoused residents living in an encampment in the South Bay has resulted in budding relationships.
“There are a few families that we’re blessed to build relationship with,” Perez said. “And when I say families, I mean mothers on the streets, pregnant mothers, mothers from one, two, even up to six kids that live in the street, trailers, cars and vans.”
Nazari Torres joined the outreach team after seeing photos from an event she missed. She was stunned to see so many moms and children, which compelled her into action. During her first visit to the encampment, Nazari was drawn to Roberta, a mother of six.
Roberta and her husband, who both emigrated to the United States from Honduras several years ago, lost their housing after their work hours were cut. The family now lives in a small trailer.
“It was like seeing myself through her as a woman, like as a mother,” Nazari said. “I have four children of my own, and so I just wanted her to feel love and to put her hopes up, to bring her joy up, just because, as a mother, it is very difficult to be in that situation.”
‘It was like seeing myself through her as a woman, like as a mother.’
As a stay-at-home mom, finances are also tight for Nazari’s family, even though her husband works two jobs. Driving to the homeless encampment, about 25 minutes from her home, is itself a sacrifice because of the high price of gas, which last year ranged from $4.30 to $4.70 a gallon in the City of Angels.
“I don’t work … so I know what it feels like to not be able to have any money, and not providing for your children,” she said.
That reality has instilled a deep sense of compassion for the marginalized.
“Though she doesn’t have much financially, God has provided every time, enabling Nazari to keep showing up and tangibly demonstrating His love to this family,” said Jefte Vallalta, Inner City director for the Los Angeles team and a pastor at Vida Church.
Before each homeless outreach, Nazari seeks direction from God, seeking material and financial ways to show His love for them.
“How can I help next? How can you help me, God, to bless me, to be able to bless others in a way that I don’t have to worry because I don’t work, I don’t have money, but in a way that my abilities could be able to help them?”
Nazari, a believer for just three years, has made numerous trips to the South Bay to help with the homeless kits, deliver clothes and food, and provide haircuts and manicures for the young girls in an attempt to give them a sense of normalcy by “creating the bondship with the little ones and the mom.”
“Just because you’re homeless doesn’t make you less,” Nazari said. “We’re all the same. Christ, He loves us no matter what, no matter our race, no matter anything. I feel like they felt so happy to have that confidence back. They were beyond happy to get their nails done and painted.”
‘Just because you’re homeless doesn’t make you less. We’re all the same. Christ, He loves us no matter what, no matter our race, no matter anything.’
Her approach has dramatically changed from the days when Nazari, her husband, who works in catering, and their children would take surplus food to the homeless as a family project to “show people the love of God.”
“I would just kind of go drop it, and if I see them sleeping, just leave it on the side or something, and not make any connection at all,” she said.
Using the evangelism training she received through Inner City, Nazari said she better understands more effective ways to share the gospel with others, and the team’s consistent presence has made those they serve more receptive to learn about Jesus.
“You’re not going to do that just one day,” Nazari said. “You’re going to continue to build that relationship. For me, it was very important to keep going, keep building their relationship and talking to them, providing for them, show them love, listening to them, their stories, or providing prayer.”
Because of her investment of time, Nazari has gained insight into Roberta’s belief system. Roberta, Nazari learned, has an affinity for La Santa Muerte, a new religious movement that observers describe as a female, non-canonical Mexican folk saint. La Santa Muerte is often associated with protection, healing, death, the afterlife, and, often, the underworld. Though considered a saint by her followers, the Catholic Church and evangelical churches have declared the movement heretical.
Nazari could relate to Roberta because she, too, believed in La Santa Muerte before she accepted Christ.
“I just wanted to kind of get to know her, and get to know her beliefs, and for me to share how God has changed my life and how I stopped believing in that,” Nazari said.
“There are so many places where we could go and help and provide, but I think the main point is creating relationships with people.”
Perez, who coordinates the team, appreciates what Nazari brings to the group, saying her compassion complements the skills of others.
“We’re all tools, and tools are made for different reasons,” he said. “A wrench cannot do the same thing as a screwdriver and vice versa. If God wouldn’t have orchestrated that through us, how would these children get haircuts because the mom is literally trying to figure out how are they going to eat?”
‘We’re all tools, and tools are made for different reasons. A wrench cannot do the same thing as a screwdriver and vice versa.’
The strength Perez brings to the team is his passion to share the gospel with people, while Nazari offers empathy and hospitality as she discovers avenues to bring comfort. Even the team’s children get involved. Simple roles such as handing out condiments during a feeding outreach can draw in people who might initially be intimidated.
“This gives everybody a chance to play a part, because we have people who want to get involved,” he said. “It really ignites their spirit even more to let them know, ‘We could be of help out here.’”
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That help — whether through the Homeless Care Kits, or other Inner City Compassionate Products™ like Easter Bags, PowerPack® backpacks and Boxes of Love® Thanksgiving meals — has translated into many stories of victories and answered prayers for the Vida Church team, just like the grandma who was celebrating her granddaughter’s healing from brain cancer.
“Sometimes we think it’s a small bag,” Perez said. “Here’s just a blanket, here’s just some food. It’s more than that. It gives us a chance to pray for people, to lay hands on and to see God’s miracles work. This is the God that we serve.”
