At just 14, Amber was crushingly aware of how malicious kids could be. For months, she endured demeaning comments about her weight and appearance, and all she wanted to do was flee to the protected space of her home. The problem was that Amber’s home was a shelter, meaning she couldn’t escape the taunts coming from within.
“She didn’t like the shelter and how she was always teased because of her weight,” said Elder Cora Smith of Christian Fellowship Refuge Ministries in Chicago.
‘She didn’t like the shelter and how she was always teased because of her weight.’
The teen, who was living at the temporary housing facility with her mother, also lamented not having much of anything to call her own.
Although grateful for hot meals and a bed, the girl’s self-esteem was tattered by the time Smith met her while ministering at the Olive Branch Mission, where Amber was staying. The young teen was reserved, preferring to cast her eyes on the small screen in her hand rather than conversing with others.
With summer winding down, classes would start soon, and Amber’s exposure to bullying would widen in the school yard. It’s hard not to be a target when you look different and lack basic accessories that allow you to blend in.
That’s when Smith invited Amber and her mother to a special back-to-school event at her church, which offered games, Bible lessons and free colorful backpacks called PowerPacks®. Each of the backpacks — provided by the Inner City Ministry of Cru® to its partner churches — contained essential supplies needed for the return to school.
As the kids munched nachos and the boys received free haircuts, Smith spent time with Amber’s mom, Lois, who explained she was waiting for subsidized housing to open up. Until then, her three youngest children were staying with family. Smith, a dedicated advocate for the unhoused, had been in ministry long enough to tell that the separation was causing some depression for Lois.
“She was like, ‘OK, I’m here. I’m at church.’ But she really wasn’t expecting anything and looking for anything,” Smith said.
After they visited for a while, Smith asked permission to pray for Lois.
“As I prayed for her, she started crying. ‘Why are you crying?’ Smith gently asked.
“Because everything you prayed for is what I needed,” the mom said.
Lois went on to share that she accepted Christ years ago but had fallen away.
“Life has been so hard, and I don’t know why He’s letting these things happen to me,” Lois admitted.
“It’s not that He’s letting things happen to you,” Smith responded. “It’s just part of life.”
In an effort to move Lois from despair to hope, Smith began talking about having the faith of a mustard seed as she pulled a ballpoint pen from her purse.
“You see this head of this pen? If you can just have that much faith in God, things will slowly change,” Smith said.
“That’s awful little,” Lois said.
The ministry leader explained that in the context of God’s economy, even our big problems are dwarfed in the hands of the Father.
“Your situation is really little, but our God is bigger than that,” Smith responded.
‘Your situation is really little, but our God is bigger than that.’
By the end of the conversation, Lois rededicated her life to Christ, and Amber, who heard the gospel story through the children’s activities, put her faith in Jesus.
In addition to leaving the event with her newfound faith, Amber carried home a tangible reminder of God’s love for her.
“When she left there, she had a book bag with all kinds of personal toiletries and things just for a girl,” Smith said.
The connection with mom and daughter did not end with PowerPacks, though. As part of the evangelism training that Cru provides to its church partners, Smith committed to regularly checking in with the pair.
“I kept in touch with the mom, and when we had our Easter giveaway, I invited them to the church,” she said. “I looked at Amber. She still had this glow, and so did the mom.”
Although they were still waiting for permanent housing, both seemed more at peace.
“There’s been a huge change between them, even when they were in the shelter,” Smith said.
A New Start
Several months later, Lois received her long-awaited phone call.
“My Section 8 finally came through,” Lois declared to Smith. “Now she’s in an apartment on the eastside … and she has all her kids.”
Those blessings — the apartment, PowerPack and Easter Bags — have become teaching moments for Smith to share with Amber about God’s provision.
“When I talk to her, she tells me, ‘Well, you always said, I’m gonna be blessed, and she’ll tell me, ‘Well, I got this,’ and ‘I’m doing this in school. I got my own room.’ It’s a joy that’s in her, that was not in that baby when I first saw her. It was not there.”
‘It’s a joy that’s in her, that was not in that baby when I first saw her. It was not there.’
It was a joy that was repeated when Smith was able to provide Amber and her three younger siblings with warm coats.
“I look at them from how I first met them, until now, it’s a huge difference,” Smith said. “You see Christ in them. When she (Amber) got her new coat, oh my goodness, she strutted around just like a little angel, and she said, ‘Can’t nobody tease me now.’”
