1997… was a very big year for me and our ministry. After fifteen years of ministry in the same location, our outreach to the neighborhood (Neighborhood Ministries) was without a permanent home. The church that was both our birthplace and our first partner had sold its building and moved. As a ministry we were homeless.

This was also the year that the DeVos Initiative inaugurated its first class, with Phoenix one of its first cities. I was in that group. This would be a year of extreme convergence, the year of the most impactful event in our mission was also the year the DeVos Initiative committed to mentor me and my peers.

I want to tell you the end of the story first and then back track a little, with specific memories of the DeVos Initiative influence. Today, Neighborhood Ministries owns its’ own community center, an eight acre campus on the edge of downtown Phoenix. It is a 24/7 operation, in use all week with multiple programs.

My beginnings in urban work as an evangelical go back to the ‘70’s. My network of practitioner/peers were scattered across the nation. To have a support network of like minded people in my own city was a luxury I had only hoped for. When the DeVos Initiative sent Ginny to Phoenix, she communicated a vision of connected people who would stand together for the transformation of our poor communities. This time, this particular time in my own history, I knew I really needed this. Our group was almost all my age, all brothers, two African American, four Hispanic and one Anglo. I was the only female and I’m white. These brothers loved me, believed in me and supported me in this challenging time. They let me lead them in areas where I was strong. Together we practiced accountability and empowerment; the better lessons we learned, lived. Looking back, remembering when that season in my life began, I was walking in lonely. I did not feel that way when it was over.

The DeVos Initiative experimented on us; since we were the first group we were the guinea pigs. But I must tell you, I know I was learning the things I needed if we were to be successful. The very thing I identified for my breakthrough plan has now become the hallmark of our work. The DeVos Initiative entered my life at a time when we were building infrastructure for organizational growth, but more importantly our work had matured. The fruit of the mission was growing up, and leadership development was clearly the path God had laid before us. We all agree, us urban ministers, that there is no better outcome, and the development of indigenous leaders is our greatest treasure. The breakthrough curriculum I designed has been now been used by over 25 of our own two-year interns, 300 or more summer interns and many others. This work was a direct result of my Devos training and experience.

Bob Lupton talks about the “convergence of coincidences”. That was Devos and me. God breathed … I’m changed, we changed.