Through hosting larger public gatherings like the UB concert, and also through collaborating with other organizations, 2022 was a year in which we continued our work as an incubator and catalyst for unity, reconciliation and shared mission, for the flourishing of the city. Read below to see UniteBoston’s top twelve highlighted photos & videos of 2022!
He’s Still With You
This Sunday, we are featuring a blog written by Reverend David Wright, Executive Director of BMA TenPoint and former UniteBoston Board President. Read below to hear Rev. David’s word about God’s abiding presence, an encouragement for Christians in Boston in this new year.
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.“
– Isaiah 7:14
“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
– Matthew 1:23
When Judah was on the verge of destruction by its enemies God, through the prophet Isaiah, told King Ahaz to ask for a sign that the catastrophe would not happen. King Ahaz refused God’s offer, so Isaiah provided one anyway. Isaiah tells Ahaz –and us– that a virgin will give birth to a Child and His Name will be Immanuel.
As Israel is suffering under the oppression of the Roman Empire, Matthew reminds us of this sign. “God with us;” what an unimaginable prospect! The God Who is so holy, that people couldn’t approach the mountain on which He appeared for fear of death; the Creator of the Universe whose throne was Heaven and who rested His feet on the earth; the God who parted the Red Sea and allowed Israel to walk through on dry land; this same God is “with us!”
John picks up this theme in his Gospel and tells us, in so many words, that God took on flesh and lived among us. In the person of the Son, Jesus Christ, God walked with, talked with, and deeply engaged with us on a personal level. And this all starts with the virgin giving birth to Jesus; it all starts with Christmas.
While all of this is Good News, to be sure, the Greater News is that He is still with us! The Presence of God, through His Holy Spirit, now abides within and among us. No matter if we face the destruction that Israel faced during the time of Ahaz, or the oppression Israel faced in the days of Matthew, God is with us!
None of us have survived the Pandemic years unscathed. The pains and losses we have suffered –individually and collectively—are real. But the promise of God remains sure. He is with us. He has never left us, He has never forsaken us, and He never will! That is the promise of God. That is the beginning of Epiphany.
Whatever you are facing at this moment, whether good or bad, difficult or easy, remember that God is still with us. And no matter what we face, we can be of good courage because the One who is with us has overcome this world!
Together again for NURTURE: UB’s Fundraising Party 2022
Boston Will Flourish When We Journey With Formerly Incarcerated Individuals
In these weeks leading up to Boston Flourish on November 10, we’re featuring the organizations that will be presenting at the conference. This week, we’re featuring the City of Boston’s Office of Returning Citizens. We had the chance to learn more about this ministry from the director of this office David Mayo – Read below to hear about what led him to this work and how they serve returning citizens in our city!
Can you tell us a little bit about your background and your interest in working with returning citizens?
I grew up in a family of five with a single mother in an inner city community of neighborhood crews and gangs in New York City. I then became a “Fatherless Son” and spent five years as a foster child in the New York Child/Family Services system. This led me to have an interest in working with returning citizens, which I began in 2014 as a youthful Parole and Reentry Officer. I felt drawn here by God and the greater opportunity to work with incarcerated young men.
Wow, that’s fascinating. Can you share more about your church background?
I was introduced to church when I was 13 by my Great-Grandmother and found my love for God in the choir. I gave my life to Christ in June of 1990 and was called to preach six months later. I now have over thirty years of ministerial experience, having planted two churches and served as founding and senior pastor of congregations in Northern Virginia and South Carolina.
Can you share about how you serve and support returning citizens in your office?
I have had the privilege of serving in this role for the past three months and it is my job goal to engage, equip and to empower the 3000+ returning citizens of Boston with the tools to create and advocate for their independence and stability in restoring their lives. The Returning Citizen process to reentry begins about 90 days before release in setting up a reentry plan and and discussing next steps. Upon release, we connect returning citizens to resources and programs in the community and monitor their transition with case managers.
What are you hoping to come out of the gathering on November 10?
I’d love to come away with new partners who are passionate and committed to restoring the lives of returning citizens.
Can you share a story about the impact of your work?
We recently had a gentleman who was released into a halfway house. He had no ID, no family, no support and we were able to get him into a housing program. You can also watch Arlis Evans’ story below.
What is a resource that everyone should know about?
Our website has a great list of resources that are available for returning citizens – everything from birth certificates, to housing and health services, to transportation and food resources. I wish that everyone knew about it so they can help people they know in the process of reentering back into life in Boston.
What does it mean to you to see Boston Flourish?
Seeing Boston Flourish means the destruction of stereotypes and silos for the purpose of unity and the influence of the kingdom of God in the earth. If we seize the moment of this opportunity to walk in the kingdom principles that God offers to us, we have the possibility to affect change, not only in the lives of the Boston community but in the earth completely! Selah!
Boston Will Flourish When We Transform Poverty & Addiction
“My dream is that Christians throughout the city would lock arm in arm, seeing the Melnea Cass area as a mission field to push back darkness, turning Methodone Mile to Miracle Mile, one soul at a time.”
Pastor Sam Acevedo
In these weeks leading up to Boston Flourish on November 10, we’re featuring the organizations that will be presenting at the conference. This week, we’re featuring Miracle Mile Ministries, a long-standing inter-church initiative that is making an impact in powerful ways. We had the chance to learn more about this ministry from Pastor Sam Acevedo – Read below to hear about the transformation they are seeing take place through their ministry!
Tell us a little bit about Miracle Mile Ministries?
Miracle Mile Ministries is a collaborative of churches devoted to a sustained, deliberate, strategic response to the area we call “Miracle Mile,” a roughly 2-square-mile area in the South End of Boston often referred to as “Mass & Cass” or “Methadone Mile.” It is led by a core group of six Boston-area Lead Churches (Congregación León de Judá, Antioch Community Church Brighton, Cornerstone Church, Restoration City Church, Hilltop Church and Symphony Church) and also involves a dozen or so churches and parachurch ministries from throughout Boston’s neighboring communities who faithfully support this effort, week after week.
Wow, that’s really awesome to hear. Can you tell us about this ministry began?
This ministry began in 2012 as a weekly sidewalk outreach on Saturday mornings at of Congregación León de Judá , serving coffee and making friends with people in the neighborhood around the church who were enduring homelessness and other needs. In 2014, “the breakfast” moved into Lion of Judah’s basement fellowship hall, allowing the church to serve a fuller breakfast, year-round, and conduct an evangelistic service. Over time, volunteers from area churches and ministries would flock to the “breakfast,” and today there are dozens of volunteers who contribute to make this ministry happen on a weekly basis.
Over the last 10 years, every Saturday morning – whether amid a snowstorm or on Christmas Day – Miracle Mile Ministries has had the privilege of feeding and clothing anywhere from 60 to 100 guests each week, who come to us from the neighboring streets and surrounding shelters. With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Miracle Mile volunteers have provided 100 sidewalk “to go” breakfasts and clothing each week, as well direct interaction with our neighbors at Rosie’s and the tent-dwellers on Atkinson Street’s tent encampment. That is nearly 800 guests each year – many of them struggling with the ravishes of substance abuse addiction, working hard on coming clean, getting on their feet, and achieving their destiny.
What is the current state of the situation?
Never has the crisis of homelessness and addiction in Boston been more stark, and never has the need for Miracle Mile Ministries been more ardent. Perhaps the worst expression of Boston’s homelessness crisis has been the “Mass & Cass” tent encampment – located only a couple of blocks from the Congregación León de Judá – that at its darkest, according to a City of Boston survey, included 70 to 90 tents sheltering an estimated 143 human beings. Most of the tent dwellers reported widespread drug use (87% use cocaine or crack cocaine, 76% use opiates, 20% methamphetamines (1).
What is the approach you take to serve those struggling with addiction?
First, we seek to meet immediate needs, as Jesus asks his followers to do in Matthew 25: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me . . .” (Matthew 25:35-36). Since the pandemic, we set up tables out on the street to serve our guests a hot breakfast and hot coffee or tea. Many times they form a single line that often reached from our door around the corner to the door of our neighbor, Rosie’s Place. On that street, we formed a “conveyor belt of love,” giving our guests food, as well as clothing.
Then we introduce our guests to the gospel and its transforming power through outdoor piano worship (including in the sleet and rain) and a street corner “Prayer Booth.” It has a sign that reads “Prayer here!” and we minister in the open air to our Guests – and in fact, to any passersby. When we visit the Mass & Cass area, we move from tent to tent with care packages and in and invite those we encountere to receive prayer – including to invite Jesus into their lives. Many of them have. And several have made their way to our mid-week Bible Studies specific to those experiencing addiction and homelessness.
What transformation have you seen take place?
The ultimate goal of Miracle Mile Ministries is to see many of our Guests – even if not all – take their first solid steps toward a life free of despair and the bondage of addiction. As other Miracle Mile volunteers hand out care packages, recovery specialists also arrive armed with resource binders ready to refer anyone who is ready for a change to community services such as detox and rehab facilities, transitional housing, or employment. Between June of 2020 and July of 2021, our Together Initiative workers made 591 follow-up calls to 64 Guests. Our volunteers have also driven Guests to detox and rehab facilities as far away as Worcester. More than half of them have either received their own apartments or are in transitional housing. Roughly two-thirds (62%) have been clean – free of illicit drug or alcohol use – for at least year. Others have successfully completed a residential treatment program.
For many of our Guests, their first steps to transformation also involves church attendance. A recent survey identified at least 36 men and women drawn from the Miracle Mile community who have attended services at Lion of Judah more than once over the last 18 months. An average of 5 to 10 Guests attend either our Tuesday night Bible Study or our weekly Wednesday morning Bible Study (dubbed, “the Freedom Group”). In fact, in 2019, Lion of Judah’s last open air baptisms, 10 of our Guests – the limit of our bus – were baptized into the faith. These are many of the ways that our Guests are beginning a new life of freedom.
I’d encourage you to watch Jerome’s story below. In the three years since Jerome first came to Miracle Mile, Jerome has moved into his own one-bedroom apartment, he recently celebrated his first Christmas with his family in 45 years, and has become an indispensable member of the Miracle Mile Team. “If I can change in the 60-something years I was doing alcohol and drugs, trust me you can change, too.”
What is your dream for your ministry? How can Christians in Boston come alongside your efforts?
My dream is to see the Church rise up as a synchronized unit to confront the forces of darkness now known as Methodone Mile / Mass & Cass. At this point, we need ownership and infrastructure to shift a longstanding voluntary fellowship of churches around Boston’s homelessness and opioid crisis, into a formal, functioning multi-church organization. Volunteers are needed for everything from organizing supplies, to running bible studies, to picking up and sorting donated food, to picking up needles and trash, to engaging people on the street and meeting guests, to committed prayer. There are times we have to pick and choose whether we do one thing or another and more hands on deck is absolutely necessary for us to have the impact we want to have. My dream is that Christians throughout the city would lock arm in arm, seeing the this as a mission field to push back darkness, turning Methodone Mile to Miracle Mile, one soul at a time.
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