Friendships for Hope

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f God shows you a need, he expects you to do something about it. And if you’ll step out in faith to meet that need, he’ll provide the resources,” says Will James, retired pastor of the Paradise Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church in National City, California, USA. That’s exactly what started Friendships for Hope, an urban center of influence (UCI) that operates out of the Paradise Valley church community center.

When the economic recession hit in 2008, Pastor James knew it would hurt the community, which has one of California’s lowest incomes per capita. He advertised online, asking for a walk-in cooler to be donated so they could start a food ministry. The next week, a florist, closing her shop, offered hers. The church stepped out in faith, God provided, and now they serve 650 families with about 15,000 pounds of food every Tuesday.

From this food ministry, the UCI discovered pockets of refugees who needed transportation to their food distribution center. Soon, they were delivering food to the refugees’ apartment complexes, and from this grew a bus ministry. Today, volunteer bus drivers deliver 40 boxes of food to families every Friday and bring people to church on Sabbath.

The ministry continued to expand when Ephraim Bendantunguka, a refugee with experience helping immigrants and refugees, encouraged Pastor James to start a ministry to assimilate refugees into American society. Now they run an English language school five days a week, which about 30 students attend. The ministry also collects donations of clothing and household items to sell to help fund their work. The retirement community next door donates items from residents who have passed away without anyone to empty their rooms. The ministry receives enough donations to stock a thrift store, providing job training for some refugees.

When the UCI staff asked God to arrange a way for them to pay the store workers, they discovered a work-study program at a community college that would subsidize 75 percent of the wages. “It’s an ongoing process of growing as God opens doors for us,” Pastor James says.

The more the UCI staff mingle with the refugees they serve, the more needs they discover. “Depression is a very big problem with the refugees,” Pastor James explains. “Ellen White said that getting your hands in the soil is therapeutic to the mind and body, so we started a community garden. It’s phenomenal what happens. As these refugees get out in the garden and work in the soil, they begin to sing, and their depression is lifted.” The hospital next door to the church allows them to use five acres for the garden and well water at no charge.

God even provides for the small, daily needs of the refugees. Welfare from the government supplies food but not essential items such as soap and toiletries. Friendships for Hope ministry is constantly looking for ways to supply these needs. One day, as Pastor James’s wife, Peggy, drove to the church, she prayed, “Lord, we really need forty containers of laundry soap.” Soon after she arrived, one of the volunteers drove in with a pick-up truck full of liquid laundry soap. Someone had vandalized a store by spilling a bottle of soap over the other bottles of soap in stock. The store was happy to donate all the soap-coated bottles.

But the blessings that spring from this UCI are more far-reaching than meeting physical needs or even launching refugees into self-sufficient lives here in the United States.

Volunteers at Friendships for Hope know that experiencing God’s love is the greatest human need. These practical ministries, expressed with kindness, draw in people and introduce them to God’s love. “Just being there for people, offering ‘friendships for hope,’ loving and nurturing them, and being a family for them makes a difference,” Pastor James says. “It is natural for them to just follow us to church.”

Ali, a refugee who works at the food ministry, told Pastor James, “All I've heard about is God's anger. I love working with you because I see God's love.”

A senior citizen exercise class meets in the same room where Peggy prepares food boxes for the Friday delivery. After a year of watching these preparations, two women from the class were drawn to the faithfulness and love shown by the food ministry. They started taking Bible studies and attending church regularly.

With this kind of ministry, it’s not surprising that there have been hundreds of baptisms since Friendships for Hope began. Four years after Pastor James became pastor of the Paradise Valley church in 2002, the Adventist-owned hospital next door was sold. Many predicted that the church would die as a result. But today, the church is a vibrant, international faith community with some 900 members. It is true—when people are willing to serve the needs of others, God is eager to provide.

For more of the story, read The Joys of Partnering With God: The Story of a Church That Did, by Will James (n.p.: Teach Services, 2016).