Originally aired November 2, 2001

When you hear the word "missionary," you probably think of someone who travels to another country to help the poor. Someone who spreads a message of faith while teaching in a school, or caring for the sick. "Statewide's" Brad Penner reports on with missionaries who didn't have to travel far to serve people in need. They are urban missionaries, who work for an organization called City Impact. The area they serve is statistically the poorest part of Lincoln - household income is half or less of what it is in the rest of the city. Crime is also a problem. But City Impact sees behind the statistics, to people with the potential to change their neighborhood. Like other missionaries, they bring a message of faith and hope for a better future.

TRANSCRIPT - City Impact

Reported by Statewide correspondent, Brad Penner

[John Harris] "Come on, come on…"
On Tuesday nights you'll find John Harris here, at Lincoln's Central Alliance Church.
[Harris] "This is for Jesus!"
You'll find children from pre-school age to high school age. And you'll find adults who care, part of a program called City Impact.
[Harris] "City Impact, are you with me?"
John Harris likes to have fun. But his work is serious business.
[Harris] "I was a bachelor, living a bachelor life. I had my own apartment with my buddy. We was throwing wild parties every weekend. I'm talking about wild parties. Wild parties. We was off the hook."
John shares his experiences with a group of young men every week. He warns them about the temptations they face every day.
[Harris] "Anything that's taken too far, Andajuan, is not good for you. If you sit there and eat-eat-eat-eat-eat-eat you're going to make yourself sick."
[Andajuan Divers] "I've been here about three to four years and it's kept me out of a lot of trouble. Gangs, violence… robbery… anything these days. No telling where I'd be right now if it wasn't for John."
[Harris] "We gotta make it, because if not for our influence with these kids where are they going to be? Who knows what they're going to be involved in?
"He loves hot dogs. I offered the hot dog as a… one of the best Christian Evangelism tools that nobody… that nobody knows about."
John laughs because he loves to laugh, but he really isn't kidding about the hot dog.
[Harris] "There's some people who can't hear the Gospel because they're hungry. You know, so before you give them a spiritual food give them some food!"
John was an administrator at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He joined City Impact to make a difference in young men's lives.
[Harris] "If you want to build a culture, or destroy a culture, you start with the kids. That's why City Impact is such an important ministry. The opportunity to influence kids in positive ways. Help them find jobs; teach them how to work. Again the lessons of scripture and the values that you learn there. I don't know what better and more challenging… and greater privilege there could be."
John Harris left a career in education. Brad and Carma Bryan gave up their jobs with a Lincoln publishing company when they started City Impact.
[Carma Bryan] "Everybody's so busy, everybody's got so many things going on. They don't recognize the things that are going on in our own town. They think that's somewhere else. And reality is, it's here."
It all started close to ten years ago. Brad began doing volunteer work with kids. Carma had just returned from a mission trip to inner city Los Angeles.
[Brad Bryan] "When I really got in and built relationships with the people and saw some of the people's needs, it was like this is the same as in Los Angeles and we could make an impact. We could make a difference in our city."
The Bryans and some friends started City Impact. As they spent more time on ministry, their lives began to change. Brad quit his job to work for City Impact full time, at a much lower salary. Then they moved to the neighborhood they served.
[Brad Bryan] "A lot of our relatives and our immediate family weren't real supportive at the time of what we were doing. Giving up our careers, moving into a community that they didn't see as a very safe community maybe. And… but yet that was something that we knew that we needed to do and that God was ultimately calling us to do in relocating to this mission field that we were being called to."
The move demonstrated their commitment. Neighbors noticed a difference.
[Brad Bryan] "When we sold our home and moved to the neighborhood and began to live down here amongst the people, I think that was when a lot of them started to take notice and say, well maybe they aren't… maybe they are different. Maybe, you know, they do care."
After school the Bryan's home become a place for kids to learn. Brenda John works as an administrative assistant for City Impact. She's also made a ten-year commitment to mentor a group of first and second graders.
[Brenda John] "They're an awesome group of kids. I've been working with their teachers in the school system, and just seeing some of the needs educational-wise, physically, spiritually so… just kind of covering all the bases."
That includes picking up kids for a summer program she helped get started this year.
[Child] "I'm glad you came to pick us up, Miss Brenda."
[John] "I'm glad too. Why'd they let you go today? I'm kind of upset that Adriana didn't want to come though. You need to talk to her because she… you guys, she's the one that needs the help with the reading so we gotta get her to come."
The children often come from troubled families.
[John] "They're homeless and living with relatives. They had to leave their home because there were… the house was infested with lead and cockroaches. And the baby had a very high lead content.
"Her two-year-old got shot in a drive-by shooting and died in her arms. And so they needed to get out of Detroit. And so they thought Nebraska would be safer. Well, they've just encountered a lot of racism… and people who don't understand the Black culture. So it's been really hard for them."
Trips to museums and other places show the children life outside the neighborhood.
[John] "While we're in here there's some amazing things you can learn.
"I want them to be… have a foundation of knowing that they can depend on God to get 'em through those hard times. That they have… their life is worth having a dream for. That there's… they all have possibilities and potential. Because those are some things I think that our society has kind of let them down in. We haven'' shown them that they have a hope and there's a future for them too."
[Ivy] "It was over before Mandy really knew what had happened."
City Impact also works with other community organizations. A group of UNL students read with the children every week this summer.
[Andrea] "I never realized it would have as big of an impact as it has. Because, you know, they look forward to us being here every week.
"Is that right, Ivy?"
[Ivy] "Um-hmm."
Kids in City Impact come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. So do the students in the UNL program.
[Brenda Bryan] "They are also kids that realize how important an education is. So having… instead of having me tell them how important it is to get an education I have kids that are like them telling them how important it is so that they can be doctors and lawyers and aspire to be successful people."
[Brad Bryan] "Unfortunately a lot of these kids really don't have positive African-American males. And that's what actually a couple friends of mine in the program told me. So I'm just going to… be as positive as I can while I try to improve his reading skills a little bit."
[Bryan] "Read that whole sentence over again for me now that you know all the words."
[Child] "God made the animals…"
Brenda and the volunteers she works with spend countless hours reading with children.
[Child] "He made the birds to fly across the sky."
[Darla Reinwald] "I definitely saw a difference with the kids that I worked with. And I talked to the other teachers. There were a couple of other kids in other classrooms here at Hartley that were served by City Impact tutoring and they have seen a difference too. Very pleased!"
Darla Reinwald taught some of the children in the City Impact program. She also helped train volunteer tutors.
[Reinwald] "Those people stand in the gap and it makes all the difference. You know, when these kids are reading those books at home they come back to school ready for the new book the next day because they're fluent with the book before. And they've had the repetition and those words have gelled, you know, in their heads.
"They talk about it all the time, they can't wait. When school's almost, you know, winding up the day kids will be saying, usually just that way. "Going to go with Miss Brenda tonight," so they're excited. It's a really great thing."
And that's what parents seem to appreciate about City Impact. People care about their kids.
[Jackie Miley] "If we're not teaching these children what God has planned for their lives, then they won't know. If they don't know from us at home first they'll learn it from somewhere else and they'll learn the wrong things. So we want to teach them the right thing before they learn the wrong thing."
Jackie Miley's children come to City Impact's Tuesday night Bible Club. While the kids learn about God, the moms meet to pray, study and to talk about their children's futures.
[Christy] "It scares me because these kids these days are getting out there; you know what I'm saying?"
[Charlene] "This gives the kids the knowledge that God has a purpose for their life. And that's where the hope begins."
[Christy] "If my mom would have stuck me in something like this when I was younger, then my whole life would have took a whole 'nother path. But I do not want Monty to take the path it took me just to get here to this point right now."
[Miley] "Do you want to put any in your savings or your Christmas account?"
City Impact also teaches practical lessons about life. Children earn city Impact money by participating in different ppers of the program.
[Bryan] "We're just trying to help them learn how to use a checking account and savings. And then to save up for Christmas is… you know, when you live in poverty you don't have those things taught you."
[Child] "A hundred dollars for markers. Would you pay a hundred dollars for this? I would not either."
But it takes real money to teach these kids the value of a dollar.
[Brad Bryan] "LeRoy, this is Brad Bryan with City Impact. We're a Christian Mission organization working with low-income youth and families in the Hartley-Clinton neighborhood. If you have a few plants or something that maybe you could donate.
"I spend about thirty or forty percent of my time doing public relations, promotions, speaking about what we do."
President Bush and others in Washington want to provide federal funds for faith-based programs. Brad Bryan says they might apply for available grants, but he's cautious.
[Brad Bryan] "The faith-based organizations do have a lot to offer. I think that we've gotta be careful not to go the opposite way and just become another program based initiative out there doing things just to be doing them. I think we have to keep focused on what God has called us to do."
Brad and Carma Bryan committed to their calling.
[Brad Bryan] "It is not a quick fix. It's a long-term investment into the lives of people and when we committed to moving into the neighborhood and starting City Impact, we basically had an understanding that it was going to take, you know, between ten to fifteen years."
[Harris] "Most people who come into neighborhoods to do mission work, want the people that they come to serve and administer to to change… to be like them. And that's not how this works. We say, we'll live in the neighborhood… we'll do what you do… we'll eat what you eat… we'll suffer the way you suffer. And hopefully that way we'll deal with you on your terms."
By living here they see problems that need to be solved. They also see their neighbors' strengths and the potential for a brighter future.
[Brad Bryan] "But ultimately some of our leaders in the future are going to come from some of these youth, or their parents might be leaders in our organization. And ultimately that's what we want, we don't want all the outside help coming from the outside and coming in necessarily to quote "fix it" or… We don't have that type of mentality. It's not a "fix it" mentality at all."
A new headquarters will help City Impact deal with the physical, spiritual, and economic needs of their neighbors. Better education, better jobs, and better housing are all-important goals. But the people of City Impact say the most important thing they provide is…
[Brad Bryan] "Hope. Bringing hope back to the people… to a lot of the people that have lost hope."
[Harris] "And we give you thanks for it in Christ's name. And everybody who heard that and agree say it. (Amen) Amen."