Jenny, a widow of four years, had trouble dreaming of a life that did not include her husband. That’s when a friend from church invited her to attend the Transformational Ministry program through Love INC of Greater Hillsboro, OR.

My family and I had been evicted from our home, and we had nowhere else to go. We needed a place between both of my jobs and on the bus route, too, and so we ended up at a motel. We moved into a room with two beds for us and our three kids, who were 3, 8, and 12. We had only planned on being there for a few months until Bill* got his blood pressure under control. But, as you know, life doesn’t always go as planned.

Our small church is located in the slum area of Gataka. The members of my church are quite needy, but since we started partnering with other churches through Love INC, we have experienced real transformation and impact.

An experienced social worker, Erica Petrie felt something was lacking in her work with the community she served. A Christian, yet unable to share her faith at work, Erica was frustrated and felt she had a solution she wasn’t allowed to offer. It seemed there was no lasting change in her clients’ lives because the solutions provided were one-dimensional rather than holistic. 

“From an early age, I had a hole in my heart and soul that, through time, I began to realize could only be filled by God. Nothing, absolutely nothing I tried would fulfill me,” shared Dustin. “My attempts were secular and self-involved, missing two very important elements: Christ and fellowship.”  

It was a flat tire on the side of the road that started Valerie’s journey back to God. The cancer survivor and mother of two, was trying to re-establish her life in the midst of a breakup and mounds of medical debt. Then she lost her job. “If God was real, how could He allow this all to happen?” she thought. 

“Encounter God, Love People, Share Life.” This is the mission of Church on the Rock in Melbourne, Florida. 

Like most churches, Church on the Rock strives to live on mission within their own congregation, in their community, and globally. To do this more fully, they chose to partner with their local Love INC. 

Robert McCormack suddenly found himself with no place to live 10 years ago. His bank account had been wiped out. He had his two little girls in the back seat and their car was running out of gas on Bozeman [Montana’s] 19th Avenue.

“I was kind of desperate,” McCormack recalled. “I remember sitting by the side of the road, without any gas or money, without a cellphone, I didn’t have a dollar to my name, looking at my little girls in the rear-view, not knowing what I was going to do.

“I walked into a church, and it changed everything.”

Love INC is not a Christian congregation, but when workers from diverse church histories, inherited suspicions, and religious stereotypes come face to face they are facing more than each other… The single most effective and persuasive reason for the witness of Love INC to be taken with utmost seriousness is that they are one.

Service to people in need is not first of all some kind of help. The first service is recognition. Those who serve come first to give value to people in need, the marginalized, the displaced. Giving value is the first service rendered. This is so because to Christian servants, service to those in need is service equal to equal, image of God to image of God.