Tractive Effort
Brian Anderson, an aggressive construction company owner left the lucrative world of bidding on public housing contracts and jobbery of Chicago to restore an old Englewood neighborhood within a 1,000-square-foot bungalow on 57th and Lowe. The bungalow’s backyard serves as a staging area for the food deliveries provided by the Greater Chicago Food Depository. While building a skate ramp for his son in his mansion in Inverness, Brian recalled thinking, “Look at all that I have, I don’t need God.” Like big rigs and cargo ships hauling materials for the masses, he was caught in a vicious cycle of accumulating stuff.
In Inverness, a secluded wealthy community in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, Brian Anderson had the American Dream constructed. His employees used a big yellow backhoe to dig out a large lake for his family. The construction company he built from the ground up employed 60 men at its peak.
Giving up the cushioned way of life is the only option to deny himself and pick up the cross of Christ. Giving up the resources he has for the Lord creates fulfillment and redirects selfish destruction. Brian talking about the fruits of his labor in terms of providing salaries for 60 men and their families. The physical assets of construction equipment, homes and cars he bought along the way stands idle as he walked around the property of a former luxury home in Inverness now not in his possession. He downsized from the fast life of super sizing. Englewood or bust.
Benchmark moments happen often amid the hunger cycle of one more day after another to find out if you’re living your life out by design. The consequence of being American results in thinking of ourselves all our lives. The slow transformation of heart to say “Lord, it’s in your hands” becomes a kindly encouraged response. The longer he stays in position to serve the Englewood community the more he’s able to say without a shadow of doubt, “Lord, I trust you, 100%.” The Spirit of the Lord provided the tractive effort.
Isaiah 61:1-3
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord‘s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.”
The average family living in Englewood has a household income of less than $9,000/year. In most cases that barely pays their rent. Drinking water and hot water are things that we take for granted, but even in America they don’t exist when you can’t afford to pay your water and gas bill. Many people who visit the food pantry for groceries have had to sell their food stamps (on a Link Card) for $0.50 cents on the dollar at the corner convenience store so that they can pay their gas bill enabling them to heat their homes. This is life in the most under-resourced communities and is the reason hundreds of families are utilizing soup kitchens and food pantries.
Once the guys running the block saw what the Lord was doing through Brian they told him, “You don’t have to call the police. No one will touch your brick bungalow.” The Lord is beginning to live in and through us by encouraging the people in need coming to the pantry who in turn encourage their family and friends. Love and hope abound. It’s set apart from other food pantries the recipients remark quite often. Our neighbor’s spiritual and physical hunger is sufficed. God is glorified. A fragmented community of drugs and violence has become a place where people want to be neighbors again. Generous donors share their resources making it possible for His light to shine even brighter.
Expendables by the cases are broken down into double-bagged brown grocery bags. Some of the brands and labels will surprise you like it didn’t exist until you saw it. The clever branding ties into the larger scheme of interwoven story lines not known until you go. Locked between canned goods packed on metal shelving is where I saw “Bobby Banana” on a skateboard. Happy as can be. Bobby smiled. Although he’s a single banana he knew the power of community. Comprehended by a fourth grade reading level, the text above Bobby reads, “Hangin’ With A Cool Bunch.”
What does your bunch look like? I see you.
During the night around 2 a.m. the Lord reminded Brian of the property he rented to a Section-8 couple on the South Side of Chicago at 5732 South Lowe. He had a choice to make: to serve his successful construction company or serve the people of Englewood. Brian said, “Lord, you want me to go there? Me? You want me to go to Englewood?” The Lord responded, “Brian turn the property into a food pantry.” He decided to evict the Section-8 couple that had destroyed the interior and transform the meager living quarters into a food pantry to build the kingdom of God by serving the needs of the Englewood community.
Brian was the outsider. The neighbors didn’t talk to one another, let alone him. Everybody was packing guns. There was rampant violence on the streets. The drug dealers initially thought Brian was setting up surveillance against their narcotic operations because there were competing drug houses across the street. When Brian showed up on 57th and Lowe the men loitering on the blocks and stoops completely ignored him as if he was an invisible man. He thought, “I had no idea what I was getting into.” Moreover, there stands a 1,000 square-foot brick bungalow where Brian Anderson began a ministry he calls, “Shepherd’s Hope.”
Shepherd’s Hope officially opened on March 3rd, 2009 with the help of his wife and two friends. 30 sets of food bags were prepared beforehand and promotional flyers were disbursed throughout Englewood, but nobody knew what to expect the turnout to be. On opening day, three drug houses shared the same street as the pantry, and neighbors were afraid to assemble outside their homes because fighting in the street was a frequent occurrence. However, the pantry distributed food to 647 households within its first month of operation.
In our first 12 months, March 2009 through February 2010 they served 52,000 people and over 350,000 pounds of food which enabled them to develop relationships and trust with thousands of people in this Englewood community. There were more than bags of food going out from the brick bungalow. After the food distribution on a rainy Tuesday afternoon Brian received a phone call 15 minutes after he left from a neighbor next to Shepherd’s Hope. A brazen man hot-wired Brian’s tractor that was parked in-between their and drove away with the heavy machinery down the alleyway. He failed to chase him down on a bicycle because he didn’t own a vehicle. By the time Brian returned from the highway to the brick bungalow the thief was long gone. The setback didn’t stop the ministry’s momentum. Someone was in dire need of money. The relationship building has ultimately led to changed lives through sharing the saving grace of Jesus with many of our volunteers and people in the community through the voluntary bible studies.