Influence

 the shape of leadership

Offering Help and Hope to the Homeless

A profile of church planter Gabby Mejia

Gabby Mejia grew up in a church planting environment in the Bronx, New York. His parents, immigrants from the Dominican Republic and Cuba, planted more than 35 churches in New York City and the Caribbean.

Mejia and his wife, Petry, have planted churches in Florida, New York and Texas. Their latest project, the Hope Center in Kissimmee, Florida, is at the heart of New Birth Church, a diverse congregation that offers weekly services in English and Spanish. Launched in 2014, the church grew from 35 to 450 in its first six months.

Why did you start the Hope Center?
We wanted to be a church that focuses on the hurting. One thing Florida has is a lot of churches. But when we looked at the environment in Kissimmee, there is a lot of poverty and homelessness. We wanted the highlight of our church to be reaching the poor.

A month after we bought the church property, we started doing a food pantry. Twice a month, we’re giving groceries to an average of 150 to 175 families. Every Friday, we’re feeding, praying with, and passing out blankets to the homeless, and inviting them into our facilities for showers.

Our greatest work is this harvest of people.” — Gabby Mejia

What sacrifices have made this possible?
We invest thousands of dollars a month into our community. All our campuses have buildings except the main campus, which meets in a school. We bought a facility where we provide the homeless showers and a place for at-risk youth, but we don’t have a permanent meeting place for the church.

I don’t want to stop doing the work to pay a mortgage. We know we aren’t defined by a building but by the work we’re doing in the community.

What has happened through these outreach efforts?
We have over 17 members in our church who were homeless but are no longer homeless. One of them even works in maintenance for our church now. We’ve focused on the broken and seen amazing results. A lot of people who are coming to the pantry are then coming to services.

Every time we do pantry, we preach and see conversions. We have had 627 conversions in one year and five months. Our greatest work is this harvest of people.

This article originally appeared in the August/September 2017 edition of Influence magazine.

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Don't miss an issue, subscribe today!

Trending Articles





Advertise   Privacy Policy   Terms   About Us   Submission Guidelines  

Influence Magazine & The Healthy Church Network
© 2024 Assemblies of God