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NEW YORK – Matthew dreamed of a music career, so he packed everything he owned in his van and headed to New York. But after just a few weeks in the city, Matthew’s van was stolen and he was homeless, living on the streets of Hell’s Kitchen and dreaming of returning home to Atlanta.

Hell Kitchen, located on the west side of Manhattan, is one of the city’s most transitional neighborhoods. This is due in part to the location of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the world’s busiest terminal, at the south end of the neighborhood. Approximately 200,000 people move through the terminal each day, including commuters, tourists and people such as Matthew who are following their dreams – or aching to go home.

"Even with all the luxury high rises that are now being built, this neighborhood is still one of the first stops for people coming into the city and into America," said Ronnie Adams, one of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s field personnel. "There are still tenement buildings and lower priced places to live, but many times there are three or four families living in one apartment – that’s the only way people can live economically."

Metro Baptist Church sits in the shadow of the Lincoln Tunnel and just a few blocks from the Port Authority. Originally built by the Polish community in the early 1900s, the building was purchased by Metro Baptist in 1984. The Fellowship has partnered with Metro Baptist since 1995, when Adams began serving alongside the church.

The congregation has been intentional about carefully identifying the needs of the Hell’s Kitchen community and trying not to duplicate services that already exist in the area. For example, two nearby homeless shelters provide meals and shower facilities to people living on the streets, so the church determined there was a need for distributing toiletry kits and clothes. That was how Metro Baptist connected with Matthew – he stopped by one fall afternoon in need of warm clothes.

"The make up of the church is very diverse," said Adams, a native of Dallas, Texas. "On Sunday mornings you’ll have every one from the homeless to wall street lawyers and a lot of people who are trying to make it in the theatre world. What I love about the church is that although there are only about 50 people on Sunday morning, they have a vision and faith for ministry. It’s a pretty amazing story of being faithful to ministry in your area and how God will provide."

In addition to the homeless community, Metro Baptist also reaches out to families living in the surrounding Single Room Occupancy buildings, formerly known as welfare hotels. Many immigrants, who often work in the nearby factories of the clothing district or at one of Manhattan’s more than 12,000 restaurants, live in the neighborhood’s low-income housing. The church provides a weekly food pantry, along with health education, discounted counseling services, English classes and after school programs for youth and children.

These community ministries are facilitated by church members, staff and CBF field personnel, including Amanda Hambrick who ministers to youth at Metro Baptist. Two part-time staffers returned after previous missions experiences – Brice Friske made six trips to Hell’s Kitchen with Tabernacle Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., and Katie Furr spent a summer serving through CBF’s student missions program.

"It’s important for people to be provided a community where it doesn’t matter how much money you make or where you are from, but what matters is that we are all made in God’s image," said Hambrick, a native of Georgetown, Ky. "I think that is one of the most valuable things a church can be in a urban area – a space and a place for authentic relationships."

Each summer, Adams and Hambrick facilitate six weeks of summer camps, which are led by teams from Fellowship partner churches. Church teams also work alongside Metro Baptist throughout the year, providing not only supplies such as clothes and toiletry kits but much needed hands and feet.

"The whole idea here of reaching people for Christ is relational evangelism," Adams said. "It’s a long-term process of letting them see how God is reflected in your life, and through that having an opportunity to share with them about faith and our walk with Christ and why its important to us."

To learn about partnership opportunities with Metro Baptist and the Fellowship in Hell’s Kitchen, please call (800) 352-8741. To financially support the Fellowship’s ministry, give to the CBF Offering for Global Missions at www.thefellowship.info/give.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.