Like a third of all children in America, Jackie Hill grew up without her biological father, a reality that she says, “tainted her whole worldview.” Now a follower of Christ who overcame a lifestyle of sin, today Jackie finds purpose in pointing young people who may have faced similar challenges to the love of God the Father. It’s a love that dramatically changed her life, and she’s bold with her testimony.

Are you sick of hearing about all of the shootings in Chicago?  So are we.

Two weeks ago, three teens that have been a part of our programs were shot. Earlier in January, a recent graduate of Wells High School, where we hold our GRIP The School program, was gunned down—the first Chicago murder of 2013. And back in November, two teens that had been regulars at our SLAM program were shot, one in the stomach, and the other in the head. Miraculously, both are still alive and well today; the latter, with a bullet still lodged in his brain.

Meet Jarvis, one of the students whose life has been forever changed by the love of Christ through GRIP's ministry.

Eighteen-year-old Jarvis Buchanan is no stranger to challenges. Growing up in a single-parent household, he vividly remembers the day thirteen years ago when Child Protective Services came and took custody of him and his nine siblings, sending them to different homes. He remembers getting beat up in school for being the new kid, falling into the wrong crowd, joining a gang, smoking “weed,” and looking for validation in relationships with girls. By age 15, he had already lost five of his closest friends to gun violence.

A Night We've Been Waiting For

"It is good to give thanks to the LORD
to sing praises to your name,O Most High; to declare your steadfast love
in the morning, and your faithfulness by night."  Psalm 92:1-2

Ask any member of the GRIP staff and they’ll tell you, one of the coolest things about our office is the view we have of the Chicago skyline at night. It’s breathtaking—the twinkle of lit offices and apartment windows stories above the ground, the steady beam of streetlights, the colorful stoplights—all set against a stark backdrop of black sky. If you happen to live in the country, you may have any even better view, of planets and constellations and galaxies that can only be seen far away from the glow of civilization.

Transformation Through Incarnation

Transformed lives, transformed families, transformed communities. That is what we would like to see in our city. That’s the ultimate goal of life-on-life ministry. These days the word "transformation" is overused to the point of being cliche. But the essence of the word speaks to radical, 180-degree change—complete metamorphosis.

At GRIP, we realize that Jesus Christ is the only one who can transform hearts. And we rest in the reality that He is working through us—through our mentors, our staff, and our partners—to accomplish this in His time. The incarnation is the act of God becoming man in the form of Christ (John 1:14). And, for Christians, because Christ is now in us, those who truly want to live as Jesus lived must go where He would go—to the hurting and the broken, to the prostitutes and tax collectors, to the widows and the fatherless.