A 29-year-old mother of six, Michelle was fighting drug addiction and financial hardship as a single parent. She came to Hope for the Inner City in 2008 on a state welfare referral, expecting it to be as impersonal as the government aid agencies she was used to.

But what she found surprised her.

“I have never been around people who have such a genuine passion for others,” she says. “The government system made me feel like paperwork. At Hope, they have programs, but there is a deeper relationship to it.”

At Hope for the Inner City, she experienced a new kind of support, one based on Christian love. Turning her life over to Jesus Christ and eventually hired as a part-time receptionist, she sees this love more clearly than ever.

“Their staff meeting … was like a devotional,” she says. “I’d never seen such a spiritual connection between people. Paul Green [the executive director] is my boss, but I feel like he’s a spiritual mentor to me.”