ASSEMBLIES OF GODFrom Death to Life
by Samara Smyer
12/20/2024 9:00:00 AM“Changing our city one life at a time.” The motto for Chicago City Life Center (CCLC) is a simple one, but one that embodies the daily practice of U.S. missionaries with Intercultural Ministries Charles and Kehinde (Kay) Moodie. In June of 2012, Charles and Kay Moodie left their lifelong home of New York and moved to Chicago, Illinois, with no direction except a clear calling of God on their lives to reach what many would consider the “worst neighborhoods of America.”
As God had already done throughout their ministry journey in New York, He faithfully provided for the Moodies in Chicago. Kay found a job, their children were enrolled in school, and they were introduced to Monica and Chris DeLaurentis, U.S. missionaries with Intercultural Ministries. The DeLaurentises had been serving as interim pastors at CCLC for 15 years, balancing ministry in Chicago and Minneapolis.
After two years of working alongside the Moodies, the DeLaurentises sat down with them and said, “We’ve been praying and waiting for you for 15 years.” With a call to return to full-time ministry in Minneapolis, Monica and Chris passed the baton of leadership to Charles and Kay, entrusting them with the future of CCLC.
For the past decade, Charles and Kay have been dedicated to serving the people of southern Chicago, reaching individuals of all ages — from before birth to post-retirement — and sharing the love of Christ with everyone they encounter.
FROM PREGNANCY TO BIRTH
According to the Society of Family Planning, Illinois averaged over 8,000 abortions per month in the first quarter of 2024, one of the highest numbers in the country. To educate and resource pregnant women, Charles and Kay partnered with Pregnancy Aid Illinois and turned CCLC’s church offices into the first and only pregnancy resource center on the South Side of Chicago. Here, women can receive free pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, prenatal care and support.
While the Moodies say that most of the women entering CCLC’s Pregnancy Resource Center are abortion-minded, approximately 50% decide to keep their baby after receiving all of the information regarding their options for pregnancy.
Beyond providing physical necessities, Charles and Kay recognized the need to provide professional counseling to expectant mothers. To help fill this need, Kay returned to school and graduated from the Moody Bible Institute with a counseling degree. “The women would tell us all their problems, and we would not have the tools to help them. Now, Kay does,” Charles says.
The CCLC also offers an in-house daycare to support women in returning to work or school by providing childcare. The daycare accepts children as young as 6 weeks old and offers scholarships. In addition to basic childcare, School of Life Preschool teaches children using a Christian-based curriculum. Many children who graduate from the preschool possess the skills and knowledge needed to enter gifted programs.
Still, Charles recognizes a greater need for expectant mothers. “We can provide resources for pregnant women all day long, but what do we do when they don't have anywhere to live?” he asks. In response, Charles developed a plan for “The Southside Life House,” a communal-style residence where single mothers with newborns can stay for up to one year. Here, they will receive job training, parenting education, life skills, and support in finding employment and permanent housing.
The Southside Life House is projected to cost $6 million, from planning through construction to completion. While the figure may seem daunting, Charles remains confident that God will provide for every need. “This project is God’s. He just asked us to step out in faith and do it,” he says. “It may seem foolish to build a maternity house in a city that is so pro-choice, but God will see it done.” Despite no major fundraising efforts yet, $100,000 has already been raised for the project. Utilizing an abandoned four-story nunnery on CCLC’s property, Charles plans to break ground on The Southside Life House in 2025.
Charles hopes to use The Southside Life House to bring families together. “I want to go after the fathers,” he says. Long-term, Charles plans to build townhouses that will be available for young parents who decide to marry and raise their child together.
FROM THE STREET TO THE PEW
Charles and Kay host a myriad of other ongoing events and outreaches, including weekly community dinners, youth groups, men’s and women’s groups, prayer services and street evangelism.
Once a week, Charles takes a team onto a street corner in south Chicago and within minutes, has a speaker playing upbeat gospel music and dozens of hotdogs on the grill. Charles then uses the speakers to invite anyone nearby to come for a hotdog and prayer. “We are giving them Jesus where they are,” Kay says.
For the Moodies, evangelism is about building relationships. “It took 15 years for some people we talked to every week to finally agree to come to church,” Charles shares.
Charles has grounded his ministry in the importance of relationships since the beginning. “If we’re going to meet people’s needs, we need to spend time with them,” he explains. While he may know what people need, he believes he first must understand what they value — something that can only be learned by spending time with them. Citing the story of the blind man Bartimaeus in Mark 10, Charles notes, “Jesus, who knows everything, still asked the blind man, ‘What do you want me to do?’”
Despite the South Side of Chicago’s reputation for violence, Kay says the people they encounter are some of the most hospitable they’ve ever met. “Even the gang members are polite and respectful,” she says. “The people here just need someone to invest in them — someone who will take the time to get to know them, understand where they’re coming from and share Jesus with them.”
FROM FORGOTTEN TO REMEMBERED
James 1:27 reminds us that it is the Church’s responsibility to care for the orphan, the widow and the forgotten. One often overlooked group in this category is senior citizens. “My grandfather died in a nursing home alone,” Charles says, pointing out how churches often prioritize ministry to families and children, sometimes neglecting the needs of the elderly.
Every month, CCLC hosts an outreach to senior citizens in the area, providing them with a meal and an activity such as playing bingo or watching a movie. Then, the time ends with a sharing of the gospel. Charles says, “God is no respecter of people or ages. We want our senior citizens to know that if they put their trust in Him, God will use them.”
FROM ADDICTION TO SALVATION
Roxy, affectionately known as “Mama Rox,” has been a faithful member of CCLC for over two decades. Listening to her passionately recite Scripture after Scripture about God’s faithfulness, it is hard to imagine the challenging past she has overcome.
“I’ve had guns put to my head. I’ve almost been raped and killed while searching for drugs in back alleys. It is only through God that I am alive,” Roxy says. 25 years ago, she was bound by addiction to drugs and alcohol, as well as prostitution. On the verge of losing her children and with nowhere to stay, Roxy felt she had hit rock bottom.
One day, her grandchildren heard about a free event being hosted by CCLC’s interim pastors, Monica and Chris DeLaurentis. Despite being hungover and not wanting to go, Roxy decided to take her grandchildren. At the end of the event, the DeLaurentises gave an altar call, which Roxy responded to by accepting Christ as her Savior and began attending church.
A year later, Roxy relapsed into her addiction. When Monica learned the address of the crack house where Roxy was staying, she went there and stood outside, calling out for Roxy. “The dealer thought I had called the cops on him. He grabbed me by the collar and threw me out,” Roxy recalls. With her head hanging low and her face twisted from the effects of cocaine, she stepped outside to face Monica.
Monica, however, did not condemn her. Instead, she encouraged Roxy: “Just because you’re messed up doesn’t mean you’re a mess-up. Get up, dust yourself off, and keep going. I’ve been praying for you since before I even knew you.”
Roxy began to sob. “It was at that moment that I realized that someone loved me. That God loved me.”
As she continued her journey toward sobriety, Roxy would carry her Bible in her purse everywhere she went, reading and quoting Scripture to fight against temptations. “I decided then that, if the Bible does not tell me to do something, I am simply not going to do it,” she says.
Knowing she needed something productive to focus on to help her grow in the Lord, Roxy joined CCLC’s discipleship class. There, she learned how to navigate life on God’s terms rather than her own. After completing that class, Monica enrolled her in another, and once that class was finished, Roxy began taking courses through Global University.
Today, Roxy remains a pillar at CCLC, serving in any way she can. “I’ve been here so long, I feel like I’m just a part of this place now,” she says.
Even beyond salvation, Roxy says that the Lord has been beyond good to her. After accepting Christ, she brought her mother, who struggled with alcoholism, to church. At 67, her mother was baptized and has lived the last 30 years sober. “I’ve prayed over cysts, and God has miraculously removed them,” Roxy says. “Through it all, I've learned that God is good — He calls, heals, delivers, and all He asks is that we stand firm in faith.”
FROM BEING REACHED TO REACHING
“The people here have been taken advantage of by churches, the government and the education system. Once you spark the real hope of Jesus in them, they blossom,” Kay says. Not only do Charles and Kay strive to reach the people of Southern Chicago, but they work to ignite a wildfire of individuals who, after they have been discipled, will disciple others.
The Moodies explain that over 90% of the mission pledges at CCLC are consistently fulfilled, showing that people not only promise to give financially but also keep their commitments. “The mentality has shifted from being takers to becoming givers — becoming the hands and feet of Jesus,” Kay adds.
Charles shares the story of Robert Byrd, who, after attending a basketball outreach hosted by CCLC, accepted Christ. Robert began attending CCLC, completed a discipleship class and later volunteered to open the basketball gym every Friday evening, helping reach others the same way he was reached.
“It’s been amazing to see people go from being reached to reaching, from being discipled to discipling,” Charles says.
Charles and Kay’s biggest hope for the future is to raise someone up from the community to continue the ministry of CCLC. Charles says, “If God can use us, He can use others to see His work done.” The couple wants the work of CCLC to be sustainable, not solely relying on the personality and characters of them alone.
Whether through building relationships on the streets, preaching from the pulpit on Sunday, or setting up tables for Tuesday night dinners, Charles and Kay Moodie are consistently intent on doing whatever God calls them to do to see a difference being made in the lives of men, women and children in southern Chicago. Roxy says, “I know I am not alone when I say that I am so thankful to have people like the Moodies in my life who are willing to love me back to life.”
by the General Council of the Assemblies of God