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BICF > Testimonials > Valley
Christian Church
Testimonials
Crossing lines divided
 Set
in the urban center of Moreno Valley, Calif., Valley Christian Church recently
paid off its first loan with the Brethren in Christ Foundation (BICF). They
celebrated with testimonies of the Lord’s faithfulness during the reimbursement
process, “Our congregation is not big and for us to be able to pay off a loan
that was originally $450,000, is pretty cool,” says senior pastor Ed Slattery.
“You always have altars, memorials to the Lord, that help you say, ‘this is what
God has brought us through, now we can trust Him for even more in the future.’”
While there are a variety of ways a loan may benefit a congregation, the
construction of a new building, and the ministry opportunities that come from an
increase in space, remain the most prevalent needs for congregations seeking
assistance. On finishing its building project in 1982, Valley Christian found
its ministry to the local community deepened, as it now houses a school within
its walls.
“The school is our primary outreach,” Slattery explains. With approximately one
hundred students—60 percent of whom remain un-churched—in grades pre-K through
eighth grades the school remains a powerful, “ministry to the community,” says
Kathleen Peabody, the school principal.
Located within a poor neighborhood, Valley Christian School is small but, “very
representative of the [racially diverse] area,” says Peabody. With significant
Hispanic, Caucasian, Asian- and African-American populations, “We are already
bursting at the seams,” Peabody continues, and “have plans for expansion.”
 As
Peabody prepares to speak at the school’s 2006 graduation ceremony, she expounds
upon the harmonious influence the school has on the neighborhood: “These
children come in with all these different backgrounds and they play, they grow
up together…they become very good friends . . . and then they go out and
encounter problems.” Valley Christian provides a peaceful haven from the
discrimination and difficulties these children, and their families, face on a
daily basis.
Sharing one particular story of two young women who had graduated from Valley
Christian the proceeding year, Peabody aches for the “very best friends from
first until eight grades,” who now, in a neighboring public school, could not
eat lunch together without harassment, and are forced to continue their
friendship outside of a school setting because of their diverse racial
backgrounds. If it were not for Valley Christian, they would never have become
friends.
These testimonies aid the school staff and church members in following their
convictions. They seek to expand both the school and church with a new loan in
the future. “We need the BICF, because churches are not always looked upon
positively by some secular loan sources, and the BICF is based on helping
churches, specifically BIC churches,” asserts Slattery. This conviction to work
alongside churches has continued to make the loan fund an active participant in
aiding Brethren in Christ congregations in building their outreach, and ministry
programs, to cross dividing lines, today.
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