Gladys Deloe, founder and president of grace in ACTION usa, has announced that the non-profit ministry, founded in 2005 with the vision of bridging the church to the community ~ through education and economic development, has completed the legal dissolution process, and made arrangements to “pass the GiA torch” to FCS Urban Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.
Grace in Action USA has been a cooperating ministry of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches since 2009.
The mission of FCS (Focused Community Strategies) is “to create healthy places in the city where families flourish and God’s shalom is present. FCS Urban Ministries celebrates 30 years of learning in the heart of Atlanta, reweaving the fabric of urban community by building upon neighborhood strength and by attracting ‘strategic neighbors’ to move in. With an emphasis on neighborhood leadership and a commitment to mixed-income housing development, our strategy yields both social and spiritual vitality as well as economic viability.”
Bob Lupton, president of FCS and author of Toxic Charity, moved into the inner-city on the south side of Atlanta over thirty years ago and has been used by God to be a catalyst for the dramatic changes that have occurred there, according to Deloe.
Along with Lupton, Leroy Barber, serves at the CEO of FCS. Barber is also president of Mission Year, a ministry that challenges college students to take a year out of their college studies to be “on mission.”
Focused Community Strategies is a collective of ministries that serve under-resourced families in inner-city Atlanta. GiA is donating its remaining inventory and liquid assets to FCS, with the prayer that they will be able to expand the use of the faith-based, life skills curriculum developed by Deloe during her tenure with GiA. The curriculum was written to help children from K through high school learn many of the important life lessons that are difficult to learn in an at-risk environment.
“It has been a great honor to be used by the Holy Spirit to create the LifeTime Learning Curriculum,” Deloe told to colleagues at a luncheon prayer gathering in Winona Lake this week. “It’s never been mine and I am very grateful that God saw fit to allow me to write it. Please pray with me that through FCS He will use the curriculum more than I ever could to bring many children to an understanding of how very special they are because they were made by God, and that with these life skills, they can become productive citizens in their communities.”