In 2012, Charles and Kay Moodie, missionaries with the Assemblies of God, sensed God calling them to love and serve the inner-city of Chicago.
The couple, originally from New York, did not have a church or job lined up and moved solely by faith, according to their website bio. Once they arrived in Chicago, the Moodies connected with Pastors Chris and Monica DeLaurentis, who eventually asked them to lead the ministry they had established on the South Side, Chicago City Life Center.
For the last decade, the Moodies have served as the lead pastors of Chicago City Life Center. The church motto is “Changing Our City, One Life at a Time.” In addition to holistic ministry staples such as a preschool, community dinners, youth groups, prayer services, and street evangelism, the “one life at a time” vision includes a commitment to life in a city plagued by high abortion rates and riddled by crime.
CCLC partners with PASS/Pregnancy Aid Illinois in providing support services for families. The church offices operate as one of the few pregnancy resource centers on the South Side of Chicago.
Pregnancy Aid Illinois, a member of Care Net’s network of 1,300 centers across the United States, offers free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and parenting and life skill courses. The ministry’s Abundant Life program, available to families from birth to children 4 years of age, operates on an earn-and-learn system where clients earn points to shop for free supplies such as diapers, wipes, clothing, strollers, car seats and other items.
In order to serve women beyond providing physical necessities, Kay Moodie returned to school and graduated from the Moody Bible Institute with a counseling degree, according to an article in AG News.
“The women would tell us all their problems, and we would not have the tools to help them,” Charles said. “Now, Kay does.”
With a vision to meet the needs of young women facing the challenges of motherhood, the Moodies have once again stepped out in faith with CCLC’s ambitious Southside Life House project. The church is currently renovating a building it owns, a former convent, to host furnished apartments for 15 mothers and programming space. After construction, they will hire staff to provide counseling and instruction “to help equip our mothers to raise thriving families in the stages of early motherhood.”
The Southside Life House is projected to cost $6 million, from planning through construction to completion. But that number does not deter the Moodies. They have trusted God for big things before. The couple even has future plans to build townhouses that will be available for young parents who decide to marry and raise their child together.
After all, this is how you change a city “one life at a time.”
“Southside Life House is God’s project. He just asked us to step out in faith and do it,” Charles Moodie told AG News. “It may seem foolish to build a maternity house in a city that is so pro-choice, but God will see it done.”