In 1986, God began to stir several people in the cities of NLR and LR concerning reaching out to the children in the at-risk communities, but no one really knew how.  A group of church leaders began to study the demographics of these cities in hopes of finding the right place to begin an inner-city ministry.  After many meetings, studying in depth the crime stats, poverty rates, and educational disparities, the leaders were urged to part ways for two weeks to pray, asking the Lord WHERE to begin this effort.  When they returned, they all were in agreement about the location: EASTGATE TERRACE was the resounding answer.

HOW to begin this work was a big question.  More studying of other successful inner city ministries, a few exploratory trips to visit them, and much prayer resulted in several things.  A huge work day was planned to paint, decorate, and clean the Pine Elementary Building, which was across the street from the housing project.  A playground was constructed.  A Reading Readiness Program was implemented for those Eastgate children getting ready to go into kindergarten at Pine.  Mentors who served in that program were so touched by the children, that the Encourager Program was birthed that fall.  Many who had served in the summer returned to be Encouragers.  However, when the next summer came and STEP staff sought out children to participate in a Summer Program, the doors in the project remained closed.  The people were suspicious of us.  Discouraged as we left Eastgate that day, we ran into Tameka, a child in the Encourager program.  She was willing to be our bridge and found seven other kids to participate.  Those eight kids were not just participants in our first Summer Program, but they were the beginning of the STEP Friendship Club, our after-school, Biblical-based mentoring program.

That was then…Read more about NOW on the rest of our site! We’re excited to see how God continues to grow STEP with each new year!