NEW YORK — Walking along the streets of New York, Amanda Hambrick is reminded that life can be unfair. She passes people sleeping in doorways and alleys — fixtures of the city's sidewalks — and she asks herself, “How do I go beyond providing a coat or a meal and let people know that they, too, are created in God's image?”
Hambrick in Manhattan.
Hambrick, formerly of Richmond, serves as one of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's field personnel, ministering in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York. The area's name dates back more than 100 years to when the neighborhood was filled with factories, lumberyards, slaughterhouses and tenements. With such tight spaces, limited resources and many immigrant communities, the neighborhood became known for poverty and violence.
Over the years, Hell's Kitchen has experienced significant changes, and now expensive restaurants and condominiums are being built. But with low-income housing still available and convenient access to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the neighborhood remains home to immigrant families and many people struggling to survive in the city.
“This neighborhood is always going to remain a place of homelessness and displaced people because of the Port Authority,” said Hambrick, a native of Georgetown, Ky. “A lot of people can only afford to come to New York by bus, and they end up right here at our doorstep. I fear that as this neighborhood becomes trendy, attitudes toward the homeless may become more hostile. And that gap between the haves and have nots will increase.”
Hambrick serves through Metro Baptist Church and its adjoining Rauschenbusch Metro Ministries, which are located just a few blocks from the Port Authority in Hell's Kitchen. She is involved in Metro's community ministries, including a clothes closet and food pantry. That's how she met John, who was HIV positive and panicked because his medicine was miles away in Long Island. Fearing repercussions from the gang he had left, John knew he could not safely return to Long Island.
“I asked him how he had started using drugs, and he began to cry,” Hambrick said. “He said that no one had ever cared enough to ask him that, and he told me he had started living on the streets when he was 9 years old, running away from home because his parents had abused him.”
John now comes to Metro Baptist regularly, finding ways that he might help other people living with AIDS. He told Hambrick, “I want to help you all, so that you can continue to help others.”
Hambrick, who first worked at Metro Baptist as a summer intern in 2006, also ministers to youth and facilitates six weeks of summer camps. She leads after school programs for teenagers four days a week, providing opportunities for tutoring, mentoring, Bible study and fellowship.
Amanda Hambrick, far left, ministers to youth living in Hell's Kitchen.
“New York is just so expensive, but families are here,” Hambrick said. “Many are displaced or here temporarily. Usually both parents have to work to pay the bills, and that means kids are at home by themselves. So one of the ways this church has determined it can be the presence of Christ in the community is to provide help for families to be able to live here and raise their children. It's the mentality that we are all in this together.”
Six weeks of summer camp are held at nearby parks and led by Fellowship partner churches from around the country. The campers often reflect the neighborhood, representing different ethnicities, religions and economic backgrounds.
“I know the person of Christ as someone who wants all people to feel loved and valuable despite whatever temporary situations they are living in,” said Hambrick, a graduate of the Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond. “I think it is important to simply be with people, to sit with them and say, ‘Life is not always fair, but even though your life may not look like the person's next to you, you are still made in the image of God. God loves you and desires for you to know that.'”