Did you know that Urban Vision is the largest single sight afterschool program in Summit County? Our weekly programs serve over 225 students and there’s still room to grow! There are numerous factors that have allowed us to make an impact as large as this, but one of the most significant is the amazing building the Lord has blessed us with. In fact, when most people think of Urban Vision they think of the big church on Blaine Ave., but this wasn’t always the case.
For over a decade, our programs were happening in living rooms and kitchens, but God had bigger plans. The story of how Urban Vision came to its current location is one of humble faith and an amazing God. In fact, our founder, Jodi Matthews, recounts the in-depth story about how the Lord blessed our ministry with this building in her book A Call to the Edge. Below are several excerpts from her story to give you the highlights:
The Story in Jodi’s Words
“We started our first afterschool program in our unfinished home back in 1994 with carpet rolls as chairs and pieces of drywall for tables. Our need for space continued to confront us daily. Cramming thirty-five to forty children in for Kids’ Club and literally having fifteen to twenty kids spread throughout the house to do homework, got pretty challenging. The kids themselves started praying with us for a place big enough to have Kids’ Club. We needed God to provide a place so that more children could come and hear the good news of the gospel.
Rodney and I had been looking at various places in the community for a space we could afford with our small budget. There was one large United Methodist Church building which seemed to have potential, but it proved to be a challenge to connect with those who ran the building. Having finally caught on to relying on God’s timing, Rodney and I decided to wait and not get anxious and to just see what God would do. We did look at some storefront locations on Cuyahoga Falls Ave. but nothing seemed right. We checked out another building in the area that had potential, but the rent was higher than anything we had ever paid before.
I got a call one morning in the spring of 2007 from Rodney. He called to tell me he was on his way home from work, not because he was sick but because he left his full-time job and would be pursuing our ministry instead. His company was going through top management changes, and they wanted their own people to take Rodney’s position. So, with a few months of severance pay, our faith walk on the path to the edge seemed quite a bit narrower than it once had.
Now that he had some new-found time on his hands, Rodney wanted to make good use of it. He had a passing thought about that large Methodist Church on Blaine Ave. and decided to try one more time to connect with our contact there. We hoped to at least meet and talk to this contact and see the inside of the church, but it had been a year and a half and we still had never been able to connect with him. As I heard Rodney make the call, something sounded different this time. When Rodney asked the receptionist to speak with this elusive contact, the man was actually there and wanted to talk that very morning. Rodney got off the phone and told me he set up a time to see the church on Blaine Ave. We spent all that time – a year and a half – waiting on God.
The people we took with us to help assess the building were faithful to give us their input, but they had a lot of doubts. They wondered if the building was too big, how we would be able to maintain that size facility, whether or not it was a good idea to commit to such a building. These were all good questions to consider. Not to mention that there were quite a few repairs needed because the building had sat empty for a while.
During many initial conversations about this building on the hill, numbers in the hundreds of thousands were thrown around as to what was needed to purchase the property. But Rodney, knowing we did not have that kind of money, began to believe and pray that as we prepared for rain and readied ourselves to receive a shower of blessing, God would do a miracle.
In early June 2007, after much deliberation with the church that owned the building, Rodney received a phone call telling us that they had decided to give us the building. What a day of rejoicing that was for Rodney and me! Yet in the back of our minds, we wondered how people would respond now. I think a lot of our advisors were encouraged by this news but still hesitant to just say yes to this offer. Rodney went back to the owners and told them that our board was hesitant to take this facility even as a gift. It felt like a dealbreaker, but the owners responded quickly saying:
We will give you the facility with the understanding that if you don’t use it within five years, we will take it back and resume ownership.
Those words gave the more conservative members of our board the confidence needed to accept the gift. All the concerns over the daunting responsibility of such a large building were relieved. Rodney and I knew this was the plan God had for us.”
