Restoring a Community One Life at a Time

CityReach Bangor (AG) in Bangor, Maine, is a plant of the CityReach Network. The church is focused on a mission that Pastor Bobby Bledsoe, a former addict and drug dealer, refuses to take lightly -- to reach the one who is far from God and help that person become a passionate follower of Jesus!

When Bledsoe, CityReach Bangor's lead pastor, moved from New Jersey to Maine to attend Faith School of Theology, he felt a call to minister to the many hurting in the city -- drug addicts sleeping on the streets and living in homeless shelters. He then pioneered the church plant in Bangor with the guidance of Pastor Brian Bolt of the CityReach Network and the support of Church Multiplication Network (CMN) leaders training.

An essential component of the CityReach Network is establishing what's called a Hope Home in the community where each new church is planted, in order to reach and restore those truly in need.

Ali Mclaughlin was one of the hurting. "When was 13, I started using drugs -- smoking pot. By the time I was 15, I was using street drugs like methamphetamine and ecstasy, getting high in my high school bathroom -- just seeking out my next fix. I was doing everything I could do to escape the reality I was put in. It was a really dark place."

But it wasn't until Mclaughlin's best friend Jackie Cardoza -- who was homeless, jobless, and struggling with the severe side effects of diabetes -- reached a critical moment, that Ali found the strength to take the steps she needed to bring healing to her own life.

"One night I went back to the apartment, and Jackie's body was just lifeless," Mclaughlin says. "It was the scariest thing I had ever seen. I started crying out to God, just asking Him to save her. When the paramedics got to us, her blood sugar was 19."

The paramedics took Cardoza to the emergency room to be treated for the diabetes and they also took Mclaughlin to the Crisis Unit; she was suffering a nervous breakdown because of Cardoza's condition.

That night served as a turning point for both Mclaughlin and Cardoza. Mclaughlin had already been attending services at CityReach Bangor, but Cardoza kept putting it off. In the hospital, Cardoza had a dream that she attended a CityReach service and was amazed at the joy and freedom she felt in worship. She knew that God was speaking to her and she told Mclaughlin she wanted to attend the church.

The girls attended church together, and shortly thereafter entered the Women's Hope Home.

"I was able to enter the Hope Home, and God's love just continued to pursue me," says Mclaughlin. "I went from being a depressed, abused, and anxious person to being so filled with joy." Mclaughlin now serves struggling women in her community as a Hope Home director at one of the five homes CityReach Bangor established (click here to see Mclaughlin and Cardoza's full story).

These are just two of many testimonies of the lives being restored through CityReach Bangor's ministry. 

The Matching Funds provided by AGTrust, in partnership with Church Multiplication Network, assists AG church plants across the nation like CityReach Bangor by providing up to $30,000 of their start-up costs. Each church plant then replenishes that amount to the Matching Fund over time to help launch more church plants. Support of AGTrust has helped launch 385 church planting efforts since 2008.

Amber Weigand-Buckley